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Flight to watch Latics...


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Stuck in Edinburgh airport at present, flight delayed, I'm now not due into Exeter until 11:00 pm, that means midnight into the hotel in Plymouth - rubbish!

 

Just wondering what is the longest flight anybody has taken to watch the blues in action? I'm certain that people have made flights from Canada to watch a Latics match - but have you flown further? And if you have, what's your story?

Edited by ronnieblair
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Guest M_OAFC

I've tailored quite a few England away trips in quite bizarre fashion so as to avoid missing Latics games.

 

Probably the daftest one was when instead of flying direct from Tel Aviv to Barcelona I went via Vienna and London so I could catch us in action at Brentford! The final whistle in Tel Aviv and the kick off at Griffin Park were only about 19 hours apart but a mad dash from Heathrow saw us reach the ground at about half 2 in time to squeeze in a pre-match pint!

 

As those in attendance at Swansea last season will testify, the Griffin Park incident was not the only time I have arrived at a game with a suitcase :grin:

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I've tailored quite a few England away trips in quite bizarre fashion so as to avoid missing Latics games.

 

Probably the daftest one was when instead of flying direct from Tel Aviv to Barcelona I went via Vienna and London so I could catch us in action at Brentford! The final whistle in Tel Aviv and the kick off at Griffin Park were only about 19 hours apart but a mad dash from Heathrow saw us reach the ground at about half 2 in time to squeeze in a pre-match pint!

 

As those in attendance at Swansea last season will testify, the Griffin Park incident was not the only time I have arrived at a game with a suitcase :grin:

 

... and what do you have written along the side of this said suitcase :gorgeous:

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Guest M_OAFC
... and what do you have written along the side of this said suitcase :gorgeous:

 

I don't think there is any writing on the one I took to Brentford :wink:

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... and what do you have written along the side of this said suitcase :gorgeous:

 

Was it a pink princess ???

 

 

I came back from Sydney for a game 5 years ago, changed my flight details so I could make the match - I'd missed the previous 3 seasons so I was desperate to see a game

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I've tailored quite a few England away trips in quite bizarre fashion so as to avoid missing Latics games.

 

Probably the daftest one was when instead of flying direct from Tel Aviv to Barcelona I went via Vienna and London so I could catch us in action at Brentford! The final whistle in Tel Aviv and the kick off at Griffin Park were only about 19 hours apart but a mad dash from Heathrow saw us reach the ground at about half 2 in time to squeeze in a pre-match pint!

 

As those in attendance at Swansea last season will testify, the Griffin Park incident was not the only time I have arrived at a game with a suitcase :grin:

 

Ha......respect!

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Last year, I scheduled several flights from the Far East to be back in time for a Latics match. Once I touched down at Manchester around 6 pm and drove straight to BP for a midweek match, after travelling for nearly 20 hours (and 15 hours in the air).

Edited by Fyldelatic
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Does it count if you were coming home anyway and just happened to time it so you came back in time for a weekend? As I came back from Cape Town, via Jo'burg and Dubai on a friday a total flight time of around 19 hours with a total of 30 hours either in a plane or at an airport. Or the year before I came back from Surfer's Paradise via Sydney, Bangcock and London Heathrow with a total flight time of around 30 hours plus god knows how long in airports but I can't remember if there happened to be an Oldham game on the next day.

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Does it count if you were coming home anyway and just happened to time it so you came back in time for a weekend?

 

If that counts, then mine should: I came from Seattle to Oldham for the weekend for my sister's wedding and went to watch the first half of Latics at home to Stoke... It was an early kick-off cos of the riots the season before.

(Think Fitz Hall scored that day and there was a minute's silence for someone.)

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Is there a separate award for longest journey to get home afterwards?

 

 

now that would be something to see .... you accidently getting on a plane rather than traveling half the country on a train after sleeping throught your stop

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Stuck in Edinburgh airport at present, flight delayed, I'm now not due into Exeter until 11:00 pm, that means midnight into the hotel in Plymouth - rubbish!

 

Just wondering what is the longest flight anybody has taken to watch the blues in action? I'm certain that people have made flights from Canada to watch a Latics match - but have you flown further? And if you have, what's your story?

 

 

Not really took any flights to watch the mighty blues. However I did have a rather strange way of getting to the England v France game at The Stadium of light in Benfica for Euro 2004.

