As the title might suggest, Sunday the 28th was the League (or Carling) Cup final, and my team, Aston Villa were playing. This is a pretty special event, one that doesn't happen all too often. The last time we got to a cup final was the 2000 FA Cup final vs Chelsea. We lost. The time before that was in 1996 in another League Cup final against Leeds United. We won! The trouble with both these finals (and the 1994 League Cup final) is that I wasn't really old enough to fully understand the happenings. Aged 8, 10 and 14 at the time of each respective final I think I was too young to get fully involved. But now, aged 24, I felt I was ready.
The day started at about 7am. Please bear in mind this is on a Sunday! And, I struggled to sleep the previous night. Call it pre-match nerves, I suppose. Anyway, after I showered, ate and pulled on my lovely new Villa shirt (featuring "Petrov 19" on the back) we left at about 8.30am.
I'd like to tell you about the journey down, but to be honest, I was sat in the back and not paying much attention. All I know is this; at 9.30am I decided it was time to open a beer and at about 10.15am we stopped at a service station near Reading for breakfast. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, other than the terrible traffic in London, but that was to be expected...
We parked up just outside the stadium at around midday and began layering up because it was very cold and wet. Once this was done, we set about trying to find a nearby pub (whilst drinking the remaining car beers) to enjoy some pre-match build up in. Eventually we found one, I think it was called JJ Moon's, and headed inside. It was a designated "Villa Pub" so there were only Villa fans in there, and boy, were they having a jolly good time. There was singing, and dancing, and swearing at things on Sky Sports News they didn't like the look of, and very soon we were joining in. Apart from my grandad. I forget he's almost 73, and I think he was a bit overwhelmed but he did quite well. After much singing, at around 2.15pm, it was time to get out that pub because we were off. Off to Wembley. Like properly. Inside the stadium and everything!
Wembley Stadium is a magnificent thing. I know it was about a hundred years late and a billion pounds over budget, but for all the cock ups, it turned out alright. My only problem with it is there are too few toilets. Actually, that might not be true, but for an event where the majority of people there are going to be men, you think they might change some of the women's toilets in to men's in the hope of alleviating some of the congestion. At the very least, I would have got less piss on my shoes.
Anyway, that aside, it is glorious. I only took one picture while I was there, and it doesn't exactly do the place justice, in terms of the sheer size of it but here it is anyway.
I took that as they were announcing the teams. They did it in quite a cool way, each of those flags bearing the players' names in which ever position they played, revealed one by one to the cheers (or boos) of the fans. By the way, I should point out we were playing Man Utd. (Yeah, booooo! Right?)So, the teams had been announced, and they were out ready to play. I think there was the national anthem but I went for a wee just before kick off. And then there was the kick off! I tell you what, I sang a lot. I was singing along to songs I didn't even think I knew the words too. Our fans were so much louder and more passionate than those other lot. And I'm not just saying that. I watched the game back on TV when I got home and I could just not hear them!
The game itself was really rather good too. Sort of end to end for a lot of it. We got a penalty after 4 minutes. Vidic brought down Gabby in the area but once again, the referee was indeed a wanker. Vidic should have been sent off, everyone knows it. Milner scored the penalty and we were 1-0 up. Exciting. But then, one thing led to another and we lost 2-1. Oh.
Let's not dwell on that though, because, although I was terribly disappointed, I was also incredibly proud. The final whistle went and after some cheering from the Man Utd fans, what could you hear? It was the Villa fans. AND IT'S ASTON VILLA, ASTON VILLA FC. THEY'RE BY FAR THE GREATEST TEAM, THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN. Amazing. Manchester United have just won the League Cup and all you can hear is Aston Villa fans singing for their team. That's why I was so proud. I was also proud of the team's efforts they gave it a proper good go.
That was that then, cup final over. A slightly less buoyant car journey home (with another stop at those Reading services) followed, and we were home for about half 9. It was a bloody long day, improved only slightly when I found out I won £120 on a bet!
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3 comments:
Sounds electric Ben :p
Glad you enjoyed yourself and felt proud of your loser team.
What I don't understand with football is how when fans are referring to their chosen team, they will say, "we", like they are somehow part of the team just by being a fan.
Also, why is it my Dad supports Spurs despite being born & raised in a place far away from Tottenham. Do you just get to an age as a young boy and think "I need to like football, so I better had pick a team, this team has pretty shirt colours, I'll 'av 'em"
Anyways, I am ranting on about football here on your football blog post like some sort of heckler.
I did enjoy the post despite it's topic.
Peace.
I can answer your "we" thing quite easily. The thing with a football team is there is only ever one contant: the fans. Players, managers, owners move on, the stadium can be changed, as can the kit. Even the name can change. But a fan, oh Kym, a fan is stuck for life. A fan *is* the club. Hence why we say "we"
I can't tell you why your dad supports Tottenham. They've never been that good so I can hardly call him a glory hunter.. Is he Jewish? Spurs have a pretty large Jewish following.
Sounds ridiculous to me.
LOL, no my Dad is not Jewish!
Racist.
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