I always have to have a good drink before playing Small Heath, to calm the nerves more than anything else.
The day we beat them 3-1 (Cahill overhead), me and my then girlfriend went to visit her "down on his luck" family friend first thing that morning. Noticing my rather agitated state he thrust a can of Skol Super into my hand, telling me with a wide eyed stare that it would sort me out.
Good lord, I have never tasted anything like it in my life. I got a shocked reaction from the lads picking me up when they found me necking it and all told, from the black country to our parking spot near the King Edward, an hour outside that shop just up the road, to the turnstiles at the Holte where I left the empty can, I reckon it took me around two hours to finish it.
It was like alcoholic treacle.