Didn't we have a lovely time the day City went to pieces (part 1)

I arrived at the Plymouth station at 11.30 am only five hours after waking up in that London startled by a dream involving Alex Ferguson and John Aloisi. It was a fantastically sunny day so I strolled through Plymouth's Festival of Britain style shopping precinct (a much nicer one than Cov's) taking the odd random picture (a plastic bag motif to echo Kev's from an earlier post).

My plan was to visit the front (or Hoe as the Devonians call it) to get some pictures of the inevitable armada paraphernalia and then get to the ground early enough to take pictures of the players as they got off the team coach. And then the first twist of the day,there outside a hotel right by the Hoe was:

Now I had a dilemma - should I go further into the hoe (a phrase I am unlikely to use ever again) and risk missing the team board the coach or sit around for ages? It was about 12.15 so I headed briskly to get the key shots of Sir Francis:

I headed back to the team's hotel for a vantage point that frankly did make me look like a stalker. On the train journey I had pitied the train spotters who were taking photos of the trains as they passed through Bristol - now I realised I was being just as spoddy hanging around player spotting. Such are the thoughts that bedraggle you when you are in glorious sunshine with too much time on your hands. Whilst waiting I decided to take some pictures of the surrounds very much with the opening of Blue Velvet in mind -thankfully there were no cockroaches to film to demonstrate the inherent decay beneath the surface of beauty - instead I had an afternoon of sky blue defending to experience to bring home that metaphor.

There was though a wedding immediately opposite the hotel and I recalled John Sillett's nonsense from the cup run about the team always winning when they saw a bride on match day, so hoped this was a lucky omen.

And in a sudden flurry the team came out of the hotel to board the coach:

From this intrepid investigative journalism we learn:
1) Freddy is always on the mobile phone
2) the players have rather posh hand luggage
3) Marcus is always on the lookout for paparazzi
4) Aron wears a hat even when it's hot and has a nifty pair of cans
5) Oggy supplements his football income as a fruit and veg trader.

to be continued...