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  • Michael Coxon 11:32 am on August 21, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Beer, , Leicester City, , , , , Thailand   

    Football Experiences in Thailand 

    As mentioned on last week’s show I’ve just had a rather pleasant two weeks in Thailand. Like most of South east Asia it has a huge football fanbase (the sport vies for most popular along with Muay Thai boxing, a martial art that would make Simon Head quiver behind his UFC bed spread) and as such the sport is pretty prevalent in the country in the form of TV coverage, replica shirts and merchandise. But the Thai people indulge their passion for the beautiful in different ways to your average bloke in Northwich, Medway or Lancing…

    We’ll start with the sweets…those lovely sweets that I brought back with me only to have them shunned by the rest of the Pubcasters. There were the referee whistlepops, horribly sweet and making a very poor whistling noise, and there were the marshmallow Man Utd players…where to start on those? Apart from the fact that they tasted like a packet of Canderel crammed into a sponge and looked rather bizarre they were quite nice. Oh, and they were made in Sidcup, so quite why the people of Ko Tao (an island of around 1,000 people) had them shipped over I’m not sure.

    When you’re out and about in Thailand you’ll probably see a plethora of replica (and not always authentic) shirts. The four biggest teams in terms of fanbase are seemingly Man Utd, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Barcelona, with Chelsea also growing in popularity, but they’re by no means the be all and end all. I saw a few Arsenal shirts, a couple of Everton shirts, Inter and AC Milan and even an Ivory Coast shirt. There were no signs of Man City shirts, possibly due to the uneasy relationship (to say the least) between the much loved Thai Royal Family and former Premier (and Man City owner) Thaksin Shinawatra but more likely due to City being a tiny, tiny club…

    However the most bizarre shirt I saw in Thailand however was the first thing that greeted me at Bangkok Airport…The duty free shopping at Bangkok is run by a company called “King Power”…as in the “King Power Stadium”…as in the owners of Leicester City. As such, each terminal has a few sports shops (and you’d be surprised how many there are, the shops repeat themselves with the frequency of a background from an episode of “The Flintstones”) and each one of these have what I would describe as a “Leicester City” annex. You can buy home and away shirts, leisurewear, caps, footballs, DVDs (they were showing Leicester 1-1 Birmingham on loop…) and other collected tat and, bafflingly, it didn’t seem to be selling very well. Still, somewhere in Koh Phi Phi there’s probably a little kid who idolizes Neil Danns.

    Beer is one of the best things about a short holiday in Thailand (apart from, y’know, the culture and natural beauty and that…) and inevitably its almost synonymous with football. There’s three (authentically Thai) beers on the market and one of them, Leo, doesn’t seem to be so popular (which is strange as its rather palatable). In the white and brown corner you have Singha…the official beer partner (in Thailand at least) of Manchester United and Chelsea.

    At the moment Chelsea players are plastered all over their cans (it makes drinking beer difficult when you have to wrap your lips around John Terry’s face) while Man Utd seem to be all over the promotional hoardings outside bars (it makes drinking beer difficult when you have Wayne Rooney gurning down at you). There was also a lovely promotional video on my flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui with Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Ji-Sung Park and Ryan Giggs extolling the virtues of Singha. Given that three of the four have now departed and Ryan Giggs didn’t play last night I guess we can’t blame that for the woeful performance.

    In the green and gold corner you have Chang; 6.4%, can lead to hallucinations…lovely stuff. You probably know Chang as the sponsors of Everton, but surprisingly Phil Neville and Leon Osman are shunned when it comes to promotional material in favour of the Spanish heavyweights…Barcelona and Real Madrid. Funny that.

    Leaving Thailand has left me torn on the globalization of football. On one hand I was delighted to be able to speak the universal language of “Manchester…Wayne Rooney!” and sample the delights of marshmallow footballers. On the other I struggled to imagine the people in this tropical paradise having any sort of connection with the people of Salford or Anfield or Fulham. Still…Leicester City, big in Thailand…maybe they’d stand a fair chance at success if they moved there.

