Pre Season Friendlies 2024

Whose to say the Irish leg is for football, could be a Guinness tour followed by the whiskey trail :wink:

I think a few hundred would go to Ireland. Just a short flight or train/boat. Several teams are located in the Dublin area; Bohemians, Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers then a train ride to Drogheda. Nice little tour that, plenty of pubs to choose from.

I used to live an hour from Birmingham and 3 hours from Atlanta (Birmingham to Atlanta is a couple of hours). It’s a bit sleepy a place to live, but a great area to visit.

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Do you mean more north Walsall rather than south? :grin:

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And do you mean North Walsall or Bloxwich? I know my Mom was appalled when they opened the new cemetery off the Stafford Rd and called it North Walsall Cemetery.

Would imagine the US trip will be a training camp, with a couple of low key friendlies with local sides we’ve never heard of.

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I wonder how those cretins, wearing our our shirts, who sing, ‘F the Pope and the IRA’, will get on as they burst into song? With any luck the morons won’t be coming home.

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IF we’re going to the States, surely the club would have announced that by now. It’s almost June, most fans would have booked their holidays.
Plus, the USA trip will not be cheap, it will also be exhausting especially if it’s only a week.
I’ll believe it when it’s announced - this time next year, if we achieve promotion.

A quite superb post.

There should be no cloak and daggers about a trip to the US of A, in fact its something we should be proud of and give every opportunity to our supporters to attend if they wish. The fact it’s already the latter half of May and this trip would have to take place on only just over a month leads me to treat this rumour with a certain amount of cirspection. Still absolutely delighted the Solihull friendly looks like it’s on again. Always a highlight of pre season and another bumper away audience sure to follow us there.

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Didn’t realise that was a thing at Walsall :rofl:

Always thought there were lots of Irish in birmingham and as result thought the people would be “Irish friendly”. When to Everton v Villa a good few years ago in goodison, was in Villa end as was catching up with a friend who was a Villa season ticket holder. Was surprised that there was a bit of anti Irish sentiment in the pub beforehand!!

Though have been to Birmingham since a couple of time and had no hassle.

If there is a friendly with us, there’ll be no concerns for tickets. A friendly against Walsall in the middle of our season wouldn’t be much of a draw (no offence!!), so tickets won’t be a problem

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It’s a hangover from England and Rangers fans flirtations 20 odd years ago, a time when some Rangers fans would wear England shirts all the " No surrender" chants" and such like. Pure bollox.

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In all honesty Wheelodrog the people who sing said song probably don’t have the nous to understand its relevance.
Birmingham and indeed the West Midlands as a whole have a very proud Irish contingent and personally I have had the pleasure of fabulous Irish neighbours and work colleagues over the years.
The one elephant in the room of course is the pub bombings of 1974 ( Mulberry Bush & Tavern in the Town) although the majority of the local Irish population was, I am sure, as appalled as the rest of us.
As a footnote, I used to drink quite regularly in the Tavern in the Town which was a below street level establishment; I cannot begin to comprehend the devastation of a bomb going off in those surroundings.

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I remember anti Irish sentiment in the 70’s because of the Birmingham pub bombings.

I hope those violent days never return.

Hear hear!

Accommodation could well be an issue around Drogheda.
The largest hotel in town isn’t accepting bookings.

@Wheelodrog do you have room on your sofa?
How many sofas do you have?

It is amazing really how religion and sectarianism has progressed through the ages, and can still be witnessed today ,we spent 4 days in York last year, and tried to do as many tours as we could.
The " Mad Alice bloody tour of York" being the highlight, we found out that Guy Fawkes was actually a Protestant, and after seeing the horrible death of Catholic Margaret Clitheroe, who was pressed to death on Ooze bridge for harbouring Catholic priests, he went to join the Spanish army in the Netherlands, where he gained his explosive skills and converted to Catholicism.
After he was caught, he was tortured for days, never giving up his conspirators, and was sentenced to be hung drawn and quartered, but managed to cheat the horrible death by jumping off the scaffold and breaking his neck.
Nowadays us Protestants(church of England) are much more agreeable to our Catholic friends :joy: :wink:

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Of all the crap to be tired off the more your an adult, sectarianism is up there.

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It is something that never entered my head while at school, but then you get exposed to it as an adult? it’s mad

Some folk just need a tit to suck on for their entire life. Thats all it is.

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A friend once explained to me why there was no equivalent chant among Celtic fans. ‘F… the Chief Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland’ just didn’t have the same resonance.