Another trip, another win

York Hearts made its tenth official road trip last weekend, when seven of us headed north for Hearts' 4-2 win over Falkirk in the SPL.

Another free-flowing performance by the men in maroon made for a happy day out, but the trip was not without its problems. Things got off to a bad start on Saturday morning, when only six of the expected seven turned up at Toft Green. 8.30am came and went, with no sign of Sam. 8.35am - still no sign. 8.40am - no answer on the phone. Cue a quick detour to Outing Towers in Woodthorpe, where our esteemed treasurer was found fast asleep at home. Nothing to do with his exertions in the Gallery on Friday night of course - it was merely a problem with his alarm clock. Sure.

Already running late, we were not helped by a double-blockage at Newcastle, where a broken-down car in one lane was followed by a shunt in the other, causing major tailbacks, eased only by some quality banter with fellow motorists.

With time to make up, driver Gav "schumacher" Aitchison put the foot down a bit too quickly. Never the best of ideas at any time, let alone when you have a magnetic sign on the bonnet. For the second time in the past four trips, we could only watch in dismay as it sailed up and over the car to be dumped unceremoniously on the A1 behind us.

The sanctity of the border butty-run got us in the mood for the game, and Hearts turned on the style to storm into a commanding 4-0 lead. A lapse of concentration at the end allowed Falkirk to pull back a couple of goals, but the result was never in doubt.

The return trip went more smoothly for the first 118.5 miles. Then six pairs of eyes began carefully scouring the road-surface for our erstwhile sign. Tommy "I spy, private eye" McCafferty came up trumps, and after finding a safe layby on the northbound carriageway, he and Sammy did a quick mad-dash over the A1 to retrieve the prized artefact.

Good old Izzy on Five Live's 606 phone-in gave us another shout-out as we headed back down the road, and we were back in the Ackhorne in time for a few pints before closing time.

York Hearts are now unbeaten in competitive road-trips since March - next up is Aberdeen in November. email yorkhearts@yahoo.co.uk or post here to book your place now.