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Ferrell and Chopra's Excellent Adventure

Playing at Ibrox for the first time is an a notable day for the diary, so when Andy Ferrell was selected to play for Newcastle under 21's against a young Rangers team, his parents decided to take in the game. Glasgow, the home to both Rangers and Celtic, also has a third major ground, Hampden Park - home to Queens Park F.C.

The story goes like this: Andy's parents, who's dad I think used to be a driver, took the car up to Glasgow. Arriving at the ground they went to pick up their tickets at the club office, but they found that none had been left for them. Undeterred they bought a programme and paid £7 at the gate. looking at the programme they couldn't understand why it featured Queens Park v East Stirlingshire, not Rangers v Newcastle - apparently they thought someone must have ripped them off by selling them last weeks' programme.

When the match kicked off they didn't recognise any of the players (although) the seats at Hampden are miles away from the pitch and Queens Park play in black and white. There must have been a left winger who looked like Andy, as Mrs. Ferrell thought she could see him. Eventually they realised their mistake and made a rush to the real Ibrox! However they didn't make it and by the time they arrived the match finished so they didn't get to see the 70 minutes that Andy played.

After the game Andy found out what had happended and then made the crucial mistake of telling one of the lads! You can imagine the reaction!! Anyway, as an alternative to catching the slower team bus, both Andy and Michael Chopra decided to jump into Andy's parents car. Chops had wanted to be back in Newcastle as soon as possible. As the team coach was making it's way home, Jamie McClen decided to call Chops to check on their progress. At the time the bus was around the Carlisle area so Jamie expected them to be fast approaching Newcastle. When he asked Chops where he was, the reply came back."40 miles north of Glasgow, we took the wrong turning when we got to the motorway"!!! Let's just say Jamie wasn't slow to keep the news to himself! The whole bus went up and when the lads met up for training on the Monday Andy got the whole Newcastle squad taking a pop. Apparently the scenery north of Glasgow is beautiful - pity you can't see a lot from the M180 in the dark!