1 April 2009
So this was it, my first trip ever to Wembley (old or new) and boy had it been a long time coming. After all the trips that Leicester had made to wembley in the 90s, it seems madness that I had never made the trip to London but on April Fools day, all that was to change.
After finishing work at 1pm, I made my way over to my mate Tom's house to meet up with his brother, Ben, and another mate, Mark. A bit of FIFA09 and a kick around on the street in the sun and we were ready to head to the train station for the trains to London.
The magic of the ticket barrier onto Leicester station was too much for Mark though and he had to sort through his vast collection of tickets to find out which one would let him onto the platform and "enter england" as it was described.
A quick bite to eat and we threw Tom and Ben on a train, singing "We'll never see you again" to the amusement of the other passengers and then grabbed a quick drink while waiting for our train to the capital.
30 minutes later, we hopped on our train, and had a fairly uneventful journey down chatting to random people about the game ahead and then to another bloke about the difference in fortunes between Leicester and Swindon Town.We met up again in London and head off to find the closest pub to St Pancras for a quick pint before going off to Wembley. The mighty 'Lucas Arms' was the watering hole of choice and we had the alcohol, pool table and a vast collection of free newspapers collected on the journey to keep us entertained. A few games of pool climaxed with a team effort as team red:
took on team white:
A close affair on the table resulted in both teams getting down to black ball where we all choked at the final hurdle...
... until a poor shot from Tom left the black over the pocket and an easy shot to wrap it up in our favour.
With spirits high, we wandered back to the underground station, collecting more free newspapers on route (you had to be there I think!), and jumped onto the tube in the rough direction of Wembley. To be honest, we wernt fully sure where the train was going but there were England fans on it who we had been chatting to so it was good enough for us. Our childish antics and random chatter provided good banter for the rest of the carriage and all the lack of eye-contact that is normally on the train was gone as the commuters loved us.
Walking down Wembley Way.... one of the many experiences that every football fan wants to do at some stage of their football watching career. Sadly I was doing this not as a Leicester fan, but following England. We traded cameras for the obligatory group photo under the arch and headed up the ramps to find our turnstile.
The esculators up to our seats provided much novelty and amusement and that wasn't the end of it as we had to climb up a mountain of seats to finally get to our row, one from the back. Closer to God than to Beckham!
The good thing about Wembley is that no matter where you sit though, you get a good view of the pitch and can enjoy the game from wherever you sit.... however the ground left me feeling a bit empty. After waiting so long to get to Wembley, it wasn't as special as I was hoping for. To be honest it was just like being at a slightly larger version of the Emirates at Arsenal. Still.... you cant knock an England international for under thirty quid.
As with all first time visitors, you had to have the compulsary photos in front of the pitch including one of the worst defensive wall in the world:
.... and one to show off my club roots:
We'd had a big debate on the way up to the ground of club v country and it's always gotta be the club for me. That's your bread and butter in football and the national team is just the jam on the top. You can't have the national team without your club team each week.
We then had a minutes silence in memory of the people who lost their lives in the crowd at the Ivory Coast game the weekend before. This however didnt last the full minute as some idiots decided to ruin it by shouting and trying to start songs. Now I don't know if they were Ukraine or England fans but it's inexcusable to ruin a minutes silence when its a chance to reflect on things.
I won't write a full report on the game as it was a long time ago now but the first real chance was a Steve Gerrard free kick which swung just wide of the post.
After the half hour, a Lampard corner was swung in, headed back across goal and Crouch was on hand to volley it into the net...
... before headed over to the corner to "pull the rope" like as said by Smithy told him to do in the comic relief sketch.
Not much else happened but England dominated throughout and never looked like conceeding as Rooney threatened whenever he was on the ball.
And that was that. 3 points in the group and 5 wins from 5 as the march to the world cup continues. With the game done, the fun was really starting now as nearly 90,000 people had to make their way away from the ground in the glow of the wembley arch.
It really is an incredible sight in the glow of the evening.
As we edged back down Wembley way, stopping every 5 minutes as the police allowed people to clear, we took the chance to reflect on the whole experience.
After a massive rush to jump on a tube of any description heading back to central london, we had some time to kill around St Pancras so did the usual thing of grabbing some food at Burger King before messing about taking childish pictures of each other for something to do.
My England/Leicester flag/skirt montage had been given a tour of London and drawn a few strange looks but in the end was a massive success!
At little past midnight, we jumped on board our train back to Leicester and spent the journey drinking tea or coffee (not quite the messy night in London we expected) and told really crap old cracker jokes that had us giggling like anything in our dozey state.
