I’m forever blowing bubbles…

Since Millwall are stuck down in League One this year (Hopefully the championship for 08/09?) I needed to find a premiership team I could go watch. Matt, a good mate from work stepped up to the plate & offered for me to come to a pre-session friendly between Roma (Italian Serie A team) & his team West Ham….Happy Days!!!The only problem being that West Ham are the sworn enemies of Millwall, see great movies like ‘The Firm’ & ‘Green Street’. It all stems from both team’s supporters being from the docklands of East London, West Ham on the north side of the river, Millwall to the south. All that is well & good but meant that this wee kiwi lad was in constant threat for Matt’s mates good humoured gibes about being ‘Millwall scum’ causing an accidental outing while in the middle of a pub of West Ham’s finest, at which point I’d have been extremely lucky to get out of the pub with only a couple of bruises.
Still nothing ventured, nothing gained, plus the threat of violence added to my excitement. After meeting the lads at 11:30, by the 3pm kick off I had learnt a couple of the chants & was well prepped to join in with the 26,000 West Ham fans…not so much the 500 Roma fans. It was a great game with Roma ahead 0-1 at half time, but West Ham coming back to 2-1 by full time.
After the game, back to the pub to watch the Roma fans escorted to the tube. Chatting to a copper afterwards, a few of them wanted to stay & play with the West Ham lads instead of getting on the train & will be going back to Italy with bruised legs.We then realised that there was little chance of getting on a tube heading back into London within the next hour or so. So we decided to head back to Matt’s local in Zone 6 & have a few pints with Martin’s GF Jolene & her mates for a few hours before going home. It ended up being a mad night & suffice to say I stumbled back to my front door 24 hours after I had left it.
Thanks a lot to Matt & his crew, but sorry I’m still Millwall (Till the next time I’m out east)
“So are any of you lads in the GSE?”