England's 3rd and final group game took us to St Etienne - a large town / small city to the south of Lyon. The lack of available hotels in St Etienne meant most people were either staying in Lyon or doing a long day trip from Paris.
We were based in Lyon and took a relatively straightforward train which took half an hour. Friends of hours were not so lucky with their planned trip down from Paris. A security alert at Gare de Lyon (confusingly the name of a large Paris station!) meant they had to leave the train platform and evacuate along with everybody else. Sadly it appeared nobody had told the train driver, as he pulled out of Platform Neuf bang on time. With an empty train!!
"When's the next train garçon?"
"In three hours time Monsieur". Cracking.
Upon arrival at St Etienne station we grabbed a copy of the excellent Free Lions to read up on their recommendations for the day's refreshments. If you've never been to an England away game before, Free Lions is a small booklet in the style of a programme. It's produced by the Football Supporters Federation who do a superb job representing England fans at home and abroad. Their work covers a lot of different aspects of the "away trip experience" and they visit venues for all England games in advance of the masses. Each Free Lions includes a 3 or 4 page guide of the city - where to drink, where to eat, local customs to be aware of, places to avoid etc etc.
We arrived about half 12 and took our usual approach of walking away from the masses drinking around the station and main square. Every bar seemed to be worryingly closed - not normally a concern at lunchtime but with the media reports of "no beer on sale on match days" there were a few mutterings of discontent! Fortunately one of the eagle eyed members of the group spotted a ropey looking bar opening their shutters in readiness for a 1pm opening and all was well with the world again.
At least it was until the barmaid started pouring our Kronenbourg's in to plastic glasses!! Fortunately a passionate charm offensive paid off and the plastic was quickly replaced with a solid glass vessel. Everybody happy, most boxes ticked, we had found a decent spot to enjoy the afternoon sunshine until leaving for the stadium later.
As usual we were expecting a painful entrance to the stadium so booked taxis relatively early. Our cab driver must have had some genius local knowledge and dropped us off on the edge of an industrial estate which resulted in the easiest entrance to a game all tournament. As kick off approached though, nobody else from our group of a dozen was in the ground. What we heard from them and others would suggest the organisation was a shambles so our taxi driver had definitely looked after us well.
So on to the game. I've been to a few England games over the years but I don't think I can remember coming away from one feeling so angry. I know the stats say we had 29 shots. And I know we did all the attacking. And maybe I'm being irrational. But the team selection (Alli & Rooney out and 2 unfit midfielders in) and my perception of a lack of urgency to find a winner really angered me.
I've written before how crucial winning the group was for the ease of travel arrangements. As it turns out, it was even more crucial for the potential future opponents. Paris on a Saturday is cheap and involves 0 days off work for most. Nice on a Monday is expensive and 2 days off work.
Despite having a ticket for the game in Nice, and travel arrangements that were flexible at a cost, I came away from the Slovakia game so angry that I have decided not to spend another 4 days away from the wife and kids. Unsurprisingly, spending so much time following England doesn't come without the occasional grumble at home. Nothing serious of course, but for the first time I find myself not wanting to go to an England game.
Of course, disappointment is par for the course when following England. Be that in the ground or on the TV. I've seen us knocked out of every tournament since 2004. But much to the shock of my family(!), on Monday I'll be watching on TV.
It will be interesting to see how many England fans turn up in Nice. It has split our group - 9 have tickets but only 4 are going. There will be thousands of fans in France without tickets though so I hope they can get hold of the ones that go unused.
I fully expect us to win 8-0 in the most complete, total football performance ever. And I'll love it if we do. We've taken a gamble and booked travel to Paris already so hopefully normal service will be resumed next weekend...my liver hopes so, it's getting Kronenbourg withdrawal symptoms...