Strike Factory

On Saturday I traveled up to Wigan to watch the Albion play (my first Albion away match since seeing them beat Portsmouth at Fratton Park in 2011 though later that season I also traveled to Upton Park to watch Albion play FA Youth Cup match), but seeing as I arrived in Wigan at 9.25am (originally there was a plan to play some tennis with a Wigan supporting friend, but work came up for him, so Plan B) I decided to get a train down to Manchester for the morning, seeing the sights of this fine city and to visit the National Football Museum. 

The museum is certainly worth a visit if you are a casual or diehard football fan, although based in Manchester and thinking it would be full of Man U and Man City stuff though you can't beat an Eric Cantona art mural, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Albion stuff in the museum, from the FA Cup final shirt, to stuff about BHAFC during World War I. Indeed the Footballers in World War I exhibition on the top floor was certainly a highlight esp discussing about football amongest soldiers in the trenches, and that apparently the infamous Christmas Day 1914 football match truce is a bit of a myth, though there was occasions that English and German soldiers played football against each other whilst there was fighting elsewhere on the Franco-German borders. 

After getting some lunch I boarded a train from Manchester Victoria (a 19th century station in the final stages of getting refurbished with a fine map of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Railways in 1900), I traveled to Wigan Wallgate, and from there walked in the sunshine to the DW Stadium about a mile away. Have to say the football was pretty forgettable, and felt a waste of a journey esp as not exactly the richest person about Albion boys let me down and hope they bounce back next week or results go our way (at the time of writing Brighton are not virtually or mathematically safe). After the football, and a bit of booze at the pubs, with the gang, and a little selfie. We got the train back down to Euston, though I had to get a slightly later one than Scott McCarthy, Mark Potter and co, and had to change at Crewe to avoid being on train that would virtually stop at every West Midland station before arriving at Euston though about an hour later than the rest but had a bit of a knees up at Bree Louise pub, before jumping on the Drunklink service from St Pancras International back to Three Bridges and ensuring Mark Raven got home safe and sound. 

Would like to thank Garys Gang for helping me set up Soap Babes facebook page, which I recommend liking if you like ladies of soap opera the link is at left hand side of the screen, and finally also thank you to Carley Stenson, a lady I have mentioned about in the past having seen a few of her shows on TV and in theatre, for the retweet about me welcoming her to the blogging community with her new blog about her love for animals and acknowledging Strike Factortys upcoming 10th anniversary next month. Always knew some of the ex Hollyoaks cast gang were secret readers/ fans of this blog.