Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: remy on February 12, 2014, 10:09:54 AM
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A thought struck me during the tedium of last night's first half. Ive been supporting Villa since 1987-ish and I dont think since that time I have ever gone more than 12 hours without knowing the score of a Villa game after the final whistle no matter where I am or how crap we are.
Highlights include:
3 minutes before my sister was about to walk down the aisle, I whipped my phone out in the corner to check the score - how sad.
At a Christmas party in Spain inbetween shots of tequilla I somehow asked a non-english speaking spanish girl to check her phone to see how Sunderland Vs Villa was - how sad.
Stranded between Norwich and Great Yarmouth somewhere I skyped my pal and asked him to turn his phone towards the Villa game while I waited for the AA - how sad.
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About 5 hours, couple of season ago we played Arsenal away when we were 2 up and lost 3-2, I had a family do so I avoided it, kept away from tv told everyone not to tell me the result. I arrived home just got out the car got a txt from a nose (think he did it on purpose) saying mcleish is buying a new house it's a 3 up two down. Needless to say I was fucked off but glad in a way
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I was on a ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam the night of the LC semi final first leg in 2000. I didn't have my mobile phone and it was about 8 am the following morning when I rang my brother to get the score. That is the longest time I can recall. The previous round (the subsequently void penalty shoot-out defeat to West Ham) I was on a payphone in the students' union during a Christmas party getting updates from my Dad.
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Worst example for me was last year. I was abroad and away from the interweb for a couple of weeks. I logged on to check both the scores in the Tottenham and the Chelsea games, 2-3 days after the Spurs game. That was a pleasant surprise I can tell you. Then later the same evening I watched the Wigan game at something like 3-4 in the morning in the Philippines. Tis painful being a Villa fan sometimes innit?
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Longest time for me was on a cruise to Bilbao where there was no phone signal or any internet connection and we played away at west brom - I went about 36 hours before I got the result.
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About three days around New Year 2009 - on an island in Vietnam with no internet access, had to wait until we were back in Saigon to find out that Torres had scored a late winner and we'd lost 1-0.
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In May 1988, when Villa were chasing promotion straight back up from Div 2, I had to telephone the club from holiday abroad to find out that we had won 1-0 against Bradford several hours earlier. Before the internet and sports TV channels. I can remember that, but I cannot remember where I was on holiday!
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About 8-10 hours for me I think. How times change. Back in the day when we didn't have a phone at home I relied on the ten- o- clock news for Villa's away results if I couldn't afford to travel. Sometimes the bastards put them on and sometimes they didn't, it was very frustrating. I think they did it on a whim. When they didn't broadcast them it meant a wait until I could get the paper on the way to work next morning.
I did all this until someone told me to ring the Mail night desk and, if you were lucky they'd tell you. This was the road I went down after that, I didn't need to wait for the news, just pop down to the phone box and ring up. It was made even better when the old pair eventually got a phone installed.
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I turned the computer off when we went 3-0 down at Chelsea in the 8-0 defeat and didn't find out the result until sometime the next day. I reckon I probably went about 18 hours without knowing, which is the longest I can remember by a long way.
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Sheffield Wednesday a couple of days after the FA Cup Semi vs Bolton. Didn't even realise we were playing until well into the afternoon the day after. Weird feeling, as it is the only game I've ever not actually followed since it was so easy to find results etc...
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I went about 12 hours not knowing the LC result against Spurs last year. I was in Cyprus and couldn't be arsed with the rigmarole of using the hotel's internet suite. Found out we'd lost 4-0 via the World Service the following morning.
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3 hours. It was the Bordeaux UEFA Cup 1997-1998. I was hit with heavy flu, and started being sick on the way to the game. turned around, went straight to bed and woke up about 1am. With a note from my dad "We Won, 1-0, Milosevic!!!""
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How did we get on?
Hope we won!
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been a very long time , in Tenerife when I was 5 minutes behind reading the match thread on the net . Im always there , radio, stream ,tv or down the game .
if Villa are playing and I was not with the game , I become a wreck .
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There were a few games just after I was born that my mom and dad still haven't told me the score of.
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3-1 derby game (Cahill goal) I was out in Oz. We were going to see the NSW Waratah's vs Brumbies in Sydney and had about an hour and a bit drive. I spent the entire journey (no phone etc) moving the radio on each band 1mghz at a time to see if I could pick the game up and the entire journey back trying to find sports news. Got in at about 1am so went straight to bed, then got up the next morning and had to go to someone's house to dial up(!) to the web to find the result, cue much celebration! About 14 hours I think.
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I was flying back from the Ashes in Oz in Jan 2007 when we were playing Man U away in the FA Cup, so found out the final score quite a few hours after the match. It was the game when the keeper in the jogging bottoms (what was his name again?) let one squirm under him at the end. I wasn't exactly expecting to switch on my phone and receive good news, and I was right.
