I have always been a massive George Best (and football) fan. This is one story which happened by chance and I simply could not have contemplated would happen. The mistakes we make in life and the way fate falls makes life so interesting. One Monday in Los Angeles during July 2007 I found myself in…
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It was a great few days out. It was a great time. It was me being with my mates all over again. The mates that had been there with me through the 1990s and early part of this century. The whole plan came together and I forever thank Michael and Gavin McClelland for their organisation…
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I will mention Manchester in other posts, notably the England v. Northern Ireland match of 2005, but in 2006 I travelled up to Manchester to represent the South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club in the annual five a sides tournament for mainland NISCs. This was the first one, and was organised by the North…
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I had never been to Denmark, but had met a few Danish people in my time, notably Nethe from working on Bournemouth beach, and Hans from Tesco in Springhill. Northern Ireland were often drawn in the same qualifying group against Denmark, and I had been to 3 home matches against them. My only Northern Ireland…
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For some bizarre and unknown reason (justified only by money and the cost of travel) I didn’t go to a single Northern Ireland away match until March 2005, my 25th birthday match in Poland (except the one I’m about to write about and the England away match, both on UK soil, so not really ‘away’…
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Twenty one years after a heroic night on the Spanish coast for a Northern Ireland football team, a white shirted and green shorted male walks through the (almost) Franco-resistant city of Valencia to investigate the demonic effect that a goal by Gerry Armstrong has had on a patriotically Spanish population. I walked through Valencia on…
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In June 2006, only 7 months after the South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club was formed, I invited everyone down to Bournemouth and thought we could have a day out at the seaside – trip to the pier and beach and laugh at my co-workers who were slaving away while I had the day…
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Northern Ireland’s support was pretty shit in the 1990s. That’s just the way things were. I attended at least one home match a year, and for the last 4 years of the decade, I didn’t miss one. I have fond memories of EVERY trip to Windsor Park to watch my beloved Norn Iron (win, lose…
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I had been to Southampton a few times, sometimes to fly from the airport back to George Best Belfast City. Other times, as band manager of the waves, I had been to rehearsals and gigs there. It is a big city, and much less busy than London. It was only a matter of time before…
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Selling our self-produced ‘Here We Go…Again‘ fanzine (for the Northern Ireland national team) next to Marty Lowry for years had meant we chatted about all sorts of random things, including Marty telling me about Shaun with an H. This man was Shaun Schofield, who had been attending every single Northern Ireland home and away match…
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