It was the first time I have been stood up since the best looking girl in fourth form of St Mary’s back in the early eighties, was a no show outside Listen Ear.
Standing in the Howling Hop boozer next to Hackney Wick station I’m on my own.
I end up chatting to some West Ham old boys, season ticket holders from the old Boleyn ground who tell me they like the London stadium as their seats are far superior to what they had back in the day. Hmmm!
Top lads, one of which whose mum was born on Barrack Road and still had an accent decades later much like myself, so he tells me.
After a walk down the canal it’s an airport style search and then I’m free to join the rest of the West Ham lot.
Into the ground I go and it is up to the higher tier seating and would you believe my luck, I am sat with the giant bubble blowing Neanderthals in their Sunday best (Claret and blue tracksuits).
Ah well, extra discipline required when it comes to my behaviour and speech.
I have a mate, the Reverend Rob Ryan (now defrocked), who is a season ticket holder at Gillingham, his home town. He recently told me of his religious silence weekend in a retreat designed for spiritual reflection through not speaking for days on end and how it made him feel.
Today against West Ham I wanted to scream.
Our utter inadequacy in all areas was plain to see.
A really shambolic performance that Nuno hoped for and was so desperate to have.
The West Ham old boys were resigned to relegation and when pushed on predicting a score, they both agreed Newcastle would wipe the floor with them, expecting a 1 -3 result minimum.
West Ham Greg
After Bowen crashed the ball off the woodwork and Murphy went on to bang in that goal, my fists were clenched and the inner voice said nothing.
A religious silence that was amplified by the claret and blue around me.
And then of course we know what happened next.
We were poor.
The journey home for me was thirty minutes, unlike that for the thousands who had made their trek to their holy black and white beacon at the Mickey Mouse London Stadium.