By Chris Wright
We’re fairly sure this happens every year, but the unlucky putz to have his Championship play-off final tickets eaten by his dog is poor old Norwich fan Matt Grimmer.
After receiving his three tickets through the post on Tuesday morning, Matt headed off to work having left them tucked away out of harm’s way (or so he thought) on top of his kitchen side unit.
He even made a special precaution to label the envelope so it wasn’t mistaken for recycling and headed off to the office.
“The phone rang a couple of times [during a meeting] and I ignored it, Matt told ITV News.
“I could see it was my wife ringing me. Then a text came through saying, ‘can you ring me urgently?’
“I excused myself from the meeting thinking that something had happened to a family member.”
Alas, it was something far more serious.
This was the horrific scene that greeted him once he returned home at the end of the day…
Naughty dog eats Norwich fan's three tickets for Championship play-off final at Wembley http://t.co/jeQmAfD5yX pic.twitter.com/1OmP0YgcM4
— ITV News (@itvnews) May 22, 2015
Yep. Freddie the cockapoo had only gone and worked his canine magic on Matt’s tickets.
Thankfully, after spending a good long while desperately attempting to prove to the Carrow Road ticket office that his plight was genuine, Matt was allowed to get his three tickets reprinted the following day.
“As I was queuing up, I explained what had happened and was told, ‘yeah, we’ve heard some excuses in the past'” he added.
“Eventually, I pulled my tickets out and they couldn’t believe it. I had tried to sellotape them together but it wasn’t savable.”
As such, they’ll be waiting for him at the Wembley box office on Monday afternoon.
All’s well that end’s well, eh?
Little Freddie, with his innocent little face, doesn’t know how close he came to being ‘taken out back’.