Match Thread Real Betis v. Sheffield United - Pre-season Friendly - 12/07/19

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Spot on and a very good read Phil. Thoroughly enjoyed. Did you get to Boheme Bar in Faro?
 

nickwr37 said:
Spot on and a very good read Phil. Thoroughly enjoyed. Did you get to Boheme Bar in Faro?
Click to expand...
No. A great regret. I did much better last year, where there was a great beer bar in Portimao. Depending on how Mrs Ball Sup feels after her CBF Chauffeur duties last night, we've got our eye on a promising place in Quarteira later today.
 
Roygbiv said:
Not sure whether to delete Facebook completely, ignore it or argue all night with the fans on there saying we were "shite".....
Click to expand...

Ignore the slashers, 12 year olds, trolls and Wendy wind up knobs.

Roygbiv :- You are too good for them. Get your beauty sleep over the next few weeks so you are at full peak match fitness, for your 'view froms'.
 
Ball_Sup (Phil) said:
Prestige friendly vs Spanish Big Boys Real Betis. Are you wondering whether we presented them with any memorabilia for their museum? Wonder no more. Even though I say so myself, I've got a neat little story about how the SUFC present for Betis got to Portugal. With a rather poor, but exclusive photo. Also, I'm now up to 63 Portuguese Beer Ticks. Also, John Lundstram. All on my Blog. If you'd be so kind....

https://ball-sup.blogspot.com/2019/07/cbf-step-up-to-plate.html
Click to expand...
Always enjoy following your travels.
 
Roygbiv said:
Not sure whether to delete Facebook completely, ignore it or argue all night with the fans on there saying we were "shite".....

Really good performance that against a very tidy outfit. Mcgoldrick and Lunny the picks of the bunch.
Click to expand...
I don't think Mark Zuckerberg would be happy if you deleted Facebook completely.
 
Roygbiv

Stick to maintaining the quality, the quantity doesn't matter.

Sack the FB, concentrate on what you consider the positive.
 
Unbeaten in Europe:

Malaga (0) Dem Blades (1)
= 10th in Champ

Marìtimo (0) Dem Blades (1)
Dem Blades (1) Inter Milan (1)
= 2nd in Champ

Real Betis (0) Dem Blades (1)
= ? in Premier League
 
Who's got a thumping hangover courtesy of The Strip in Albufeira?Way to avoid is one more... the morning after. I've just booked a September jaunt down there.
 
Just got back, what a great trip with the Donny Blades. Non-stop. Feel horrendous now though.

Shame about the trouble before/after but all in all brilliant. Hope the injured lads are ok this morning.

Huge thanks to Malc from Cricketers for organising shit, he’s the man!

Best moment for me was the 19th hole, seeing that many Blades with all the flags out, singing etc was amazing.
 

Eggy said:
Unbeaten in Europe:

Malaga (0) Dem Blades (1)
= 10th in Champ

Marìtimo (0) Dem Blades (1)
Dem Blades (1) Inter Milan (1)
= 2nd in Champ

Real Betis (0) Dem Blades (1)
= ? in Premier League
Click to expand...

Atromitos 2 2 in League 1?

Edit: learn to read the post properly tyke. In Europe, away, dumpling. 😟
 
Just remembering bits that are starting to come back to me...

“You can shove your fucking tapas up your arse, you can shove your fucking tapas up your arse...” haha
 
Birdwell Blade said:
Just remembering bits that are starting to come back to me...

“You can shove your fucking tapas up your arse, you can shove your fucking tapas up your arse...” haha
Click to expand...
The poor schoolboy masquerading as their No 22.......”you’re fucking shit, you’re fucking shit......classic.
 
Was anyone close to the attempted raid in the FanZone about 30 mins pre game by supposed Betis fans? We were on far side, seemed to be all over in an instant as police soon intervened but saw at least one Blade with a cut to his head and apparently more trouble afterwards (we were some of last to leave as talking to John Egan pitchside who, being the fantastically nice Irish lad that he is, was talking to Blades, doing selfies etc) per some reports on here. Feckin stupid for a friendly, none of our guys seemed to be involved (younger coke heads didn’t seem to be in attendance...) but no colours on supposed Betis fans (several had been intermingling on a friendly basis with Blades in the Fanzone), their miserly following (of around 226....😊) didn’t seem to contain any ultra types so wondering if this was local Portuguese (maybe something had gone off in Albufeira previously....?, we were in Quarteria and down at 19th Hole in Villamura pre-game - loads of Blades 🔴⚔️) who never even went to game? Anyway, my first experience “in Europe” and an excellent 4 days with mate of too many years to mentio, “Keen Blade”. 2 days in Seville coming up and back to Toronto Wednesday. UTB
 
