Green Bath, in soapy water, needing a wash, drowned out, keeping it clean, scrubbing up, pulling the plug….these were all puns circulating on e-mail in the months of January and February 2008, when the South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club decided to embark on the historic Georgian city of Bath. Right in the early Read more about The day Bath turned green…[…]
In many ways, the 1980s were the best decade ever!! I love looking back 20 odd years at those photos, and this one here, in particular encapsulates the sort of Jonny Blair I was and always have been. Plus the furniture, the style, the fashion and the era of the 1980s is fantastic. For the Read more about Drawing Maradona and Other Things in 1986[…]
I was a bit unaware of where life was going back in late 2007, when having spent the year doing quite a bit of travelling, and changing jobs and houses twice, I found myself having to organise another WAGM. This is the Weymouth Annual Green Meeting where the South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club Read more about The day the Weymouth match was rained off…[…]
In the year 2000 there was a huge buzz. A new millennium, a new century, people started being able to afford mobile phones, I used the internet, and more importantly I ceased to be a teenager! I was now 20. In that year, I worked for 48 weeks in Tesco at Springhill as a stock Read more about Phil Gray, 70: The day we beat the Malta[…]
The trials and tribulations of football cause joy and disappointment in the face of friendship and bonding. Last year I ended up finally in Slovakia. I say finally, as I had done the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Belarus, but not Slovakia. I was booked on a two day trip to Bratislava and was looking Read more about Down and out in Slovakia[…]
When I first met my mate Lee Adams (Lock In Lee) and realised he was a huge Nottingham Forest fan, I never thought our two teams would ever clash, as Forest had aspirations of getting back in till the Premiership and my team, AFC Bournemouth were unlikely to make the leap up to the Championship. Read more about “You’re not famous anymore!” (Well, except for Lock In Lee)[…]
When the SOENISC was formed back in 2005, one of the potential meeting venues was Exeter, although at the time none of the club members lived there. Then on an away trip to Copenhagen to watch Northern Ireland draw 0-0 with Denmark, Richboy from the club met Tim Acheson. Tim Acheson was based in Exeter Read more about Alphington! SOENISC hits Exeter…November 2007[…]
In my life I’ve been to four Northern Ireland v. Spain matches. It seems we are two teams that are nearly always drawn against each other. For example in every World Cup between 1982 and 1994 we were either in the same group in the actual tournament or in qualifying. We even had Spain in Read more about “You’ll never get Gibraltar!” – Northern Ireland 0-0 Spain (June 2003)[…]