Final Score

Gil Vicente 1 - Estoril Praia 3

That was last nights final score, for the final match of the season. And what a journey getting there! Both for Estoril and also us Englishmen!

For Estoril Praia it has been a tumultuous year of ups and downs. We started off the year really well and were soon in 5th place on the table. I remember it well. I took a screen shot of the Liga Zon website so that I could prove to people that Estoril once held that important 5th spot. Of course at the time I really didn't expect the season to go as well as it has done. The talk was of how lucky Estoril would be if they managed to avoid relegation and stay in the Premier League the following season. Early in this season, as games were won and lost, Estoril found themselves floating around the middle of the table. However, it seemed as though as the season progressed Estoril went from strength to strength. Apparently since the half way point Estoril have won every single home game. It has been a joy to watch Estoril Praia rise up to the challenge of playing against such enormous teams as Benfica and Porto and actually finish the season in 5th place. It's almost surreal.

On a much smaller scale, for us supporters yesterday was also a very long journey. It took us three and a half hours to drive north up to Barcelos, near Braga, to watch them play against Gil Vicente. Last week there was much talk between us about welching out and not bothering, but in hindsight, it was indeed well worth the drive up there. We had Computerised Kate holding the maps to guide us and so we arrived in plenty of time and had chance to look around the town of Barcelos. We'd heard that there was a castle so we followed the brown signs for the Centro Histórico but we couldn't find it. What we did find was a bar showing the second half of the match between Chelsea and Tottenham. After that, we headed for the stadium.

Our presence at the recent away matches had apparently not gone unnoticed by the regular hardcore supporters with their many flags and drums. One obviously heard us talking in English and was a little confused as to why we'd be there in our yellow Estoril Praia T-shirts. He asked us where we had come from and when we replied, "Estoril!" he seemed to be even more confused. After we explained that we lived there and had supported our local team for some time now he seemed to became overjoyed at our efforts to travel the length and breadth of Portugal to support Estoril, grabbing us around the shoulders and jumping up and down with excitement.

Gil Vicente had a lot to play for. They needed to win to avoid being relegated to the Segunda Liga. By half time Estoril were one-nil down and we had received a text message informing us that Rio Ave were winning their match by one goal to nil also. What a nightmare! If things didn't change then it would be Rio Ave getting that place into the Europa League instead of us. Clearly the players had also caught wind of this information in the changing room because they came out for the second half fighting. Our section of the stadium went wild with the equaliser from Steven Vitória. Then Gil Vicente's keeper got a red card and the ensuing penalty meant that the ball was propelled to the back of the net for a second time. The third goal from Luís Leal was just rubbing salt in the wound!

Europa League here we come!