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The alarm clock buzzed loudly at exactly 6am on Sunday the 11th of August 2002, but for the first time ever, I wasn’t even the slightest bit tired. Just another seven hours until the bus left, but the hours passed by like it was seven minutes. We all arrived at the Stadium at 12:30, making sure that everybody had all the relevant documents and once this was checked out, the supporters were on their way to Vaduz to watch Livingston Football Club play their historic first ever-European match.
The rain was as ever present as we left Livingston at 1pm, but most supporters never noticed it as the excitement buzzed around the bus. It was only a few hours before we made our first stop, and a most of the supporters decided to head to the nearest fast-foot outlet, and a few managed to find a quiet corner to have a few laughs and share some jokes.
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Onwards again towards Dover we went, and as the journey continued, a lot more people realized just what a long trip this would be. A few more stops, one a Luton to pick two more bus drivers, and in two hours time, we would finally get out of the bus for our longest break yet. The road to Dover is long, but at last the White Cliffs are in view and the Livi supporters finally arrive at the port at 1am, exactly 12 hours since we left. Our passports get a quick once over by a security officer, and to our surprise, this is the only time during our long journey that the passports get checked.
Our ferry isn’t until 2am, so we have one hour to walk about, stretch our legs and relax, but relaxing isn’t on some peoples minds. Out comes the ball, and we had some funny looks as a few kilted Scotsmen (and one kilted Englishman) start playing football in the terminal carpark at 1:30 in the morning.
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The ferry is delayed. But we eventually get on it at 2:30 in the morning, and we head for the nearest bar. Deck 8 is where all the action is and that’s where the first Livi party of this road trip starts. The beer is flowing, the songs are being sung as if this will be our last ever trip. We get funny looks from some French people wondering why a bunch of Scottish folk are singing their national anthem, but unknown to them, it is a fans tribute to Philippe Brinquin. We arrive a Calais at 4am, and straight out the port we go.
Most of us are tired, we’ve been awake between 18-22 hours and most of us try to get as much sleep as we can. Out of France we go and into Belgium, but most people don’t realise that they’ve moved into another country as they’re catching up on some beauty sleep. Into Germany, where we make another stop and the bratwursts & coffees are ordered as more and more people start to sober up, only another 8 hours until we arrive at our destination
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The road from Germany to Austria seems to take forever, but at last we eventually arrive into Austria at 6:30pm, where the weather is even worse than when we left Scotland, there is torrential rain, but the cloud passes over very quickly and the sky is clearing up nicely. We are nearing our hotel, and this is when all of us get excited about getting out of the bus that has been our home for over 29 hours.
We stay the Central hotel in Feldkirch where the scenery all around this hotel is simply breathtaking. We all have a long shower, get changed and leave the hotel to see what the nightlife is like in this quite little town. Over 30 of us descend on a quite little bar called the Adi bar. The locals are friendly enough, but the bar hasn’t enough tumblers to keep us going so we leave after a couple of pints. Back to the hotel we go for a little bite to eat, and to our delight, we find that the Central Hotel has a Chinese restaurant located inside it. After the food, some of us decide to have a quite walk around the town to see the views, but it’s after 10pm and most of the shops and bars are closed. We decide to find another bar, and head for the place that has the most noise coming from it. The bar is called the Pick up Point and it is packed, Livingston supporters are everywhere, the drink is cheap enough and the even the locals are having the time of their lives.
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The party continues until the early hours of the morning, most of us retire at 1am, but a few head for the local casino, make some money and arrive back at the hotel at 4am.
Tuesday morning and it’s time to wake up, the bus leaves at 10am, and we’ve only got two hours to get showered and eat breakfast. It’s 09:50 already and most Livi supporters are making sure that no valuables have been left in the rooms, Gus, our travel convenor makes sure that all the keys are handed back to reception, and after this we’re on our way to Liechtenstein. We arrive just before midday, and the bus takes us right to the ground, where we will make our short 5-minute walk into the centre of Vaduz.
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The walk into Vaduz itself is spectacular, with the Princes Palace overlooking the quite town, but that quietness will soon disappear as the Livingston supporters find a nice looking pub to set up base. The Old Castle Inn is a warm and friendly pub, the employees make us feel more than welcome, and this is where the real fun starts. At first there is 10 then 20 then over 60 Livingston supporters arrive, and the place starts to get noisier and noisier.
The party spills out onto the streets of Vaduz, there are busloads of people stopping to see what all the noise is; the locals are enjoying every minute of it. Nearly every car, bus & lorry that passes by the pub sounds their horns, welcoming the Livingston supporters to their beautiful country.
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We have spent nearly five hours enjoying ourselves, with not one raised voice, or one hint of trouble. It’s coming up for 5 o/clock, one hour until kick off, and most of the Livingston supporters leave the bar and start walking towards Rheinpark Stadion, home of FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein.
We get searched as we enter the stadium, the police are friendly enough, and once we are in, we have a glance round about the stadium, and soak in the atmosphere. The Drums start to beat, and the Livi faithful are up on their feet, singing and dancing. The match kicked off, and within the first couple of minutes, Barry Wilson nearly scores but his header was cleared off the line, and this was the closest Livingston would get to scoring in the first half.
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The second half saw Oscar Rubio make history by scoring the Lions first ever goal in a European competition. A thunderous free-kick from Gary Bollan was only half cleared by the Vaduz goalkeeper, and Rubio was on hand to knock the ball into the empty net. Livingston’s lead lasted only 10 minutes when slack defending allowed Vaduz striker Franz Burgmeier to easily slot the ball past stranded keeper Javier Sanchez Broto. Broto made the save of the match only minutes later when he somehow scrambled back to save a misplaced Rubio pass-back off the line to make sure the Lions had a chance of progressing into the first round of the Uefa Cup.
At the end of the match we applaud both sides off the park, and it was now time to leave the stadium and head back to the bus. At the bus, we were greeted by some Vaduz supporters wishing us a safe journey home. The bus didn’t leave Vaduz until after 8:30pm, and this allowed supporters to take some more photos of Liechtenstein, and to say goodbye to some of the new friends we have met.
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It’s been a long day, and by 11pm, most of the supporters are sound asleep on the bus, this is the part of the journey some people have been dreading. We’d travelled through England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria & Liechtenstein and now it’s time to head back towards Scotland through Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France and up through England. Most sleep through the night, and we are right on time for our 12pm ferry to Dover from Calais. On the ferry, we relax, some have a couple of pints, some have something to eat, and a few reflect on what a wonderful time we have all had.
The journey through England is long, and most people are looking forward to getting of the bus, and have a decent nights sleep in a nice comfortable bed. Again we stop at a few service stations to stretch our legs. The nearer to home we get; the more we start to perk up. Some people start to tell more jokes, but the highlight of the trip up north is when one of the supporters went to a fast food counter and asked for a Big Mac, only to be told they don’t sell Big Mac’s at Burger King, this made my journey a lot quicker as I couldn’t stop laughing all the way home.
At 12:01am on the 15th of August 2002, All 62 Livingston FC supporters on the Official Supporters Bus arrived safely back at Almondvale Stadium. We have all travelled over 2400 miles to witness history-taking place. Every one of the Lions supporters done their club proud, we were there to enjoy ourselves and that’s exactly what we done. We would all like to thank Gus for everything that he has done while he has been our travel convenor, he organised everything for this journey, the bus, the ferry, hotel and the match tickets. Without him this trip wouldn’t have been possible. Thanks Gus – from all the supporters who travelled on the Bus.
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