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The first leg at Trammere in the semi-final. I was at the game, but left early. It wasn't until the following day that I heard Dalian had pulled one back for us.
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Last night's game. Just found out.
Lost all internet last night and it has only just come back on.
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I've tried going days, weeks even but someone always tells me.
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I was away travelling in 95,sometimes went a week or two without knowing,would have to call home to find out sometimes. Considering how that 94/95 season panned out it was a good time to be travelling.
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Going back pre-internet, I had to wait a day or so for the results when I was in Spain in 1988/9. We beat Arsenal and drew with Liverpool early on in the season.
More recently, I didn't know the scores from either Bradford (H) or Millwall last season for a few hours as I was working in Delhi. Can vividly remember reading the BBC match report of the Millwall on my phone, whilst sat on the throne with a chronic dose of the trots. Ah, happy times.
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(what was his name again?)
Gabor Kiraly. Terrible Ashes as well, fancy being whitewashed.
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A relative in Scotland got married last April and my father and I couldn't get signal on our phones for ages.
Eventually when we were able to slip outside unnoticed we found out that we had won 3-1 away against Stoke City ;D
Can't remember going longer than that to find out the score, a few hours at most.
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I used to get back home from games in the 70s and my Dad would ask what the score was. Usually, I had to wait for the Argus as my memory was clouded with booze.
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Oh and once I was on holiday with my parents and we didn't find out the Villa score until getting the English paper the next day.
I think we beat Newcastle away and Shearer was sent-off, whenever that was?
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About 18 hours for me, when we lost 0-3 at the Sty on boxing day 1982 I'd heard we were a goal down and I couldn't bear the thought of us losing to them which I had never experienced before (I was 10), so I deliberately avoided it.
Sometime early the next day my dad did mention it and put me out of my misery.
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In the good old pre internet days you went to the Central League game and the score would be put on the lettered scoreboard.
If you didn't go to the reserves you made sure you were by the TV after the wrestling/horseracing and before Dr Who.
If you missed the TV you went to the newsagents at 6pm and waited for The Argus to arrive.
If you didn't buy an Argus ..............(you always bought The Argus!)
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Over a day. Back in 1995, I went to the US and knew we were playing Bolton midweek in the days before internet and phones so I had to buy a Yank newspaper on the Thursday that's sport section was full of American Football but, it did have the English soccer scores from the past week in light grey type....Aston Villa 1 Bolton 0.
Hooray!!! made my day and I got a few looks when I celebrated in a café but who cares. Only found out when I got back home to Blighty that Dwight Yorke scored the goal.
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Once in a while if I can't watch the game live. I switch off my phone and tell everyone to shut the f up about the Villa game, so when I get home I watch the recorded game without knowing the score. It happens that when I get home from a night out at 2 pm I put me Villa shirt on and watch the game 'live' from my arm chair.
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Got the result of our opening 2-2 draw at home to Millwall on our return to the top flight from a French newspaper on a family holiday some time during the following week.
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Villa were founded in 1874 and I didn't take any interest till my dad took me to a game in 1988.
So, 114 years.
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92,93 season when we beat Liverpool 4-2 with Deano s double. I was at my nieces wedding and didnt find out the score till 1.30 am the following morning when the morning paper's were delivered to the hotel.
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How did we survive pre Internet?
My longest is if I avoid the score and then watch the game 'live' via the highlights.
Last time was when we beat west brom the other week as I was at a pantomime.
Maybe I should do it more often
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Longest for me was up a mountain in Nepal in October 1996 for 8 days and no access to anything electrical - gas and solar powered equipment only. Even when I got back to Kathmandu I had to run around town for a few hours to find out that Bossie had decided to audition for the role of a Nazi in the Sound of Music.
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I still don't know what the score was when we beat Yanited in the League Cup Final. We had only two tickets between me and my sons so I waited outside. After the game they were as jubilant as all the other Villa fans so I knew we had won. The score did not matter.
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I can barely think of an occasion since about 1992 that I've left it more than a couple of hours
When I think of all the hours and hours of my life spent on something that i don't even enjoy most of the time! Wow.
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Mine must be about 36 hours. Thinking back to overseas holidays in the early 90's, before Sky & internet, UK papers were a day old when you got them. So 4.45pm on Saturday to 10ish on the Monday when I brought a Sunday paper.
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A mate of mine who if he's not been to the game, waits until MOTD to see how we get on. I'm not sure I could do that personally.
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Up until recently I used to do that for some Sunday games.
The experience that soured me on doing that was when we lost 6-0 at Newcastle under Kevin MacDonald. I'm well known round here for supporting the Villa and a couple of hours after the game I was out for a run when some random stranger came over to take the piss. I thought they were joking. :(
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The longest I have been is the next day as I was traveling across the Atlantic to come back to the UK, we beat man citeh 1-0 with Darren Bent scoring on his debut.
