19th May 2017 Lens v Niort Part 3

Joining us on the Marek was Mr Lens himself - Pascal. He had already warned us that today was about supporting the team and not constantly looking at our phones or taking touristique-stylie videos of the marvellous Marek in action. So we joined in, with gusto, the chants being supported by an increasing number of 'capo-helpers' hanging from the podium. By the time the kick-off arrived we were balanced on top of the plastic bucket seats and our voices were almost hoarse but we would probably have to carry on until the 90th minute; hopefully.

Tense atmosphere - still singing!

Singing continued and grew in intensity in the seventh minute when Kermit Erasmus passed the rebound under the keeper's outstretched leg after a stinging Lopez shot. The sight of the ball nestling in the net sent the whole crowd into uproar.
At this point Ligue 2 looked like this:

                           Points          Goal diff
1 Lens:                   65               +17
2 Strasbourg          65               +16
3 Amiens               64              +17
-----------------------------------------
4 Troyes                64              +15

Not only were Lens in the automatic promotion position but they would be champions: if scores remained the same. No-one in the 37,700 crowd was under any illusion that this situation would last...and it didn't. Behind us, there was an uproar as a group of lads told us that Amiens had gone ahead at Reims. This put them top and us second. There then followed a very brief lull as the fans took all this in. The exceptions to this were the capos who were already working on overdrive judging by the steam rising from the various podiums of the Marek. The Marek was soon back on song again.
Three minutes later Strasbourg had scored and we were third. Three minutes later they were two-nil up. This final event had passed us by as Lens themselves went 2-0 up. A corner was played short to the mercurial Bourigeaud and his exquisite cross was met by the powering head of Lopez. My decision to name my shirt after him had been completely vindicated. Needless to say the crowd responded, especially when news filtered through from the ears in other grounds that Troyes were losing at Sochaux. Soon after the news was that they were 2-0 down! If it was possible the noise level rose by several decibels.
When half time finally arrived, after the longest half I had ever experienced, Lens were still ahead 2-0 and third: the playoff spot.

Half time results:
Lens 2 - Niort 0                              Reims 0 Amiens 1        
Strasbourg 2 Bourg en Bresse 0     Sochaux 2 Troyes 0

                           Points          Goal diff

1 Strasbourg          67              +18

2 Amiens              66               +18

3 Lens                  65                +16

-----------------------------------------

4 Troyes               63               +14

I would have gladly settled for a playoff spot before kick-off but there was still a long way to go.

Nervous times: time for
 a pensive photo.

For the first 13 minutes there was a calm on the various Ligue 2 pitches. Off them the capos raised the noise levels once more. Then, a Niort player collapsed in the box and the referee awarded a penalty. Derision filled the ground but, unabashed, Niort's Dona NDoh slotted immaculately high to Douchez's right. Were Lens going to throw it away themselves? Worse was to follow, Troyes had pulled one back against Sochaux. Surely, Captain Clueless, Jean-Louis Garcia, who had expertly guided Lens to 12th spot in Ligue 2, wasn't going to succeed in managing a team that could fight back from 2-0 down away from home? I wanted to imagine him waving his hands around like an ancient school teacher, complete with cape and mortar board. In my mind, he was incessantly annoying his players, as he did at Lens, so they lost the plot. Unfortunately, the recent form of the Troyes team didn't bear out this image.
The Lens team had suddenly lost their way and Niort, winless in the last seven games, had found theirs. Two minutes later, it was all change: Reims had equalised against Amiens. We were now second with Strasbourg top!
At the start of the day, this would have been an ideal scenario as the two Racing Clubs and their fans had built up renewed kinships that had existed in Ligue 1 days.
The team found their mojo and and all looked a lot rosier. Douchez had come to our rescue when he had been needed and now the lads were looking far more assured and in control. Although not good for our friends in Strasbourg, Bourg En Bresse had pulled one back. An equaliser there would have meant the world to us and still probably a playoff spot for the other Racing.
The clock ticked agonisingly down and nerves became frayed again as Troyes had equalised at Sochaux: now 2-2 with 13 turgid minutes to go plus stoppage time.

Ligue 2: 87th minute....

                           Points          Goal diff

1 Strasbourg          67              +17

2 Lens                   65               +17

3 Amiens               64               +17

-----------------------------------------

4 Troyes               64               +15

We were nearly there. The crowd were roaring the team on and they were responding. Bourigeaud had slotted home at the far post but saw his, and our, celebrations were cut short as the ball had already crossed the byline. The lads behind us shouted angrily to anyone who would listen that Troyes and the remonstrating Garcia had done it: they were winning 3-2! We were in the playoffs.

Relief flooded the stadium as Christian slotted home after Hafiz's freekick had bounced off the crossbar. The final whistle blew soon after and an extraordinary hush descended upon the stadium. Reims v Amiens was still playing and Reims had had a player sent off in the 89th minute. Six minutes of injury time were being played. 

The players wandered aimlessly around the pitch staring at the crowd, the sky, hoping for some news but all was hushed and still. As if in a nightmare, howls of derision behind us filled the night sky and the lads behind us were demanding Casanova's resignation. Andrew confirmed the worst: Amiens had scored in the 96th minute and we had finished fourth.

