The British were chanting, ‘Go Big Blue!’ A day in a London pub with Kentucky fans.

For a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon, a London pub situated in a basement about 100 yards from the River Thames became a friendly meeting place for Kentucky basketball fans.

A day before the Wildcats were set to take on Michigan at O2 Arena, fans packed the Temple Brew House a little east of Soho to root on the USA soccer team in the World Cup.

Anyone from Kentucky who ventured through the front door — escaping the crisp London air outside — and made their way down the stairs found a welcome sight once they arrived. There was a mixture of Wildcats’ hats and shirts, American soccer gear and a handful of locals in neutral colors, likely wondering what kind of blue and white wave had just hit their chosen destination for the first game of the World Cup’s elimination round.

Sitting at one corner of the busy bar, tactically positioned underneath one of the establishment’s TVs, sat Jason Smallwood and Eric Marshall, both decked out in the colors of the Cats.

The pair are friends from northern Kentucky — Marshall a UK alumnus; Smallwood an NKU alum but lifelong Kentucky fan — and they’ve been attending road and neutral-site games together for more than a decade.

Smallwood said it started with the UK-UConn matchup in Madison Square Garden in 2009 during John Calipari’s first season as Kentucky’s head coach. The Cats won that game, 64-61, and finding a Kentucky game to travel to has become a Calipari-era tradition for the two friends ever since.

When it was confirmed that the London game — originally scheduled for 2020 before being postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic — had been shuffled onto the 2022-23 schedule, the duo started planning. They asked their wives — who had actually graduated high school together and introduced the two friends — if London might be doable. They got a “Maybe,” and that was enough to get passports updated, just in case.

Smallwood called Marshall several weeks ago with an estimated price tag, and their significant others both signed off on the trip.

“Let’s go,” Marshall said.

And so they did.

“It’s crazy. Tickets were relatively easy to come by,” said Smallwood. “And we’re having a blast.”

Buckingham Palace sounded like the tourist-y highlight of the trip to that point, and the two happened to luckily stumble upon the “Changing of the Guard” at the royal residence by chance.

“That was pretty wild,” Smallwood said.

The atmosphere at Temple Brew was another fun experience.

Marshall is the bigger soccer fan of the two, and he brought along his friend to soak up the environment of a big-time match in a quintessentially British atmosphere Saturday afternoon.

The result — a 3-1 USA defeat at the hands of the Netherlands — was a disappointment, but what transpired inside the pub over the two hours of that match was plenty memorable.

The Dutch struck first with an early goal, sucking some life out of the place. The Americans elicited some excitement with Timothy Weah’s rocket shot on goal toward the end of the first half — sparking loud chants of “USA!” from the bar goers — before the Netherlands made it 2-0 just before halftime. Some in blue and white headed for the exits, but most stuck it through.

“Trying to get into it,” Smallwood said at halftime. “Not a great start. We’re struggling.”

The place erupted when the Americans narrowed it to 2-1 with a goal in the late stages of the second half, with plenty of jumping around, high-fives and more chanting echoing around the pub.

The Netherlands put it away a few minutes later, but even the most soccer-crazy of Kentuckians in attendance didn’t seem as disappointed as they probably would’ve been if they’d been watching back home on the couch.

The place had been electric.

It helped that the vast majority of neutral observers had picked up on the American vibe and started rooting excitedly for the USA early on. Marshall said he figured going in that he’d be given a hard time by the locals at whatever spot he chose to watch the match.

“This atmosphere was great,” he said. “It was not what I expected.”

On the other side of the bar, Ash Mason — a Paintsville native now living in Lexington and another lifelong Wildcats fan — expressed his appreciation for the crowd.

Mason, who lived in the San Francisco area for about 15 years before moving back to Kentucky over the summer, was the leader of the Bay Area chapter of the UK alumni group before returning home. He traveled to London with his wife, Heather, and they, too, were soaking up the British atmosphere after a couple of days of sightseeing around the city.

Buckingham Palace — and an opportunity to see the Changing of the Guard — was also high on their list so far. Mason said he had visited Emirates Stadium — home to Arsenal, a top English soccer team — and marveled at the access there.

“They allowed us to see a lot of things that we didn’t expect to see,” he said. “A lot more than an American team would ever let us see. Very cool.”

Mason said traveling for Kentucky basketball games has become a lifelong adventure. He’s been on several such trips in the past three decades.

“It started when I was a little boy,” he said. “I was in Philadelphia in 1992.”

No Kentucky fan over the age of 35 or so needs any further explanation there. (For those who do, it was the Elite Eight game against Duke. That one with the Christian Laettner shot).

“I still haven’t gotten over it,” Mason said.

But that hasn’t stopped him from traveling to root on the Cats.

This Kentucky basketball season hasn’t gotten off to the start that many fans hoped it would. The preseason injury to Oscar Tshiebwe, the early losses to Michigan State and Gonzaga, and a generally disheveled look to these Cats has been met with much consternation among the fan base. It’s just the beginning of December, however, and hope sprang eternal Saturday afternoon.

Following the soccer match, one UK fan taught a nearby table filled with energetic English chaps — who had been rooting on the Americans as hard as anyone there, by the way — a couple of cheers not usually heard outside of the commonwealth.

“C-A-T-S!” the locals chanted. “Go Big Blue!” quickly followed.

“It’s been a little rough,” Smallwood said of UK’s start. “They’re going to pull it together pretty soon. I feel like they’ve been just finding their way. They should beat Michigan — no question. They’re better than Michigan. … They’ll get there. They got all the talent in the world. They’ll put it together.”

His buddy agreed.

“I always have optimism,” Marshall said. “It’s just the way I am with Kentucky.”

Big Ben, jet lag and a team coming together. Catching up with the Cats in London.

The Kentucky basketball team’s unique route to London. And how they spent their first day.

Where will Kentucky play its basketball game in London? A closer look at the O2 Arena.

Why is Kentucky playing a basketball game in London in the middle of the season?

Bad food and ‘rude’ players? Looking back at the last Kentucky basketball trip to London.