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Dublin Hammers Trip - Tottenham - Sunday 4th May 2025

West Ham United 1 vs Tottenham 1

Another early flight for the Dublin Hammers trip to see the Spurs game – mind you it was 5 minutes later than the last official DH trip… 6.30am, I didn’t think anyone was awake at that hour of the day, never mind travelled! Anyway, we all met in the bar for the early morning tactical discussions… and a drink.

The call went up and we all headed to the gate for the flight – which left on time. As we were scattered throughout the plane it was a quiet enough flight – that and the fact that Gary wasn’t with us. At Stanstead we met up with the west of Ireland contingent, Eugene and Chris, and headed to the bus to meet our executive coach to take us to Romford.

Bad News laid out the plans for the weekend while we made our way to Romford – a trip to the Valley to see Charlton Athletic vs Burton Albion, a night out in Romford, a bag drop in the Bull at 11.00am next day, the match and then back to the Bull to meet the coach for the home journey. It was time to synchronise your watches!!

Once we got to Romford, we dropped off our bags in the hotel and headed for breakfast locally. Once that was finished we checked our watches to make sure we were still on schedule and headed to a Wetherspoons in Romford, then up to the roof terrace area where we could enjoy a drink or two – they do online ordering in Wetherspoons which means you don’t have to get up off your fat arse to get a drink... genius!

It was then time for the travelling party to head to south London – discussions were had at executive level to see was it better to go by train or taxi... the train won out so we all followed Paul Smith.

It took us about an hour or more to get there and as we headed up to the ground in beautiful sunshine we kept our eyes open for a watering hole. As we got nearer the ground we decided to ask two policemen on crowd control duty for local information. It turned out they weren’t local and hadn’t a Scooby doo about local pubs. In fairness to them they did google it for us and suggested we head to one located back past the way we had come. So we all turned around and made our way to this oasis in south London, only to be told they were full when we got there... BUGGER!

Back we went, passing the two lads who had given us directions and they apologised for sending us there. They did tell us that there was a bar in the ground at the back of the stand so on we headed. Now this was perfect as we were able to have a drink or two or three at the back of the main stand in the sunshine. Then we got a message from Chris... “Where are you?”... turned out he went to the Supporters Bar outside the ground.

As the day got hotter and hotter, members took off jackets and sweaters revealing an array of West Ham tattoos, but nobody paid us much attention until walking back to the station, a WPC was overheard reporting a group of West Ham fans into her radio!

The Valley is a really lovely ground with a superb pitch and we had booked great seats. The game was very entertaining and especially as Charlton conceded an early penalty for a bizarre backpass within the first 15 minutes. The comeback was on and they eventually ran out 3-1 winners with Conor Coventry putting in a MOTM performance. Burton had Finn Delap, son of Rory and younger brother of Liam, playing in defence for them – I don’t think he’ll be getting a call up any time soon!

We left the game before the final whistle in order to beat the crowd heading to the train station – that didn’t work out as planned as we missed the earlier train we had planned on getting. Following a 'Japanese style' train packing exercise in Liverpool Street we eventually made it back to Romford – watching Liam board the train ahead of everyone else confirmed to us that come the apocalypse our Liam will be first in line for saving!

Back at the hotel it was time to prepare for the Big Night Out. Now, The Drill pub in Gidea Park had contacted Bad News and suggested that we go to their pub on Saturday night for drinks, karaoke and a DJ. We duly obliged and in no time at all we were up doing our party pieces led by the President himself with Human. He was followed by the usual suspects of Tommy, Dessie, Liamo, Eugene (with a Steely Dan number), Chris and the star of the show Bad News, who managed to do both the male and female lead vocals on 'Don’t You Want Me'. The bar owners were delighted and 2 trays of free shots were delivered. In fairness without us there singing the place would have been a bit like the famous Father Ted disco.

At one stage the DJ requested that whoever was farting on the dancefloor to refrain from doing it... and no we don’t think it was Liamo as he was located too far away from the contaminated area. Last song of the night was the Fields of Athenry where the DJ opted to turn off the microphone that he handed to Chris. The bar owner dropped a load of us back to the hotel in his minibus and it was straight to sleep.

I heard next day that a few hardy souls had gone to Yates but I’m glad I had the good sense to give it a miss.

Breakfast next morning was in the hotel for most of us and then check out and head to the Bull with our bags. I have to admit I did have a senior moment when we got to the train station and asked the lad on the barriers which was the platform to Romford... cue plenty of laughter from everyone in Romford station!

Anyway despite being 30 minutes behind schedule for dropping our bags off in the Bull we didn’t suffer the wrath of Liamo for our tardiness. A few pints later and it was time to head to the ground to see the game. We took our seats in the Billy Bonds stand and watched 90+ minutes of poor football – they weren’t kidding when they billed it as 'El Crappio! West Ham started the game well and had all the possession only to go a goal behind following comical defending. Thankfully Bowen rescued us again on the half hour with a goal from a tight angle. We have to be better than this next season or we will go down.

After the game we headed back to the Bull for a few drinks before boarding the mini-bus back to Stanstead. A poll had been taken as to the travelling party member’s drink of choice – lager or cider. Naturally someone changed their mind and took a lager, that caused uproar with our Liam who was left with an excess amount of cider! I understand this issue will be on the agenda for the forthcoming AGM. In the airport we headed to the bar for the last few before the flight and then it was time to head to the gate. Again, it was a quiet flight as we all quietly reflected on what had happened over the two days.

The biggest story had to be Tommy Norton setting up the Dublin Addicks Supporters Club – meetings to take place in Noctors in Sheriff Street on Tuesday nights!

As ever it was great laugh... a big thanks to Tom Jones for organising the trip, the President for the quizzes and jokes, Bad News for keeping everything going and Liamo for being a thundering...!

Special thaks to Gerry Murtagh for writing the report. The photos are from everyone! back to top of page