Ravens View of Le Havre

Last updated : 24 July 2006 By Mark R

Another one joined us at Shoreham and the final one in the Weatherspoons pub not far from P&S station. Our ferry left at 23.00 and we needed to check in an hour before, so we jumped in a cab and we soon had our tickets and another pint in the departure lounge.

A handful of other Albion fans were in the bar, but not the numbers of last year. We sailed with LD Lines and once on board we got good seats (yes near to the bar!).

The boat sat at Portsmouth harbour until nearly 1am before finally setting off, we docked at about 6.30am but couldnt get off until 7.30am, its a real Mickey Mouse operation, they try and make it a proper overnight ferry when the journey doesnt warrant it!

So 7.30am into Le Havre. We walk to our hotel near the port, leave our bags and head into the town centre. We settle down for a nice strong coffee apart from the Fatty Taxman who has another beer. We see a few other Albion lads about but its fairly quiet.

Next stop is a supermarket, time to buy breakfast and we eat it sitting by the water, the Fatty Taxman manages a lump of cheese!

We checked into our Hotel about 11am, and said we would meet back in the lobby at 1pm so we could get an hours kip and a shower etc, the taxman had a 5 minute shower and then went back to the hotel bar!

At 1pm we met up, found the taxman in a bar down the road and walked back into the centre of Le Harve. We met up with Garry, Sue and Jack Straw, plus a few other Brighton lads and had a few well needed cold beers, it was very hot and stickey so more and more cold beer was need.

The Fatty Taxman, now named Spongebob Squarepants for some reason, soon nodded off, woke up, asked what were we doing in East Street in Brighton, before going back to his slumbers!

We moved on to another bar at about 4pm before getting taxis to the ground at about 5pm. We bought our 10 Euro tickets and then headed for (make a guess?)...........the nearest bar to the ground.

I would guess at about 150 Brighton fans made the trip, well down on the 1,000 from last season! The Official attendance was 1, 669 according to the local paper. Its a nice ground and we had a good view from the stand on the side.

The match - well we were dire. The team was I think

Henderson (Kuipers at half time)

Reid Elphick El-Abd Bagayoko (player on trial)

Hammond Carpenter Cox Frutos

CKR Robinson

Marium came on after 88 minutes (give the triallist a chance eh!), Williams got about 10 minutes. Rents, Loft, Gatting and Breach also got a run out.

Le Havre had a fairly easy 90 minutes, when they turned up the pace we were left chasing shadows. We lost 2-0, the defending for the 1st goal was non existent and the 2nd towards the end was a good goal by Traore, the best player on the pitch.

Gully the mascot made an unexpected debut, mmmmmm no comment!

Chippy and Hammond had poor matches, Cox was playing centre midfield to start, but looked more at home was pushed out Left and hammond in at centre midfield. The left back looks a reasonable player, El-Abd and Elphick were not comfortable as a central defence partnership. Lynch, Butters and Mayo are all out injured at the moment.

Robinson looked like a school boy, underhitting passes, basically no threat to the opposition.

Gatting came on towards the end, had a 1 on 1 with the keeper but never looked like scoring. So all in all very similar to matches last season. The highlight for me was a good second half from Kuipers, I would be looking to start him at Rotherham.

After the game it was back to the errrmm, now let me think, oh yes the bar, a bus back into the town, then a really nice meal and some more beers!

There was a great thunderstorm about 1am and also another about 2pm the next day and it chucked it down!

We came back on the 5pm ferry on Saturday and were back at Portsmouth and Southsea station at 10pm to get a train home.

Got home to find my season ticket has arrived, flicked through and put it back in the draw after failing to get excited. I hope I am proved wrong but I am not looking forward to next season with much confidence or anticipation.

Roll on Rotherham away, you never know how a season will turn out!!

Mark R