Stadium Way

When this post was supposed to be written, England's prospects of qualifying for Euro 2008 looked bleak. By contrast, England U21 has played 4, Won 4 and conceded no goals in their quest for a Euro 2009 place.

Friday 16th November, and we set off (about 25 people from Brickhill + siblings + parents) to see England U21 vs. Bulgaria U21 at Stadium MK.

A good time was had by all - first there was the amusement of trying to locate the stadium on the satnav - it's too new to be on the map it turns out. We knew it was close to IKEA but TomTom thought the nearest IKEA was in Lille, France.....

Then there was the traditional abandoning the car on the dual carriageway (*) when the traffic at KO minus 20mins slowed to less than walking pace, and the fun of trying to find all those seats that are supposed to be together but actually seem to be all over the place and it always looks like someone else is already sitting in your seat.

* or in Adrian's case, in a mud-pit miles from the entrance.

Next there was the ritual trying to buy a burger during half-time. Harry, Fred, Dominic and David actually attempted this several times before, during and after half-time. Apparently the catering at MK Dons is not really suited for 20,000+ attendance.

Harry's main memory is probably of touching the match-ball when some wayward shot came to us 20-rows up.

It was a good match. England U21 eventually came away 2-0 winners including a 2nd-half penalty won by lightning Theo Walcott, scored by James Milner and very poorly captured on mobile phone video by Harry. We all managed to find our cars again, and a burger on the way out. Success all round.