January 31 2002

St. James' Park Newcastle

One Palace fan won't forget his trip to Newcastle for the FA Cup match a few weeks ago in a hurry...

Myself, my dad and a couple of mates, flew up to the Newcastle game, with go-fly. My dad booked the tickets on the web, so we landed at 7.40am in complete darkness, all very hungry.

After a few hours wandering around the town and a cooked breakfast later, we ventured into a pub for bang on eleven.

Wearing my colours with pride, a geordie asked us to leave as there were no away fans allowed in the pub, a Wetherspoon's chain I might add.

He wanted us to cancel our food, drink up and go. But after a bit of persuation, he let us have our lunch before we could leave (charming bloke).

So the game commenced and we sang. Saw the best save I have ever seen and a good goal disallowed and had a great time at St James's.

Our return flight home was at five mins past eight. So we had a pint after the game (not in the Wetherspoon's) and made our way to the airport.

We walked to the desk, requesting our tickets for the flight home, only to be told that there was not a plane, never was a plane and never will be a plane at five past eight.

So my dad produced his conformation sheet to the lady and said: "See, look, 08:05."

"Yeah", she replied. "Five past eight this morning!". So we landed at 7.40am and 20 minutes later, our flight home was due to leave.. 20 minutes in Newcastle, are you sure?!

My dad was never any good with the 24 hour clock. So to cut a long story short, my dad kindly paid for a cab, all the way back to London where everyone knows your name, for a small price of £300!

The things us footy fans do for our clubs. The funny thing was we were talking to Kit Symons after the game and the last thing he said to us was, "Have a safe journey home!" Little did he know. Cheers.