Notts Fans On Soccer AM

Last updated : 23 October 2002 By
Tom Loakes will be filling you in on all the details from the show, and the experience as a whole.

The 7 of us on the show were:
Myself (Tom Loakes)
Rob Swinton
Corth
Big Tony
Matt
Gary Fewkes
Tim Lewis

We set off down to London on Friday night, where we all met up outside Meadow Lane before heading down in 2 cars and arriving at the hotel which Sky put us in for the night at about 10:30PM.

We dropped our bags off in our rooms and headed downstairs to the bar, where we sat and discussed what songs we would be singing on the show in the morning and talked about Notts in general. Around midnight we retired to our rooms, as we were being picked up by Sky at 7:30am.

Sky arrived at 7:30am, and we followed their car to the studios and once we had arrived we had our names checked in and we were met by Rocket, one of the crew on Soccer AM. He took us to the Green Room, where we were able to relax, and we were given a run through of what would happen on the show by one of the crew. We were informed not to swear, sing alot and basically make as much atmosphere as we could.

Tim Lovejoy
Soon enough it was 8:55am, and we took our seats in the Luther Blissett Stand on the set, which is much small than it looks on the TV.
The show began, and Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain started off by informing everyone what was on the show that day, and then after that it was time to introduce the Notts County fans.

Helen went throught our list of honours, which was longer than I thought, before we were asked to give a song and we gave a loud version of the Wheelbarrow song and then Helen came and sat with us to ask some questions.
We had some friendly banter with her, and talked about being in administration and discussed our start to the season. And before long our bit was over and it was the first break of the morning, just before that we presented Helen with a little presant, a "Notts County Songs and Chants" CD, which Tim used as a coaster.

Following on we were not involved on the show for a while, but throught we gave cheers where needed and gave a fair few "YOU PIES" whenever Helen or Tim mentioned Notts fans were on the show.

The special guests arrived, those being Leicester City defender Gerry Taggart and Paul Parker formerly with Manchester United, who missed his penalty against the Fat Cat!

Soon enough the lovely soccerette was introduced to us all, and after Mr Lovejoys usual banter they both did The Catwalk. The Soccerette has to pick a fan to do The Catwalk, and guess who was picked?! Yes yours truely walked the walk, much to my huge embarrasement.

Soon after we had our final piece of action, we had to "Feed The Iron Curtain". Basically, you have to kick a ball through a hole in the wall, simple enough you would think. The hole is start shaped and you have 1 minute to get as many as you can, so there is a slight bit of pressure. Also, you don't want to make a right idiot of yourself!
We managed to get 4 in the minute, with myself, Rob, Corth and Gary all getting one each.

And that was it, we had finished! It was a superb experience, and was enjoyed by all of us.
We were all invited to go to the pub with all the crew and the guests afterwards, which we did. We watched the 1st half of the Leeds Vs Man Utd game before heading off to Luton to watch The Magpies in action.

So thats it, a short account of our experience on the show, which like I mentioned the enjoyed by all.
A big thanks to all at Soccer AM for making it a great day, and Tim Lewis for organising the whole thing.