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How did we survive pre Internet?
Stand outside Dixons and watch the scores come through on the tellies. I sort of miss it.
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How did we survive pre Internet?
Stand outside Dixons and watch the scores come through on the tellies. I sort of miss it.
Teletext page 303.
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Long Haul flights are about the longest I've had to wait but thinking further about it earlier this season I was on a canal boat holiday somewhere in the north west parked up, no phone signal, no radio signal, no possible way of finding out how we were getting on or got on away at Chelsea. It bothered me so much I dreamt the result. The reality was we conceded one less goal than in my dream.
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How did we survive pre Internet?
My longest is if I avoid the score and then watch the game 'live' via the highlights.
Last time was when we beat west brom the other week as I was at a pantomime.
Maybe I should do it more often
If it was a midweek game and I didn't go, in the 80s, I would ring the club with about ten minutes to go, to find out the latest score and they always told me. It was the lady in the North Stand reception.
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Crystal Palace this Boxing Day just gone. Spent the whole day doing the family thing, gave it about 4 hrs before checking the result, couldn't believe it when my missus told me we had even lost that one too.
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I don't think I have even gone a few hours since the mid nineties when I lived abroad and occasionally missed the results on a Saturday and if I couldn't find out from someone else it was a Monday morning paper job for a while then latterly I could get the now deceased NOTW on a Sunday.
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Back before the internet if I worked Saturday late shifts or even if we were playing midweek I used to sneak into the managers office and dial the Villa Clubcall number. Blimey, sometimes they would keep you hanging about before saying what the score was.
Welcome.............to.............Aston Villa.............Clubcall............for...............all the latest.......................news.............views...........latest scores..................and results......................of your favourite team...
Eventually you would get some live commentary or even a match report if the game was over but, it took forever and I had to keep an eye out for the gaffer. I did get caught once but Villa won so I couldn't give a shit.
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About 18 hours in 2001, I was in Cuba. I think we played Chelsea on 1.1.01 and had to phone my Dad to find out, but I was recovering from NYE so it took a while to get my head back on properly.
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About 18 hours in 2001, I was in Cuba. I think we played Chelsea on 1.1.01 and had to phone my Dad to find out, but I was recovering from NYE so it took a while to get my head back on properly.
I was on a beach in Cuba in 2006 when people started texting me to say Blose had gone down (again) Cue cocktails all round!!!
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1981 I was on holiday in St Tropez. I think it was 0-0 versus Small Heath The game was played on a saturday at 3pm and got the result monday morning when the sunday papers arrived in France
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Probably lots despite being sad enough to waste so many Saturday afternoons on here following another dire game/result.
Those that come to mind - a couple of times while on holiday in Spain during the Gregory years via the Sunday newspapers the next day (often, delivered on the Sunday but without colour pictures). One was a grim win at home to Bradford, the other a last minute Alpay own goal (?) at Middlesboro, giving them a 1-1 draw. Think we were in our black ntl kit.
More recently, Dec 2010, the 2-1 win over West Brom under Houllier. I was away at a teaching course and busy with students all day. Eventually my boss called out the results from his mobile. I was so fucking relieved as we were going through a poor spell (which continues to this day ;)).
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September 97, I was only 8 and coming back from Disneyland Paris. Think we played Bordeaux in the early round of the Uefa cup and won 1 nil in extra time. Didn't know the result until my Dad showed me the score in an English paper that was on the plane back the following morning.
Can't really think of anything in recent times, the advent of mass media makes it near impossible really unless with recent results you actively refuse to seek the score!
Edit: Actually a more recent one would've been another euro away tie. We played Litex Lovech in September 2008, was away in Madrid so didn't have a clue until pretty late in that evening as the match wasn't broadcast on foreign TV. Even pretty drunk I couldn't resist having an attempt to try to locate it and somehow manage to navigate Spanish teletext to come across we'd won 3-1!
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Can't actually think how long is the longest. The one that sticks out though is when we played Blackburn in the FA cup 3rd round 2003 even though it would be less than 24hrs. It was my last day in South Africa and never had an opportunity to check score. What a shit welcome back to the UK, I had gone from 35degrees to a windy freezing Heathrow, a quick check of the paper and I wished I hadn't.
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I can not remember any match where I have not known the result almost immediately. I once carried a short wave radio with me on a trek in the Himalayas foothills to listen to World Service Saturday afternoon commentary. You know the bit where they say we welcome BBC World Service listeners.
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I can not remember any match where I have not known the result almost immediately. I once carried a short wave radio with me on a trek in the Himalayas foothills to listen to World Service Saturday afternoon commentary. You know the bit where they say we welcome BBC World Service listeners.
never understood why they only let World Service listeners into the last 20 minutes of the commentary.
