Dublin Hammers Trip - Crystal Palace - Play-Off Final - Saturday 29th May 2004

West Ham 0 vs Crystal Palace 1.

With 20 Dublin Hammers travelling for the game, the trip almost had the billing of an official club trip. Eddie and Charlie were on their way from 2:00 pm on Friday by train and boat, most others travelled on the 7:05 flight to Bristol. Well done Eddie and Charlie for getting on to Sky News on Saturday and thanks for collecting the tickets. Pat Mahon deserves tremendous credit for taking on the role of coach driver to ferry 21 Hammers from Bristol to Cardiff and back again. Well done Pat!

The build up was superb with an air of optimism on the Bus, the nearer we got to Cardiff the bigger the winning margin was becoming (were we wrong or what). Straight to the Walkabout Bar to see what its like to have 2,000 hammers all in one boozer... what an experience.

We hit the stadium around 2:00 and the West Ham fans were outsinging Palace already. The game was a poor advert for West Ham but we must move on and start all over again next season.

Back to the walkabout and then to the coach, by 7:00pm we were singing again, Gerry O Keefe and Fran Ryan should form a comedy double act... fair play to them for lifting the spirits. We managed to recruit new Dublin Hammer members on the trip, one from Boston, yes, he travelled from Boston for this so we couldn't leave him off the bus, Jer if your back in Boston reading this we'll see you soon.

Back to Jurys on Saturday night and we were joined by some Drogheda Hammers and Northern Ireland Hammers, a good night was had by everyone despite the result. We were then joined by a stag party from guess where... yes White Hart Lane... It's not funny... gloating shower of tossers!

Sunday and we're only 364 days away from next years play off final, the post mortems were beginning and the reality of another year in obscurity for our well supported club. Keep the faith and keep blowing those bubbles... We'll be back!

Report by Brian O'Flaherty.