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For all the cost, delays and dodgy toilets, there\u2019s still something romantic about crossing the country by train. The travelling football fan\u2019s knowledge of the UK\u2019s rail system is perhaps only matched by that of a down at heel travelling salesman. For on every Saturday, thousands of football fans travel from Penrith to Penzance, from Stoke to… Southend Victoria, following their team through thick and thin.<\/p>\n

But so little about football away days is actually about the game; it\u2019s all about the journey. Floodlights in the distance will pique the interest of the travelling fan. Is that Burton Albion? Derby County? Nottingham Forest? Oh, it\u2019s just a car park.<\/p>\n

Travelling through the British countryside at 100 miles per hour, non-league grounds will flash by in an instant. The football league behemoths will stay in view a little longer, with fleeting glances of their hallowed turf offered up by gaps between the grandstands.<\/p>\n

A sense of unease that you might be missing a game at these grounds takes over, never mind that it\u2019s a Thursday afternoon in June.<\/p>\n

The Emirates, Wembley, Vicarage Road, Gresty Road and the DW Stadium all come in to view on the trip north, presenting the opportunity for a \u201cHey lads, guess which ground this is\u201d message to the group chat.<\/p>\n

\"\"But then there\u2019s the games you\u2019ll see taking place on a Saturday afternoon. What am I doing on a train? I should be at a game! A glimpse of 22 men in blue and red flickers by. Suddenly you spring into action – where am I? What level does that look like? I wonder what league it is. Think about it long enough and you\u2019ll work out exactly who was playing, and come up with far-fetched conclusions about the final score, based on just a couple of seconds\u2019 play that you saw. \u201cDefintely a deserved three points for Binclestead Sports & Social.\u201d<\/p>\n

On our travels this season, there will be opportunity to see Hertford Town v Stow and Berkhamsted v Stow on the West Anglia and West Coast Main Lines respectively. Last season we had Redbridge\u2019s Oakside, a more humble offering from the banks of the Central Line.<\/p>\n

But if you really want to do things properly, then a trip to Slovakia is order, to see TJ Tatran \u010cierny Balog, who have a heritage steam train running between the pitch and the main stand. You can\u2019t imagine any other answer to the question \u201cWhy?\u201d than a couple of blokes looking around going \u201cIt\u2019s a laugh, init?\u201d.<\/p>\n

So as you travel the country this year, just keep an eye out of the window, you never quite know what you\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all the cost, delays and dodgy toilets, there\u2019s still something romantic about crossing the country by train. The travelling football fan\u2019s knowledge of the UK\u2019s rail system is perhaps only matched by that of a down at heel travelling salesman. For on every Saturday,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58278"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58282,"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58278\/revisions\/58282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andrzejperkins.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}