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An early start for the trip to Kent, with two Official buses departing from Swansea – at 7:30am, most of us optimistic with the game ahead. Would we play like Brazil today or would we be more like San Marino? There were a total of 5 films shown on the bus on the way up and back, and I only managed to see one of the films all the way through. Sort it out Ugo! 😉
We arrived at Gillingham at around 1:15; it was then a 5 minute walk from the car park, through streets and across a level crossing until we reached the pub – The Livingstone Arms – it’s one of the friendliest away pubs that I’ve been to.
I went there last season and it’s a proper football pub, so to speak. It has flags from nearly every football club in the league on the ceiling and a good place for Gillingham and Swansea fans to mix; I’d recommend this pub to any away fan travelling to Gillingham, also a friendly service, which is always a good thing.
The away end at the Priestfield is accessible through a terraced street, there were no problems with the locals, we were housed in a temporary uncovered stand, just like last season but luckily it wasn’t raining this time!!
There was the usual banter between the two sets of supporters, as the home fans were quite close to our right. But during the game the Gills crowd were very quiet and only seemed to make a noise when they scored. The 600 Swans fans were quite subdued too, that was mainly to do with the stand being uncovered so no roof to keep the noise in.
There were some funny moments to lighten the mood a tiny little bit, chants of ‘Gillingham is falling down’ when the letter ‘F’ in the word football shattered to the ground from the stand. Also the Gillingham steward singing along to ‘Land of my Fathers’, it made me smile, if not anyone else.
There was also one guy who had a moan at Jackett for travelling 5 hours to get to Gillingham. I’m sure nobody forced him to travel and I’m sure it took the players and management just as long to get there as he did. But I knew what he was getting at.
One guy was also constantly moaning at every individual player on the field for doing the slightest thing wrong. I never understand why people travel all that way just moan at the team, players, weather, price etc.
There was a long walk back to the car park, past some happy Gills and we were on our way. The mood was obviously disappointment, especially after Tuesday’s Brazil performance. The journey went quite quick – surprisingly – with good humour and banter on the bus., stan the jack was getting annoyed with my constant singing and substitute jack still trying to convince me how McLeod and Forbes are Swansea Legends.
We arrived back in Swansea at around 10:30pm, a pretty wasted journey on the whole but I enjoyed the pub, the weather and erm…. that was about it! Hopefully the Swans will improve the next time we travel away – to Nottingham Forest. We usually play well against the top teams.
Ticket: £11 (Under 16’s)
Coach: £16
Programme: £2.50
Food/Drink: £5
Total: £34.50
Current Running Total: £178
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