The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Following dark horses the magnificent Saints in the land of the £10 pint!
TONIGHT’S THE night. Rosenborg Ballklub are coming to Perth from Norway, either to avenge themselves against St Johnstone or to discover that despite their bright blue strips, Saints are dark horses. We’ll be there en famille.
So my mind goes back to last week in Trondheim. I am sitting upstairs in a so-called “English pub” called the Three Lions, which has been totally de-anglicised by the arrival and virtual flash-mobbing of Saints fans. Downstairs it is wallto-wall blue and the chatter is deafening.
Of course, three lions is two too many for us. To mark the pubs’ takeover by Scots, the outside is hung with two banners, the St Johnstone flag linked with one from Eskisehirspor (Es Es), the Turkish club with whom – to judge from a shufti at website exchanges – Saints fans now seem to have a permanent love-in. (A lthough, of course, their club beat us at the same stage last year.)
The ceiling and walls of the upstairs room where I am sitting is decorated with significant fitba’ quotes. There’s “Once a blue, always a Blue” (Wayne Rooney) who once played for Everton but has moved on, despite that. There’s “I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business, but I was in the top one” (Brian Clough).
But this is the one that has particular relevance. “We didn’t underestimate them. They were just a lot better than we thought” (Bobby Robson). Perish the thought that Rosenborg underestimated Saints, but they still didn’t expect to go down 0-1 on their home turf.
For the Ballklub is a klub with a pedigree, winning the Norwegian league 22 times, winning nine national cup titles and playing more UEFA ties than any other team in their nation. They have a budget, some pundit wrote, 20 times greater than St Johnstone’s. So of course, we are all quietly confident . . .
A drop of beer helps. But we are in the land of the £10 pint. I suppose this is Norway’s answer to problem drinking, but it just makes the problem more expensive. The fans weather the financial storm by simply getting on with what they do best and damn the morrow – although one tells us his life savings have gone.
For we are here not to skulk mournfully with soda water (you wouldn’t believe the price of soda water either) but to support our boys in the traditional fashion come what may. A nd come it did.
But a word here of praise for the Three Lions. The owner, a clued-up gent in fitba’ mores, declared a 20% discount on beer and burgers for the travelling support.
It kept his pub jam-packed for days while the nearby Macbeth’s, calling itself a “Scottish Pub”, stayed almost empty.
Too bad. What Shakespeare wrote in that very Scottish play: “What’s done is done.” The high-spending Saints supporters have gone, to lick their wallets and their credit cards.
So when the time comes for action, we progress through the streets of Trondeim to the suburbs where stands the Lerkendal Stadion. We find ourselves crammed into a small corner which, as it turns out, is great for creating a concentrated noise. A nd when we score the noise and the antics beggar belief.
Next day the city’s main newspaper tells us “Far tre dager fri etter europafadesen” and while we don’t know what it means exactly, we catch the drift. There were consequences. One of our party, who goes out clubbing afterwards to celebrate, buys two bottles of champagne at £60 a pop.
A t least, so I am told. I am actually too tired to take part, or too emotional. I am in bed.
Our hotel on Trondheim’s spectacular riverfront is brilliant, despite being remodelled while still in operation.
Maybe it’s a surprise to open the room curtains in the morning and see an engineer in a hard hat staring down at you from the glass roof.
But when the work is done, it will be a spectacular building – five glass-sheathed towers among the ancient, tall, woodenbuilt warehouses of past centuries.
Beautiful Trondheim is not afraid of modern architecture, when it complements its traditional stance, looking outwards towards the sea.
You can’t help feeling the confidence of this Nordic nation. But as this first leg of the UEFA league tie demonstrates, confidence is not everything.
Can we be better than they, or anyone else thought?
Tonight, we’ll find out.