A trip to Reading by one of our students

Shane Long

At Christmas I got a Shane Long jersey that was signed and my Dad organised with Shane Long’s mother that we would go over and see Reading play and that we would see Shane afterwards. My Dad was friends with Shane Longs father. So on the 17th of March I went to Dublin airport to fly off to England to see Reading play Manchester City. My Dad and I met my cousins in the airport and before we left to get on the plane I met Packie Bonner, the former Irish goalkeeper. When we were flying over London my cousin ***** and I were looking out the window to try and see all the soccer stadiums and we saw Chelsea’s stadium “Stamford Bridge”.
The next morning ***** and I got all set up for the match and we couldn’t wait, we were really excited. We got on the bus to the Madjeski stadium and it was huge. First we went into the shop and I got the Reading goalkeeper jersey. After the shopping we went to the entrance to the pitch and met Shane Long’s Mam and she gave us the tickets. We got to our seats and started to watch the match. Shane was starting and came close a few times and then in the 63rd minute Doyle crossed the ball in and Shane kicked it straight passed the keeper. Every Reading fan in the stadium went cracked including ***** and I.
Shane was taken off before the end of the match and Kitson was brought on and after five minutes he dribbled past around three people and hit the back of the net, myself and my cousins must have brought the team good luck!! The game ended 2-0. After the match we met Graeme Murty (a player for Reading) and I got his autograph and after around half an hour Shane came out and we all gave him a standing ovation. We got his autograph. I got Shane to sign my Ireland jersey and the school jersey. Shane offered us a lift back with him to our hotel.
On our way to the car three girls asked him for his autograph and then his girlfriend asked us to come to the car, and we got into this little Audi sports car. When we were driving off the three girls were just staring in at us. Shane asked us a few things like where we were from and a few other things but almost all I could say was “yeah” I was so gob smacked to be in the same car as my favourite footballer.
There is no doubt that it was the best holiday ever.

By: Red Barron