Thursday 25 August 2016

321 victoria road dagenham, west ham

Ground number 321
Date of First Visit: 22nd August 2016

Victoria Road (aka: Chigwell Construction Stadium!)
Dagenham, east London

West Ham United U23s  3
Newcastle United U23s  1 (Heardman)

Barclays Premier League 2, Division 2?
Attendance: 500 (estimated) (3 NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers plus quite a few exiles!)

"WE MUST BE BARKING MAD!"

Aa didn't find oot til before wor home game against Readin' the previous Wednesday that this game waz bein' played at Dagenham & Redbridge's groond---a former leegue groond a'v never been te!

Aa aalready had the Friday off coz aa waz gannin to Bristol on an orly train on Saturday mornin' (aa work nights so aa HAD to have the Friday off)--plus the followin' Tuesday for wor home game v Cheltenham!---SO! (az yi de!) aa asked for the Munday off az well to gan to this game! (3 days hols lost in one go!)

Aa travelled doon on the 'high noon bells' train to King's Cross where NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers' 'Alex of St George' (Middleton St George) and 'Dave from York' joined me at Darlo and York respectively!

On arrival in 'the smoke' we made for Barking on the tube (which iz near Dagenham) where Alex knew of some boozers and some 30 mins later we arrived there!
There were 2 boozers ootside the tube station which were caalled 'The Barking Dog' and 'The Spotted Dog' <(What else would yoo caall pubs in 'Barking'?)
DAVE'S IN THE DOG HOOSE! (or at least he will be when their lass finds
oot where he went when he left their hoose in York this mornin' to buy a paper!)

It waz then onward to East Dagenham tube station where some more 'liquid lubrications' were downed in 'The Pipe Major'!
The Dagenham clubhoose waz wor last 'port o call' before the match where 2 Toon fans were drinkin'--'Paul W' who iz workin' doon London and 'Cockney Greg' who waz a larger than life figure--shall we say!

Mee two travellin' companians Dave and Alex insisted on buyin' aall my beers az they have free train travel az ex British Rail employees, whereas 'little ol' me' had to pay nearly £71 to de this trip! ----That's what fiends are for! ("ER!"---for 'fiends' read 'FRIENDS'!) Cheers lads!
Claret and blue skies in east Landan! 

This waz of course wor forst visit to West Ham's new home---(and we don't meen The Olympic Stadium) for this iz where their U23s will play this season, although some 30 or so 'Daggers' fans ootside the directors entrance wornt happy with their chairman for some reason and were shoutin' for hiz heed!

The game kicked off in glorious sunshine and we attacked 'The Traditional Builders Stand' (honest!---see pic below!)

We didn't start off well and 'The Jellied Eels Mob' went for goal straight away and it wasn't lang before they took the lead with a very dodgy lookin' penalty in the 20th minute!

Samuelson went doon like a 'sack of taaties' in the box after Sakta tackled him and hiz 'dive' would have won the gold medal in the Olympic games in Rio! <(pity for him the 'games' had just finished!) The resultin' penalty put us on the back foot and despite havin' Adam Armstrong in attack we couldn't get anywhere near the home goal!
'The Jellied Eels Mob' doubled their lead just before the break and really, even by this time, we looked a beaten side!
The Toon attack The Jellied Eels Mob's goal (just before the end)

A thord goal in the 70th minute put 'The Dagger' through wor heart (excuse the pun!) and it waz now a case of damage limitation.
Tom Heardman, who had come on az a sub pulled one back for us with a low drive in the 82nd minute, but waz a case of 'too little too late' to retrieve the game.

We had little ower an hour to get back to King's Cross to catch the last train at '10 bells' and an anxious 3 tube changes later we (thankfully!) made it with minutes to spare!

A torturous fower hour train ride waz then endued (because of 'line work'!) and az 'Dave from York' got off--"er!"--at YORK (where else?) aa had visions of hiz lass Lesley waitin' for him when he got yem <(withoot the paper of course!)>>>

'Alex of St George' departed at Darlo station and at '2am bells' the train finally pulled into 'The Central'

"Anothaa one off the list!"   
"WE WAZ THERE!"


Geordie Times milestone/millstone!:
This waz mee 130th club groond a'v visited to watch NUFC, which haz hosted
leegue futbaall  at one time or anothaa (150 if yoo include the Scottish leegue)

CORRECTION! A'v missed 2 leegue groonds oot for Darlo and
1 for Gretna in Scotland***that's 132 plus 21 = 153 British leegue groonds 

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