England Disappoint Once Again – But a great time in Nice once again…

Back to Nice the day after Brexit. Always wanted to finish 2nd as it meant a return to the great city of Nice and then hopefully playing at the Stade de France in Paris… Only down side was getting back to Nice with limited flights to that end of the country – we got a deal via Brussels and back via Zurich with Swiss from Heathrow – a bit of free bar time in the lounge called for on the way out with a 3 hour layover!

Great to see everyone, including Tim from The Ski Lodge with a top lunch at Le Meridian Terrace roof top bar – Number One Promenade des Anglais. Then we had a great result in finding a bar near to the ground due to some local knowledge we obtained. No shuttle bus and 2km walk to the Stadium for us (what were they thinking when they built a new ground – no parking and no public transport? – We were sort of around the back away from the main route and had a good crack with the locals and a few Iceland fans before and after the game.

The less said of the game the better – were our players drugged or match fixing? We couldn’t pass the ball 20m in the second half when under no pressure – Unbelievable, clueless, gutless etc etc.

So after all that, a poor Portugal winning it, Wales playing well v Belgium for 70 minutes and being hailed heroes, the great Iceland story, the bad Russian story (on and off the pitch) and probably the poorest organised tournament of the 11 I’ve been to – but at least no terrorist attacks during it… We’ll probably go to Scotland and Malta away in the World Cup Qualifiers but Russia (if we qualify)?

Back down to earth with a bump – Terrorist Attacks in Nice, Big Sham the new England Manager and the the first pre-season game for The Toon – away to Doncaster – it finished 2-2.