     

  • footballpubcast 10:30 am on March 22, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Leicester City   

    1 Leg On The Cup: Chelsea v Leicester City, Part 2 

    Still Leicester won’t lie down! Nugent & Beckford playing their socks off in an attempt to get back on track, crowd favourite David Luiz comes on for the last 15 replacing the very impressive Ivanovic. Beckford finally gets his reward when he pounces onto the ball coming back off the post to steer it home 3-1. This goal brought a mighty cheer from the bloke sat behind me??? the guy then quickly realised what he had done & produced a betting slip with ‘Chelsea 3-1 Win’ printed on it to save his blushes & probably a few teeth lol lol. but i was soon to be showered with confetti made from his piece of William Hill paper when that man Torres was at it again with 5 minutes to go. 4-1.

    “he scores when he wants…. he scores when he waaa-aaa-nts… FERNANDO TORRES… he scores when he wants!” i’ve got to say it, the Chelsea fans are great! They had me laughing at Birmingham with their ‘is there a fire drill’ song & before that at Loftus Rd. with various come-back songs when John Terry was getting a vocal bashing, how can that many people sing off the same hymn sheet without any warning?? Is it all planned on BlackBerry’s before each game just in case? Either way, just Brilliant!
    Just a few minutes left in this fantastic game and we seen the goal of the day! i’m so pleased for the travelling fans as the score line was going to make it look like an easy win for Chelsea, when Ben Marshall hit an absolute screamer from outside the box into the top right hand corner that i doubt any keeper would have saved. In the words of someone else probably more annoying & defiantly more famous than me…. “take a bow son”

    But as much as we admired Leicester’s spirit & commitment on the field as well as their travelling army in the shed, the day has to belong to Fernando Torres. Yes, you could say “it was only against a championship side” but Leicester turned up to play, and they played well! Torres was immense all afternoon & in time added on instead of smashing the ball home for a hat-trick he must be craving for to silence the critics, he had the noodle to square it for team mate Meireles to knock in the final goal of the game. FT 5-2.
    The guy sat next to me tells me i’m Torres’ good luck charm & insists we come back for the Benfica game & sit in the same seats to watch the now-in-form Spaniard bag a hat trick! lol lol. in what way can a 1 legged bloke be a good luck charm???? lol lol

    We make our way out of the ground & head for the Hand & Flower, we had been given directions for the place before the game that i had of course totally forgotten by now, but the big fella was there to guide the way. Surrounded by happy Chelsea fans we come across a large group of Leicester fans still singing & chanting as they had been all day! fair play to them as they shook hands with the Chelsea fans wishing them good luck for the semis, a true credit to their club, what a shame it can’t always be like that.
    We arrive at the pub and the Liverpool game is only a few minutes old – NICE! Chidge & Steve have arrived before us and insist on getting the beer in… again! i’m going to need an extension on my overdraught when we meet at Wembley the amount of beer i’m going to have to buy back!

    Over the next couple of hours i consume far too much & give up on trying to work my snazzy new camera. The Liverpool game is 1-1 and everyone is in high spirits with the result from Wednesday plus today prompting the sound of “ello – ello – Chelsea are back” to come from the beer garden.
    Returning from one of my many trips to the gents, i look up at the screen to see Stewart Downing score what turned out to be the winner against Stoke, “everyone’s at it today” the big fella tells me “even Johnny Evans has scored at Wolves for United!” i look back to the TV and there’s a close up of Andy Carroll, knowing what i’m thinking the Rhino laughs down my ear…. “behave Tony, that would be asking too much!”

    With the game now over there’s a hush in the pub as everyone’s eyes are on the famous Wembley ball-bag! In they go & a few seconds later the Hand & Flower erupts when Spurs are potentially drawn against the blues!
    A nice tasty derby is possibly our next game with the Chel’s but i would be just as happy to see Bolton get through even though my ground-hopping young blogger pal @JoeBillGibbo has demanded beer off me if this happens! No problem fella….. oh, wait a minute… are you old enough????
    Our train back to Manc-Land is at 9.40 & the Rhino is pretty anxious to get a little closer to Euston knowing we have to get 3 tube trains to get us there & i’m a bit ‘wobberly’ i take a quick shot of the big fella with a guy called Kev & i’ve seen that look on the Rhino’s face before….. do as i’m told or i’ll be in trouble!

