From Skopje with Love

The alarm sounds, it’s 5 am on Tuesday 10th of July 2023, and the start of the long road to Skopje. There was only one airport in the UK with a direct flight to Skopje this week, Luton, a 260-mile trip one way from my home in Pembrokeshire. I leave the house in light mist at 5:30 am, before anyone else has woken, it was the start of a solitary four-and-a-half-hour-long drive to the airport. The roads are eerily quiet at this time of the morning, with no traffic until reaching Newport at rush hour, before a quick stop at Magor services sees me unite with a minibus of Haverfordwest County fans, Barry and Mary, Kevin Haldane, Steve Wilcox, Kevin Gibby, Richard, Terry, and Dan Devine, also making their way to Luton. The remainder of the drive went smoothly, including the infamous M25, before arriving in Luton at Midday. A familiar face greets me on the shuttle bus from the car park to the terminal, Russell, another Bluebirds fan making the trip. After checking in and proceeding to security, I heard a steward come over to ask the staff on the station next to mine if they were able to take a whole football team.  “I wonder who this could be?” I chuckle to myself, and sure enough kitted out in the new Macron tracksuits, the Haverfordwest County players and staff come around the corner to head through security themselves. Once in the departure lounge, a chance to meet some of the new boys Martell Taylor-Crossdale, Kayden Williams-Lowe, and only just announced the signing of Luke Tabone. Fans and staff mixed in the departure longue bar, before it was finally time to board the flight, delayed an hour before finally departing at 4:45 pm. To my amusement I found myself sitting behind new signing Tabone and alongside former CEO Georgina Nicholas, and manager Tony Pennock on the flight. I had some brief conversations with Georgina about some aspects of the club, such as the new stand, but not so much from Tony until near landing, he’d spent the flight rigorously watching clips on his laptop of our opponents KF Shkëndija and making detailed notes. As we descended over Skopje, a chance to get an early aerial look at Thursday night’s venue came to those of us sat on the right-hand side of the plane, and once we’d landed after sunset, the view that greeted us made us aware at just what a beautiful part of the world we had landed in.

A brief chat with the chairman, Rob Edwards, in Skopje Airport's baggage claim led to one of my more surreal experiences of the trip. Upon discussing where my hotel was, and realising I was next door to the players' hotel, I tried my luck at hopping on the bus with the team as I’d not sorted out a transfer, and to my surprise they were happy for me to join! Even Greater surprise followed as I realised that the team bus was receiving a Police escort into Skopje, it was the first time the size of the occasion became apparent, this was not the Cymru Premier anymore!

After arriving and checking in at the hotel, I met up with another fan, Steve Jones, who’d made his way out a day earlier, before the others from the flight joined us at the hotel bar for some drinks. A night of sampling the local beer, Zlaten Dab, followed before we got to explore the city of Skopje the next day.

The first full day in Skopje began with us taking a walk out to have a look at the Troese Proeski Arena, the national stadium of Macedonia and the following night’s venue. A leisurely stroll along the Vardar River took us to the arena, and to our surprise an open gate directly onto the pitch. The two staff members watching by didn’t seem bothered about our entry, which allowed us to give ourselves a stadium tour, pictures on the pitch, in the dugout, up at the top of the stand, and even a wander into the dressing rooms where the Shkëndija kit man was laying out the kit for their team’s training session that afternoon, “training session” being a phrase that would later come back to haunt the opposition following the home leg. 

Following our DIY stadium tour, we decided to head back towards one of Skopje’s famous landmarks, the old fort. We’d only been out in the Macedonian sun for a couple of hours, but the heat was already beginning to take its toll, 40 οC our weather apps would tell us, but locals assured us it was more like 45οC in direct sunlight. The fort from the exterior looked to be a grand well-maintained monument, but inside the walls gave us a better insight into the economic state of the country, ruined buildings and overgrown weeds everywhere. The fort did however provide us with a different view of the stadium, with the silhouettes of the mountains surrounding Skopje visible in all directions. The heat had become intolerable, time for a quick lunch, back to the hotel for a shower and cool down, before heading out again for Club Barman Kevin Haldane’s birthday meal in the Muslim quarter, before more drinks at my hotel bar where we were joined by club staff, minus the players.

