The next winter-break game was a little closer than my trip the previous day to the Gibraltar border. It was at the Polideportivo Benalmadena Pueblo, which is just on the edge of Benalmadena and about a twenty-minute drive from where I was staying in Fuengirola. I did think about walking it on the basis that I could pretty much follow the coast for most of the way, but it was two and a half hours in each direction, and it looked like there might be a storm at some point.
I found the ground easily enough and there was plenty of parking. Not surprising really for a game between two amateur teams from the Dutch sixth tier. I’m not really sure why they felt the need to drag their arses all the way to Spain, unless the tour was more for drinking than fitness. Even then, you’d have thought that they might just have gone to Belgium.
The game kicked off early. There’s no point in hanging around I suppose when there’s supping to be done. It seemed like I was the only person there to watch and I took a seat in the main, and only, stand along one side. The price I paid for a seat was having to watch the game through a fence.
Vierpolders were in blue and black, with Botlek in white and blue. The Vierpolders kit clashed with that of the officials and so the ref wore a pink bib. It all looked very small-time. One of the keepers was in an old-school mismatched strip of brown shirt with white shorts and socks. It was as if he’d brought his own kit with him. Perhaps he did.
Highlight of the first half was a woman walking past my stand with a black and white Jack Russell. You don’t often see that breed of dog without a bit of tan colouring in there somewhere. I didn’t make a note of the score and the only goal I can remember now came from a defensive mix up early on. It brought some cheers from a balcony in the main building to my right, revealing a few other spectators who had reluctantly appeared from the bar not long after kick-off. Presumably they were part of the touring party and had opted for a beer rather than a run out.
Trail of the Lion King 
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