COME ON YOU PIIIES

that was the resounding cry around craven cottage for my first live taste of english football. and yes that is notts county's nickname, the pies!
First of all, craven cottage is all sorts of cool, perched literally on thames with the water rusted roof you've always seen on tv, not to mention the charming little one mile walk from the tube station through some gardens and churches to the stadium, and that there is an actual cottage that people can watch the game from in one of the corners, well just awesome.

Apparently 15 pounds gets you three rows from the field adjacent to the fulham bench for a 5th round FA cup tie, and I have mr Hawes to thank for that, but we were both shocked at how close we were to the action, "cheapest courside seat i'll ever see." I could have reached over and touched erik nevland riding on the stationary bike the whole time to stay loose.

As for the actual game, Notts County were unlucky to be losing 2-0 at the break. Bobby Zamora is much more impressive in person that you'd have ever known from the tv, and he wasn't up against the best center halfs, but he was doing whatever he wanted when he got the ball to his feet, esp in the box.

But what made this game so cool was the little things that you can't pick up on tv, like how a little guy like Nickey Shorey times his jump to perfection to win headers he has no business winning, how much Riise the younger enjoys his keep-me-uppy at halftime, or just how fucking tall brede hangeland really is.

It wasn't much of a contest in the end on the field, but the back and forth between the 3,000 or so Notts county supporters and the not so vocal ho-hum fulham supporters was also well worth the price of admission. At 0-3 the county faithful decided to break out the: your support, your support, YOUR SUPPORT IS FUCKING SHIT! chant. and all sorts of "who are yas" were exchanged until fulham scored the 4th and final goal, which didn't actually quiet the travelling fans. In fact, they were perhaps the loudest after every fulham goal, never faltering in their support, with this "on top of
spaghetti..."

but this video pretty much sums it up, notts hired-actor-bald-white-guy-of-a-striker whose name is hughsey apparently has a dance named after him, which is pretty badass, he appeased the crowed after he'd been subbed off in like the 80th minute. and then in this video straight into the wheelbarrel



will we ever see a luckier goal than paul scholes off the standing leg?