Only
1 Days
Until WorldNet
We Are Leaving Today!!!!!! So . . . As the nation waits for success in the Ashes, for Tim Henman to win Wimbledon and as West London awaits the Brentford-QPR games, 28 Brentford Supporters await their World Cup, WorldNet 2001! WorldNet is coming and it about a week away, excitement is rife as we await what could be the biggest challenge in our football lives, to gain success!
For us, the 28 who go as Brentfords representitives in the supporters competition, we aim to gain pride, in a competition where we are nothing but underdogs. If either 'Hey Jude Brentford' or 'NTW Brentford' get to the real competition we will bring back pride to West London like the pride the nation could experience if our nation wins the Ashes or if Henman wins Wimbledon!
COME ON BRENTFORD!! Phil Marchant Explains His Preparation for WorldNet.
WorldNet Build-Up 2001
It was Wycombe away when I was approached about playing in WorldNet. Paul Griffiths knew I played Sunday League, however I was honest and told him that I wasn't particularly good. It turned out that this was ideal, so I was in! It wasn't until after my Sunday season ended that I made my debut for the Hey Jude team, versus Glasgow Rangers' Inter Bears. The 1st half performance was promising, but unfortunately heads dropped when the opponents started the second half with a couple of quick goals.
The Charlton tournament demonstrated again that we had potential. A narrow loss to a physical Gooners team, was followed by a crucial single-goal defeat to the Coventry lads, a series of missed chances costing us dear. But they were a good set of lads, who like us didn't care much for the over physical tactics, so we wished them well against the Gooners. More of this banter to follow at WorldNet I suspected. Our interest in the tournament was ended with a 3-0 defeat against one of our more regular opponents, the "super-hooped" ASB, a good side with decent lads. Lets just hope that the real QPR don't follow suit in the league: COME ON YOU BEES!!!!
A groin injury (won't tell you how I did it!) has kept me out since then, but a professional WorldNet preparation is very important to me so I have done plenty of stretching and lifting to keep my body in tip-top shape. You know the sort of thing: stretch arm, lift pint, develop beer belly. To be honest though, I think I may have been preparing too hard, overdoing it to the point that I can hardly get out of bed for most of the next day. A bit of fine-tuning is required so that I will actually be able to run, or at least just stand up for half an hour. If that is not possible, I guess I could position myself and my duvet on the goal-line and stick my leg out when required (goal-line clearances were my specialty against ASB).
I will be completing my preparations in this final week before the main event. The first stage is shopping, but not of the girly sort of course. Top of the list is drugs. But no nandralone for me, I'm talking Nurofen, rehydration sachets, Alka Seltzer (didn't he used to play for Arsenal?) and hay fever tablets, even though it'll probably rain oop North and there'll be no pollen. Just in case the sun is shining I'll take some sun block spray to make sure my baldy head doesn't get burnt! Next up I'll get some compression shorts (similar to cycling shorts - does my bum look big in this?) to help my injury. A couple of gym trips will then lead me nicely into a couple of well-earnt beers on Thursday, purely for acclimatisation purposes you'll understand.
So in exactly five days from now (checks watch) I should be in a cab heading from Leeds station to the field of dreams/nightmares. The waiting will be over and the bar will be open. I'm hoping for various things from this tournament: a good laugh with all the Hey Jude boys, good banter with fans from the other clubs, determined performances with some decent results from our two teams, and avoiding being sick on the pitch. I'm sure that after the tournament I will be hoping for just two things: the next WorldNet to come round quickly, and 24-hours kip!
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