Palm Sunday at Wembley - Let's wave Haddocks!

Thom was up early for his Sunday paper round today.  I got up early too and went to Early morning Eucharist at St. John's where I picked up palm crosses for us.  The service was taken by Andrew who spoke about why Jesus came into Jerusalem on a colt and not a horse.  A quick breakfast of a bacon roll and Thom and I set off for London to go to the FA Trophy Final at Wembley.  We drove to Uxbridge where I parked the car in a smart residential area and we walked to the tube station.  I didn't take my stick and gently hobbled along - a bit faster than recently although my knee did hurt after such a long car journey (75 miles). We caught the Metropolitan line train to Wembley Park (the second time I had used the London Underground in three days).  It had been snowing as we arrived at Uxbridge and there were still flecks of snow in the air as we made our way to Wembley.  Arriving at Wembley we were greeted by hundreds of Grisby town fans many of whom were brandishing inflatable "Harry Haddocks".  There also seemed to be an equal number of Wrexham fans too.  It was bitterly cold and Thom and I went into MacDonald's for something hot to eat and a hot coffee to drink.  We sat with some Wrexham fans (a man and his two grown-up sons) who said that they had waited 40 years for today and had broken their skiing holiday in Switzerland to be at Wembley.  We got into the stadium in good time (where my bottle of water was confiscated - presumably in the hope that I would be tempted to spend an extortionate amount of money on their disgustingly priced beverages - I didn't!) and we found our seats behind the goal.  The football was pretty poor (certainly compared to watching Southampton) and the score was 0-0 at half time.  In the second half, Grimsby played better and managed to score first.  Unfortunately they gave away a penalty just 8 minutes before full time and so the game went to extra time (no further score) and a penalty shoot out which Grimsby lost handsomely - well not quite so handsomely.  Result, Wrexham won the Trophy and the Grimsby fans (and their Harry Haddocks) went away very deflated! We managed to get back to Uxbridge in good time - the train was not crowded at all - most fans going London-bound) and we finally got home at just after 8 p.m.  A lovely day out even if the result was disappointing.  Grimsby never fail to disappoint although as I am used to it now, it's not such a disappointment.  Thom has only seen them win once and only seen them score three goals in spite of going to dozens of matches.