The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Diehard fan goes the distance
ST JOHNSTONE superfan, Tom Simpson, has set off on a 10,000 mile odyssey to cheer his heroes in their first European outing for over a decade.
The Perth side take on Turkish team Eskesehirspor tomorrow in a Europa League qualifying first-leg tie.
Tom (26) is currently based in China’s third largest city Guangzhou and will use train, car and plane to get to Turkey, where he will join his equally fanatical dad for a final bus ride to the ground.
The British Chamber of Commerce executive manager, originally from Edinburgh, said there was no way he could miss following Saints in Europe for the first time.
He was just 13 when the McDiarmid men last took to the continent, facing Vaasa of Finland and Monaco in the UEFA Cup, and was too young to attend.
He said: “The distance as the crow flies from my home in Guangzhou to Istanbul is 4903 miles, but as I’ll be going via Hong Kong, which is just over the border, you can add on an extra couple of hundred.
“I’ll be taking the train from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, heading by car from Shenzhen over the border to Hong Kong airport for a seven hour Istanbul.
“I’m meeting my dad, Tom, in Istanbul before catching a bus to Eskisehir.”
The trip has been arranged to celebrate the 60th birthday of Tom senior, who works as a lawyer for Edinburgh based firm HBJ Gateley.
flight to
Tom said: “It could be another decade before Saints are back in Europe, although hopefully we’ll be fighting for the Champions League this season.”
Around 100 diehard Perth fans will leave on a charter flight from Edinburgh for the game this morning.