'Blackburn or Bust': A trip to Ewood Park with the Consett Supporters' Branch!

12/28/2024 02:33 PM

RR's Kelvin Beattie reflects on the Boxing Day journey to Blackburn, as seven thousand Mackems headed to Lancashire in good spirits and fine voice!

It's 8.20am on Boxing Day morning and the sun is rising low over the salubrious setting of Consett Bus Station.

Gathered there are a healthy cross-section of Santa jumpers and hats as well as brand new Sunderland strips, being modelled by happy festive humans of all shapes, ages and sizes.

We're assembled to board the two buses ready to transport us to Ewood Park for our crucial clash with Blackburn Rovers, and as we start to clamber up the steps, there's a definite 'family feel' to our bus and not too many seats left, as I'm just about last to board.

I've never met the fella next to me, but nonetheless a good craic ensues. Grandpa Luke is taking his grandson to his first away game, and he's sitting across the aisle with Grandma.

I ask Luke what age he was when he first started going to games and who was playing. He can't remember the date or opposition but has a vivid recollection of sitting on his Dad's shoulders and watching John O'Hare play.

What are the chances of this coincidence? O'Hare was also playing in my first game and scored two goals (just for me)

Luke tells me that he's loving watching our young players and is fancying Wilson Isidor for a goal today, which would be just reward for all his effort and energy over the last few goalless games.

Luke also shares a story about a trip to Watford, last season by train.

We'd been beaten by a second half goal and it hadn't been a particularly good performance or journey. On the train back up north, it emerged that the Sunderland team were in one of the carriages with restricted access.

Upon hearing that there were Sunderland fans on the train, Luke O'Nien and Chris Rigg had appeared and chatted away to the fans, including Grandpa Luke and his wife. O'Nien's easy manner with the fans is well known and deserved, but what had really impressed Luke was Rigg, who had come across as a 'lovely young man'- they're not all overpaid divas, you know!

I encounter another young lad who's going to his first away game, but he'a looking a bit sad.

I ask him what was up and he tells me with tears in his eyes that the pet Santa had bought him had died! I express my condolences and ask him what the pet was. He replies that 'It was my pet mouse Elvis and he was caught in a trap'. The little scallywag! This triggers others to share their Christmas jokes.

Joe Bolton and his son Defoe are also looking forward to the day, and they're hoping for better luck than last year's festive away trip to Hull, which saw the bus break down and the passengers marooned at a McDonald's as the Lads went on to win 1-0!

We discuss our team's current tendency to start games badly, recently going a goal down before even striking a blow in anger, so what's that all about?

Our defending from set pieces is flagged, and what appears to be a collective malaise in reacting to pressure and going a goal down in the early stages of a game. This trait, of course, revisits us hours later as our team delivers what for the most part was an abysmal first half.

We also discuss the growing influence of the TV companies and their money.

With an ever-increasing amount of coverage and the likelihood of Saturday 3:00pm kickoffs being screened next season, it would seem to encourage even more armchair fans! Of course, the money paid by TV companies is the lure and without it, many clubs would go under.

That said, is the way the money is dispersed around the clubs the fairest or most effective? We agree there might not be an ideal way of doing this but one thing's for sure: Sky are here to stay!

What happens if you eat Christmas decorations?

You get tinsel-litis!

Sisters Quinn and Gray are looking especially festive and think we're going to win today. They tell me that Isidor's Christmas message posted is 'lush' and they're sure he's going to score today.

We chat about the crazy results that can occur during the festive period, and the record books are full of them.

They believe one reason for this is that some players may find it hard to be disciplined during the festive season, and share with me a sighting of one of our key players in Stack looking like he was having a good kick at the wrong kind of ball! We hope it doesn't influence the result.

Quinn also tells me a funny story from her last visit to Ewood Park, from decades back.

She'd driven down with her other sister and arrived late in the vicinity of the ground, almost abandoning her car and rushing to the ground.

After the game, she'd attempted to return to her car, parked in the backstreets beside a corner shop, but couldn't locate her motor as she realised every other street seemed to have a corner shop! They did eventually find her car, with the help of the local constabulary, who managed to assist without too much hilarity!

Quinn and Gray's Dad is sitting behind them and he tells me a story about being given three ticket vouchers for the 1973 FA Cup final.

