Ah, Copenhagen.
It may be one of those trips that will be forgotten soon enough because of the drab affair we all had to endure.
Although 2,400 tickets were given to the Irish for the away end at the Parken Stadium, rest assured there was at least 2,401 supporters packed in to support the Boys in Green in their colours.
Why the extra one? Well, one chancer managed to blag his way into the away end.
Jamie Clarke was never missing this game, even when he heard that he didn’t get a ticket.
The diehard Irish fan travelled along to Copenhagen in a group of 11 that consists of friends and family.
They travel all over, from Cardiff to Tbilisi and everywhere in between.
The group was there for Brady’s goal, they were there for the 1-1 against Georgia and they were certainly not going to miss the crucial World Cup play-off against Denmark.
The only problem was that, such was the scarcity of tickets, only five of the 11 of them managed to get away end tickets.
“It was a bit of a downer when we found out only five of us could go to the match but I said I’d try to get in.” Clarke told SportsJOE.
But what was the plan? The Danes had said that they’d be on red alert for Irish trying to get into the home end as Denmark fans. Clarke decided he may as well try to get into the away end.
“We rocked up the stadium and security was fierce. There were three checks and I wouldn’t normally try it but I said I’d give it a go because I’m only here once.”
As Clarke approached the first ticket check he managed to get his dad to pass back his ticket and because no scan was necessary at that point he got one step closer.
“My nerves. My heart was literally in my mouth but I got past the first barrier alright.”
Clarke was then patted down by security and approached the turnstiles with no big plan in store.
“Even now I’m not really sure what the plan was. We said we’d do a pass back on the ticket and when it didn’t scan I’d just try blag my way in.”
The ticket wouldn’t scan and the sh*te talking by Clarke started.
“I really just played the sob story from there, started trying different turnstiles wondering why my ticket wouldn’t work.
“They told me to go to the help desk but I knew full well the ticket wasn’t going to work so I disappeared for a couple of minutes and came back and told them the lady at the ticket desk said it should be working fine now.
“I kept saying all my family were in there and at one point I got some random Irish fan to pretend to be my mam after I ‘came back from the help desk’.
“They took the barcode off the ticket and just let me in.
“It was great to be there, the match wasn’t great but the rest of it, including the sneaking in was so fun. I can’t wait for Tuesday and fingers crossed if we qualify I’ll head over to Russia too.”
Hopefully he has a ticket though.