Match Day arrived. We took the early part of the day to explore the Bazaar in the Muslim quarter, which had just about everything you could think of on sale, from fresh fruit and veg to knock-off football shirts, to fireworks and knuckle dusters! After a bit of bargaining and a Macedonia international shirt in hand, we headed back to the hotels ready to reconvene at the bar to see the players off.

A small crowd of us, including some players’ family members gathered as the players got onto the bus to see them off. We were able to get a picture holding the flags aloft, taken by a kind police officer who was standing guard of the team bus, preventing us from getting any closer. We headed back to the bar for another drink before getting some pre-match food in at Burger King (there were no McDonalds in the whole country!) and then setting off for the stadium. As a gesture to the fans, away fans in both legs were granted free tickets, and on top of that we found when we got to the ground, we were ushered to the VIP entrance! The stewards were strict on searching us on our way into the ground, an insight into Macedonian football culture. We found the “VIP” section was essentially no different to the rest of the stadium, although we were separated from the Shkëndija fans. We had a fantastic view, high up and reasonably central. Not long before kick-off, the Shkëndija ultras were herded into a separate part of the stadium, a loud group of topless men, who sang and banged on the drum constantly for the full 90 minutes and beyond. The squad posed for a team photo, and it was finally all real.

Kickoff, and a tight and cagey first half where both teams had half chances saw us to half time where optimism was high, the pre-match discussions amongst us fans had centred on keeping things respectful to a 2-0 or 3-0 loss. There seemed to be a clear expectation from the opposition that this would be a comfortable win across both legs. 

Shkëndija began the second half brightly and were rewarded with a goal shortly after the re-start. The rest of the second half remained as cagey as the first, and Haverfordwest hung on to keep it at 1-0. There was much taunting from the home fans at full-time following their win, not realising that we saw this as a victory and that the second leg still had it all to play for. Those taunts would have come back to haunt them following the shootout heroics in the second leg. 

After full-time, we were told to remain where we were before an escort was arranged to get us out of the stadium safely and to hold the ultras inside. We were ushered out as a group and accompanied back to the central square by Macedonian Police officers, apparently due to worries about the ultras who had expected an easy win. This walk provided the chance to meet and chat with a Macedonian neutral, who was very interested in hearing about Wales, the history of the country and language, Pembrokeshire, and the history of the club. He even managed to secure a bucket hat from one of the travelling Bluebirds as a memento! Following the walk back to the square, we headed to the bar at my hotel once again and were joined by some of the squad and staff after their heroic efforts. Jazz being one who took time to have a long chat with us fans about the game, the previous season, and the season ahead. The players departed back to their hotel, with their flight home the following morning, we had an extra day to spare, however.

The final day ended up designated as an exploring and gift-buying day. After several magnets and non-authentic replica Macedonia home shirts were haggled for in the markets, some of us took a chance to wander around the city centre itself. Skopje city centre is adorned with buildings that are of the neoclassical style. We learnt that the vast majority of these were built in

the last ten years as part of a regeneration project for the city centre. As well the buildings, the city is covered in statues. I have never seen such a high concentration of statues in such a small area in any city I have visited. I was also surprised to learn that Skopje is the birthplace of Mother Teresa and that a memorial house on the site of the former church where she was baptised, was just a 300m walk away from my hotel. After a day of exploring, we decided to descend on the one Irish bar in the city, the only place we’d found that served cider! A meal and a couple of drinks soon turned into a night on something slightly heavier (Ouzo in my case, being this close to Greece), and enjoying the evening’s musical entertainment. It turns out that even on a Friday night, the bars in Skopje stick to a rigid timetable of closing at 12 am, we were allowed until 1ish for drinking up time, before heading back to get ready for the trip home the following day.

With an early evening flight awaiting us, the final day brought enough time to have lunch and watch some of the Wimbledon Women’s singles final, before heading to the airport. No police escorted bus trip this time, instead, I was lucky to be able to share a Taxi with Iori Humphries’ family. After yet another Burger King, we boarded the flight, and despite yet another delay before take-off, we finally got airborne, this time being able to view the setting sun on the horizon and Europe’s many illuminated cities, full of optimism of what the return leg might bring in just under a week’s time…..