    Not sure how but we’re back at Euston! Knowing my beer monster chum has looked after me for most of the day i decide to treat him & sneak off to the M&S express to get him a few cans for the journey home. i get to the counter with a couple of 4 packs & a bit of food, the cashier lady then tells me that security have been over & told her NOT to sell me any beer! Thinking this is the case for everyone i ask the security guard on the way out what the problem was. “it’s not everyone mate, just you! I think you’ve had enough” outraged by this i asked “why can’t you serve me? do i need I.D.? i’m 47!” “i think that’s how many you’ve had… on yer way”
    I returned to the station bar with the big fella none the wiser about my run in with security & i left it till Monday before i told him over the phone because i knew he would rib me big style over it lol lol!
    I woke up as we pulled into Piccadilly around 1am and my one & only offspring Kev2Legs was on his way to pick us up, bless him. A great day had come to an end with me nursing a mild head ache & the big fella itching to get home where he had a full fridge waiting! A big thanks to all the Chelsea fans we met on the day for making a couple of Manc’s feel so welcome & a big shout to the Leicester fans who added to the day embracing the true spirit of the FA Cup.

    So what next for a couple of cup-hungry idiots… Wembley for the semis? Back to the Bridge for the visit of Benfica? No, we’re off to Chorlton-cum-Hardy on Saturday 24th for the North West Counties Football League Division 1 QF Replay between Maine Road FC & Bootle FC of course! It finished 2-2 aet when the sides met in Bootle 2 weeks ago so there has to be a winner on the day even if it’s 0-0 at full time!
    I’ve convinced the Rhino to use public transport for the game as it’s just 1 bus from outside our local, (The Sweaty Spaniard) to the ground & it’s only £3.70 for an all day bus ticket! Cheap as chips or more money for beer is another way to look at it.

     

  • footballpubcast 2:09 pm on March 21, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Leicester City   

    1 Leg On The Cup: Chelsea v Leicester City, Part 1 

    Our train leaves at 8.20, which is a bit more civilised than previous ‘cheap’ train trips to that London, and how different travelling is when you can look out of the window and actually see things rather than the blackness you get at 6.30am.
    I have a new bag for the trip! A manbag if you will, i told my girlfriend that i needed a bag to carry all the stuff i take with me on match days so she got me a Paul Frank bag, quite trendy she tells me so i asked the big fella what he thought of it, “what d’ya think?” after giving it the once over he tossed it back at me saying “you know what Tony, for an older guy you’re a bit of a dick sometimes”
    Answered my question i suppose? So i asked this Oriental-looking bloke to take a picture of us with my new gift, the guy then went on to give me a 20 minute lesson on how to use my own camera properly! I’m still clueless but i thanked him for trying.

    So after a few games of ‘eye-spy’ and a conversation about what seats are better on a train, window or aisle? At 11am-ish we were back outside our favourite coffee shop. After a caffeine intake we went into the bowels of that London to criss-cross our way to Fulham Broadway, we’re old hands at this now – change at Victoria, then Earls Court for the horrible bit where you’re packed like the proverbial sardines for the last 2 stops!
    Out into the daylight & there’s already plenty of people around, we’re making our way to a pub called the Malt House to meet the Chelsea Podcast guys who we should of met at Birmingham, it was only 5 minutes away and we found it quite easily so at 12 o’clock we were having our first pint of the day at £3.90 a pint!

    Free Wi-Fi, was the sign on the door as we entered, so to save the life on the phones i ask the barmaid for the code so we can watch a bit of Sky sports on the ipod, she wasn’t sure what it was so went to ask someone, the Malt House seems to have a lot of different nationalities working there and a couple of minutes later a young barman comes over to us who spoke with very broken English & i was whiteness to one of the best conversations EVER! Barman – “you want wifi code?” Rhino – “yeah, please mate” Barman – “buy a drink” Rhino – “just bought 2 pints & we’ve already had 2 before that” Barman – “yeah i know, but you want wifi? buy a drink” as the big fella was turning even more purple with this ‘Fawlty Towers – train wreck’ of a conversation i finally stopped laughing to tell him the password was ‘buyadrink’ the landlord of this place obviously has a sense of humour lol lol

    to bring some normality back to the chaos, Chidge turned up! This is the guy who fronts the Chelsea Fancast, it’s got to be the longest weekly podcast out there lasting well over 2 hours each week. I download & listen to lots of different podcasts every week & as the big fella has said to me on more than one occasion “you’re a sad bastard, get a life!” but it’s just the same as listening to talk sport only without meerkats or Gavin from AutoGlass popping up every 5 minutes! The Chelsea fancast also has a great website too, but it goes without saying it’s totally biased towards the blues but well worth a look even if you’re not a blue

    After a few pints & a good bit of football story swapping we make our way down Fulham Rd. to the game, as we didn’t have anyone to take the photo of us with the Peter Osgood statue last time we were here we took full advantage of our new footy-friends this time. After a bit of confusion, mainly because i had had 1 too many & a steward sent us to the wrong gate, we took our seats just as Mr. Probert was blowing his whistle to get Step 14 underway!

