We arrived about 10.30pm into Bratislava, found a handy cashpoint, got out 5,000 Slovakian Koruna (about £80) and caught a taxi to our Hotel to check in. It was a bit out of town, but not bad and at £30 for 4 nights accommodation, not complaining! The only complaint was the hotel bar closed at 10pm, so tired from a few beers in Prague and all the travelling headed to bed.

Friday we got up reasonably early (still missed breakfast as only served until 9am!!!) and caught a trolley bus and then normal bus and 15 minutes later were in central Bratislava (Bus stop by the big Parliament building). We had a wonder round and soon found the old historic part of Bratislava, very similar to Prague but a lot smaller. We ventured into a restaurant and the friendly waiter said he would make a selection of his choice for 3 of us. It started with a green salad, followed by a mixed grill with rice, chips and potatoes. Add a few beers to that and it came to just about £4 each!!!! After that we ventured out again and eventually ended up in 17 Bar, not far from the players posh 'Carlton' Hotel. We had a few beers at about 35p each and then went and met our mates who flew in that afternoon. The Piano bar was next and it was full of England. We had a few more beers (mmm starting to sound like an alcoholic.......) and people soon moved on to other bars and we headed back to our hotel. It had been a cracking peaceful day (or so we thought)

Saturday and we actually made breakfast. One of our mates was already sat down and said 2 England fans shot last night in the bar next to 17 bar. I was stunned and a little worried. A few more rolled down to breakfast and they said that by the end of the evening bars refused to serve England fans. We expected the place to be closed down, but we headed back to 17 bar and it was open and serving as normal. We met some lads who got attacked the night before and had been with the two lads shot. Apparently the bouncers made a mobile call and they could not believe it when a gun was pulled. Two shots were fired, but one bullet did the damage. It passed through the leg of one, bounced off the floor and wall behind and ricocheted into another lads neck. Horrific. The lad shot in the leg turned up soon after being released from Hospital. The other lad would have to have surgery to remove the bullet!

People were a bit on edge but everything was calm and we decided to head to the ground around 6pm. We caught a taxi and it dropped us on the corner for the England fans. We strolled down to be met by Police in riot gear (fair enough), truncheons drawn (bit OTT, but understandable) but in full ski mask with MILITIA written on them. They were very aggressive pulling and pushing people for no reason. We passed through this check, they did not check tickets, just intimidated you and made sure you were English. Next was the really scary part. A few thousand England fans with one rusty, metal entrance. There was also a solid metal crash barrier (normally to stop people queuing in the road) that meant people climbing falling over it! It was a disgrace. I though people from UEFA and the FA inspected the facilities at the ground? After about 20 minutes a bigger gate was forced open by the weight of numbers and baton wielding police grudgingly let people use that as well.

Once inside we saw some empty seats (by the fence segregating fans) and headed for that. Luckily we saw some other mates and joined them in the middle of the section, towards the back. I imagine most people saw the game so wont go on about that too much. After about 35 minutes we were suddenly shocked to see the fence open up and ski masked thugs called Police charge in and batter every England fan in site. As a couple of others said after it subsided a few England mobbed up and tried to retaliate. Stupid and mindless, but if you saw your mate get cracked around the head for nothing, they saw that as all the vindication they needed. Once again another Police charged and a lot more violent this time.

A family we know from Brighton appeared and had been in the middle of it. The two kids were shaken but had avoided being hit. Many others were not so fortunate and loads of people walked along covered in blood, some bandaged, others just pouring blood. It was a disgrace. Luckily the second half was more peaceful and the highlight was the mock Mexican wave after we went 2-1 up! After the game we were held in but got back into the centre with no more incidents. Most bars were shut but we ended up eating China food as they called it and had a wonderful Chinese meal. We got in about 11.30 and left at 1.30 after great food and many beers. The place was heaving and the takings must have been a record!

