Source: FOOTYMAD
From Our Man In South Africa
The problems of following England Saturday - well it started badly when the eight seater bus we'd booked wasn't available and it took an hour to negotiate a ten seater and not the two cars that we were offered for the six of us. So two hours after we intended to depart we set off for the marathon drive to Rustenburg which the locals said would be about 7.5 hours. The scenery was something to behold, the mountains were stunning in the sunshine and the drive went well......we arrived about 20Kms outside of Rustenburg inside 7 hours having made good time whilst being careful of all the speed cameras. However from this point on, the organisation was woeful, with the game kicking off at 8.30pm SA time, it took us two hours to travel 18Kms and we only just made it into the ground as the game kicked off so sadly we couldn't say what the atmosphere was like beforehand as we didn't see any! Having said that the locals had lined the streets and even with our dash to the ground this helped to make the evening better as they are so happy to see all the visitors and play their own part of the world cup. Inside the ground there was a mix of supporters but I'd say that at least 80% of the crowd were England supporters, which seemed to be proven as Gerrard put the ball into the net at the opposite end to where we were. Yes we went mad but almost straight away we were all saying to each other that we needed another goal but little did we know how & where this would come from. You'll have seen more detail on this than we did but suffice to say that the surprise that Joe Hart didn't start the game became more apparent from the terraces throughout the game, and the way the Americans celebrated at the end said it all for them, a huge result.So back to the car and the journey straight back to Durban, and boy was that tough - but we eventually got back at about 9am. Yesterday (Monday) we went to the mall opposite the B&B and what happened? we got speaking to a lady there who was only born in Coventry - Malvern road no less...she left Coventry in 1952 but this just seemed to prove how small the world can be which was proven more later when sitting in the sunshine outside a bar in Umhlanga and our waitress we found out was born in Tile Hill - Janine was her name and an amazing and unique character. The night before we went into Durban to soak up the atmosphere before the Germany V Aussie game and the organisation there was the polar opposite to what we experienced in Rustenburg, and the new stadium here is a sight to behold - it is nothing short of superb with the shape simulating a sharks jaw, stunning. Important bit of info is that a pint is 15 rand which is about 1 pound 30 pence, quality....Covsupport New Service's Steve Barnett is a City and England supporter.
