Up the Baggies

Saturday - the first day of half term - yay!

Tom and The Baggie Mascot

In great tradition, we don't like to stand still so we found ourselves out of the house pretty early and on the way to Lancaster to get the train to Birmingham New Street.   Today we were off to see The Baggies play at home.  This was our main birthday present to Tom.  His ticket only cost £5, but the train ticket and over night in Birmingham certainly made up for it.

It was a lovely day - clear blue sky - Tom was in shorts.  It felt very spring like for February.  First stop though was lunch which we had in Tamatanga - which Matt knew from a translators' do.  Basically modern Indian and very very lovely.  I had a paneer and chick pea salad which was very tasty.  Matt went for a fiery curry and Tom a korma.

In The Hawthorns

We then checked into our hotel, made ourselves at home (ie made a mess) and then headed on the tram to The Hawthorns where we had a little look around the Fan Zone where there was live music and plenty to eat and then to the club shop.  Granma and Pop Pop had given Tom £20 to spend in the shop - and wow - there were a lot of things to buy.  You name it - it was there with a WBA logo on it - everything from a nanoblock kit of the stadium, top trumps of best WBA moments, shaving kits, cushions, soft toys, slippers - well pretty much anything.

Happy Boy

As we were looking round, Tom got given a £10 voucher from a WBA supporter who obviously already had everything and couldn't find anything new to buy.  Wow!  Tom came away with a duvet set and a cushion and was very happy.

We then entered the stadium, and found our seats.  Tom of course had the best seat in the house because he put his cushion on it!

 We were right by a corner post - only a couple of rows back - it was a good vantage point.

The stands filled up pretty quickly, there was a really nice atmosphere about the place.  The game started and there was loads of chanting etc.   They were playing Sheffield Utd who are 2nd in the league (WBA are 4th) so it should have been a good match....Sheffield Utd scored in the 14th minute - oooooooppppps.  The atmosphere dropped and unfortunately it didn't get going again.  WBA seemed intent on passing the ball backwards all the time.  There was some choice language coming our way because of it (Tom said - should I close my ears?!).  For a moment it looked like WBA scored an equaliser - so the crowd jumped up and screamed, but then it was disallowed as it was hand ball - oh well, at least Tom got an idea of what it is like when your team scores a goal.

Our View

Smart new bedroom gear

Final score was 0-1 to Sheffield.  It was a poor game, and apparently the first game they haven't scored at home in 13 months!  We have vowed to go back and hope for a better match.

We got the tram back to central Birmingham and got ourselves a quick tea from the new shopping centre at New Street before heading to the hotel for bed.

Sunday - another beautiful day - it was a little bit foggy in the morning, but the rest of the day was gorgeous.  We got the train home, and had a useful day - laundry, mending Tom's bike puncture etc in readiness for Centre Parcs tomorrow.  Funnily enough Tom had no problem at all getting his new duvet cover on today...