Planet Swans ArchivesThe bus left from the usual place at a later time of 8.30 to the short journey to Northampton. Around an hour into the journey we are moving at a snails place on the motorway, there was a problem with the bus! I’m sure a horse and cart would have been quicker the pace we were going.
We had an unscheduled stop at Sarn services; where we spent around an hour while the mechanics tried to fix the coach. When we finally got going (still not very fast) we then hit a traffic jam, not once but twice!
But we finally arrived at Northampton at just before five to three; they have the unusual layout at Sixfields where you buy your ticket from a port-a-cabin and then enter through the turnstiles.
Sixfields is an all seater stadium with just over a 7500 capacity; it’s on the outskirts of Northampton just off the motorway with a large hill overlooking the ground, it is a very small ground but most of the seats were taken.
The programme was a good read – 67 pages to be exact. Around 6 pages on the Swans – the usual player profiles. They also had a section of ‘Great matches’ and coincidently this week featured Northampton’s 1-0 over us at Wembley (They just don’t let it lie do they?)
We were positioned behind the goal, it was hard to see the action (or lack of) up the other end of the pitch, there was also not much leg room and I spent most of the time up and down due to children walking back and fore.
It took me about ten minutes to settle down and then decipher who was playing and which way we were scoring after a very long and exhausting bus journey!
There was a rather large, shall I put it in a politically correct way, guy keeping the majority of the travelling fans entertained and he did look like he did eat all the pies by chanting at the away fans, who gave him abuse back. He also shouted suggestive comments to the Northampton goalie although he insisted on calling him Mr Ben (actual name was Bunn!)
He amused us some more by asking a woman in the crowd – I don’t think he knew her – to marry him. It was funny when he said no-one was watching! He received a round of applause from his fellow Swans fans. Even the Northampton fans raised a smile. That type of thing is always good to see.
There was not much singing from the Jackarmy, what the reason was I don’t really know, I know I was worn out mainly down to the bus journey. The Northampton fans to our left were noisy (mainly shouting for a free kick every time their player was on the floor).
They sang ‘Fatty what’s the score’ when they scored – That was aimed at the mad Swans fan, then ‘One nil just like Wemberly’ They must sing that every time they go one nil up against us, so original – Give it a rest Northampton fans that was almost 10 years ago.
The game was not very entertaining, so less said about that the better. The tannoy announcer didn’t make us feel any better when he mentioned that the jinx had left the building. A message to any League One team, if you’re going through a bad spell don’t worry Swansea will end it for you.
A better journey back, even if it was a little quiet. It was also FA Cup draw day and we found out that the Swans drew Newport County away – so a good game looks on the cards.
We stopped for 45 minutes in Strensham services where I chatted to a Yeovil fan about their game. He did mention that they haven’t been playing well either – just goes to show how good League One is really.
The coach arrived back in Swansea at approximately 10pm, next stop Peterborough in the Paint Trophy.
Ticket: £16
Coach: £15
Programme: £2.50
Current total: £415.50