Back in Leicester and a quick taxi ride home and straight to bed, exhaused from the epic day out. England international? Success!! More than can be said for Leicester these days....
took on team white:
A close affair on the table resulted in both teams getting down to black ball where we all choked at the final hurdle...
... until a poor shot from Tom left the black over the pocket and an easy shot to wrap it up in our favour.
With spirits high, we wandered back to the underground station, collecting more free newspapers on route (you had to be there I think!), and jumped onto the tube in the rough direction of Wembley. To be honest, we wernt fully sure where the train was going but there were England fans on it who we had been chatting to so it was good enough for us. Our childish antics and random chatter provided good banter for the rest of the carriage and all the lack of eye-contact that is normally on the train was gone as the commuters loved us.We jumped on the connecting underground a few stops later and we were soon at the right tube station running around like idiots in search of the toilets only to be pointed in every direction but the right one.
Walking down Wembley Way.... one of the many experiences that every football fan wants to do at some stage of their football watching career. Sadly I was doing this not as a Leicester fan, but following England. We traded cameras for the obligatory group photo under the arch and headed up the ramps to find our turnstile. The esculators up to our seats provided much novelty and amusement and that wasn't the end of it as we had to climb up a mountain of seats to finally get to our row, one from the back. Closer to God than to Beckham! 
The good thing about Wembley is that no matter where you sit though, you get a good view of the pitch and can enjoy the game from wherever you sit.... however the ground left me feeling a bit empty. After waiting so long to get to Wembley, it wasn't as special as I was hoping for. To be honest it was just like being at a slightly larger version of the Emirates at Arsenal. Still.... you cant knock an England international for under thirty quid.
As with all first time visitors, you had to have the compulsary photos in front of the pitch including one of the worst defensive wall in the world:
.... and one to show off my club roots:
We'd had a big debate on the way up to the ground of club v country and it's always gotta be the club for me. That's your bread and butter in football and the national team is just the jam on the top. You can't have the national team without your club team each week. The Leicester flag also drew the attention of the drunken lad in front of us who turned and asked if I knew a girl named Jodie who goes to Leicester games. What are the odds that I was sat behind a Watford fan from London who used to go out with the girl who I travel to most away matches with. You couldn't have written it!
As the teams came out, we all stood for the national anthems as the crowd at each end held up their cards to show the england flag in the crowd - always an impressive sight!
We then had a minutes silence in memory of the people who lost their lives in the crowd at the Ivory Coast game the weekend before. This however didnt last the full minute as some idiots decided to ruin it by shouting and trying to start songs. Now I don't know if they were Ukraine or England fans but it's inexcusable to ruin a minutes silence when its a chance to reflect on things.
I won't write a full report on the game as it was a long time ago now but the first real chance was a Steve Gerrard free kick which swung just wide of the post.
After the half hour, a Lampard corner was swung in, headed back across goal and Crouch was on hand to volley it into the net...
... before headed over to the corner to "pull the rope" like as said by Smithy told him to do in the comic relief sketch.
Not much else happened but England dominated throughout and never looked like conceeding as Rooney threatened whenever he was on the ball.With 16 minutes to go though, disaster struck as England failed to clear a freekick. The ball rebounded off Glen Johnson and fell kindly to Andriy Shevchenko to smash past David James to kill any remaining atmosphere.
England had lost all momentum now and Ukraine started to look dangerous and like they could snatch a famous victory. Thankfully though, with 5 minutes of the game remaining, a Beckham free kick was headed back by Gerrard and turned in by John Terry - a carbon copy of Crouch's goal in the first half.
And that was that. 3 points in the group and 5 wins from 5 as the march to the world cup continues. With the game done, the fun was really starting now as nearly 90,000 people had to make their way away from the ground in the glow of the wembley arch.
It really is an incredible sight in the glow of the evening.
As we edged back down Wembley way, stopping every 5 minutes as the police allowed people to clear, we took the chance to reflect on the whole experience.
After a massive rush to jump on a tube of any description heading back to central london, we had some time to kill around St Pancras so did the usual thing of grabbing some food at Burger King before messing about taking childish pictures of each other for something to do. 
My England/Leicester flag/skirt montage had been given a tour of London and drawn a few strange looks but in the end was a massive success!
At little past midnight, we jumped on board our train back to Leicester and spent the journey drinking tea or coffee (not quite the messy night in London we expected) and told really crap old cracker jokes that had us giggling like anything in our dozey state. 
Back in Leicester and a quick taxi ride home and straight to bed, exhaused from the epic day out. England international? Success!! More than can be said for Leicester these days....
No comments:
Post a Comment