Looks like 2025 will be peak Rayo.
Last season’s eighth place brought them European experience in the shape of Conference League, er, glory.
And a visit from North Macedonia hotshots Shkendija, who hail from Tetovo in the east, near the border with Kosovo.
At 11.30pm I bumped into Porthmadog man about town Tommie Collins under the monstrous statue of Alexander the Great (see above) and said I thought we’d played well.
A not untypical torrent of, er, extreme disagreement came back my way and Tommie – ruddy about the face – got even ruddier it seemed in the dark, and strode off. Nice off-pink jacket by the way, Mr Collins, where can I get one?
Perhaps he was right. Perhaps I was. Perhaps we were both right.
Continue reading Karma chameleons – North Macedonia 1 Wales 1
Is it crisis over now? And finally there’s been an outbreak of trust and hugs and kisses all round? Did the FA say to Chris Coleman in the communal showers after: “We were always going to keep you, Cookie – this was a test.”
I hope so. And I think it’s the least he deserves. We can all move on then. To new Welsh football fiascos and debacles. Or maybe with the world’s most expensive footballer in our ranks and Britain’s best player (Ramsey) we can finally achieve something concrete.
Time was, when the surreal stuff, the weird and wonderfully wacky ways of Welsh fans were the defining characteristic of a trip and indeed, the sole reason for going. Away games were the closest we might get to a journey to Mars or being in a rock band.
I can remember the concierge of Baku’s Hotel Grot, as it should have been called, asking me: “Why your friends throw TV from 16th floor window?” He wouldn’t have understood the answer: “Because they’re from Bala.”
Continue reading Monty Python and the Holy Bale – Macedonia 2 Wales 1
Miles from Nowhere 