Le Renard Blue

Another teenage excursion, this time to Maine Road for an FA Cup game, and this time I did get there. The problem started after the match, running through the streets of Moss Side, trying to evade the chasing Man City fans. Finally made it to where the bus was, note the use of the word “was”. More roaming the streets until I spotted a police station in the gathering gloom. So, in I went and told them my story, mostly centred on me being short of cash, or to be more accurate, not having any. A kind sergeant not only gave me my train fare, but gave me lift to Manchester Piccadilly in the police van. My brother had managed to make it to the bus when we got separated, but consoled himself by eating my “going home sandwich “ that I’d left on the bus.

Possibly, everyone got a refund.

The teenage me decided to go to Oxford United away on an Easter Monday. Thankfully, to aid my travel plans, I had a map of England about the size of a postcard. Careful study showed me that Oxford was about half an inch from Bedford, therefore I told my younger brother, who was foolish enough to believe me, that we could catch a train to Bedford, then hop on a bus to Oxford. Part A of this plan worked a treat, it was only when we arrived at a deserted Bedford station, with not a bus to anywhere in sight, that part B of my plan seemed to have been seriously ill planned. Time to come up with a previously un thought of part C. This entailed walking to the nearest service station to find a kind lorry driver to give us a lift back to Leicester. Looking back, it now seems amazing that this did actually happen. We won.

My first away game as a teenager, Birmingham City at St Andrew’s. The bus driver got lost, eventually we saw the floodlights, then a few minutes later the ground and a sign. Welcome To Molineux. We turned around and went back to Leicester. We won.