Damien's Leeds excursion - beware AFCB fan on the road!

Damien Hill gives us the full experience of travelling up to Leeds in an away day special for him as an AFCB supporter. Five and a half hours on the coach there and the same again on the way back! And he's written this report for Cherry Chimes. Damien is also the guest tonight on All Departments' Kangeroo Court. He should be shattered.


Some one told me Leeds was a long way away - well north of Kinson!

Kings Park fills up with AFCB supporters.

As soon as I heard the tickets were on sale for the away trip to Leeds I rushed down to Dean Court to get mine. I don't often go to away games due to work and family commitments, but this one was on my list of grounds to visit and I was going. I paid for my ticket and booked a seat on the supporters bus.

At 12:30 we were due to leave, so I made my way to the ground at 12pm as I only live across the road at Kings Park. A quick visit to the club shop and then queue for the bus. The bus arrived and the names were checked off, like passengers boarding a palmair flight at Bournemouth and I took to my seat with the daunting prospect of a 5 1/2 coach journey. As I had only booked 1 seat I was waiting nervously to see who was going to share this journey with me, hello mate my names Damien I said, Damian he said "yes" I replied "no" he said my names Damian, well that broke the ice and we both got chatting about the one thing we had in common apart from our names, the love for AFCB.

Is that the bus driver trying to get off already?

1 hour went past, then two, then three hours, ouch my back is killing me but soon we would be making a pit stop at Warwick . Great, 45 mins to stretch the legs and get some fodder. Back on the bus and back on the road, only 2 1/2 hours to go!

Quick stop, then back on the coach.

We made it and news had filtered through about the new signing Jack Collison and all the talk then turned to team formation and selection, who would miss out and who would play. We got to the ground just after 6:20pm and headed for the nearest pub, sorry home fans only we were told (should have paid more attention to Rival Lines) so a quick walk around the ground and then made our way in. Nothing fancy in the away end just a bar and toilets, so after a quick pint or too we took to our seats, well we stood up all game. "We are Bournemouth, we stand were we want" was the chant to the police and stewards. 

Billy Bremner - now he could tackle or was it foul?

Elland Road - impressive.

Gosh! It really is north of Kinson.

I don't know where to sit.

Plenty of space then.

Corner seating.

The big screen.

Here we go!

The teams line up.

Come on you Reds!

The ground wasn't full but the Bournemouth faithful were in full voice and out singing the Leeds fans with some good banter going on. The game kicked off and we looked settled and not stage struck and were playing some neat if not penatrating football. Off, off! is the cry from the home fans, one on one with Allsop and Allsop takes out the forward, penalty red card! Oh no 10-men again, Frazer goes off ( surprise to us in the ground) and Flavhavan comes on as sub. He saves it and the rebound is cleared, we go mad and the atmosphere is electric and the banter continues to the home team. 

15mins to hold out until half time. We made it half time and 0-0. Second half kicks off and we are battling hard but a few mistakes and tired legs we give the ball away a bit to easy and oh no they scored! We get back into full voice and try and cheer the ball into their net, then the cry comes "Noddy, noddy give us a song". "Red Army!" comes the reply and for about 5 minutes Noddy gave his all at "red army" and we all followed, he'll stop in a minute we thought but no he carried on and on but wait Grabban is through we scored! The travelling faithful goes wild and there is a god! 

A quick check of the impressive score board (we want one of these please AFCB) and we have 17 minutes to hang on. Batten down the hatches, keep the ball do what ever it takes we deserve a point here. But no we can't clear our lines and it's 2-1, with 10 minutes to go but still we cheer and chant " Barmy Army" we push forward searching for the equaliser but to no avail the final whistle goes. We played well in this game but going down to 10-men is always going to hurt you and we battled hard but little mistakes cost at this level and we must learn from this, yes disappointed with the result but positive about our future. In EH we trust.

It's not to be but the boys put everything into it tonight.

Not the score we wanted to see after 90 minutes.

We are not downhearted.

AFCB 'til we die!

Eddie applauds AFCB the supporters.

Damien's player AFCB Ratings: 
Allsop 5 (Flavhavan 7), Francis 5, Cook 8, Ward 8 Harte 7, Pugh 6, O' Kane 6, Collison 7, Rantie 5, Grabban 6, Surman 7, Pitman 6 - Oh and I almost forgot the 5 1/2 hour coach journey home, what will we talk about! 

Cherry Chimes comment -  Hang on Harte got a 7 - I mean a SEVEN! Well done Ian.

AFCB fans: sang their hearts out - all heroes 10 out of 10.

Thanks for the great report Damien. If any Cherry fans would like to write a report for Cherry Chimes at any of the away games this season, give me an email bellp2103@gmail.com 

I won't be able to make all the away games, so if you can add to Cherry Chimes by writing your away day experience we can share it with many more AFCB fans. Every one benefits, because we all live and breathe AFCB - UTCIAD!