On Saturday 2nd February, seven Cambridge United fans were the studio guests on Sky TV's live Soccer AM show, which was watched by United's players before the match at QPR. Adam Facer writes the following account of the day.

It started with a phone all from Belly on the Tuesday: "Remember when I applied for us to go on Soccer AM?" he asked. It was months ago, but you don't forget something like that. "Yeah, of course" I answered. "Well, do you still want to do it ... like this Saturday?"

Needless to say a few phone calls later and by Thursday, seven of us were booked on the show. An eager Sooty hired us a people carrier and picked us all up on Friday night - SKY provide a courtesy hotel - nice. We arrived at our digs, checked in, slung our bags in the rooms and headed for the bar. We decided on the songs we would sing and after a couple of drinks, a dubious burger and plenty of banter it was pushing 2AM, so we turned in for the night. I slept like a log but I was nervous as anything in the morning, so much so that I couldn't eat any breakfast - that burger was playing havoc with my guts, and mixed with chronic butterflies that ain't good!

The driver from SKY arrived and we followed him to the studio. Arrived at around 8:15 or so and had the friendly pre-show chat with Neil, one of the Soccer AM crew (AKA Ally McMoist and the Colonel): "We don't like the words 'scum' or 'crap'..or any other swearing".

The message was simple - make plenty of noise, don't swear and have a blinding time. After 10 minutes or so we were called into the studio and took our places in the "Luther Blisset Stand". We'd met most of the crew and, thankfully, my nervousness had gone and we couldn't wait for the show to start. The studio looks much bigger on the TV than what it is in real life, and where we sat gave us a good view of all the proceedings.

9:00 arrived and we were on air - "U's are staying up ... Say U's are staying up" we all bellowed when first introduced. Tim just said that it was a bad use of grammar! We had no idea who the guests were until the show started - it turned out to be James Beattie, Jimmy Case and Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen.

We were on air and it was cool. It was during the second or third ad break we noticed that the time had raced to 10:10, the first hour or so had flown by. At this point a few of us decided to venture out to the car park for a smoke during the break. Ian McCulloch was already there - booting balls over the office building opposite! Just managed to roll a smoke before we were called back inside.

I think it was the next break when, whilst playing a game of indoor keepy-ups, Charlie almost managed to knock one of the studio lights down - his skills sadly didn't improve for the penalties later either! It was time for the comedy sketches - my favourite part of the show. If you've watched the show and think the sketches are good on TV, they are 10 times better acted out right in front of you. Sooty fell right into Tim's "schoolboy error" handshake routine after performing on the catwalk with the soccerette. "...and you can keep your silly hat!" Tim shouted at him.

My sides were now hurting from laughing so much - its great when that happens! All too soon it was time for our penalty game at the end of the show - one minute to kick as many footballs through Sven 'Gordon' Eriksson's mouth. We were awful - it's not easy though, I mean ask Charlie. When I watched the video the next day he had three shots - one hit the top corner of the wall, one hit the building behind and his last one was miles off course and hit a fellow U in the back. Charlie - that's my favourite bit of the show, mate!

It was then all over - the whole morning went far too quickly. Still, off we went to the local Rugby club (Grasshoppers) for a beer and some grub before the QPR game. Aside from Hells Bells, who was off to watch Torquay, all the crew and guests went to the pub - James Beattie bought us all a beer too - wicked stuff.

A steak sandwich and an hour or so later we left, buzzing, for Loftus Road. We had pitch side seats and found out that the players all watched the show in the Hotel in the morning, which was cool. The U's battled to a well-deserved point, should have won really - that would have topped the day off a treat.

Got home about 8ish, checked to see if the show had recorded OK then sat back and reflected on the time we all had - on Soccer AM? Beattie buying us a beer? The U's grabbing an away point? It's all too much for 24 hours! It was a great day, wouldn't have been half as good if it weren't for the company - Belly, Scott, Matt, Neil, Charlie, Soot - you lot made the day what it was and here's to you for that. Cheers lads - I'll never forget it.

'Face'

Previous Main Features:
10Feb02  - U's Fans Feature On ITV Digital Quiz
02Feb02 - A Week In The Life of PR Manager Graham Eales
20Jan02  - U's Players Get Darth Vader Treatment
13Jan02  - Kit Carson Explains His 'Head of Talent Development' Role
05Jan02  - Dale Brooks Enjoying New Role
04Dec01 - U's Players Try Out Premiership Physio Machine
10Nov01 - U's Launch New Away Kit

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