Ticket £37-50
Coach £45
Hotel £42
Provisions £2-35
Service food £7-39
Papers £1-90
Pie and tea £7-10
Programme £6
Snacks £1-94
Breakfast £7-95
Total £159-13
Cards on the table. I planned this game in primarily to gain more caps/points for next year's European Championship. A mid week international in November is not something I'd normally relish.
Events on the preceding Friday - while we were en route to Horsham - meant the game took on a different complexion. The match became a symbolic act of defiance and unity against terrorism, so I was anticipating this more than before.
I took half a day's leave and caught the coach down from Manchester Chorlton Street. As it turned out there were only 6 passengers alighting! The driver was buoyant and had a rather eccentric sense of humour - one of his jokes was 'here's a rubbish bag...actually it's not rubbish it's quite a good bag'.
We arrived around 6:30, and after nearly leaving my ticket on the coach I headed straight in. As I had no plans for food I ended up forking out for a chicken balti pie and tea inside. A rare change from tuna sandwiches!
After the stadium attempted to sing Le Marseillaise pre KO, the game got underway. France are something of an unknown quantity at present, with several lesser known players. They are one of the favourites for Euro 2016, despite having only played friendlies since Brazil. Immediately the big names stepped forward, with early runs and efforts from Martial and Cabaye. England's best early chance came when Rooney squared to Sterling, who again misfired. Delle Ali initially looked a bit nervous on his debut, losing the ball a couple of times. Rooney - now on 50 goals - then fired over with a rasping drive. Then Ali rifled in a superb and accurate effort into the top corner to make it 1-0. I was impressed that he'd overcome initial nerves to score on his debut.
If I'm honest the second half fell a bit flat. The early emotions of the game seemed to have left France a bit drained. England doubled their lead when Rooney scored on 47 minutes. We then continued to dominate the midfield, with Ali in particular producing great passing and tackling.
France to be fair carved out the best goal scoring opportunities. First Pogba's long range strike found the roof of the net and then Jack Butland foiled Martial when he sauntered clean through. I heard more than one person around me say that Liverpool should go in for Butland in the transfer window. Pogba then had another half chance on 89 minutes, firing over again. So 2-0 to England, on a night when football was secondary to politics. This may well be my last Wembley game before the Euros next year.
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