Source: FOOTYMAD
Drayton Park: Day Three
One day to go and the pub was open for business. The party started at 12 o'clock as Ray Winchester, Dave, Donna Winchester, Chris and Darren were the first group through the door. They were also the last to leave at midnight. The Scottish Sun had their bus parked outside since 11am and nobody could miss that on Saturday which proved to be a little different from the usual Saturday when Arsenal do not have a game. The lion rampant was proudly flying outside the Drayton Park (AKA the Drayton Arms) and landlord Mark Kitson, his wife Margaret and the their staff were girding their collective loins ahead of the two day celebration of football as Scotland prepare to take on Brazil on Sunday at the Emirates. Ted Christopher arrived just around 12:30 after his gig in Scotland which ened at 1am and warmed up his throat for his show at 17:00 after the Wales - England game. The Wales game was on at the same time as I heading to the Emirates to collect my press pass and watch the Brazilians training session. I have no idea how the crowd reacted to the 0-2 reverse for the home side but there were a few disappointed journalists watching the game in the spacious and luxurious Arsenal press complex. Juice, fresh coffee, tea, hot chocolate, biscuits and as many laptop bays as you could think of. The press box inside the stadium holds 80 all with Arsenal TV terminals to capture the replays. The press conference was bi-lingual with two channels available for instant translation. The Brazilian coach Mano Menezes was relaxed as he know that what he had available was of a rather higher quality than that at Craig Levein's disposal. Menezes admitted he expects a tough test for his side against Scotland but believes the team he has selected will be fully capable of picking up a victory. Levein when he came to speak to the media only attracted a token Brazilian whereas there must have been around 40 of them for the previous session. While Menezes was happy to name his team, Levein was reticent to follow suit and was pointed in his put down of Chick Young's persistence in trying to get clues to the line up. After the press conference it was back to the Drayton Park (AKA the Drayton Arms) to see that Ted Christopher had whipped the crowd into a frenzy of sing-a-longs and wild exhibitions of dancing. Just what had I left myself in for on the Sunday? The place was jumping with the doormen rightly bemused by the antics of the early arrivals from the Tartan Army. The dancing was getting crazier and crazier by the time Ryan Milo took over on the decks. How they kept going I will never know.
