The Town U17 squad playing at the Voskescup tournament in Belgium this weekend were surprised when a minibus containing 15 travelling supporters arrived in Lokeren to take in Sunday’s games.
The party had spent Saturday in Germany watching Fortuna Dusseldorf, whose fans are regular visitors to Portman Road, lose 2-1 at home to FC Nurnberg and when they found out the young Blues were in action in Belgium the following day decided to take a detour to catch them in action as well.
Naked Football Show regular Ray Slegg was amongst the 15 and told TWTD that their arrival early on Sunday raised a few eyebrows: "We did get one or two strange looks at 8.30 in the morning, I don’t suppose we looked the fittest and brightest specimens they had seen!
"Belgium was great, it was a very well organised tournament and the players were a credit to the club. They were great ambassadors and shook our hands and wished us safe journey home.”
The Blues youngsters were unlucky to finish seventh in the competition, had they beaten eventual winners Sint Truidense in their last group game they would have made the final.
Ray says Town’s four-goal top scorer was the player who most caught the eye: "Byron Lawrence was the stand-out star for us.”
As for the German leg of the trip, inspired by the visits Fortuna fans have made to Suffolk in recent seasons, Ray says they were welcomed warmly: "This Dusseldorf connection is really taking off now and lot of their fans were in to it. We even recorded a song for Fortuna TV, and in only one take!
"Thanks to ‘Big Dave’ from our end for doing all the driving and organising and Ulli Munsterberg at their end for organising everything, including tickets and barbecue.
"Fortuna lost 2-1 so it’s all down to their last game at Hannover next week. We may get relegated or may go to the play-offs.
"There were 53,000 people at the ground and a fantastic atmosphere. FC Nurnberg had loads of fans everywhere but there were no problems. The ‘bouncy bouncy’ was unbelievable. Thousands bouncing up and down. Magnificent!”