Are we there yet? (Part Four)

As journeys go, this was a pretty decent one but certainly the furthest. I also had the added bonus of navigating for a change although we did have a very good Tom Tom Sat Nav (other makes are available!). Our first stop was on the M6 after passing the Mecca of football, Villa Park. At the services we bumped into Suffolk FA’s finest dignitaries Mess’s Head and Porter and this after forking out some ridiculous prices to eat. Clearly the credit crunch hasn’t reached the motorway services yet. I had never been to Blackpool before and on arrival I could see why. I’m sure at the height of summer it is a bustling resort but it looked in dire need of an upgrade and certainly a lick of paint wouldn’t go a miss either. Gently strolling down the Golden Mile we were accosted by Mr Bacon and his EADT photographer who pointed us into the direction of a very good watering hole. A quick change and it was off to Fleetwood. The bus driver could have done with our sat nav as he decided to not once, not twice but three times drive past the ground. Not even the glaring light from the floodlights gave him any indication as to where the game was being staged on the original fly past. Inside and Fleetwood is a good ground with covered stands on all but one of the four sides. A noisy partisan crowd throughout with an official attendance of 2000, maybe they only counted those in the covered areas! One strange sight was the seated stand in front of another stand which I later found out was due to the fact the ‘old’ stand housed the changing rooms. Sadly the end result was not what we hoped for but the FA Cup run has been fantastic and we’ve clocked up nearly 2000 miles along the way. We trudged back to Blackpool and enjoyed a drink or three before retiring. It was a biting wind and the Irish Sea that brought the hangover to the fore the next morning not helped by the Nat King Cole Christmas special blasting over the air waves at breakfast as we outnumbered the other residents by 30, in age that is! The journey home was a long and tiresome affair, I’m sure it would have been different had we won.