My trip to the London Stadium

Hello people! It has been far too long since I did one of these but I thought I would treat you all, lucky you eh?


The reason I have decided to write a new blog is because I went to the West Ham VS Southampton game yesterday at the London Stadium because basically my Stepdad is a season ticket holder and had a spare ticket so I thought why not go for a day out? So the day started at Ashford International where we got the 12.16 train to Stratford International with some of his West Ham friends. I must admit it was rather weird getting off at Stratford because I am so used to getting off at St Pancras to go and watch The Arsenal. The walk to the ground is very quick and as soon as you exit the station you can see the stadium and I must admit it is a lovely arena. The walk up to the ground has a very Wembley feel to it because there is a long walkway but as we were early there were hardly anyone about which was quite nice because I could have a proper look about. I was very impressed with the whole layout of the place and I could see why West Ham wanted to move there but one thing that I did like was if you're a season ticket holder then you get this little voucher so you get a programme for free.


Next stop, the pub, which was about a 5 minute walk away from the ground but you have to go down this dodgy looking path right by the river, to be honest it looked like it could be a scene from a Green Street film. So we get to the pub which has been converted from a non used warehouse, apparently the company that purchased it before the Olympics only paid £300k so whoever you are, I bet you're loving life right now. The pub was feeling up nicely and every so often, you would get this loud "IROOOONNS" and let me tell you, there is something very intimidating about West Ham fans. The only disappointing about the pub was the burgers, now I am not expecting a Michelin star bit of meat but what I do expect it to be is cooked properly. A son of one of the people I was with had to take his back because it was under cooked but when he got it back it was a freshly cooked one. I had a bit of a heavy night the night before so I was beginning to get hungry so decided to brave the burger stand. I am going to let you guess how much it cost.........£7 for a burger with a bit of cheese, it was like being at The Emirates!


The time is getting on so we all decided to leave the pub and head to the ground and I must admit it was very much looking forward to watching game of football as a complete neutral. We walked up the stairs and we could the loud from the Southampton fans and then the West Ham fans would start singing back. We got through the turnstiles and headed to our seats and I was very impressed with my view, on the halfway line in the lower tier. So the players head out onto the pitch and there is a loud rendition of " I am forever blowing bubbles" and I got to say it's a special song to hear in the flesh. The game kicks off and it's a great atmosphere with both fans in full voice and the sun is shining, what a perfect day to watch football just think there are people out there that would rather watch Antiques Roadshow. As first halves go it was pretty scrappy but Southampton looked the better of the two but West Ham just couldn't get going and 5 minutes from the break there was a goal but it was inevitable that it was the away side, Charlie Austin scored a lovely goal and there was immediate frustration from the home fans.


The halftime whistle blew and there was a few boos from the home faithful, so there is only one thing to do during the break and that is to get a drink. At Arsenal, you can queue up for almost the entire 15 minutes and by the time you get served, you have to down it because it's nearly the second half but there was no queuing for drinks which was very nice because watching that rubbish for 45 minutes is thirsty work. It's amazing how we all become football managers when our teams are not playing very well but you could sense the frustration. We find our seats for the second half and hope that West Ham can turn it around because although I am not a fan, it would be nice to see them at least score. Southampton's second goal was a comedy of errors as West Ham gave the ball away cheaply which allowed Dusan Tadic to take it around Adrian to send the away end into raptures again. The home fans were furious now, the boos were louder and West Ham looked all over the place. My Stepdad text me straightaway saying " if they score again then I am off" which I couldn't blame him for because it was awful. There was 10 minutes to go and I got another text saying " I am going in a minute, are you coming?" Now I am not a fan of leaving early because I believe if you can't stay in one place for 2 hours or so then don't bother going however this wasn't my team and I had seen enough. We left in the 85 minutes and the amount of people walking towards the station was unbelievable, we got about 100 yards from the ground and we heard another roar and it sounded a little to loud to be an away goal but then it dawned on me that there probably isn't enough West Ham fans left to make a noise and low and behold it was 3 nil to Southampton.


We headed to the station and the whole place was so flat, the fans looked so dejected and just fed up with what they have been witnessing recently. We got on the train and headed back home, if I am honest, I had a great day of watching football and just being a neutral and I am hoping to be going back but as an away fan in December.


Well that was my day at West Ham, if you do get the chance to go to the new stadium then definitely go because it's a lovely ground.

I will be back soon! Cheers