The Sassco flag in Copenhagen

Most had late nights (including the Danes), therefore the games on the second day started at lunchtime. Barker had spent the night gurning in the toilet and the sink, which I had to clean out. He apologised profusely, to which I replied “Sassco on Tour….” I remember blaming my drunken hoying up stupor on Billy Harper back in Portugal in 2009, so I can’t really say a lot.

Breakfast was good. More hot-dogs, with pancakes, fruit, cereal, meats, etc. Gourlay and co. slowly made their way down and eventually we headed towards the venue again.

I was adamant we were going to get something from the games today and elected to drop myself on the bench, to try and avert a late defensive collapse. I did the same in France and keep reminding everyone who wants to know that I came on and snapped at ankles to give us some breathing space.

Confidence from the eventual hat-trick hero.

We had Musa Binici in goal for us and all seemed reasonably fit. Gourlay’s ankle wasn’t too bad, while Arjan’s blisters had been seen to by his daddy. It didn’t start well, though. Sassco suffered a 1-0 reverse for a large part of the first half, but eventually Dixon equalised before the break, with a free-kick. Second half started just as badly, with IFF scoring to make it 2-1, before Dixon again equalised with a low shot. After that, we seemed to dominate. Barker and Dixon scored again, before IFF gained one back. A great victory. Probably a bit more comfortable than the score line suggests, but a victory nonetheless.

The game immediately afterwards saw Sassco race into another tremendous lead. However, the foot came off the pedal, and I was on full verbal form, even to our star goal scorer, Dixon, after he lost the ball three times in a row: “What’s the f**king point in that!” to which he replied, “What’s the point in you?”

Tim also had a glorious chance to grab a goal, but passed wide instead of shooting from five yards: “What the f**k are you doing?”

Gourlay and Barker, probably the two most talented footballers for Sassco had a set to with Dave’s “For once, during a game, can you admit you did something wrong?” comment to Barker.

We also heard a loud blaring voice shouting “Ha’way lads!” which we discovered was Arjan, who spent 90% of the games pointing and trying to do turns surround by six foot Danes: “Aj, too much, too much, TOO MUCH, for f**ks sake!”

The final score was actually 6-4 and we were around 5 goals ahead. A great set of games with Sassco, after a disastrous opening, coming out on top in three of the four games.

Everyone is in awe as Dave G. steps out of the shower. Dixon's not excited.

The plan for the evening was a trip to the national stadium to watch FC København secure a 2 – 1 victory over FC Nordsjælland. The tickets were kindly provided by Kenneth Holm, who works at the FA. Prior to that, we headed back and then popped out to the beach for an ice cream, before lazily getting a taxi to the stadium.

It was an enjoyable game. The stadium was excellent and afterwards, Me, Arjan and Barker headed back, while the other three, Dixon, Tim and Gourlay heading to party the night away. Dave was getting increasingly irritated as his gammy ankle was playing up, while Tim was constantly muttering about a taxi. We kept bumping into them on the way. Ironically, they did manage to meet up with IFF lads. It was later discovered that Kenneth Holm has a predilection for picking on midgets in night clubs.

Dave and co. also entered a night club, which he described as “entering a Eurovision song contest.” They still can’t get the song out of their head.

Out of this chaos, me, Aj and Baxter were back at the hotel and took in a fantastic pizza from a local place, where I used hand signals and grunts to manage to get in a 12” chicken and ham pizza with chips. Like I said before the tour, when everyone was complaining about Denmark prices, “a pizza and chips costs the same anywhere…”

Sunday was the final full day to relax. No football, so me and Baxter spent a few rounds in the swimming pool at the hotel, before heading out to the city centre to buy some Lego. We floated around museums and the various stunning sights, before showing up at the main train station to pick up Pauline.

Dave shows off the Sassco flag on the hotel in Copenhagen.

It was back to the hotel and then out for a meal around the corner (only six minutes according to Digga). The meal was great and I think the waiter called me or Pauline a princess.

The final day was a bit torturous. Firstly I was panicking that Arjan’s gallons of Faxi Kondi wouldn’t fit into the case (it did) and then the airport chap said we could only put in five suitcases – he was wrong. Overall Copenhagen airport was okay, but in Manchester, the security queue was huge in order to check on the foreigners coming into the country. Once we were out, I headed towards the exit, little knowing that everyone had managed to split up. Me and Aj were outside, but subsequently discovered that the rest had wandered off back into a lift and God knows where. We were delayed by around one hour.

Roma's (or Bradford's) biggest fan in the background.

I wasn’t the happiest person on the trip back. This was compounded by an extra couple hours due to a crash on the A66. Then a petrol stop, before eventually returning home (after dropping Barker and Dixon off).

To top it off, my own car wouldn’t start when I went to pick it up. I’ve just about recovered now to do this report. Sassco on Tour. USA next year – Love It!