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The old days when games on Saturday kicked off at 3.00 the BBC world service always broadcast the Sports report at 1700 hours however they joined straight after the 1600 hours world news at approx 4.15. They still do that.
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I can not remember any match where I have not known the result almost immediately. I once carried a short wave radio with me on a trek in the Himalayas foothills to listen to World Service Saturday afternoon commentary. You know the bit where they say we welcome BBC World Service listeners.
never understood why they only let World Service listeners into the last 20 minutes of the commentary.
Because the cheapskate buggers overseas don't pay the licence fee
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On the odd occasion I don't the result of an away game i'll often wait until MOTD to find out. Other than that i'm struggling to think of any lengthy time. I do miss being out on a Saturday and at 4.45pm loads of blokes would stand out Currys etc watching the results come in.
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About 9 hours, the match kicked off just as I was boarding a flight to Hong Kong. Was until I got to the terminal before getting my connecting flight I could ring my bro - he explained what happened. Great start to my holiday...it was the 'Enkleman' Blose 3-0 game at the Sty.
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I went for a few days for the 2000 FA cup final, flying out to Hawaii at 3pm that day, had to wait for the video to be fedexed from LA. What a let down...
This is a pertinent question for me.
Last night I was wondering how many points we will have by the 1st of April.
I'll then be offline/incommunicado in a Spanish mountain valley for 4months as I'm getting ordained into the Buddhist order I've been training for, for quite a few years.
Never mind missing the World Cup (a wise senior Buddhist teacher pointed out I didn't need to worry about missing England winning anything for a few years yet) but I'll have to 'be with' not knowing if we are safe....
I'd ask for predictions, but what's the point... I'll get my phone back late July :O
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This is a pertinent question for me.
Last night I was wondering how many points we will have by the 1st of April.
I'll then be offline/incommunicado in a Spanish mountain valley for 4months as I'm getting ordained into the Buddhist order I've been training for, for quite a few years.
The answer is as alway 42.
So go in peace, stay in peace and complete your task.
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I as cycle-touring in Holland and Belgium in August 1987. I had to wait a couple of days to find out that we had drawn 1-1 at Ipswich -GT Mk 1's first game.
I spent the rest of the week wondering who the scorer was. When I got back to Brum, I found out it had been an own goal...
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I avoid all the scores until Match of the Day every week.
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I avoid all the scores until Match of the Day every week.
Even the Villa games? Blimey.
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U
pto 3 days when I was working in Egypt 93-94 season, Feb March time. I was working in a place called Ras Shukir, and we had to get results faxed down to us from the RACAL office in Cairo IF they weren't pissed on Saturday evening, and then on Monday the games and oranjeboom would be trucked down to us.
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I as cycle-touring in Holland and Belgium in August 1987. I had to wait a couple of days to find out that we had drawn 1-1 at Ipswich -GT Mk 1's first game.
I spent the rest of the week wondering who the scorer was. When I got back to Brum, I found out it had been an own goal...
Was it somebody called O'Donnell who scored the own goal? That was the name that popped into my head when I read your post.
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I avoid all the scores until Match of the Day every week.
Even the Villa games? Blimey.
Yes, unless we are live on Sky.
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Looks like there's nothing under the bridge again.
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How did we survive pre Internet?
Stand outside Dixons and watch the scores come through on the tellies. I sort of miss it.
I used to try and time my breaks at my Saturday job in a supermarket for the half time and full time scores so I could go and look at a telly through a shop window. Work didn't like me taking my lunch at 3.45 though! Failing that an Everton fan used to come in fairly late and was usually good for getting the info.
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I remember me and my Dad avoiding all news about the 1977 League Cup Final 2nd replay at Old Trafford.....it was so worth it watching the whole drama unfold on the highlights programme.....""for a team that's behind...Villa's play is orderly and composed""
love it !
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I remember me and my Dad avoiding all news about the 1977 League Cup Final 2nd replay at Old Trafford.....it was so worth it watching the whole drama unfold on the highlights programme.....""for a team that's behind...Villa's play is orderly and composed""
love it !
Oh yes , sportsnight I believe with me carpenter presenting it on that wondrous evening - fond memories indeed :)
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Looks like there's nothing under the bridge again.
He can't be a troll for eschewing the modern world and instead waiting patiently for 10.30pm on Sats, can he?
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Villa v Everton from earlier this season. On route to L.A but a big delay meant I heard the updates from the first half at VP. So I knew it was 0-0.
By the time we got to California, we didn't have any WiFi connection on day 1, eventually found an Apple shop in Santa Monica - straight on an IPad, two days after the event, saying rather loudly "Oh come on, we lost 2-0!"
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Damo - yeah, O'Donnell rings a bell with me, too.