Woke up with a bit of a heavy head this morning — becoming something of a recurring theme lately!
Got sorted and we headed off around 9.30am to pick up Zoe and Niamh, with Jack coming along too as we dropped him at an Underground station on the way so he could travel across London to meet Jodie. They were off to support one of her brothers who was running a half marathon.
The journey over towards Wembley was unbelievably quick and easy and we parked up on a driveway we’d booked which turned out to be only a couple of minutes’ walk from The Green Man pub — apparently one of the traditional meeting spots before and after matches at Wembley.
We were later than the others who’d travelled up by train but it didn’t matter. We settled in with a couple of pints — Tash very kindly taking on designated driver duties for the day. We were there supporting AFC Stoneham because Kate Millar’s boyfriend, Ollie James (OJ), was playing.
The pub itself was buzzing with excitement and anticipation and it actually felt really good being part of the whole occasion and supporting them properly. Around 11.45am we all wandered down towards Wembley Stadium for the 12.30pm kick-off, grabbed another beer once inside and settled into our seats.
The standard of football was decent and overall it was a really enjoyable experience. We’d quietly upgraded ourselves a little higher than our actual allocated seats to get a better view and spent plenty of time critiquing the match like we knew exactly what we were talking about.
OJ had apparently been a major doubt before the game because of injury and, truthfully, he probably shouldn’t have played at all, but of course he gave it a go anyway. He did well while he was on, although sadly he didn’t come back out after half-time.
The game itself was quite cagey and not exactly end-to-end entertainment, but Stoneham were definitely the better side overall and probably deserved to win it outright. Instead it went to penalties where they held their nerve brilliantly and won 4–2. Massive celebrations afterwards and great to see how much it meant to everyone involved.
After the presentations we headed back to The Green Man intending to carry on celebrating, only to discover something very odd — because of licensing restrictions, neither that pub nor any of the surrounding pubs were allowed to serve alcohol between 3.30pm and 4.30pm. Very strange and very frustrating timing.
We wandered off into town instead, only to discover exactly the same situation everywhere else, so in the end we grabbed a KFC and killed some time before perfectly timing our return to the pub for reopening.
By then more of the girls had arrived and eventually the players turned up too which was good fun to watch as everyone celebrated properly together.
Eventually we made our way home, wished everyone a great evening and Tash drove us back whilst I fell asleep almost immediately in the passenger seat.
Dropped Zoe and Niamh off and then got home where we pottered about doing a few jobs before settling down to watch a bit of TV.
That wasn't the end of it either, on WhatsApp Zoe shared a photo of Canice & Lauren on holiday with her showing off her ring - they'd got engaged! That was lovely news to end the day - completely unexpected.
By about 10.00pm we finally gave in and headed to bed.
What a long weekend it’s been — but a really good one.
End of Day Summary:
A really enjoyable day out at Wembley supporting AFC Stoneham and OJ. The football, atmosphere and penalty shootout win made it feel like a proper occasion and it was nice being part of the celebrations afterwards too. Another busy social weekend, plenty of laughs and yet another reminder that Tash is probably carrying the sensible side of things at the minute!
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