Game on

Wednesday evenings post work trip to Craven Cottage for an evenings exciting entertainment delivered little on both counts - in fact contrary to the title of this blog it was more like game off! I will move onto the real reason of the title later, but first I might as well get the match summary out of the way.

On one of the coldest evenings this winter I took the train into town and managed to make the ground some 30 minutes prior to kick off. I was somewhat disappointed at having to settle for a seat in the Putney End, alongside the visiting crowd, but the game was a sell out and I could not get tickets for the Hammersmith End.

I'm never one to feel the cold, but even the 'heat island' effect of being in town didn't seem to make any noticeable difference. The wind blew straight in through the side of the stand and circulated around and under the plastic seats causing a cold bum all evening! There was little to cheer and applaud about either to help keep one warm and take ones mind off the cold.

Neither was it helped psychologically by the abundance of female fashion slaves around town. A nice pair of legs may be a pleasing sight to a bloke, but honestly! - I could feel the cold through my jeans. All those lovely legs on display must have been frozen to the bone - it certainly made me feel cold.

You would not think it a sell out from the picture below, taken soon after finding my cold seat.

view from the Putney End (c Rotton Yarns)

Once the game got underway, there was an early goal from that man Dempsey, but it was very clearly offside and disallowed. The game then descended into one of those mediocre battles between two mid-table teams. Neither seemed to be able to focus on maintaining a steady pattern of play - rather like my blurred image of the match in progress.

Game off (c Rotton Yarns)

Eventually in the second half, that man Dempsey done it again and scored from one of the evenings better moves. Later and not surprisingly West Brom managed to score a cracking goal to equalise and that's where the result stood - yet another disappointing Fulham performance.

For my colleague Del and me, the highlight came after the match when we tried to beat our record of getting from the ground back to Kings Cross to catch the 23:00 fast train home. The record is to reach Kings Cross at 22:48. Last night, after the final whistle which must easily have been at 21:55 we got to Kings Cross at 22:45, shaving three minutes off our previous best time! This was despite having to change at Earls Court and then being stuck for almost 8 minutes just outside the station at Kings Cross!

First leg - our route from the ground to Putney Bridge  Station (c Bing Maps)

Second leg - Putney Bridge to Kings Cross via District and Victoria Lines - stations underlined in red (c London Transport)

We had more than enough time to grab a coffee before sauntering to our waiting train which got us to our destination by 23:35. After the short drive home I was in bed by 23:55 - two hours after the final whistle! Damn good going if I say so myself.

Game on
This was a very successful training run for my proposed grand birthday trip where I will be attempting to get from Craven Cottage to the National Exhibition Arena in Birmingham in 2.5 hours (see 'Birthday Plans afoot').

I will be hoping to fit in another couple of training runs between now and the end of March, as potentially I can go to watch Fulham play, Stoke, Wolves and Swansea between now and then. In last nights practise, the tube got to Euston (the stop before Kings Cross) by 22:35. This bodes well for the real event as on the day, that would give me a good 25 minutes to make the train which when I last looked at timetables leaves Euston for Birmingham just after 18:00. The match will finish at about 16:55.