GreenhillBladeinToronto said:
Was anyone close to the attempted raid in the FanZone about 30 mins pre game by supposed Betis fans? We were on far side, seemed to be all over in an instant as police soon intervened but saw at least one Blade with a cut to his head and apparently more trouble afterwards (we were some of last to leave as talking to John Egan pitchside who, being the fantastically nice Irish lad that he is, was talking to Blades, doing selfies etc) per some reports on here. Feckin stupid for a friendly, none of our guys seemed to be involved (younger coke heads didn’t seem to be in attendance...) but no colours on supposed Betis fans (several had been intermingling on a friendly basis with Blades in the Fanzone), their miserly following (of around 226....😊) didn’t seem to contain any ultra types so wondering if this was local Portuguese (maybe something had gone off in Albufeira previously....?, we were in Quarteria and down at 19th Hole in Villamura pre-game - loads of Blades 🔴⚔) who never even went to game? Anyway, my first experience “in Europe” and an excellent 4 days with mate of too many years to mentio, “Keen Blade”. 2 days in Seville coming up and back to Toronto Wednesday. UTB
Click to expand...
He doesn't mean the Blades from 19th Hole didn't attend the game - he wonders whether the 20 violent nutters who ran into the shared fanzone at 1930 were in fact local scum who had a score to settle from an incident in Albufeira or Vilamoura in the preceding few days - it didn't seem to me that they were Betis fans - certainly no colours - but it was all over in a flash.
Looking carefully at the 200 or so Betis in the stadium , I saw no one who looked remotely like trouble , and I wouldn't like Betis reputation to be tarnished by local Portugese hotheads , if that's who they were.
Several Betis fans were in the fanzone and interacting superbly with selfies being taken , laughing & chatting away like it should be.
 
And the official attendance figures are pants - I counted c200 Betis in the ground , which was easy to do from digital photos of their stand. James Shield puts a figure of 2,000 in our stand - difficult to corroborate due to Blades being quite dispersed - but certainly closer to 2,000 than the officially reported 1,000.
This despite the stadium serving only NON-ALCOHOLIC lager in bottles.
Just shows the supreme loyalty of Blades that we stayed to the end in such circumstances.
As a ST holder on the Kop , I was hoping this trip would be one of the few "home games" I could get a proper drink at HT , but it wasn't to be.
I say home game coz that's what John Egan said it felt like.
 
Anyway , back to Manchester tomorrow + schoolfriend of 50 years , GHBIT , back to Toronto , after a great 4 nights on the Algarve with Chrissie Wilder's Red & White army.
Hoping that next year we will be the complete 'Lane Line-Up' from the 1970s , including Sir Terence of Whirlow & Surfer Blade from Sydney , Australia , who is after the record distance travelled to a Blades pre-season friendly.
UTB & FTP & without wishing to appear uncharitable , let's give Brooksy a bad day on 10 August !
 
I don't think they were Betis either. As soon as it happened I thought it must be locals. They definitely didn't go in the ground. The coppers did more damage than they did anyway.
 
We arrived about 15 mins before the kick off time (match not trouble) and the first thing we saw were 3 Blades on the floor with nasty head wounds which looked to be baton inflicted, also 1 bloke on the floor trussed up like a chicken (not sure if he was Blade or other). Saw 15-20 Blades after the game walking round to the other side of the ground, not sure if anything happened there.
 
I didn't see the trouble, (I'd already gone in). But, I did go over to have a close look at the two dozen ish "Ultras" who had gathered near their parked cars over near a different access road to the one used for the Fanzone. They were chatting away & having the odd bottled beer. They looked the part. No colours, they're Ultras not Christmas Trees nor Polyester Fetishists. But, one Betis shirt, helpfully confirming they were Betis. They were speaking Spanish not Portuguese. Another of the Carrier Bag Firm (who did see the mither) says that (after the trouble) Portuguese Plod moved them on, sat them down on a kerb & kettled them so they didn't go in the ground.
 
Last edited:
Ball_Sup (Phil) said:
I didn't see the trouble, (I'd already gone in). But, I did go over to have a close look at the two dozen ish "Ultras" who had gathered near their parked cars over near a different access road to the one used for the Fanzone. They were chatting away & having the odd bottled beer. They looked the part. No colours, they're Ultras not Christmas Trees nor Polyester Fetishists. But, one Betis shirt, helpfully confirming they were Betis. They were speaking Spanish not Portuguese. Another of the Carrier Bag Firm (who did see the mither) says that (after the trouble) Portuguese Plod moved them on, sat them down on a kerb & kettled them so they didn't go in the ground.
Click to expand...
Ah right, that explains it. Those coppers weren't messing about, they were all built like brick shithouses.
 
We would have been right in the middle of that trouble had we not moved to talk to raul 20 minutes earlier. My first impression is that they were locals and not Betis, but Phil's insight above seems to disprove that. It was quite nasty i thought and am surprised more hasn't been made of it. I was more concerned with potential indiscriminate baton waving police than their "ultras" but the local coppers looked like they were trying to protect us more than owt else.
It was all over in less than a minute but could have been a lot worse - it would have been carnage had the police not been there............
 
I've been all over the world watching England. I quite like being a "student of terrace culture". On Friday, a younger Blade I know saw me & said - Phil, there's a little set of Ultras over there. That's why I went & had a nose. My reaction was - they'll be looking to put a bit of a show on. Naturally, I wasn't comfortable "passing the message" around the Fanzone. But, I wasn't surprised to hear there'd been something. Basically, my view is - when you play ANY European club, you can expect a small Ultra Group to be on the prowl. When we played Malaga, my tickets were sourced from a "fan friendly" Malaga Ultra Group. Even on that side of the ground a ten (ish) group of more hardcore Malaga Ultras were preening. If we'd ended up with Dortmund, Union Berlin, Lille, and especially Pisa (as per rumours) some Ultras would come looking for some Blades (opinion obvs)
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom