Back from Cardiff

Barnesy_10 · May 14, 2006

Well, what a day..

got the train from Lime St at 8:30am, it was well organised by Triangle Travel, everyone got their seat, shame booze wasn't allowed but it seemed obvious some was smuggled on as we could tell from one guy swigging 'Lucozade' like its going out of fashion

Got into Cardiff Central at 12:40 and it was great walking through the tunnels of the station singing Luis Garcia song!

Immediately headed over to where the Liverpool fans were hanging around by the stadium and the atmos was great and well behaved... footy balls being flung everywhere and plenty of singing. There was a great showing of banners all over the area, my personal fave was the 'Momo is Boss' one

Got to about 2pm and decided to head over to my seat, so went through the turnstiles without any trouble, at this point most were still in the square so there weren't any queues and couldn't see evidence of people being turned away, though I got offered £500 for my ticket by one fella.. even showing me the wad of cash

Went through Gate 2 and watched some security guards chase some scallies around by the FA tent, one got hold of one of them whilst the other gave him a smack in the face the nearby copper seemed to divert his eyes at this point...

Went to my seat to soak up the stadium as it was my first visit.... it was great watching the ground gradually fill up and from U5 it was a great view. Overall a great ground..

Don't really need to say much about the match... it wasn't our best display by a long shot, Riise was poor and they were having a field day over on our left hand side... The connections with Istanbul were frightening, with Kewell going off injured and Hamann changing the game and Pepe

The atmosphere was great, West Ham fans gave us a run for our money though.

One West Ham fan was in sat in our block and this wasn't known till they got the 2nd and he jumped up to celebrate.... it got nasty and he was getting chucked everywhere, there were no police or stewards and the fella tried to grab the pole of a flag off someone to swing round but fortunately he failed... he got a few jabs off some guys and a mouthful of spit off one old fella

One thing that astounded me was when Gerrard got the equaliser to make it 3-3 a load of people got up and left whether they thought it was a replay or not I aint sure?

The players celebratuing after the game was great, Cisse and Reina with the big head masks on was funny and Mori seemed to be laughing hysterically at one point. Nando had Reinas mask on for ages until Reina told him he had put it on upside down....

Left the stadiumand went straight for the station as was told to expect mayhem, and sure enough it was mental as not many expected penalties and it seemed people had missed trains....

I popped into a nearby Burger King only to find it absolutely full of West Ham fans... I felt like Robert Carlyle in 51st State.. anyway, ordered a couple of burgers and felt a chip hit me and turned round and saw some cockney f*** look away, then I kinda lost it with him... least said about that the better as I was having a great day..

Got in the queue for the 7:32 train and saw Phil Thompson in the queue for the 7:03 train.... so he was chatting and having piccies taken but he looked like he was with family.... then as the passengers for that train walked down the line to the platform Phil Neal and David Fairclough were at the back of the line, they got a cheer and Phil Neal had a massive red wig on, he was hilarious.... he tripped up a kerb and nearly went flying, then he came running back and said how Liverpool are rebuilding him with a hip replacement and leaving Dalglish alone ... Thommo got a round of 'Thommo been on the sunbeds tra la la' to which he replied with a smile and a wink...

Got back into Liverpool and saw the coppers at teh station overreacting to one fella and setting a dog on him and t***ting him with a stick, 5 of them it took.... then one fella shouted how there was no need for that and he got chucked against the glass window and arrested too whilst his daughter watched on in tears.... nobheads...

then went out on the lash which rounded it off nicely!

great day

heres the piccies, they have been scaled down, if anyone wants a particular one in full res then let me know and I can e-mail it..