A black banner was unrolled, by some of the fans at the front of the Marek, demanding to know whether Casanova was a coach or a gardener. The players sank to their knees and suddenly the CRS appeared, marching across the pitch, just to exacerbate the situation. 

How to make a bad situation worse....

The TV cameras focused on the pain etched on the players' faces. They had given everything these last few weeks to no avail and it showed. Christian Lopez ran to the owners of the banner and told them they were wrong to blame his boss. Throughout the game he had shown his pride at wearing a Lens shirt and had indicated, after each of his goals, that he was staying because he loved the club.

The crowd remained, unable to take in the events of the evening, and the players, finally finished milling about, applauded the crowd then left the field. John Bostock took his own solo tour of the pitch to applaud the stands: a sure sign that he was leaving? 

A town in shock!

Finally, half an hour after the final whistle, the Marek began to empty. The bars of Lens, with their extra outdoor seating arrangements, would be an extremely subdued affair tonight. Lens was remaining in Ligue 2 and all the build-up, tension had come to nothing. Our evening ended at a very quiet and unusually empty La Loco. At 1:00 am, they were still serving merguez and chips: extra staff obviously having been put on to meet the influx of celebrating fans intent on partying the night away. So we partook of food and ale before shuffling quietly around the corner to our apartment. Tails firmly hanging between our tails. 

Food and beer to fill the emptiness left by the results.

Full time results:
Lens 3 - Niort 1                              Reims 1 Amiens 2        
Strasbourg 2 Bourg en Bresse 1     Sochaux 2 Troyes 3

                        Points          Goal diff

1 Strasbourg         67              +16

2 Amiens              66               +18

3 Troyes               66               +16

-----------------------------------------

4 Lens                  64               +19

19th May 2017 - Niort (h) part 2

The day Alex moved to York was the day Lens trips became a thousand times easier. I could now break up the journey with a stop off at his house (beer, curry and bed thrown in) and didn't have to set off at outrageously stupid o'clock to catch a decently-timed Eurostar or Ferry. Living near Newcastle has many plus points but fairly quick access to Lens is not one of them! He also followed the northernlensois official directive: "Lens colours must be worn: even when walking through Lille". Directive: number 19.7 I do recall. Next morning we set off from a decidedly wet and dismal York at a much more civilised time.
The two hour journey from York to London passed relatively painlessly and we were soon joining the outrageously long queue for the Eurostar. Alex had been so worried about getting our train that he had forbidden me from heading in the direction of the Sir John Betjeman statue so we could decorate him with scarves and a flag. A missed photo opportunity there! Instead we stood for an hour and a half, surrounded by thousands of school kids wearing hi-viz vests, waiting for our Eurostar to be called as they jabbered incessantly. this was supposed to be my break from children.
Bearing mind I had been waiting since August for my return to France, I was extremely excited and it was whilst practising my on-the-spot pogoing in the queue that i received my first brush with officialdom for the day. Okay I was an Englishman dressed in a red and yellow top jumping around while everyone else was sombre and static but it didn't necessarily mean i was drunk or on drugs. Thankfully, the questions were short but sweet and revolved about my reason for travelling: "Hopefully pleasure!"
Did you pack your own bag?
"Yes. My wife wouldn't help me!"
What is your profession?"
"Teacher" It was at this point that he rolled his eyes and realised I was just plain mental and no danger to anyone, even myself, and waved me through.
Alex's Tesco points had come up trumps again and we settled down in first class behind a man on his phone who was heard to utter:
"If you can raise two million then I could do the same..." Mere pennies to us I thought as I tucked into the chicken sandwich I had concocted from a bread roll and chicken (from the chicken and couscous platter: whatever that is) provided with our complimentary meal. I then made my first mistake, according to Alex, as I accepted some wine with my meal...I was too giddy obviously. "Pace yourself!" he advised but I was too out-of-control to listen.
Despite the fact that Lille's Eurostar station is the equivalent of a 70s Science Fiction nightmare with a dried-up water feature and that it is populated by an ever-growing set of Romany beggars: it is always a welcoming sight! It means Lens is only 45 minutes away.
Two became three as we picked up our friend Andrew from outside Les 3 Brasseurs. Apparently, he had already had his first meeting with Lens fans, which had made his day.
We picked up the keys to our now-favourite residence on the Rue Gambetta then Andrew and I headed to Emotion Foot while Alex walked round the corner to a packed La Loco: it was barely 5pm (17:00 in Euro-time) but my anticipation was shared by everyone else. After much deliberation I decided to have Christian Lopez' name on the shirt I had bought in August. The other options were: Bostock and Zoubir but if promotion was earned then I felt it would have been his goals that had been a major part....and he also stood the best chance of being here the following year. Being voted Ligue 2 player of the year would have raised Bostock's profile considerably and would he be contented being a big fish in a small Ligue 2 pond again next year?
The next few hours passed in a blur of singing, drinking, eating and hat distribution. My new collection of hats followed a pirate theme with Jack Sparrow-esque dreadlocks added for good effect. Despite Alex's refusal to join in, Jérémie and his friends were well up for it along with a good group of bystanders. The song "We've got a hat!" was frequently repeated in between mouthfuls of merguez sausage and frites and sips of Ch'ti beer. Oh how proud my family were when I had spent any spare moments sewing them on prior to the trip. All my hard work had paid off.
The photo against the Lens grafitti wall followed a hard-core rock theme, although Jérémie didn't quite understand the instructions and just went for unhinged psychotic.