Sunday we had a day of leisure. We strolled along the Danube then decided to hop on a tram to go to the Castle but went the wrong way, and ended up back at the ground! We decided to see if it was open and it was so went inside and had a walk on the 'pitch'. It was unreal, we took some great photos of us in the dugout, reliving Owens goal, pictures of the general state of the pitch, the inches of mud Seaman was wallowing in, and then the cracked concrete stands, the away terrace still covered in blood, the entrance gates, basically everything to show that the stadium was not fit for a football match. After that we went back into the centre for the rest of the day.

Monday we had a 5.45 flight to Prague a 7.25 flight to Stansted and I was back home just after midday. Bratislava is a nice place, people in general a bit miserable (perhaps that was down to the persistent rain and cold wind, or the fact they are still repressed and persecuted by the local Mafia?). We actually had a good trip and after seeing 10 defeats in a row for Brighton nice to see your team win again!

On the way back I heard Mark (Perryman) on Talk Sport. Its time we stood up for our rights as England fans again. Slovakia does not have the stadium or experience to hold big matches. We comply to strict standards and UEFA pass the grounds fit for matches, how the hell did this one pass an inspection?

Mark R

The flight to Prague was quick and hassle free and it gave us a 5 hour stop over before our connecting flight to Bratislava. We decided not to abuse the airport bars but to head in to town and find what state the Fatty Taxman was in. I rang him to be told they were in an Irish bar called O'Shea's. It turned out to be O'Che's as in Che Guevara. Oh well Pete it was a good try.

We had a beer, some grub and laughed at Pete as he had fallen over again! We then headed back to a bar we had frequented allot during our last visit to Prague. On the way we had to go through the square and the Taxman insisted we watched the 'cuckoo clock show' again (he did it last time), it hadn't got any better in a year! After a couple more beers it was time for myself and Mark to head back to the airport.

We ended up having a hour or so to kill so we went for another beer and tried a local spirit called Carlsbad or something. It made absinth taste nice! The flight to Bratislava took about 45 minutes and we were soon in a taxi on our way to our hotel. Liz was already at the hotel which was quite nice (for us) but the bar closed 10pm so we had to call it night as the hotel was quite a way out of the city centre.

Friday, I was up quite early and set off for a walk to check out what was going on around our hotel. Not allot! I managed to find a supermarket and chemist and that was about it. The woman in the supermarket got the right hump with me because I only had a 1000 groat note, the longer she babbled on at me the less I understood, it was a bit like being out with Pete really! About 11ish we took the bus in to the city center and had a wonder, we ended up in a indoor market to sample our first Slovak beer. The shop next to the bar we were in sold wine and only wine. People would turn up with empty coke bottles and get them filled up from massive kegs, not wooded kegs though, the sort you'd keep lager in which we found very odd. We moved on to try and find some grub and ended up in a very posh restaurant, where the waiters simply told us what to have.

This turned out to great as we got shed loads of food for about 4 quid each!! We decided to walk off our lunch along the Danube, but it was chucking it down so was gave up and went back to the bar. Several bars later and after making the executive decision note to venture 50km away to the U21 match we arranged to meet up Andy, Kev, Piers and Andy's mate Reg. Somehow we found them but no thanks to Piers's dodgy directions. We ended up in a bar called the Piano bar for the remainder of the evening, Andy and Reg went for a wonder only to return having been chased by a bouncer wielding a baseball bat. We then tried to get into a club but they weren't having it so we ended up in some poncy bar to see the taxman's birthday in. At about 2am the mood suddenly changed with the locals and we couldn't work out why. We were herded out of the bar by a group of bouncers who seemed to be going from bar to bar getting everyone out. We couldn't work it out at the time so headed back to the hotel.

Saturday, we got a cab into town as this time round as it was really chucking it down. The first port of call was the massive Tesco's so we could all buy jackets. Andy, Kev and Reg went for the not quite as tacky looking albion style ponchos where as I went for a classy little blue number. I got outside and did the zip up and the bloody thing broke, I could be bothered to try to explain it to the shop assistant so I put up with it. Word had got round that a couple of lads had been shot the night before, which explained why the locals had got a bit apprehensive the night before. A lot of the local bars shut up shop, but we managed to find one which turned out to be quite popular with the English. In side were the group of Tottenham lads that were involved in the shooting incident, they all looked in a very bad way and had taken quite a beating. Word got round that there was a pitch inspection at 3pm, at 35p a pint and the weather how it was we were all hoping it was going to get called off.

