In any other year, a mid-August trip across the channel to face a club like Lens would be one of the high points of the off-season, particularly when the bulk of pre-season has been spent in the United States, a huge financial commitment for any fan.
This is a very different pre-season, however, where finances and annual leave need to be conserved for our eagerly awaited sojourns in as-yet-unknown corners of Europe for competitive football. All the same, I didn’t want to miss out on such a trip altogether,
so I managed to convince the other half to join me on the early Eurostar to Lille, where she could explore the churches and boulangeries to her heart’s content, while I continued my journey to the Stade Bollaert-Delelis to sample some real culture.
The original plan was to squeeze the whole trip into one day, but fate had other plans, as our return Eurostar booking was cancelled due to a lack of air conditioning in our carriage. As a seasoned veteran of rush-hour journeys on the Central Line in heatwaves, I think I could’ve survived, but the decision was taken out of our hands, and rather than bin the trip off altogether, we decided to book a last-minute hotel and make a weekend of it, meaning more time sampling the wide range of local beers and French cuisine. Please send us your thoughts and prayers.
On the early service from St Pancras, the queue for the Eurostar was peppered with decked-out Sunderland fans in various hues of red, white and pink. It’s always a surreal experience going through airport-style security and passport control just to end up on a platform next to the same train that goes to Luton or Nottingham, but maybe it’s one we’ll have to get used to depending on where our Europa League adventures take us.
Arriving in a beautiful, sunny Lille, there was time for a quick late-morning refresher at a bar just outside the Gare des Flandres. A gentleman next to us asked the waitress why the city was teeming with football fans. I studied French at university, so I quickly let him know that Sunderland were in town on our way to our friendly against Lens. He then asked if Sunderland was near Newcastle, which was disappointing, but did add that he “finds them arrogant bastards”, so there was a redemption arc after all.
Our connecting SNCF train to Lens was a double-decker, which is always another treat when travelling to the continent, one that we’re unlikely to enjoy in the UK due to our forebears constructing so many low-level tunnels. There was a nice gathering around our table of Sunderland and Lens fans, discussing our sides’ prospects for the season ahead, and we congratulated the home fans on their French Cup victory.
It wasn’t hard to track down the Sunderland fans’ pub of choice, as Bar La Loco was overwhelmed with an ocean of red and white teaching the locals about Alan Shearer’s choice of headwear. Any European owner of a bar near a train station must be praying that the local team draw us at home in the group stage; they could probably make a month’s takings in one day.
We decided to venture further into the town in search of somewhere calmer, and enjoyed more great conversations with the Lens supporters who taught us the words to their brilliantly moving club anthem Les Corons. The barman somehow twisted our collective arms into taking on three 50cl measures of a strong local beer, which was definitely one of the more ill-advised moves of the day, but we were counting this trip as a holiday as well as an away day, so it seemed doubly justified. One of the local DJs played a few classic Sunderland tunes and we enjoyed a singalong in the sun, and the high spirits continued when we saw that Le Bris had named essentially a full-strength squad.
The only down point of the day was the ludicrously circuitous route to the away end, which was, of course, at the opposite side of the ground. Conflicting advice from stewards, dead ends and mazelike streets made it an absolute shambles, and despite leaving the bar with ample time, we missed the first twenty minutes. A lesson to take for future European away trips, perhaps.
The warm welcome we’d received from the Lens supporters was not reflected in the make-up of the away end, which was essentially a row of concrete steps surrounded by a net and a cage. This all contributed to a more febrile atmosphere as the noisy home crowd sparked the away end into life, and it felt like something more akin to a competitive game than the usual tame pre-season affairs.
On the pitch, it was an impressive performance from Sunderland. Meunier was as accomplished as you’d expect of a player of his pedigree, and I’m also fond of him as the only outfield player older than me, somewhat abating the inevitable mid-30s feeling of rapid ageing. The rest of the defence looked equally assured, the midfield looked sharp, and we were rarely troubled by a Lens team who are probably significantly better than what they showed on the day, so it was a cheerful journey back to Lille to carry on the festivities into the night.
A final note on the home fans, who really were fantastic throughout the day, sharing stories and jokes, swapping shirts and scarves, and wishing us well for the season ahead. The rendition of their club anthem was spine-tingling stuff for a pre-season friendly, as one of those songs that moves something in you even if you don’t understand the words, and they returned the favour for us by playing Elvis on the loudspeaker. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for their results, and hopefully one day our paths will cross again in a competitive context.
All in all, it was a superb day out for the fans and a good day’s work on the pitch. Pre-season performances should be taken with a large dose of salt, as I’m sure we’re all tired of hearing, but it’s always nice to see the side playing with a bit of swagger, and hopefully a couple of new faces in the coming weeks will ramp up morale further before the real business starts at Portman Road.