No matter how many times I emerge from the trees in the small park to see Stade Bollaert-Delesis, it never fails to make my hairs stand on end. It's redevelopment for Euro 2016 only made my favourite ground even better. if you can fall in love with bare concrete towers then this upgraded vision is heaven. The ground was a sell-out for the second match running and the anticipation and nervousness that hung in the air was tangible: with a large dose of fear casseroled in for good effect. This was it. Time to really believe in miracles!

The moment I stepped through the turnstile, however, I felt a tingling sensation of deja vu. Maybe it was the northernlensois Union Jack hanging from my back or the yellow knotted duster hat complete with a hundred lovingly-sewn-woollen-dreadlocks or maybe it was my Anglicised French accent, but I was asked to step to one side.
This time I had no Newcastle shirt to annoy security (see last season's Auxerre match) only a maybe OTT pseudo-pirate-football-fan get-up. I was asked to stand on one of five crosses marked in chalk on the ground while a very friendly Alsatian dog trotted back and forth along the line-up of five fans. What it was about me it liked, I had no idea. But every time it passed me, it leaped up and placed its paws on my chest. Was it my Aroma de Tyneside or l'Air de Poulet (from our pet chickens) that attracted it? Whatever it was, the dog liked me. As Jérémie readied himself to bring the benefit of nearly four hours drinking to my aid, the large security guard interrogated me.
"As-tu les fumigenes?" Have you any fireworks?
"Non"
"As-tu les drogues?" Have you any drugs?
"Non"

Each time he passed me, Fido would jump up on me and each time they repeated the same questions and I gave the same reply. Okay so I didn't exactly look like a completely stable individual but that didn't mean I needed sulphur or cocaine to make me excitable: my nervous energy did that job quite nicely on its own. Finally, just like the customs man, I was released as they shook their heads and Jérémie was able to relax. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, again, we headed for the rapidly-filling Marek: still well over an hour to kick off!.

Pumped up pre-kick-off with pirate hats and Euro 2016 freebies.

19th May 2017 - Niort (h) part 1

The trip had been on the cards the moment we returned from the previous final day of the season. It had been so easy to organise with Ligue 2 helpfully playing all the final games of the Ligue 2 season on the Friday night. There were no Saturday or Monday late fixture changes to worry about so we could book the trip in December safe that the games would be played on the day we expected them to be: a rarity!
In May 2016, we had watched Metz celebrating their promotion, despite losing 1-0 on the night, because Le Havre had  fallen short of their 6-0 victory target to overtake them. The sight had been a hard one to take but I had convinced myself that the following year would be our year.

Ligue  2 table May 2016
www.lfp.fr

It had all looked to be going swimmingly after 30 games when the lads were top of Ligue 2 and goals from transfer deadline day signing Habib Habibou and Abdellah Zoubir had seen off Reims 2-0 at their own place. However an injury to midfield dynamo, John Bostock had put a dampener on that result.

Ligue  2 table May 2017 
www.lfp.fr

The following week, without Bostock, the team fell to defeat, 2-0, against Brest in the top of the table clash. Worse to follow was the injury to defending rock Cvetinovic during the game and also, later, to hot-shot striker Christian Lopes. In the next game though, it looked like the injured trio might not be missed as the lads went nap, winning 6-3 at mid-table AC Ajaccio. Although the defending was abysmal, it looked like the remaining players would be carried along by their collective team spirit alone. Another injury to Kevin Fortune meant the number of strikers was dropping every week. Unfortunately, the lack of strikers proved costly. Two defeats, at home to lowly Auxerre and away to bogey team Le Havre, both 1-0, pulled the wheels off the promotion bandwagon. In the former, Lens had controlled the play, failed to score and fallen to a late sucker punch. Another setback had been the short-lived return of John Bostock which ended after 63 minutes. Against Le Havre, the lads had started brightly but faded and paid the price in the second half.
Another twist followed with four games to go, the return of striking talisman, Christian Lopez, set the promotion drive back on track. His appearance as a second half substitute sealed a 2-0 victory; Christian scoring both goals. Next up was an unlucky draw against Strasbourg where the returning Fortune, Zoubir and Lopez played like men possessed. After going ahead against the new Ligue 2 leaders, a lapse in concentration resulted in a swift equaliser. We needed Cvetinovic back and the Serbian answered the call. His return to the team offset the loss of Zoubir and the lads triumphed 4-0 in spectacular fashion to set up the final game of the season.
 It was no longer in our hands. Lens were 4th with a very good goal difference and needed Troyes, Strasbourg or Amien to slip up to get onto the promotion podium. It was all set up for a crackingly tense night: and we had tickets for the Marek!