One of these vouchers was successful and Dad paid £1 for his ticket and £2.65 for his bus ticket to Wembley. £3.65 for Sunderland's best ever day at Wembley to date!

Why did Rudolph have to attend summer school?

Because he went down in history.

A stop at Rosgrove Social Club in Burnley for a couple of hours had been arranged, and both busloads piled in, with a third bus arriving shortly afterwards.

Our session is paid for with 'footy card' winnings, with both cards being won by lads in our crew! The John Smiths was lovely and definitely got me in the zone for the game.

Our chat covers many topics as the pints turn us into the most intelligent, humorous, eloquent beings in the room. The discussion around the merits of Sam Fender was memorable, with the consensus being he's a very poor man's Bruce Springsteen!

Who is a Christmas tree's favourite singer?

Spruce Springsteen.

The Isidor twins are in good fettle and fancy Wilson for a goal today.

We also discuss our inability to start games well, and they both feel this might have something to do with the number of young players in the team, who are maybe trying too hard but not quite catching the pace of the game and not quite being at it.

'Bally and Riggy' are mother and daughter, and enjoying a day out at the footy together. It's Riggy's first away game and hopes are high for a victory and a goal from the young maestro. She'll get her wish.

Meps and his son are sitting behind me.

His lad is also going to his first away game and is very excited. He tells me the score is going to be 1-4, with our goals coming from a header from one of our defenders, Patrick Roberts, Rigg and Isidor.

Like me, Meps is going for 2-2. We agree that Blackburn are no mugs at home and move the ball about the park really well. We also think Danny Batth will be playing for Rovers. He's a dependable defender who served Sunderland really well, but hopefully he doesn't join the list of former players who score against us!

The excitement mounts as we see the floodlights and then the coach park right outside the ground. There's red and white around the ground as we exit the bus. Here's hoping, and fingers crossed!

Back on the bus, and a bit of a wait to clear the coach park.

There seems to be a general feeling that most of us would've taken a point at half time, given our dreadful first half showing. I hold with the expressed view from somewhere up the back of the bus that the first half was a combination of Rovers being good and the Lads not quite being at it.

There's also general agreement that our second half showing was really good.

Roberts has run into some form and Dan Neil had another good game. Isidor's goal was sublime, whereas Rigg just never gives up and might've had another goal with the header that went so close.

Of course, Eliezer Mayenda might've won it with a bit more composure in the last minute and a rebound from Roberts' shot just missed Dennis Cirkin's head, but hey, that's football.

I wondered whether 2-2 was actually a fair result. Meps agreed, but Varga thought our second half performance was better, with more clear-cut chances and pressure than Rovers' first half, and the match statistics suggest he was correct.

Varga's boy Mbappe has really enjoyed his first away game and, asked me to teach him the words to the Alan Shearer song, but I couldn't do this as his Nana (who also happens to be my wife) would kill me!

His sister Jobe really enjoyed the atmosphere and the game: she's bit of a veteran traveller, already been to Wembley and Preston recently.

As we head further north in the fog, we drive through Kirby Stephen, and Grandpa Luke and I share memories of stopping here on the road home from games in years gone by.

It used to be a very popular venue for a break before the police put a stop to supporters' buses. The fish and chip shop has won the award for the 'best chipper in the world' by the time we've finished this discussion – happy memories!

What does Santa suffer from if he gets stuck in the chimney?

Clause-trophobia.

Not far from home, we all receive a communique from the president of the club. He's copied us into a text from the Rosgrove Social Club.

Just wanted to thank you all for being so respectful. We're all cheering you on here. Happy to have you back again.

It's nice end to the trip and it sits alongside some feedback from three stewards at the ground I was chatting to on my way out, who told me we were a really friendly if somewhat noisy crowd, and they had hardly had a spot of bother.

Consett looms out of the fog and we're back in the windy city to make our separate ways homeward.

As I exit the bus, I reflect on a very well organised away trip and credit a hardworking committee and especially our 'bus elf', who's kept us informed and tidy from the start of the day to the finish. He's done a top job and without these characters, our football bus trips wouldn't happen.

I was reminded again about the ability of football to bring people together; Mams and Dads, daughters, sons, grandchildren and their grandparents, as well as people who've been mates for the best part of a lifetime have all shared in and enjoyed this trip.

Something seemed just perfect about this as I dropped my grandchildren and their dad home- tired but happy.

Anybody for Stoke?