 

Having managed to get my hands on a pair of tickets for the game I then set about trying to sort out flights and accommodation for the 2 nights in Lisbon. As usual both flights and hotel rooms were in short supply. There were no direct flights to Lisbon and despite days of searching the net no rooms either. I did have the chance of flights direct to Faro, but that was 200 + miles to Lisbon so I ruled that out. In the end, getting desparate I booked a flight from Manchester to Madrid for a connecting flight to Lisbon on the Saturday morning with a return jouney via the same route on the Monday. I gambled that if I couldnt get a hotel room then I could get on a camp site. How wrong I was.

 

Two weeks before hand I was struggling badly, tickets were in hand, flights booked but no room or camp site. Then purely by chance I was talking to Frank Bunns Chin and he had a couple of mates who were staying in a villa just outside Faro and who had 2 spare beds. A couple of phone calls later and I met up with .............Alan Groves Perm .........and things were sorted. Howver, although beds were now sorted, I had flights to Lisbon having ruled out direct flights to Faro earlier.

 

 

What was to follow was an experience to say the least :grin:

 

Saturday morning

8.00 am Manchester airport for Flight to Madrid.

12.30 pm local time Madrid Airport for connecting flight to Lisbon.

2.00 pm arrive Lisbon collect hire car for Faro.

3.30 pm collect fine on Toll road for not collecting ticket at appropriate Barrier.

4.30 pm hire car engine blows up on Motorway in the middle of nowhere

5.00 pm tow truck arrives, tows broken down hire car to Faro airport to collect replacement vehicle.

7.30 pm depart Faro airport to villa.

8.00pm arrive at Villa, park car and walk down to Bar/Restaurant to meet 9 other fellows including Alan Groves Perm, Andy Ritchies Hair Gel and Neil Adams Headband. In total 8 tics, 1 Bolton Fan, 1 Trafford Borough fanatic and a half tic half scummer. The lads said they had had a 4 pm start as they were having an early night as we had to be up at 5 am on the Sunday to catch the train upto Lisbon.

1.00 am Sunday morning leave the bar for our "early night" :lol: Not a bad night either meals and all the drink for 140 odd euros unbelieveable.

5.00 am get up

6.30 am arrive Faro train station and realise that I had left my passport at the Villa and I needed to take the passport to the train station ticket office to collect the train tickets that I had booked direct on the net.

6.59 am Pathetic ticket office barsteward :wink: finally gives in and lets me use my credit card as proof of identity to collect train tickets.

7.00 am Get on train and depart to Lisbon.

Midday arrive in Lisbon for an afternoon of trying to set a world record with 50,000 other England fans of trying to empty every bar, off licence and supermarket in and around Rossio square of Alcohol and judging by the supermarket we went back into around 5.30 pm we probably succeeded.

6.00 pm arrive Benfica Stadium - Stadium of Light, fretting as to if we would get in. Were our tickets forgeries? Would we get throgh the alleged 3 security checks as the names printed on the tickets were not ours.

7.00 pm Get in ground YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

8.00 pm Kick off.

9.45 pm England 1-0 up and with the game approaching injury time we were looking forward to a couple of hours celebrating in Lisbon before heading back to Faro.

9.50pm Game over. England Lose 2-1. Bloody David James and Bloody Henry. Bloody Silvestre (he should have walked) and Bloody Beckham.

Midnight. catch train back from Lisbon to Faro. Absolute Nightmare. I cant remember if we caught our designated train or the next one as the station was packed with England fans returning to the Algarve. Oh and we had consumed 1 or 2 beveridges.

5.30 am arrive back in Faro. Massive line of people waiting for taxi. So decide to drive back in the hire car I left on a back street near the station, with Alan Groves Perm giving directions - Yes we got lost of course.

6.00 am arrive back at Villa

10.00 am get up, have breakfast with the lads and pack case.

11.45 am. set off back to Lisbon.

3.15 pm arrive at Lisbon airport and drop off hire car. Trying to explain to the dib dob on the desk that the original hire car had blown up and was at Faro airport was a nightmare but eventually we were free to go.

6.30 pm arrive at Madrid airport for connecting flight to Manchester

9.45 pm Arrive at Manchester airport.

10.30 arrive home.

 

Heck of a journey, but what a fantastic weekend with several fellow ticks.

 

Needless to say when going to Germany in 2006 we drove. Its far easier than flying. :grin:

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Saturday morning

 

10.30 arrive home.

