Graham Denby column: Footie and fish

Feb 3 2010 by Graham Denby

WELL, it’s FA Cup 4th round day. A number of ex-pats are gathered up at the Café Central in Ourique to watch a few games and have a good nosh, oh yes, and a beer or three!

For the footy lovers there are three matches to enjoy on Arturo’s big screen here displayed before us – Preston NE v Chelsea, Man Utd v Hull City and Spurs v Leeds.

Decent games and a team in each match the neutrals can support without much loss of face if they lose.

I know you guys can watch the ITV games but the Sport TV is a welcome innovation over here, letting us watch live, usually Premiership, games, on Saturdays whatever time they are on.

Of course sport TV producers do not realise the importance of, and entertainment value to be gained from, covering Town games, but I’m working on it!

The fish and chip side of it is down to me. I’m a sort of a ‘Have Fryers will Travel’ guy now. The catering kitchen at the Café Central will be given over to me and I shall be dishing up the greasy luxuries during half and full time breaks.

I’ve even managed to locate a supplier of that most essential of delicacies to accompany the meal, mushy peas! More accurately, dried peas that I can mush. Mmmm, mushy.

There is a fair spread of support here among the lads, but predominantly for the Southern teams i.e. The Hammers, Sarfend and the like. As bad luck would have it, our teams are now all able to concentrate on the league ...