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Away Days – Leyton Orient |
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Another away day, will it be third time lucky for the Swans on the road this season. We were more hopeful than anything, our bus left the Quadrant at around 8:30, on our way to East London. It was an unusual bus with 3 seats in a row on one side, no TV and no toilet. We were slumming it today 😉 There were three buses today and the usual lot were there to cheer the Swans on, many of the views on the way up to Leyton Orient were more mostly pessimistic, especially after the Carling Cup game in midweek. Many were predicting another loss on the road. We stopped off at Leigh Delamere services today for around 15 minutes before continuing our journey to Orient. Just the usual banter on the coach, with stan the jack getting annoyed with my constant singing and substitute jack still proclaiming that McLeod is the best left winger in footballing history. Also a bonus was that there wasn’t a microphone on the bus so Ugo had to keep his jokes for another day! There was a little traffic hold up on the motorway but we arrived at Brisbane Road (after a wrong turn) at around 1:45. Orient must be one of the hardest grounds to find, it’s in amongst houses in a busy East London. I saw Darran and Amy Prosser outside the ground, Darran still hadn’t had a haircut (from what I noticed) and he was also ticket touting outside the ground. He offered me a ticket but I’m an honest guy and obviously refused. The programme was a little pricey at £3, it did have 67 pages but only 4 of those featured the Swans I wasn’t that interested in much else. I did find out that it will cost £22.50 for adults at Brighton this season, to go in an uncovered seated area! I better start saving. This was my third visit to Brisbane Road; it’s under a bit of development behind one goal. It’s at present a 3 sided ground; it’s quite small with the capacity just over 7000. We were housed in the East Stand and just over 600 Swans fans were there, it was quite a decent view along the side of the pitch. There were pillars blocking areas of the pitch but on the whole not too bad, there was also good natured banter between the two sets of fans. To our right there were flats which were specially built for the 2012 Olympics so I’m told, but they overlooked the pitch. Some Orient fans were on the balcony ready for the game to start. They were pretty close to us Swans fans and had the most chants thrown at them. The funniest including ‘We know where you live’ and ‘Have you ever seen your feet?’ (to this relatively large lady) But they seemed to take it well. There was one fan who proceeded to taunt us by holding a can of beer, gloating about the fact he could drink while watching the football and we couldn’t. The Swans fans were in good voice and the usual chants got an airing, but I don’t think Cardiff City would have cared that a few Swans fans hated them though. But all in all pretty loud from the away end and Orient fans were very subdued. The journey back seemed to go pretty quick (always seems to after the Swans win) many fans were now a little more optimistic after a decent performance, many others claiming that Rory Fallon is the worst striker to ever play football. We stopped off at Leigh Delamere for 45 minutes on the way back, but to pass the time some guys thought it would be funny to place a sign spelling ‘male’ on the entrance to the female toilets and vice versa. The reactions on people’s faces when they realised were hilarious, but they all found the funny side. Little things please little minds I suppose. We arrived back in Swansea at around 10.30 and it’s only 17 days before the next away day – Brentford here we come! Coach: £15 Ticket: £18 Programme: £3 Refreshments: £5 Total: £41 |