    We had great seats for the game thanks to the very helpful staff on the phones at Chelsea, we was sat right on the edge of a packed out Matthew harding upper tier while away to our right the 6000 Leicester fans were in fine voice filling the famous Chelsea shed end.
    A quite lively opening 10 minutes from both sides and our player of the round nomination, Jermaine Beckford sent a shot just wide from outside the area. (for any late comers to the blog, if you Google-search ‘Budweiser player of the round’ you will find my claim to fame on the FA’s website ) on 12 minutes Gary Cahill was on the end of Mata’s corner to give the home side the lead 1-0. Cahill lifts his shirt during his celebration to reveal a message for his ex team mate Fabrice Muamba, the message read what EVERYONE was feeling at Stamford Bridge today.

    City tried to respond when Souleymane Bamba had a shot blocked by Jose Bosingwa and the goal didn’t seem to be affecting the Leicester game plan. But just 5 minutes after the first goal Chelsea doubled their lead when some bloke called Fernando Torres played the perfect pass for Kalou to slot into the bottom left hand corner past the young Schmeichel. 2-0
    City still wouldn’t roll over & their fantastic following support never stopped cheering them on. Paul Gallagher’s shot went just wide & Beckford tested Cech again. The game unfolding in front of the 38,000 crowd was turning out to be a cracker! A real cup-tie of a game with Leicester now going for it like you should when you’re behind in a one-off knockout game but this Torres bloke was beginning to shine & he even did his bit defending when he blocked a shot from Gallagher. The first half came to an end & it had flown by, everyone was on their feet as the whistle blew applauding & cheering both teams as they left the field. HT 2-0.

    The big fella shot off for a quick pint or 2 at the break while i stayed put to sober up rest. I got talking to a few of the home faithful sat with us & the guy next to me was telling me that i was sat in the seat he has a season ticket for, £890 it costs for the 19 league games so i told him i would look after it & if i had to fart i would stand up first!
    The Rhino re-appeared with that ‘i’ve had at least a couple of beers’ look on his dial & he also had a hot dog! I was somewhat confused by his choice of half time snack, “why have you got that instead of a pie?, could you get any more sauce & mustard on it? and where’s mine???” after swallowing his current mouthful he answered “i’ve already done the Chelsea pie review, condiments are free so i took full advantage & the people in front of you look like they don’t want you pukeing all over them!!!” but fear not avid pie readers! you will find this week’s pie review as ever on our pie-omiter page.

    The second half starts with me desperately trying to remember what the guy on the train had told me about zooming in with my new camera, i spot my old mate Bob di Matteo on the far side of the pitch and give it a go… pretty cool eh? Wish i had this baby when the ex wife was at it years ago! Would of saved me a fortune in the divorce court! Anyway, on with the game. Malouda is on for Mata & has a pop at goal 5 minutes in but it was easily saved by Schmeichel.
    More of the same we saw in the first half was coming from both sides with the home side just edging it for my money. Just past the hour and both sides make changes, Jeffery Schlupp comes on for Leicester replacing Sean St. Ledger & the home side send on Michael Essien for Kalou. But 5 minutes or so later, it happened! One of those ‘where were you’ moments people ask you about when JFK was shot or the 9/11 tragedy.

    So on the 18th of March 2012 at 3.11-54pm where were you when Torres scored? Because we were there! Yes, me & the big fella were at Stamford Bridge to whiteness this little piece of history being made! (yeah, yeah i know i’m a piss taking _ _ _ _ ) i didn’t get my camera out for the actual goal (obviously didn’t think he was going to score) but i did get a bit of the celebrations afterwards, my camera hand is a bit shaky i’m afraid but it’s good enough. Apparently, on scoring this goal Torres lifted his shirt to reveal the message on his vest that read “Save the Chilean Miners” but i didn’t see it myself!

     

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