Dial M for Merthyr

Well a pre Christmas trip to Holland was needed to ease those pre-Xmas blues caused by the meaning of life, and what’s the point the world is being messed up by thick people anyway led me to spend 4 days in Holland.  3 games were watched, starting with Ajax of Amsterdam as their song goes where I watched them lose their first league game of the season, and finishing at Rotterdam where I watched one of those boring nil nil draws. Sandwiched in between was the highlight of my trip, a visit to Venlo. Now why Venlo I hear you ask?   Well in 1951 there were a series of matches played by British teams in the Festival of Britain against European teams, and on Saturday 19 May Merthyr lost 4-1 to Venlo.   So a trip was in order. A pleasant train journey from Amsterdam to Venlo started off my day in style.   What a refreshing change to be able to buy a ticket which cost the same no matter when you bought it, and you could travel on any train.   What flexibility...

“Oh Andy, oh Andy, You’re the greatest, The wank bank says Oh Andy, oh Andy, We’ll be with you all the way”

A few of the Dial M lads headed off to Germany recently for the annual football weekender. Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those travelogues where we relay tales of drunken debauchery, to be honest we’re all a little too long in the tooth for that stuff, all too exhausting. Düsseldorf was our chosen destination for two reasons; firstly it was an easy flight option from Birmingham with Eurowings and most importantly it’s a central destination for a few Bundesliga teams in the Rhineland area. We were hoping for a few games over the weekend but the fixtures weren’t kind to us so we were left with just the one game but at least we didn’t have to travel far from our hotel to see Fortuna Düsseldorf v. Eintracht Frankfurt on a Saturday afternoon. We got our first indication of the fan-friendly nature of German football when Moppy bought our match tickets via the very helpful Fortuna ticket office. A terrace ticket was only €13.00 each which amazingly makes it cheaper than watching the m...

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” - Friedrich Nietzsche With Wayne and Richard providing the support vehicles the crew pulled off as planned at 10.00pm, but at literally the very last second Nathan Jones turned up to add to the numbers. After a mini tour of the backstreets of Abercwmboi the convoy eventually arrived at the picturesque football ground, behind a row of terraced houses with Mynydd Aberdar looming in the background to the east. The last man to arrive was a hungover Nathan Evans following his appearance at The Zuton’s concert on Friday evening, as the obligatory team line up is photographed. Unsure if it’s classed as uptown Mountain Ash or downtown Aberdare, as we approach the outskirts of the village the eagled eyed Mark Evans spots some nostalgia when we walk past a sign proclaiming ‘Park View Terrace’ that provides another photo opportunity. Proceeding along Cardiff Road we shortly pass the turnstiles of Aberaman Park, the home o...