Hiya all

750 miles, 500 beers and about 100 hamburgers later, we're back, safe and
sound - following one of the best weekends I've ever had. We did Dunfermline
and Scotland proud, and walked away from Leicester with our heads up,
leaving scores of new friends behind us.

When we started out, all I wanted to do was to have a good time, make some
new friends and represent the Pars to our best ability. What happened
exceeded our wildest expectations on all fronts. Knocked out on goal
difference to the holders and subsequent finalists was painful, I was
absolutely gutted - but ultimately we showed that we could play among the
best and hold our own.

Fraser and myself were in the East Port Bar at 12 noon on Friday - and had a
quick meeting about admin and started on the tactics. Barry Wilson wanted to
know where we were going with all the bags we had with us, and immediately
produced a bottle of champagne "that's for the cup!" he said. Everyone
followed in their own time and settled down with a beer or two, looking
forward to the weekend ahead. An amusing struggle down the road to the
Watering Hole for one more pint, and a team talk - I asked us to be
ambassadors for club and country, and nobody let me down. I asked for our
behaviour to be good on and off the park, again, I wasn't let down - not a
single booking or sending off.

Keith turned up at 4pm with the bus, and we piled on and got going - three
cheers for Keith, who did the majority of the driving and didn't complain
once. He didn't have to buy a drink all weekend as his reward - apparently I
was sent to get him one at last orders but it never materialised, sorry
Keith pet, the next one's on me.

Various stops followed on the way down, and the bus was a riot of Pars songs
and flags, beer cans and music. We stopped at the Metro Centre in Newcastle
and good old Asda did the trick with the beers!!! Jamie was the heart and
soul of the whole party, and was to provide the entertainment for the
weekend to come!! Ask him about a potty filled with crisps - yes it did
happen!!!!

Arrived at the hotel at about 12.20am, and split up into our rooms.
Eventually most folk ended up in room 17 which was mine (!!!!) for a beer
(what, really?) and some chat before heading off to bed. The Bootroom of
myself, Fraser, Colin, Grant C and Johnnie stayed up discussing tactics (yes
we did!) and picked the team for the following day. Spice Boys Colin, Grant
C and Fraser decided to go and try and see Starwars but were told they were
too late!!!

Unbelieveably, the squad assembled for breakfast in the hotel resturant at
8am the next morning. Ross looked the worse for wear after trying to sleep
through Jamies snoring!! With the kit loaded onto the bus and water bottles
full, we headed off to Victoria Park. We met QPR early on, and registered,
set up camp at Pitch 2 and had a wander. Our first game start was delayed,
and we got the opportunity to meet our Hibee/Celtic friends and many many
others before the game started. After watching QPR we realised that they
weren't THAT good, or at least not as amazing as everyone had told us they
were.

And so to our first game - the team was Ally Mooney in goals, Fraser at
right back, Ross at left back, and Johnnie and Grant M in the centre of
defence. Cameron on the left, Povey on the right, Jamie and Colin in centre
mid and Grant C and Alan up front. The boys were great, I'll leave the
details to someone else, but we soaked up the pressure and more than
deserved the 0-0 draw. This was a shock to QPR, who hadn't expected us to be
so good, and were fairly patronising in their pre-match comments. The word
went round the tournament that we'd drawn 0-0 with QPR and we had many
visitors to our pitch giving us congratulations - QPR are not the most well
liked team of the competition and any scalp against them was a bonus.

Our second game was against Notts County, who didn't appear to be that good.
An amazing first few moments saw us go 1-0 up in 6.4 seconds through Colin
McKean, who else, eh? At the start of the second half, the man himself Colin
tried one from the halfway line at the kick-off, and scored with ease!!!!
After 4 seconds of the second half we were 2-0 up!!!! Grant C added a third,
a low drive into the right hand corner.

We had two hours of time to kill, and went to get some food, and watched
some games. The Hibs-Dunfermline bond is stronger than ever thanks to this
weekend, and we were supporting them, and them us. We also met many other
folk, who commented on our lovely black tops and asked who we were - this
was the way we made most of our friends, but particularly Middlesborough who
we supported right through to the quarter finals.

Our third game was against Middlesborough - again we soaked up the pressure
but lost 1-0, we could have taken though with chances everywhere and 'Boro
scoring in their one attack. Due to other results in our group a draw
against 'Boro and a win against Ipswich would have taken us through but it
wasn't to be.

A crucial QPR v Notts County game followed - in this one, QPR's goal
difference was the key, and they ran out 6-0 winners against County, who had
strangely switched their keeper for a 12 year old who was about 4 foot high.
So we had to beat Ipswich 4-0.

