Day Out

Dan Jennings goes to the Hawthorns…

As I stood at the front of the Kop hiding my head in my t-shirt after Andy Dibble's howler against Macclesfield this New Years Day, I remembered just how different the day had been a year earlier…

1 January 2002 was just like any other for a short period of time. Waking up feeling like shit and getting ready for a short journey to watch Wrexham play away. Last year the fixture list put us up against Bury at Gigg Lane but with bad weather all week the game had been in doubt for some time. Later than a lot of matches, ours was finally confirmed as 'OFF' on Teletext at 10.10am. What me and my brother David failed to realise was that our friends from Rhostyllen would have probably already set out to call for us by half past. We didn't expect them to show - but they did! I broke the news to them but it took a good while to register that I wasn't joking. To waste a bit of time, the six of us walked into town to get a breakfast at Woolies - but even that wasn't open yet!

Waiting around, Buster decided that he wouldn't mind going to watch Wigan or someone - just any game really because otherwise it was going to be a really boring New Year's Day. All anyone else could think of was a Woolies breakfast but when it finally opened we had a look at the paper to see what other local matches were on. I phoned home to check with my Dad what games hadn't been called off and after finding his way around Teletext (NB. My Dad needs an Idiot's Guide to Teletext!), he phoned back to confirm that West Brom and Stoke were the only ones anywhere near us that were getting the go-ahead. Everyone else suddenly seemed up for the idea and a quick vote decided that we were going to West Brom. Well, everyone hates Stoke, don't they? The fixture list had also been kind to West Brom - pitted against Stockport, the one team in the country whose defence was anywhere near as bad as ours.

I rang the train timetable hotline to find out how to get there and it was pretty simple in fairness. We made our way up to the General via McDonalds (no time for a Woolies brekkie now!) and waited around for the Birmingham New Street train. Waiting at the station was a weird feeling - everyone knew that this was one of those spur-of-the-moment ideas and wondered why - especially my friend Topman who thought he'd regret it when he sobered up! Big Ian also phoned his Mum to let her know what he was doing and all we could here was a loud yell of 'What?!' Once on the train we all got on as half returns (just £4.35!) when the ticket inspector finally found out where the Hawthorns was! We got some weird glances from Wolves-supporting ticket-inspectors at Birmingham New Street station as they seemed troubled in trying to get their heads around why anyone would travel the route we were on just to watch a West Bromwich Albion match. Still at the station we walked straight past an off licence and despite everyone else's sudden thirst, Topman couldn't even look at it.

It was a straight run as far as Birmingham but then we had to find our way across town to Birmingham Moor Street Station. It seemed quite easy following the signs as well - until they guided us straight into a building site! After checking for any possible short cuts we started to worry that we might even miss the train. In a momentary panic, Buster quickly asked the first person who walked past how to get there. Well, he's got a way of picking them has Buster - a homeless geezer who wanted a tip - but £2 later and we knew where we were going.

We had to rush through a shopping centre and after being followed by police and security guards we then passed another off licence, leaving Topman on the verge of being sick, and arrived down at the station with time to spare. Once aboard we got talking to a man and his young son who were also on their way to the match and he gave us a brief list of dos and don'ts for around the Hawthorns. 

On arrival, the ground was already in site and after all of Wrexham's early exits from cup competitions we realised this was probably going to be the biggest game we'd be attending this season. We were all searched at the train station as trouble was expected and we had arrived on the same train as most of the Stockport fans. On our way to the ground we found a hangover cure for Topman - a burger stand! In fairness it was the best £2 I've ever spent. The burgers were huge and some members of our small party even splashed out on two! While David, Buster, Ollie and Big Ian queued up for tickets (to make sure we all got in as juniors at a very reasonable £9) me and Topman had a quick look round the club shop and even anyone who's never been there in their life could guess that it was better than ours. Saying that, many non-league clubs' are on a par with Wrexham's!

We decided to go in the ground just after two o'clock and took our seats. Our stand was split equally between West Brom and Stockport fans although Stockport, already as good as relegated, only brought around 400 supporters with them! The away following was reasonably noisy before the game though, while the only chants from the home crowd were anti-Wolves ones.

The game kicked off spot on 3 o'clock and the visitors had an early chance at our end - it later turned out to be their only shot on target for the whole 90 minutes! It did bring a good save out of Russell Hoult however, and demonstrated how he'd kept so many clean sheets that season!

West Brom were by far the better side and it was only a matter of time before they broke the deadlock through Welsh international Andy Johnson, heading in Igor Ballis' right-wing corner. Albion had already won eight home games by a 1-0 scoreline so the home fans were ecstatic when Jason Roberts doubled the lead shortly before half-time. Chasing a long ball, he raced past two defenders, powered his way past a third, rounded the keeper and slotted home from a tight angle.

The second period was a damage- limitation job for County but they held on until the introduction of Danny Dichio. His arrival was laughed at by Albion fans in our stand ('Couldn't hit a barn door with a shovel!'; 'Not him again!'; 'That's all we need!'; 'You might as well play yourself, Gary!') but that all changed when he headed home after just five minutes…('Da-ni-o Dichio! Da-ni-o Dichio!') Dichio grabbed his second and Albion's fourth with ten minutes left, volleying in at the far post. It was an absolutely fantastic finish but he later missed an absolute sitter for his hat-trick and the jeering returned (see above).

We left with the match entering stoppage time to make sure we caught the train. As we walked out we could see four devoted County fans still singing away but there weren't many more of them there! We found all the others at the Hawthorns train station who had seemingly had enough a long time ago!

The train journey home seemed to go very quickly, with the added bonus of being able to find our way from one Birmingham station to the other! About half past five I received a phone call from Dokey Jamie. He wasn't able to come to the match and wondered what the score was because he couldn't find it on Teletext; he said there were hardly any results on there at all - it was then I realised that he was still talking about the Wrexham game!

It was then that I started telling the most incredible, unbelievable story that you would never, ever believe. That is, of course, unless you are Dokey Jamie! Everyone else realised what was going on and backed me up by chanting and cheering in the background. The short story is - we won 2-1. Then comes the rest - we were 1-0 down early on through Andy Preece ('Booooooo!'), then Darren Ferguson equalised after an hour with a 25-yard free-kick ('Dar-ren, Dar-ren Fer-gus-son!').

With quarter of an hour left Kristian Rogers got sent off for a foul in a one-on-one situation but David Walsh came on and saved the penalty - from Preece ('Wales No.1, Wales Wales No.1!'). With the three minutes of stoppage almost up, Dennis Lawrence rose like a salmon from Fergie's corner to give us a crucial three points ('Da na na na, da na na na, way hay hay, Dennis Lawrence!') He believed every word of it! I've not got a bad imagination but it does always run away this easily - meaning I'm permanently optimistic!

Because we hadn't had anything to eat for a fair few hours, now some of us were getting hungry, none more so than Buster! When we pulled into Shrewsbury station, Buster spotted a snack machine selling crisps and chocolates. As he got up to run off the train and buy something quickly, so did Ollie and Big Ian, and both beat him to it. Ollie and Big Ian had already bought something and were sitting back in their seats as Buster was now practically fighting with the machine because his crisps wouldn't drop. The train was all ready to go but he wasn't about to give up! They finally dropped and he jumped on the train as it was pulling out, seconds away from spending the night in Shrewsbury!

We arrived back at the General about 7 o'clock and had really enjoyed the day. We had probably spent less than we would have done going to watch Wrexham as well. This story finishes with us all walking home and Topman going straight to bed!