Last Thursday 16th April I celebrated the 40th anniversay of my first visit to the Hawthorns, the home of the famous West Bromwich Albion. On the same date in 1969 I watched the baggies beat Manchester City 2-0 and its been a roller coaster of ups and downs ever since. I have been lucky enough to see Albion against some of the greats of world football. The Eufa cup run of the late 70s was memorable. Beating the mighty Valencia who included the "best player in the world" at that time, the imperious Mario Kempes were put to the sword. Galatasary, Red Star Belgrade, Grasshoppers, are amongst the other famous teams.
I have also witnessed the low points. Woking, say no more, and worse still an FA cup defeat at Halifax. I was at Bristol Rovers to watch Albion relegated to the third tier for the only time in their history and was at Wembley in 93 as we returned to Division 2 under Ossie Ardiles. I have been to the new Wembley twice to see Albion lose a play off final and an F A Cup Semi Final without scoring a goal in either game. In all I have watched Albion in 90 Stadiums around the country. Its cost me a fortune over the years but whenever I see those Navy Blue and white stripes emerging onto the Hawthorns carpet I still get a tingle of pride and excitment.
I would hate to support a team like Man Utd or Liverpool who expect to win a trophy every year. Without the bad times the good times would not be so enjoyable.
Shenstone Audax.
Tomorrow Aron and myself head to Shenstone for our second cycling event of the year. Its a 103 km Ride and will help in our training for our tour of the Alps in August.
Not the best of preparation for this in the last couple of days I have been out for a few beers with my son Mark on Thursday and then another bellyful last night with Debra at my favourite watering hole in Erdington "The Charlie Hall".
I have just had 4 bacon and egg sarnies as well so as I say, not the best of preparatiion but what the hell, it worked for Alf Tupper.
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