We had the chances but ultimately failed to take them - as the game ran on,
we didn't look like scoring the four we needed to go to a penalty shoot-out
with QPR and so we were finished - but given a standing ovation by QPR,
Middlesborough and Ipswich. It could have been us, it could have been . . .
. we kept saying. I was gutted, and went away to report the score, and
couldn't hold back the tears. We were easily in the top twenty out of the 40
teams there, and didn't get through despite having seven points, whereas
other teams went through with four points. We only conceeded one goal the
whole day, and that one goal was the difference. We did extremely well,
no-one would dare argue with that. We were the surprise package of the
tournament, and we made a good name for ourselves by socialising lots with
the other teams and getting our name known. We bonded together even better
than ever before, and we're a pretty solid unit as well as a top night out
together!!!

Ally - in goals, he was absolutely solid, magnificent saves and at crucial
times too. Awesome, why have you been in the outfield to long when your true
place is in goals!!??

Fraser - was born to play right back, and we got four solid performances out
of him, ever dependable. Never saw him without a beer in his hand the whole
weekend!!

Ross - on top form, always running and moving forward, skinning the
opposition ALIVE and looking incredibly sharp, must have been that weeks
rest in Spain!!

Johnnie - solid (!) presence in the box, went up for headers and cleared the
lines - who can argue with only one goal conceeded!!! And does flower
arranging too!!!

Grant M - searching passes and pace, an excellent late addition to the squad
looks set to stay!! A brilliant bloke who we all wanto know better, even if
he is cheeky as f***!

Jamie - filled the central midfield gap, scored the winner against Ipswich
and constantly got everyone wound up. You're a legend mate, I'll still be
laughing at that banana joke for months to come. His one-liners were out of
this world and he really made the trip!!!

Colin - what can you say about him that hasn't been said? Superb in every
way, El Capitano as he was nicknamed for the weekend just shined. Brilliant,
mate!!! Bring some trainers next time, eh?

Grant C - the boy wonder strikes again and didn't let us down. An animal on
the dance floor too, we discovered!! Jean, you've no worries about him!!!

Keith R - had a great game when he played, and looked suitably pleased with
a night of free beer on Saturday!!! (except I didn't buy him one, oops . . .
.). And if you snaffle my crisps again, I won't be responsible for my
actions . . .

Davie - Played as an anchorman for the last two games, sitting in front of the
defence, looking good.

Alan - the animal did his stuff, played up front and on the left wing, looks
gorgeous in black too!!!

Cameron - alternated with Alan on the left wing, had a good night out too.

Povey - Linford himself couldn't have sprinted quicker up the wings, and
Povey was superb, adds another dimension completely.

Onto the internationals, which seemed like a punishment to poor Grant C,
Colin and Jamie, as the dehydration and sunburn started to kick in. It was
almost a relief when Scotland lost 2-1 to Ireland (Jamie scoring the only
Scotland goal!) and we headed back to the team hotel to wrestle with the
mental showers (they were unreal!!!) and put the clubbing gear on to go out.
On our third or fourth Burger King of the weekend for tea (and not our last,
either!!) and we headed out in taxis to the Half Time Orange, which was
pretty quiet by 9.30pm when we got there, but we met the Hibees (where we
worked extensively on promoting interactions and bonding between the two
teams), and a few drunken Tims, going in a convoy of taxis to the Fanclub
(?) where many pints were sunken - apparently!!! Trying to get a taxi
following the nightclub and the kebab proved near impossible, but nothing
that a skirt can't sort (only joking!!!!).

In the morning we left our lovely Travel Inn by 12ish and from nowhere, a
huge bunch of flowers appeared from the bus, as a thank you from the team -
thanks boys, I was so chuffed with those, it makes all the hard work seem
worthwhile, I really appreciated it.

Wandered down to Viccy Park, where we met some more folk - had a chat to the
IFA bloke about the new Scottish league that is going to be set up, we can
win that incidently, and kept chatting away to everyone and anyone. Everyone
knew us by this point, and our Parscelona Middlesborough supporters club
were formed - they were the best bunch of lads we met the whole weekend and
we felt for them when they got knocked out in the quarter finals on a golden
goal by Arsenal. The final was a 2-0 win by Arsenal (they're called Cybery -
cool or what?) over QPR. We got back on the bus, took a Hibee with us and
started the trek up the M1, tired but ecstatic about the weekends
happenings.

Reached the East Port Bar at half ten-ish (?) after spending the journey up
listening to the extremely tense few hours of golf from Carnoustie and got a
pint in, to round off a superb weekend. The momentum was still there, and as
soon as I mentioned a fund-raising night for strips and a charity, everyone
jumped in with ideas and suggestions for a fundraiser. Watch out for it
soon,  we're planning a race night/disco/quiz sort of thing to raise some
money, and the whole world is invited!!

It just remains for me to thank everyone who took part in one of the best
weekends I've had in ages, I'm up at 3 in the morning doing this because I
haven't settled down yet, I'm still totally hyper!!!! You were all brilliant
company, a great laugh and a great night out, as well as giving it
everything on the football pitch. We donated £80 to the Worldnet charity, to
buy a motorised wheelchair for a boy with cerebral palsy and leukaemia - a
great show, not matched by any other team so I'm told. Here's to future
Parscelona success - take care, and see you all VERY soon.