Draw and a defeat, and no happy endings.
Heading to Sweden was, logistically, a bit of a pain, and that included the freaking out calls from Harper in the morning. The final participants were whittled down to incumbents, with Sangha, McShane, Harper, and a late entry from Gourlay, after feeling he was missing out, plus being the only player with Sangha to have participated in all 13 tours to date. Arjan Sangha also returned after seeing action in Denmark in 2014. We did have a fair number of players already paid up for flights, but were unable to make it for varying reasons, so it was left to the core team who had travelled overseas before.
We were heading to Stockholm via Metro stations, Newcastle Railway Station, Edinburgh Railway Station and then Edinburgh Airport. Surprisingly it was seamless, despite a rail strike. We jumped on a Lumo train and got there well in advance, with Gourlay wearing all his kit items at once – misunderstanding the memo.
Landing in Stockholm saw rain and cold, but the weather was improving, and we had an evening and a full day to prepare. The evening started at a set of pubs, where later on, Gourlay, in all his wisdom and inability to say no, found some random South African (“Nick”) who offered to play in goal. Gourlay didn’t mention that he’d never played football in his life, so I angrily vetoed it before he even had a chance to jump on a bus to the game.
On Friday we were presented with glorious weather and a bit of sightseeing, spa treatments and happy endings, before we looked resplendent in our Admiral “England” red shirts, heading to Kristinebergs on a short bus trip.
The game was on the evening and we were presented with a massive pitch. We had Bertin standing in for us, provided by Chris Mitchell, who kindly arranged the games for us. We also had Charles Lor in goal for us. Bertin, unfortunately, didn’t last the two games, mainly because we spent 30 minutes shouting at him for not tracking players. He refused to play for us in the second game after a 2-2 first game, with Harper scoring our goals.
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No arguments or threats or anger in our second game, as we were walking wounded and suffered a 4-1 reverse, with Harper scoring and then stumbling back to the hotel, ready for an early start the next day.
Sweden Tour 2024 – 10th May | ||
10-05-2024 19:00 | ||
 Stockholm CBC |  Sassco.co.uk | |
10-05-2024 19:30 | ||
Stockholm CBC | Sassco.co.uk | |
Sweden Tour 2024 – 11th May | ||
11-05-2024 11:00 | ||
 Atletico Meetup | Sassco.co.uk | |
11-05-2024 11:15 | ||
Sassco.co.uk | Stockholm CBC | |
11-05-2024 11:45 | ||
Sassco.co.uk |  SCBC | |
11-05-2024 12:00 | ||
Sassco.co.uk |  Meetup United | |
11-05-2024 12:30 | ||
Sassco.co.uk | Stockholm CBC | |
