Euro shock as easy as 1,2,3... just don’t ask to produce pee
Blood, sweat and tears. Windsor Park answered the call for a Champions League classic – only for Ben Hall to come up short answering the call of nature.
The ex- Motherwell and Falkirk man had just basked in one of his most special moments in the game as Northern Irish champions Linfield stunned Bodo/Glimt 1- 0 in the f irst leg of the second qualifying round.
And yet, as the place erupted on Tuesday after he’d helped contain a side that beat Celtic and Roma last season, Hall was locked out of the wild celebrations.
Instead, he was faced with another marathon challenge – giving the standard drug testers a urine sample.
Given their one- goal cushion, the 25- year- old allowed himself to laugh at how the night unfolded as David Healy’s side prepare for Wednesday’s return leg.
Kirk Mil lar’s exquisite chip seven minutes from time, which the entire place thought was going wide judging by the noise, had Hall tending to team-mates in tears – or at least so it seemed.
The centre-back said: “The two of them jumped over the top of the celebrations, over the huddle, and ended up head-butting each other.
“One was on the f loor concussed, the other was trying to stop the blood p**hing out his nose.
“It was everywhere on Twit ter, ever yone else noticed it. It was quite funny.
“All the fans were buzzing but I don’t know what it was like in the changing room because I had to go straight down the tunnel and do the doping test. I was stuck in there for a couple of hours trying to give a sample.
“I think I was the last one out, I didn’t leave the stadium until 20 past 11 or something.
“There’s a cer tain amount of u r ine you have to pass and because I was dehydrated after the game, I couldn’t get enough out! So I p**sed once, didn’t get enough... p** sed twice, didn’t get enough... and then eventually the third time I had enough.
“My car school mate was sitting waiting in the car park for two hours, raging with me.
“So it was a long night but it would have been worse had we got beat.
“It wasn’t the worst night and no, I won’t forget it.”
From a doomed attempt to get Falkirk out of League One to playing in Europe, these past six months have restored happiness in a player who’s struggled for stability since his big move south from Fir Park to Brighton failed to take off.
He said: “It is a bit mad when you think of it like that but it’s football, isn’t it? It changes so quickly and thankfully, since I left Falkirk, things have gone better.
“When I first came in, I was probably a bit of damaged goods. Confidence was drained out of me from the first six months of the season and it took me a bit of time to get up to where I am now.
“But I wouldn’t have been able to do that if it wasn’t for the gaffer because he probably played me at times when I shouldn’t have played and put his trust in me.”
Come through in Norway and Linfield will be the first side from Northern Ireland to reach the groups of a UEFA competition, with the Conference League clinched.
Hall added: “There is a lot on the line financially for the club and it would be a chance to make history
as well.”