Martin Hughes and wife Rita travelled to Campoamor from Penarth, in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, to watch son Andrew play for Preston North End in a pre-season friendly against La Liga side Getafe on July 12th.
“As soon as the fixture was announced Andrew wanted us to come,” said Martin, who brought the Welsh flag to Spain in support.
“We travelled from Penarth, a small town near Cardiff, on July 9 in the build up to the game and planned to stay in Torrevieja, but we decided to stop in Benidorm, as there’s a lot more going on,” said Martin.
Championship club Preston took a 23-man squad to Spain for their pre-season training camp, ahead of the 2022-23 season that kicks-off on July 30, with 500 fans in attendance.
With temperatures 34 degrees leading up to the game against Getafe, Martin said: “Andrew told me they were doing a trio of training sessions – to help the team adapt to the heat.
“The weather was an advantage to Getafe, used to playing in the Spanish sun, but Preston did well in the heat.
“Coming to Spain for pre-season I think must be the warmest the players have played in – but they’d take it any day, in retrospect to playing in the freezing rain in the UK in the winter!”
Martin and Rita are both retired, leaving them free to travel around the UK to watch Andrew in action for the Lilywhites.
“Once we both retired we decided to watch Andrew play all over the country.
“It will be nice to visit some grounds I’ve not been to,” said Martin.
“I’ve managed to chalk up a lot of grounds visited. South of Birmingham is easy to travel, as are the London fixtures.
“When we travel to Preston, the journey takes four hours, leaving mostly Friday’s to stay at Andrew’s house to watch the games at Deepdale.
“The journey is always worth to watch our son play for Preston. Fortunately early in the season Preston play Cardiff – just 10 minutes travel. But we will follow him everywhere,” said Martin.
“Appreciation to Charlie and Alex, amongst organisers for the coaches, having started with a Tweet to fill a 15 seater Mini Bus – ending with five coaches.
“Without them over 300 fans wouldn’t have been able to travel to the game at Campoamor from Benidorm.
“We met a lot of PNE fans, who were very complimentary to us both about Andrew.
“When I initially heard Preston were playing ‘Getaffy’ I thought it was a Welsh club I’d never heard of!,” quipped Martin.
