TeBe Party Army On Tour - Magdeburg June 2007

FC Magdeburg 1:1 FC St. Pauli, 2nd June 2007

With the Oberliga season over, it was time for another Party Army excursion, this time organised and led by some of the older, lapsed members. As many of our number support/ have sympathy with St. Pauli and many of their fans, we decided to make a trip to Magdeburg to watch first versus second, in what we hoped would be a promotion cracker. (Un)fortunately, St. Pauli secured promotion last weekend, but FC Magdeburg needed to win to clinch the second promotion spot, and so Pauli could spoil the party. A tense game, and capacity crowd, was guaranteed.

We took the Regional train to Magdeburg, and I got on at Alex with several others. Our number was swelled with each station, making 15 of us in all. The crew was very mixed in terms of drinkers/ non-drinkers, but the atmosphere was good, this being the first time all of us had got togther in a wee while. The mood was helped by a certain magazine worker's 'party bag' full of little mini spirit bottles, which were passed around freely all trip! Some were the worse for wear due to late-night partying, eg Def Jux, but he was the exception...

Most of us were dressed 'casually', ie no colours, which proved to be a good thing once we got near Magdeburg (MD), when the FCM fans started to get on, some dodgy-looking (right-wing) fans among them. The somewhat negative impression that some of had about elements of FCM's support, despite us having a fan in our midst, was not dispelled on our walk to the stadium. Everything remained peaceful, the city was awash with Blue and White, singing, chanting fans everywhere, but I still sensed an uneasy atmosphere. Thor Steinar clothing was in evidence everywhere, including this delightful hoodie:



At least 2 FCM security guards/ stewards had Thor Steinar clothes on too.

We got to the ground though without a problem. Tbh, it looks very lego-like and a bit ugly from the outside, and is very typical of modern stadia inside (see Graz, see Derby, see Stoke etc) and the pillars are unfortunate, but I have to say, it generated a good atmosphere, and it was nice to finally be in a proper stadium full of fans (Linfield excepted).





Endi went to get our tickets, we waited around, chatted with a few old familiar faces (inc. Babelszwergen) and then went to take our place in the terracing in one corner of the stadium for away fans. St. Pauli fans make some noise, 90 minutes long, respect.



FCM fans, imo, were very quiet, in the first half at least, they really made some noise when they were pushing in the second half, but only now and again. I guess that's the nature of being an away fan, you always sing more and louder when you're away, part of the minority siege mentality. FCM fans did have a class choreo before kick-off, though.



Onto the game itself. It was a very open affair, and I enjoyed it, lots of goalscoring opportunities for both sides, althought the finishing left a lot to be desired, and ultimately cost Magdeburg promotion. There were lots of misplaced passes and scrappy fouls, tiredness I guess onthe part of St. Pauli, nerves on the part of FCM. Pauli took the lead in the 2nd half with a lovely-worked goal, a header from a cross from 6 yards finishing off a slick passing move.



This jerked FCM and their fans into life, and they equalised with a header from a corner 10 minutes later. Then they pushed and pushed for a winner, leaving gaps at the back with Pauli could and should have exploited. The FCM fans were noticably quiet for the last 10 minutes or so, which I put down to nerves, knowing they needed a goal to guarantee promotion, they came very close on a number of occasions, a few shots flashing wide, and Pauli's keeper making an excellent save, the game finished 1-1, and Osnabruck's win flashed up on the scoreboard shortly after, confirming that FCM hadn't made it. Cue my 'song of the day', much to the chagrin of the more extreme FCM fans:

"Schade, Magdeburger Jungs
Schade, Magdeburger Jungs
Schade, Magdeburger Jungs
Aufstieg nur fuer uns!" [shame, magdeburg boys, promotion only for us!]

A huge line of riot police, dressed 'raggedly' and looking much older and more out of condition than normal riot cops (presumably the 'normalos' had been called to Schwerin and Rostock for the G8, and had taken all the good uniforms, leaving the rest of the old men to take what was left, making them look like a rag-tag bunch) formed a chain across our goalmouth, blocking the dodgy wannabe hooligans from having a go at the 'crusty scum'. It was an impressive sight, and tbh, I'm glad they were there.




I was even more glad after the game that the police had got their as in gear. Magdeburg not going up was the result that we wanted but secretly dreaded, as we knew the scum element of their fans would be out for blood; we at first thought we could hitch a ride with a Leipzig bus to a safer train station before continuing our journey home, but there weren't enough spaces, so that left us being part of a police 'Kessel', the police surrounding all the Pauli fans travelling by train and escorting us to an isolated station. It was all very surreal, we set off about 50 minutes after the game ended, once the FCM fans had dispersed. We were then led across a deserted industrial/ run-down residential landscape, far out of reach of any hooligans, who the police had cordoned off far far away, all we heard was occasional chanting and the odd firework being let off. On the other hand, there were sporadic groups of genuine FCM fans, who sportingly applauded us on our journey home, and the compliment was returned.

We arrived at a tram stop; the only problem was, there were maybe 800 fans and only 3 trams. Some of our crew managed to get on the first trams, and we had to wait. Panic set in, as we realised we only had 15 more minutes to get our connecting train, otherwise we would have had to wait in an isolated one-horse town in the arse end of nowhere for 2 hours. We thought about phoning a taxi, but we'd no chance, all the roads to us were blocked off, and we were unreachable.

Fortunately, more trams arrived just in time, and a quick sprint up the hill to the station platform saw us make our connecting train in time. We arrived in Burg, where we had to change, and, straving and thirsty after 4+ hours without anything to eat, and a bit of time on our hands, the Berlin/Potsdam crew (the Babelszwerge travelled back with us) descended en masse to the local Rewe to get beer/ munchies, Endi stuffing himself with Bouletten! We got back to the platform, where we were warned by the police that a 'storm' of FCM fans were going to get off our train, so we made our way to the front carriage. A storm it certainly wasn't, but 1 brave policeman managed to hold off a couple of lippy and drunk FCM fans looking for trouble, respect!



We got on and our mood was much better, we'd survived, no more stress, heading back home, and with plenty of supplies and above all, drink, we could let our hair down! The toilet beside us was broken and Joerg decided the sign would be nice for his home, so no-one was aware that it was simply closed and not merely occupied, leaving z.Toni to act as DB official, telling everyone of the toilet problem, as well as having to inform the same people that the automatic door was broken as well. Joerg was accosted by some remaining FCM fans in another carraige on account of his blue and white tracksuit top; and many jokes and stories were told and shared, and we got back to Berlin safe and sound. The only slight spoiler was a typically German drunk Magdeburg fan who got off with us at Alex and wanted to fight with one of our number, before racially abusing one of our number; he was lucky he didn't get his head kicked in, his mate screaming at him to wise the f*ck up.

All in all, it was a great trip, probably my favourite Party Army away trip of the season, and it was great to see a lot of the Old Guard all back together again.