By Methil Milan Man
December 14 2002

Here's a photo I took of them admist the euphoria of the away fans as we beat Gretna...

Paul, of the I.C.F. explains all....

What a gorgeous bunch we look, braces, overweight, my god! The Inter City Fifers in said photo are, l to r:
at the back there with Liam Gallagher coat, Dave Pickhaver, travelled up from Englefield Green, Surrey. In front of him looking shorter than he actually is, Dave Potts. Travelled up from Gateshead, T & W. Steady on girls, he's married! The one eye you can see at the back in the furry hat is my wife, Helen. In the front, looking flushed with excitement, remember kids, we'd just scored and were about to again, is me (I'll keep this picture as the 'halfway between' my 'before and after' pictures re my Orthodonty!) The tall lad to my left is Jim Gardiner, travelled up from Fulham, London sw6, and the Sophie Ellis Bextor lookie-likey in front of him is his girlfriend Hatty Ashdown, the baby of the bunch at 24, who travelled up from Longfield in Kent. We've known each other for years: Jim, Picky and I all attended the same 6th form in the early Eighties, Jim and Pottsy worked together soon afterwards, and were flatmates til Pottsy moved back to Newcastle to get Wed and have two strapping sons. Hatty we've known for 5 years. Jim and I were the ones who got trashed in the car smash last September, a terrible ordeal for our loved ones: returning to see Fife was the last thing to do on the list of 'things to do when we get out of Hospital'! And they didn't let us down, a victory to stay top of the league, in the dying seconds...!
So, in answer to the inevitable question 'why'? well, apart from it being a good laugh... We're all successful people in our late 30s (apart from Hatstand!) who love football -all Englishmen have a Scottish team and East Fife is ours. We're not groundhoppers or owt like that. We finally got 'round to seeing the Fifers as an addendum to a visit to see Potts in '99, and loved it so much we aim to do a home, away, and cup game per season (tho' of course last year events got in the way). The New Bayview apparently doesn't have the same atmos as Old Bayview, but it's comfy for the girls and has a great bar in which we've always been made very welcome. I won't bore you with the teams we follow but where in England are we going to see a guy in a kilt jump on the pitch and let off a sparklebomb? Where in England are we going to hear quality swearing as we do at the aways? The games are always entertaining; the gentrification of football in the premiership has left the boys here with nostalgia-itis for the football experience of when we were kids. It's a great excuse for a weekend in Newcastle or away somewhere nice in Scotland. We speak or text when the results come in of a Saturday, even in Hospital, when we were getting printouts of your site, hence the original e-mail to you back earlier this year.
The next planned visit is to the Centenary celebrations. I note with interest we're at Montrose on the Saturday, then the Sunday dinner in Kirkcaldy is Hatty's birthday, so, depending on her we'll be up for that. Flying to Dundee probably, then staying in Kirkcaldy or Wemyss. See, I'm getting excited already!

Hi to all the folk with whom we were chatting on Saturday.

COME ON YOU FIFERS!