Hardy(T)'s World Soccer Diary

10/6/96, Newcastle, England.
Euro 96

France 1 (Dugarry)
Romania 0
Att: 26,323 at St James' Park, Newcastle.

The day started fairly inauspiciously as John insisted on taking me to see the redevelopment works at Turf Moor, Burnley! However, we soon moved onto greater things as a short trip across the Pennines and up the A1(M) took us to the Geordie soccer hotbed, St. James' Park. But first, time to check out the Eurofest 96 Welcome Village! Not quite in the same league as the excellent More Than A Game exhibition at Leeds the previous day, the organisers in Newcastle had set up some minor amusements to keep the visiting fans' minds off beating each other senseless: a funfair; the (sadly, not very good) FSA Embassy; a brilliant game of 'kick a ball really hard at a copper while he measures how fast the ball is flying towards his head with a radar gun'; and a huge beer tent with a massive screen showing the other Euro 96 games. We had a few beers and watched Scotland somehow hang on for a 0-0 draw v. Holland.

 

After all that excitement, we made our way into St. James' Park. It was just as impressive inside as out, despite us having seats in the 'old' stand. Worth every penny of the £45 the FA had hoodwinked us out of... not. Onto the game. Before the kick-off there's a major faux pas as the Dutch flag rather than the French flag is paraded around the ground. The French fans surrounding us are understandably furious and much booing and hissing ensues. Tee hee! In a repeat of the previous day's play, the French play all the fancy football, but have no direction. The Romanians just sit back and soak up the pressure, leaving Hagi to produce the occasional piece of inspiration. Unfortunately their defence plays out a comedy of errors and contrives to concede surely the softest goal of Euro 96, scored by Dugarry.

 

Ridiculous UEFA policy prevents us making it a hat-trick of matches the next day, as we are unable to buy tickets on the day for the Croatia-Turkey game at the City Ground, Nottingham. Can anyone explain why? The organisers couldn't when I phoned them to complain. Rules is rules. Pretty soon after I was on the ferry from Tynemouth to Bergen in Norway to watch the rest of Euro 96 in the pubs of Scandinavia...

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