There were many sights to see for this Wanderers fan following England to Greece last week.

On our second day in Athens, we hit the tourist trail, along with our friends Lucy (Oxford United) and Phil (Port Vale). First up was the iconic Acropolis. Acropolis means the highest point of the city and the first surprise is that it contains multiple ancient buildings from the past thousands of years, with the iconic Parthenon sat top of the hill. Temples, theatres and other municipal buildings scatter the site, mostly with names to challenge our Bolton accents. It is not for the faint-hearted as it is a challenging climb, with the sun beating down on us, on pathways not seriously changed in the past millennia.

After a reviving pint of Mamos, we continued on the history trail and walked to the Panathenaic stadium, which was built for the first modern Olympics, way back in 1896 on the site used for the original Olympic games in the fourth century BC. With white Pantelic marble seating all around it is an amazing site, still in top condition after renovations, reopening in 2011. This stadium is where all the torches for the modern Olympics are lit and carried across the world to the latest venue, the next being Los Angeles in 2028.There was a chance, obviously taken, to stand atop of the winners rostrum, dreaming of athletic glory.

After an evening meal of goat, cooked in a red wine sauce, it was time to hit the Metro and find the modern Olympic stadium, where England needed to beat Greece by two clear goals. They don’t rush things in Greece and the match was only due at 21.45. We had been asked to get there three hours early, a 20-minute walk from Irini Metro station, one of the few we could pronounce. Toilet facilities were sparse to say the least and were situated outside the turnstile area. If you had to go, you had to be let out and let back in again by admittedly cheerful stewards. It was hardly the best arrangement for 3,500 well hydrated England fans.

The stadium looks impressive and there was a good atmosphere with more than 60,000 noisy and excitable Greek fans in it. However, the seats were rather less impressive, numbing to the seat of your pants, which was unfortunate as we had chosen to get seats, where you had to sit down, to avoid the hordes of England fans who stand up.

Before the match, many Greek celebrities were presented to the crowd, with none other than our very own Stelios Giannakopoulos among them.

We wondered what kind of a team Lee Carsley would manage to cobble together, after the mass withdrawals from his squad, as we sat there with our boots ready for the call if it came. As it turned out, he put a half-decent team together with a debut for Curtis Jones. The match got under way with England on the front foot and Ollie Watkins silenced the crowd early doors, with a tap in laid on by Noni Madueke. As England continued to dominate, we had to wait until the 77th minute to get the second, an own goal by commentator’s nightmare, Odysseas Vlachodimos, after an inspiring Jude Bellingham run. Jones crowned his debut with the third, giving England the win to take us back to the top of the group and favourites to win promotion and avoid the dreaded play-offs, if we can beat Ireland today at Wembley. It was good to see second-half substitute, Lewis Hall, younger brother of Conor Hall, make an impressive start to his international career.

We were delayed by the customary half hour after the game, before getting the Metro back to Omonoia station, where the network closed at 1.30am and we had to walk the last two kilometres back to the hotel, arriving home at 2.15am, with some Athens bars in full swing.