PARTY TIME IN NEWCASTLE
We had a great night out - as did players from four other clubs
FOOTBALL is a very small world and that was certainly true last weekend when the players of FIVE clubs celebrated their Christmas parties in the same place - The Gate at Newcastle.
We were certainly the best-dressed - as you can see from these pictures - and at least it wasn't as bad as last year, when we went to Leeds and found another TEN clubs celebrating!
We certainly enjoyed our night out in Newcastle and I can't remember anything too awful. It's hard to get up to too much trouble when you're dressed as a 6ft 4in Christmas tree (Ian Evatt), a ballet dancer in pink tutu and matching hair (skipper Rob Edwards) or a fortune-teller (me).
The worst part of the trip was the three-hour coach journey back to Blackpool the next morning. The toilet looked like some terrible bush-tucker trial from I'm A Celebrity.
Most of the night out was paid for with the fines the gaffer has collected this season.
He fines us for things like a red card, being late on match days, being late for training or having no flip flops on in the shower.
If you're late for training it's £20 plus £1 a minute after that. If someone feels hard done by, they can appeal to the committee (Gary Taylor-Fletcher), but they risk the fine being doubled and no-one has ever won an appeal!
When I was at Stockport, we used to get fined £10 a minute for being late. Ricky Lambert was once 45 minutes late and had to make a very good contribution to the Christmas fund!
We got all the partying out of our system in training on Tuesday when the gaffer ran us into the ground. We've had a Spanish trialist this week and he was not impressed with our hungover state.
He's been trying to kick chunks out of us all week and even mentioned that a few of the team were too fat. Now that's the way to integrate yourself.
On Thursday, seven of us went to visit Brian House, a children's hospice in Blackpool, which put all our problems in perspective.
While we stood around feeling sorry for them, they were full of smiles.
I think it's important these sorts of places get the publicity and money they deserve.
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