We left the bar at about 7ish and jumped in a cab to the stadium. Well I say stadium, it was more like a lump of rock with a few seats bolted to it. The police had cordoned off the road leading to the English end and were trying to search people going through. More and more people joined the queue and a crush started which was the call for the first baton charge from the old bill, I was trying so hard to avoid the police dogs that I missed the bloody great horse running towards me and nearly got sent flying. The police were out numbered so the English lot tried once again to get through the cordon. This time that bloody horse came from behind me and once again nearly sent me flying. Finally I managed to get past the police and on my way to the gate. Once there the same thing was happening at the turnstile. Well I say turnstile it was more a rock with a small hole in it. Now 7000 people trying to get through one small gap just wasn't going to work so again a crush stated to happen and once again the Police's way to stop this was to baton charge us. It didn't work this time as there was a fence along side the turnstile so people were just getting crushed against it. Finally the old bill opened half of the gate a people were once again able to move. The weren't checking tickets so I can only assumed they only opened half the gate just to annoy us. Again a crush started and all the police did was whack the people at the front of it! I finally managed to get in the ground but had completely lost all the others. We had about 4000 tickets officially but as I said I reckon there was nearer 7000 on our end so it was a bit of squeeze to say the least.

Luckily I was chose the right section to stand in and managed to avoid the disgraceful policing inside the ground. It all seem to start from the England fans returning a cup of beer that had gone into our section shortly after they had scored. The fence was shaken a bit and a few coins were thrown from both sides. Then the police just piled in a started whacking people once again. They retreated after 30 seconds or so and the England fans had a pop back and quite rightly so. Then and I'm sure this is the bit they showed on telly over here, about 150 police in full riot gear ran the whole of the stand hitting out at everyone and everything that got in their way. As I said there were about 3000 too many England fans in the end as it was so scattering the whole terrace was bloody dangerous. This went on for a good few minutes before order was resumed with a thick blue line separating the England fans from the fence. I'm sure you all saw the game, it wasn't pretty but the job was done in the end just about. After the game we all headed back in to town to find a bar but everywhere was shut up. The only place we could find open was a Chinese restaurant so we had a feed a few beers before calling it a night.

Sunday, I woke to find someone (not me!) had emulated my puking in hotels trick right outside my door, which was nice! The other checked out and jumped in a cab to the castle so myself Mark and Liz got back on the bus in the center, for the first time all weekend it wasn't raining! We walked about for a while before jumping on a tram that we thought was heading towards the castle. It got us about 200 yards nearer to the castle before doubling back on it's self, we decided to stay on it to see where it went. We ended up right outside the ground so we went for a nose about to see what it was like the morning after the night before.

The gates were open so we wondered in and had a look. There were few people about taking the advertising hoardings down but no one seemed to mind that we were there so we went on to the pitch. I can honestly say I play on better pitches on a Sunday morning. It was like a giant sponge covered in bumps! What I couldn't get over was how long the grass was. It was like a rugby field! We wondered around to the England section, a few seats had been ripped up but the most shocking part was the amount of blood on the terrace. One row in particular had it everywhere. We then headed back into town for a feed, I had a dish called South American Hat. Having eaten it I've still go no idea what it was! We called it a day shortly after as we had a very early start the next day. I managed to find the game repeated on Slovakian telly which I promptly fell asleep in front of.

Monday, we were up at 3:30am to get to the airport in time for our flight back to Prague, I paid the pricey sum of 40 quid for my 4 nights stay which was a bargain even if the cheeky maid did steal 200 Czech groats from my room. After a brief stop in Prague and fill up of duty frees we were soon landing back at Stansted. All in all not a bad trip. Bratislava reminded me allot of Prague in several ways (price of beer being the main one!). I recommend it to anyone that fancies a cheap weekend break I struggled to spend 100 quid which included 20 quid on a jacket. Well that wasted my first morning back at work.

Phil