TRAVEL CHAOS

Published in the Southern League South and West Game v Uxbridge Saturday 2nd Feb 2008. A well earned 1-1 draw in front of 233 people. We are now only 4th from bottom!

After Yeovil Steve missed the local bus and had to hitch the last 20 miles to get to see us play Taunton it got me wondering of other stories of journies to matches that didn't quite go to plan.

For a time my cousin Mark and fellow fanzine editor Pleb used to make our way across the country watching Slough play the Conference. My cousins driving was erratic to say the least and in the days long before Sat Navs we never seemed to bother with a map either. I remember us being caught in a blizzard realising that there’s no way the game would be on; losing a wheel on the motorway doing about 100mph; getting stuck behind tractors and a wedding party as we zig-zagged through the country roads to get to Boston. I remember us heading towards Wales when we were meant to be going to Telford and not getting there till half-time. But the best was running out of petrol on the motorway on the way back from a game. We sat in the dark waiting for the breakdown services, only for them to point out that if we had only had the brain power to get out of the car and look behind a tree we would have seen a petrol station just five minutes away!

Anyway Chris Sliski recalls when Slough played Winsford in Cheshire. “We lost the match and the team returned to the train station to pick up the night service back to Euston. Well it was a freezing night and the train broke down just outside Rugby as the overhead power lines had fallen onto the train. We froze and finally after being rescued the train arrived in Euston at 7am. I remember going straight to work frozen, lack of sleep and also knowing we got beaten ...”

Hayes Rebel remembers “Travelling to Ashington for an Amateur Cup replay in the final year of the competition. Whilst Slough lost 1-0, the locals did us proud before and after the match buying all our beers, crisps etc. I think I still had 4 pints left at kick off time. After the match everyone stopped to ask the score. Rather better experience than some other 'big' matches. My brother was in regular touch for many years after with one local fan. The coach left Slough on Friday evening and we got back during the early hours of Sunday. We were not allowed to stop at any Little Chef outlets because they did not allow coaches and we only wanted chips!”

One supporter told of a long trip up north “Most disappointed trip was to West Auckland in the Amateur Cup we won 3-1 and they invited us to spend the evening in their local club (that was in the days when folk raved about the northern clubs and the entertainment in them) but a few old foggies on our coach said "no lets get home " - what a wasted opportunity that was!”

Chris remembers his trip to Horsham last season “I went from Slough to watch us play Horsham, only for it to pour down and get called off. I then needed to travel to Bournemouth to meet my friends to celebrate the New Year, only to get my car stuck in mud in the Horsham car park. I was covered in mud and soaked through!”

Marcus remembers an away trip to Dagenham and Redbridge which finished 4-4 “The coach got flashed by some 'ladies of the night' which ended up with 40 blokes running to the back of the coach to get a better look!”

While Richie Rebel recalls “My favourite was driving all the way to Merthyr the night before an FA Trophy game in terrible weather conditions; the Severn Bridge was closed for a period it was that bad. We went out in Merthyr and got blind drunk and slept in our cars overnight only to find in the morning the game had been called off!”

As for Yeovil Steve he did manage to get to Taunton by the power of his thumb, to catch our first away victory in 11 months!