By J Moon
September 2 2012

Editor's note- After a mammoth trek on public transport to the West Country to watch our worst ever start to a season, J Moon posted about his experiences on the board. To me it's not negativity, just the heartfelt reality of a committed fan spending precious time and money, and being let down. So, with his permission, and a few small tweaks, what follows is his account of the day.

There is literally nothing good I can say about that match.

Well, I can. Powell is still a beast and is the hardest working player we have by a long shot. I also think Leota shows a lot of promise in his breaks, however he does have Sale syndrome.

Sale syndrome being a minor/sometimes major case of professional Rugby players not being able to keep hold of the ball. They either knock it on or throw it forward.

Handling was the worst I've seen in a long time. Line outs. I counted 5 that we lost in the first half alone. Absolutely bullied at the scrum.

Here's how my day was.

I left home before 6 a.m., got on the bus into Manchester. I was on the 7:07 a.m. train from Piccadilly, 4 hours and 19 minutes into Exeter.

I travelled 250 miles each way to watch my team put in the most clueless performance I've seen.

I then had to wait 3 hours for my train in Exeter, whilst getting lots of pitying smiles from Chiefs fans. To make it worse, I heard a young lad asking his Dad about Sale, he had no clue who we were. I have a lot of respect for Exeter but it's horrible that 3 years ago they were the new boys and in that time it's changed so much. When asking his Dad "Did we score 6 tries?", his Dad just continued texting and said "Did we? I can't remember" in the most relaxed, "I don't care, we just beat a nothing team" way I've ever heard.

Once on my train from Exeter to Birmingham I had a 2 and a half hour ride. I then had a 40 minute wait before the train to Piccadilly.

After this I had an hour and a half ride back to Manchester, before getting there and realising all trains to the Airport had been cancelled. I wandered about town, trying to keep my head down whilst kids were arguing in the bus station, lads were falling over each other drunk and young ladies of this age had enough leg on show to feed a creche (not a snob and I'm a hetero man. But sometimes it's too much) The bus driver told me there was only one bus heading my way and it wasn't for a while (I don't live in an out of the way location like some fans, I'm a local lad, it's just due to the timing).

Finally I decided to wait with people in the queue for the replacement bus, most of whom were asking "Does this go to Bolton?" every 5 minutes despite it being clear it didn't.

The driver was getting on for an hour late. We then had communication that he was at Victoria station. Some 20 minutes later he turned up. Perhaps he meant London Victoria.

Finally made it home close to 2 a.m. A 21 hour day. Oh, hang on - I forgot to mention I didn't sleep Friday night. I tend to do that when I have a big day ahead of me. I know I'll never wake up in time for my train and it plays on mind. So just as I finally get my eyes shut, it's usually time to get up.

Not the most articulate of pieces, although that's not really on my mind.

This isn't one of those "I'm ripping up my season ticket" rants or anything ott. Every Sale fan I spoke to yesterday was fuming and there was no positivity for next week. Just the views of a tired, fed up Sale fan who doesn't have much money to start with but is dedicated enough to follow them to the opposite end of the Country.