Weon

So, the morning of 19th May rolled around. I didn’t sleep too well due to being far too excited at the prospect of travelling to London to see the first FA Cup Final at the new Wembley.

We got up and ended up leaving late. Not the best plan when you are booked on a train from Oxford. Driving through Oxford - rubbish. The council have a “no signage” policy (or so it seems) so by the time we had found our way to the long-stay parking for rail users, we ran to the station to see our train pulling out. Bugger. I guess we’ll be catching the next train then.

We arrive in London and head for the tube. Having seen Paddy Crerand on the underground, we get off at the new station at Wembley Park which spits you out direct onto Wembley way, the main approach to the stadium. The first view of the massive arch fills me with excitement and anticipation.

We wander slowly toward our destination, past those selling flags, scarves and other unofficial tat. I get an inflatable FA Cup (little did I know this was the closest I would get to seeing the trophy with red ribbons on). We see a group of lads from Umbro showing off their silky skills with the football and then stroll into the stadium.

We have plenty of time before kick-off so we take a seat, read some of the programme, have a chat and generally marvel at the new stadium (apparently it has more toilets than any other building in Europe). Slowly the seats begin to fill and we are treated to the marching band, a collection of FA Cup legends, some crazy women dangling from enormous balloons and Des Lynham.

It all helps the build the tension and anticipation. The teams arrive and come out to inspect the pitch. Then they go to get changed and come back to warm up. By now we are at about three-quarters capacity.

Then it’s time for the kick off.

I wish I could say the match was a classic. I wish I could say that both teams played attractive football. I wish I could say that United won. In fact it was a fairly dull affair. United relied too much on Ronaldo who was obviously tired (the fact that as soon as he got the ball there were three men on him didn’t help) while the great runs of Brown down the right were largely ignored. Fletcher and Heinze played better than usual and it was good to have Rio and Vidic back but it wasn’t enough.

There was no real spark. Rooney pulled out a couple of moments of brilliance but we relied too much on the long ball game and with one man up front that was never really going to work too well.

With the 90th minute ticking away, both sets of fans were somewhat subdued but hoping for more from extra time. Unfortunately it just didn’t happen. How Giggs didn’t score from Rooney’s cross I’ll never know (and yes the ball did cross the line).

The noise when Drogba finally scored the only goal of the game was immense. The atmosphere in the ground was excellent despite the dull match (imagine how good it would be with a proper game) but the wrong side won.

There was a little bit of tension as we left the ground. We stayed long enough to see Terry lift the cup and then headed back down Wembley Way. The Underground coped remarkably well with 90,000 people all wanting to use one station at once and our journey home was quiet.

I had a great day. It wasn’t awesome because we didn’t win but it was an excellent trip. Wembley is fantastic (I should think so for £800 million) and I’d recommend anyone go if they get the opportunity.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 10:55 am and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.