A Goal for Each Bear - before Half Time!

As my regular readers will know, my pal Hanley Bear and our human guardian Grizzly are both very keen supporters of Stoke City Football Club.  Grizzly has a season ticket and goes to all the home games, taking Hanley with him.

While they are at the match, Polar usually stays at home, gardening or painting or writing, while I help Endon with his reading lessons.  Then Polar makes a nice dinner, to cheer up Grizzly and Hanley when they get home, and we give Hanley consolatory hugs.

But Endon and I had a surprise last week.  Hanley Bear told us that Grizzly had bought Polar a ticket for the next game and that meant we could all go to the game.  He had already persuaded Polar to make little red and white scarves (out of a stripy face flannel) for me and Endon!

We were almost as excited as Hanley Bear on Saturday morning.  After lunch, Endon and I jumped into the Bear Bag, while Hanley tucked himself into Grizzly's coat, pulling Grizzly's Stoke City scarf around him, then Polar drove us to the car park where we got on a very busy bus to the stadium.

We arrived early and Polar carried us through the turnstiles at The Boothen End, which is where all the keenest supporters sit.  We watched the team warming up for a little while.  

Hanley Bear was telling us who all the players were and which ones he thought were best, but Endon and I found it hard to tell them apart at first, because they were all wearing matching red and white striped shirts although, when they turned around, we could see they had different names and numbers.

We waved to Pottermus, the official Stoke City mascot, who was talking to human cubs.  If we come again, we will try and get our pictures taken with Pottermus, as the music started for the game to begin before Polar could get us down to the front.  Endon and I settled into our Bear Bag on Polar's lap and Hanley snuggled into Grizzly's scarf ready for the game to begin.

Everyone sang the Stoke City song "We'll be with you," as the teams came on.  We sang a special bear version which went:

"Bears are with you, are with you, are with you,
Every step along the way,
Bears are with you, are with you, are with you,
Bringing bear luck as you play...!"

At first, we didn't think we had brought bear luck, as Hull City won the toss and decided that they would attack the goal closest to their own fans in the first half, which isn't what teams usually do.  In fact, that was an extra piece of bear luck, as only about ten minutes into the game, Mr Nick Powell scored the first goal and we were close enough to see it clearly, peering between all the humans.  

Then, one of the Hull players did a 'hand ball' in the penalty area.  We didn't see Mr Tyrese Campbell take his penalty, as all the humans stood up to watch, but it was a really good one and now we had two goals to nil.

The humans had only just sat down and stopped cheering when Mr Sam Clucas scored another goal for Stoke City!  Everyone was cheering like mad, including us bears.

'That's a goal for each of us!' said Endon.  'We are extra lucky bears today!'

All Hanley's human friends were delighted, and said that Grizzly ought to bring us bears and Polar to every game.  Several times, Stoke came close to scoring even more goals, while Hull didn't look likely to score any at all.

At half time we had coffee from Mr Steve, chocolate from Grizzly and nuts from Mr Andy.  Stoke would be attacking the goal at the other end of the ground in the second half, but we thought it probably wouldn't matter too much, as we didn't think they wouldn't score any more goals.  Hanley Bear was sad, because Mr Joe Allen, who is one of his favourite players, was injured just before half time, and we thought our bear luck had run out for the day.

But we were wrong!  Only a few minutes into the second half, Mr Sam Clucas scored another great goal.  Everyone was singing and cheering.

'That's two goals for me!' said Hanley Bear, leaning out of Grizzly's coat.  'Let's see if you two can get another one each!'

But the next goal came from Hull City.  Everyone went Boooooo! and Endon and I didn't dare tell Hanley that we had accidentally focused our bear luck on the wrong goal!  And anyway, we made amends close to full time, by helping Mr Nick Powell to score his second goal.

'Five One!' cheered Hanley.  'That's the best game I've ever watched!'

Endon and I had enjoyed the afternoon very much as well.  Polar lifted us up so we could wave to the players and cheer, then carried us out to wait for the bus.  Hanley showed us a statue of Stoke's famous goalkeeper, Mr Gordon Banks, who played for England when Polar was only a cub.

We had a long wait for the bus but I didn't mind, because it was nice to see lots of happy human fans.  Hanley Bear said we ought to have told the humans to walk back to the car park, as we could have got oatcakes from Mrs Kay's boat to warm us up. 

Polar gave lifts home to Mr Steve and Mr Andy and, when Grizzly got back in the front passenger seat, we climbed out of our bag and started singing our lucky bear supporters' song again.  

Polar cooked us veggie sausages for tea, then it was time to watch highlights of the game on the television, then Match of the Day.

'We will have to remember to save some bear luck for Polar's team next week,' I said to the other bears, as we snuggled down to sleep.

But Hanley says Stoke City still need all our bear luck and there is none to spare!