Rapport från medlemsresan
West Ham Fans Sverige har varit på medlemsresa första helgen i oktober i mötet mot Arsenal. Här kommer Gary Thorntons upplevelser från resan tillsammans med resekompisarna.
All from Sweden, All ages, All Hammers met at The Newham Hotel in the heart of The East End. Only a short walk away from our beloved Green Street and Boleyn Ground. As usual we had our problems with the hotel staff who never seem to understand how far we have come and why we are there but we soon put this behind us when West Ham legend Steve Potts walked in for a chat with us. He was joined by the club's under 14's trainer Mark Phillips and they both began by asking who we were and how and why we love West Ham so much.
Steve led us through his playing career and the 500 plus games he had in our claret and blue. He shared some fantastic stories, the highs and lows and goods and bads. he also described how it was to play under different managers and to play with other greats such as Di Canio. It only took two minutes to give us the details of his only West Ham goal but he took more time to give his his proud feelings as a dad watching his son Dan follow in his footsteps and playing for West Ham.
After leaving the Hammers Steve left for Dagenham and Redbridge and then became a London taxi driver. Mark Phillips was also a London taxi driver but is now employed full time by the club. Mark gave us some insights into how the Academy is run and how close they work with Sam Allardyce. Mark has trained some of the youngsters that Steve Potts now works with as trainer for West Ham under 16's. Together they are involved in a very important part of the clubs development programme and they took a lot of time to help us understand how this works.
During the evening we were joined by 4 Norwegian supporters and we all had questions and comments for Steve Potts and Mark Phillips that they were both very happy to talk to us about. They said they will put us in contact with another great West Ham ex player for next time. About 4 hours later and many more beers than that, they left us to prepare for the next day and the match against Arsenal.
Now Arsenal are not one of our main London rivals but nonetheless a team we want to beat and shut them up, so as Hammers fans we had to be ready for this one. A big fried English breakfast at the hotel helped us prepare as did a few beers before meeting at the Bobby Moore statue, which by the way is a reminder that West Ham won the world cup in 1966. Some of us went into the Boleyn Pub beforehand and met another famous West Ham legend Ray Stewart having a pint. (Arne got his phone number and he said he is interested in chatting to us when we come over again.) A short walk from the statue to the West Ham Supporters club for a few more beers and a warm up before the game and then into the stadium to soak up the atmosphere.
Both sets of fans were in good voice but we became much louder after going into a one nil lead. Even at one one at half time we were all still very positive ..........sadly Arsenal took control and the result did not go our way. Despite that we were still positive about how things have been going this season and went back to the hotel to discuss the rest of the season.
With some great memories of our time with Steve Potts, and of course at Upton park and The Boleyn Ground we were all looking forward to our next visit to see our beloved West Ham.
Tack Gary för din reserapport. Hoppas du blir lika sugen som oss som var med på resan att följa med på nästa resa.
West Ham Fans Sveriges nästa resa blir i sista omgången mot Reading helgen 18-19 maj. Vi planerar för ett spelarbesök, givetvis matchen mot Reading 19 maj och trevlig gemenskap. För den som är intresserad kanske vi kan se Playoff finalen till League 1 på Wembley 18 maj.