 

Heck of a journey, but what a fantastic weekend with several fellow ticks.

 

Needless to say when going to Germany in 2006 we drove. Its far easier than flying. :grin:

Pah. Try going on Branson's trains once in a while, then tell me you had a hard time of it :wink:

 

Brought up a few funny memories reading that. I've never been to an England football match - just not something I have ever been that fussed about, I get wildly enthusiastic about the tournaments but not too much else. I had a nice redundancy package on the way just before that one though, and combined with a burning optimism that we could actually do something for once there were a few times I really nearly just got on a plane to play it by ear. I might as well have done, as I spunked the money the same way in England as I would have done more efficiently in Portugal anyway :(

 

It reminds me of:

 

1) The last time an England team looked genuinely varied and threatening

 

2) The last fag I smoked (I came out of a 6 month retirement to have one after the penalties)

 

3) The time I started to really hate Chelsea fans. After having a nightmare in Croydon with Palace tossers in 2002 (thankfully I wised up before they did the town in) I stayed clear. Unfortunately Tulse Hill, where I took refuge had suddenly become full of born-again Chelsea fans from the 1970/80s. Those of you of a certain vintage will know what I mean.

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Never been out of the country when the tics are playing but i had a 12hr drive to london once to watch a match... set off the day before the match as i have family down there got on the M1 and gridlock... a bleedin oil tanker had decided to over turn on the central reservation spilling its load... 12 hrs on a mortorway then followed mental.... so even though london is only a 3-4hr drive it took me 12hrs i know its not far mileage wise but it took me ages so it counts :grin:

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Sorry guys, but I think I win this one!

I flew from MELBOURNE, where I live, to Manchester, via Jakarta, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Vienna just to see the lads play at Wembley in the League Cup final 1990, and, believe it or not I met someone else on the plane doing the exact same trip for the exact same reason!

I will never forget that journey, it was extremely gruelling. Made more horrific by having a 3 year old in tow.

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Guest M_OAFC
Sorry guys, but I think I win this one!

I flew from MELBOURNE, where I live, to Manchester, via Jakarta, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Vienna just to see the lads play at Wembley in the League Cup final 1990, and, believe it or not I met someone else on the plane doing the exact same trip for the exact same reason!

I will never forget that journey, it was extremely gruelling. Made more horrific by having a 3 year old in tow.

 

No, I win.

 

I came back from the international space station via Mars, Venus and the moon to join the other 14 travelling fans for the last 5 minutes of an LDV tie at Notts County on a cold Tuesday night in December.

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No, I win.

 

I came back from the international space station via Mars, Venus and the moon to join the other 14 travelling fans for the last 5 minutes of an LDV tie at Notts County on a cold Tuesday night in December.

 

Not quite... I came back from another galaxy to see Latics play out a meaningless end of the season match a few light years ago.

 

At least your LDV tie could have meant a trip to Wembley (or Cardiff)

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Not quite... I came back from another galaxy to see Latics play out a meaningless end of the season match a few light years ago.

 

At least your LDV tie could have meant a trip to Wembley (or Cardiff)

 

Pah - a first team match?

 

The tales I could tell about travelling to a reserve Youth Team friendly in Aberystwyth while giving Gordon Lawton a piggy back ride from Alpha Centauri in a parallel Universe.....

 

........and you tell the kids today and they just don't believe you.

 

:)

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Pah - a first team match?

 

The tales I could tell about travelling to a reserve Youth Team friendly in Aberystwyth while giving Gordon Lawton a piggy back ride from Alpha Centauri in a parallel Universe.....

 

........and you tell the kids today and they just don't believe you.

 

:)

 

On first reading that tale would be impressive IC. But then I realised that most of the journey would have taken place at zero gravity so the official-photographer-turned-LaticsWorld-commentator would not have been that much of a burden... :D

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I was due to visit England anyway but I once brought a flight forward a couple of days so I could watch the Latics U19s play the Thai U19s at Witton Albion.

 

The match was broadcast live on Thai TV and I still have the video that someone made for me. I can see myself, my wife and my mate almost every time the ball is played out to the wing. So, it was worth it!!

 

Oh, and I also got to meet Andy Ritchie, who had just been sacked by Oldham, but had turned up to watch anyway. A great bloke!

Edited by ThaiLatic
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