IT'S not often I find myself jealous of the Jambos - I mean, there's not really you could be jealous of. Being narrow-minded, uncultured, fickle and in the majority of cases, plug ugly aren't particularly appealing features. But this week, I have to admit there have experienced disturbing pangs of envy towards the moronic maroons.

The reason? Well, like it or not, we were stuck at home on Wednesday, while the Jambos were seeking free passes from their carers and dusting down their passports to go to Europe.

Our absence from Europe is a constant thorn in the flesh. A club of our standing should at least be challenging for a place in the UEFA Cup on a regular basis, and our fans seriously crave spreading the Hibbie gospel to the continent once more.

Despite my relatively tender years (I'm comparing myself to Grumpy Gibby here), I've been lucky enough to follow the Cabbage to Europe twice. The Anderlecht trip has featured heavily in previous issues of the fanzine, so I'll not bore you any further with that fantastic experience, but I'll never forget my first trip to Belgique, when we went to Liege.

Despite it resembling Clydebank on a particularly bad night, the town still held remarkable appeal for a wide-eyed wido of a 17-year-old, getting his first taste of absolute freedom - Hibee-style. And despite me being absolutely rat-arsed almost the whole time I was there, I enjoyed and remember every single minute of it.

The 45-yard freak goal which eventually knocked us out did have a slightly sobering effect, but that only made us more determined to enjoy the night out after the game - knowing that there would be another trip for the foreseeable future. Alas, I sadly knew the whole crazy trip was coming to an end when some humpty Belgian cleaning wifie booted us in the ribs at seven the nexy morning because we'd kipped the night in front of her shop doorway (we used to travel in style, on the big budget offered to us by Hibs Monthly).

Anyway, the point of this trip down memory lane is to illustrate just how brilliant these trips are, and just how much we yearn for them to return. The home match against AEK Athens wisnae too bad either now, was it!?

Over to you Bobby and the boys - it's time these Jambos moved over and allowed a team with a bit of class to represent Edinburgh in Europe.