Not long now! It's our annual summer tour time again!
In fact this time tomorrow I will be in Tallinn!
Ian Gannon is leading the 'advance party', arriving today with his family; as is Paul Griffin. There's another load of us flying in tomorrow, with the rest getting there on Thursday & Friday.
It really is an exciting, if somewhat daunting trip, and everyone is looking forward to it immensely.
It's also a historic trip for us, because not only do we play two games on the one trip, but they are in different countries for the first time!
On Friday evening, at seven o'cock local time, we take on our friends from JK Jalgpallihaigla, the Estonian national team supporters' team. Last season they won 10-6, with Lawrence Marsh hitting an incredible "Rabblers" record six goals in a single game! I would expect they are red hot favourites to beat us again, but it's not the result that matters, but the welcome, and everyone is really looking forward to meeting up with them again.
Before we play them we have some local football to attend. Tomorrow night the Estonian champions Levadia take on Drogheda, from the Republic of Ireland, in a first qualifying round second leg clash in the European Champions League. Then it will be a mad dash to try and catch as much as possible of an Estonian Cup match five kilometres away, that kicks off at 8.45pm. Second Division FC Elva taking on fourth division side...JK Jalgpallihaigla! Marvellous! Hopefully we will be able to pick up a cab without too much difficulty, and not miss too much of that!
I'm crossing by boat to Helsinki to see the sights with Andy & Larry, on Saturday morning, but the majority of the squad will be staying in Tallinn, getting the 8.00am crossing on Sunday! This gets to Helsinki harbour at 10.30am, where everyone will head to meet the supporters of HJK Helsinki, who we have arranged a game against. They seem really keen, and been very helpful with emails. Thankfully thr actual match is only thirty minutes each way, but it will be a full eleven a side international friendly. In the evening we will cheer on the 'big boys' HJK as they play a Finnish League First Division match at 6.30pm, before we dash back to the harbour for the last boat back to Tallinn at 10.30pm! It's going to be a long day...
I return on Wednesday 30th, & hope to have some sort of report & photos on here soon after that.
The full tour party is as follows:
Mick O'Shaughnessy; Mark Hutton; Andy Tucker; Lawrence Marsh; Phil Baker; Mishi Morath; Dawn Taylor; Mick Spencer; David O'Shaughnessy; Darren Nicolas; Lucas Green; Paul Griffin; Matt Hammond; Shaun Dooley; Steve Rickerby &, guesting for us from UR Namur supporters' in Belgium, Stephane Tournay.
Also travelling, but sadly injured with a broken foot, and unable to play, is Ian Gannon; & with him is his sister-in-law Paula Bradshaw, and his two children James Gannon (age 13) & Lucy Gannon (age 9).
Shaun Dooley is also injured, but hopes to have a few minutes on 'foreign soil' despite this, and IF his new passport arrives, which he was expecting today, or tomorrow, by courier! Fingers crossed...
So all in all we have twenty people travelling.
Wish us luck!
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