part one - Nykøbing, Falster.
I was a wee bit apprehensive about going abroad by myself and more than a wee bit shaky after having to get up at half four in order to catch the flight. As soon as I stumbled into Dyce airport though I was immediately surrounded by the entire first team squad plus one or two new faces. Desperately lacking coffee, it took a while to sink in but eventually I realised they were trapped and I could go and speak to any of them, if only I'd been a bit less cool I could have got their autographs too! Anyway I chose Graham Bayne as he's really pretty cute and was easily separated from the rest as he was hiding at the back of the queue. After a wee bit of chat I let him know that the purpose of my trip was to see them play and he congratulated me on my dedication but I could tell he thought I was mad. My seat was right at the back of the plane, behind Ian Black, who I rate highly, and Bryan Prunty, who spent most of the flight eyeing up the Swedish air hostess. My luck was in, Blackie got separated from the rest on the way off the plane and I was straight in there. I managed to stop short of telling him I thought he was amazing, and that we'd be qualifying for Europe if the rest of the team had his vision and skill. I think he might have guessed though. He expressed his determination to score more goals and thanked me for wishing him luck. Nice lad.
 |
Caley Thistle line up before the start of their first ever European match. Nykobing F. Alliancen vs Inverness Caley Thistle, 6 July 2005
photos - Don Taylor |
 |
 |
| Hissy arrives for a blether at half time and inadvertently meets the woman of his dreams | The full Scottish contingent (and some new friends) |
As I was already staying in Nykobing, I was the first to arrive at the ground. Before too long, Jim, who writes for the programme, appearred and then Don, Irene and Peter arrived. We got our Saltires out and discovered that Denmark are so civilised that the beer at football matches is half the price it would be in a pub. Not only that, they supply cardboard five pint carriers so you can get a big round in AND get it safely to your seat! I've since found out the |Danes call them "handbags"And it was only 20 krone to get in, about £1.70. What a country!
As you might expect, much of the first half was spent drinking beer, getting the crack with my fellow fans and shaking hands with the Nykobing fans on their way to or back from the beer stall. A couple of Scottish guys living in Denmark turned up and we barely noticed half time arriving, we were 2-0 down. Oh well, more beer.
Steven Hislop, who has since left us, escaped the half time rollocking from Brew that the starting 11 were getting and came over for a chat. He chatted about the team and we asked him about his recovery from the injuries that had plagued him last year. I watched him being stretchered off at Tynecastle to the sound of Hearts fans booing him as they thought he'd dived, I've never felt so sick at a footie match, he was in so much pain, and not just because he's a Hearts fan himself either. Anyway, it was great of him to spend so much time chatting to us, Brew was shouting him back to the bench as the second half had already started and he was still gibbering on about his addiction to Caleythistleonline. Another nice lad, and instant promotion to the title of favourite player. I also hadn't noticed before how sexy he is - but then that's female footie fans for you, always concentrating on the football instead of noticing the important stuff!
We were a lot more together in the second half and I was drunk enough now to let rip with a couple of "Come on Caleeeeeey" shouts that Ann Nicol would be proud of. I was the winner of the loudest person there competition apparently and the prize - more beer. It obviously helped the team as our wee supersub, Liam Fox managed to score our first ever European goal, to much whooping and cheering. Fantastic! It finished 2-1 and after the match we stayed and chatted to the head guy in NFA's Supporter's Club until we realised the stadium was locked, luckily our new friend had a key..I walked the rest of the guys back to the train station, with plans to meet up in the Hard Rock Cafe in Copenhagen the night before our next match, and wandered back to the hostel with the rosy glow only beer and sexy footballers can give you.
 |
part two - Copenhagen Copenhagen is a very beautiful city, and I wandered about for ages in the searing heat, taking loads of slides and trying to suss out Danish pedestrian crossings. The really busy ones stop traffic every minute for 30 seconds, and when red they have a countdown till the next time they're green. Cool. The less busy ones seem to be every road user for themselves and cars cut in on you even if your light's at green and their light's at red. A bit alarming. The other weird thing was that although there were heaps of dogs about, there was absolutely no dogshit anywhere! Alex arrived on Friday and we did a boat trip (with Touristbundfart) round the harbour and over to Christianshavn. Copenhagen is full of strange designy things like concrete squares with holes in, or fountains made out of scrap metal, in the oddest of places.
|
| We met the other guys as arranged, and after our Hard Rock Cafe experience (the pictures say a thousand words here) we all tripped off down the harbour with a carry out. We even got to see a boat crash! It didn't even matter that there was a Jazz festival on, a good night was had by all. |  |
 |
9th July 2005, FC Nordsjaelland vs Inverness Caley Thistle.
What a scorching hot day, It took ages to walk out to Farum Park from the station and we were all ready for a drink by the time we arrived. It was FREE to get in but they took my bottle of fanta away in case I threw it at someone. |
| My hero Hissy came over to us before the start and told us to expect an unconvential formation, as they had been spying on Nordsjaelland in training and they liked getting the ball wide to the wings. So the team was - Brown, Proctor, Dods, Munro, Hastings, Tokely, Foxy, Black, Golly, Dargo and Brew. Despite the beer you can see I was at least attempting a match report! |
 |
 |
It was totally scorching and we just coped with them for the first 25 minutes or so, they scored from a rebound from a save by Brown and we were all relieved when it was ruled offside. No sooner had Don spotted that Proctor and Tokely had changed places than the ball was up the pitch and in the net, it was all a bit quick and at the opposite end to us so we had to shout to Rossco to tell us who the scorer was! It was David Proctor! Alex modelling the latest in beer chic |
Half the team changed at half time, but we had the better of them and as we settled into our new status of fans of a team that were winning in Europe, the chants got louder and funnier... My favourite was Don's "Come on lads! You're no on holiday now!" Lots of beer passed and then it was the end of the game and time for more beer. We had won 1-0.
 |
 |
| And suddenly they all just started stripping off in front of us... | Russ Abbot makes a surprise appearance |
Alex went to chat up Morten Weighorst while me and Irene celebrated with Malky Thomson and the boys on their warm down, I think I made Malky blush when I congratulated him on teaching me some new swears (as my seat at TCS is just behind the home dugout but most of the Main Stand could hear him, some games it was the best entertainment going!) I succumbed to lack of cool and got a heap of autographs and then security chucked us out we were the last folk in the stadium.
We probably would have been delighted with a draw so to get the win was just tremendous - but it meant the Nordsjaelland fans didnt hang about and chat so we adopted a couple of Bronby fans instead. In the absence of a spare scarf, we gave them my Saltire, but we'll know to go loaded with scarves the next time!
 |
By this point I had Malky Thomson picking stuff off the ground for me and I got some Caley Thistle treasure from him, I must have really embarrassed him with that swearing comment. I had meant it as a compliment too! I met Alastair Fraser, the reporter and as I sat outside half listening to him interviewing Brew, it started raining - it was so hot the rain was evaporating almost as soon as it landed on you. It was a wee bit of Scotland, to celebrate our historic victory! |
 |
 |
| Us at Farum Park | The Team await a night on the town |