Should you find yourself here reading Part Two, please go read Part One of this article by clicking here.
Kick-off was around fifteen minutes away now, I had found my seat and was eagerly anticipating what could possibly unravel. A man sitting two seats away from me introduced himself as Paul and we shook hands and I instantly felt welcome, I was also impressed that he would do such a thing. In a way it didn’t feel real, my eyes were constantly wandering, I could feel myself being influenced by what was going on around me. Sudden chorus’s of Bluemoon and half hearted attempts by the United fans grabbed my attention. I looked to my right, all of the City end was now full to the brim of partying Blues. I then looked to my left, for a moment I wondered to myself if the United end had actually sold out because it was still only half full and very close to kick-off. My ticket had ultimately come through a company that sponsors David Silva and I was waiting for ‘the guy’ to come and sit next to me that sold me the ticket. He arrived just minutes before kick-off and this is defiantly the time that the saying ‘It’s a small world’ comes into action, I knew him from school. We hardly had anytime to say hello when the players arrived out of the tunnel. Can I just quickly point out that my predicted starting-line up from a previous blog entry was all correct except I had chosen Milner instead of Johnson.
It was time, the floating camera in the sky had whizzed past and the players were out of their tracksuit tops and were in formation waiting for the referee’s whistle. Vincent Kompany and Nemanja Vidić had shaken hands, we had won the toss and chose to stay at our end of the stadium. The big screen suddenly zoomed in right on Wayne Rooney, a big boooooooo came from the City fans and you could see a little smile on his face. United kicked-off and we were under way at Wembley.
The first thing I remember was singing, the City fans sung almost non-stop for the first ten minutes of the match, especially during the periods we had the ball. Mario Balotelli was working hard upfront on his own, chasing down each of the United centre backs when they were in possession. Kompany looked at home straight away but Lescott seemed a bit nervy, you could see it in his legs whenever he touched the ball but rest assured he was fine soon enough. The next major point in the game was the Berbatov chances, I was level with Gareth Barry on the pitch when he did that strange backwards pass to Lescott on the stretch which instantly United turned into a one-on-one with Hart. My heart sunk, I knew United were going to score because it was in such a great position, then Hart came flying out, he had his body spread similar to how Schmeichel had done a million times before for United, what a save. The fans behind the goal celebrated the save like we had scored, when straight away Berbatov found himself in the middle of goal, an open net with Kolarov a few steps behind him. The ball came flying in at his feet, he stretched for it and I knew then that United were going to score. The United fans were cheering but we were cheering louder, how Berbatov managed to miss that chance I will never know, I would miss those chances week-in-week-out for half the wages he was receiving if anyone’s interested in signing me up. City then went on to have a few chances of their own through Barry, Balotelli, Lescott and Kompany but all to no avail. The half time whistle blew and I remember thinking to myself that I was happy/relieved we had made it to half time having not conceded and not trailing.
The first thing I remember was singing, the City fans sung almost non-stop for the first ten minutes of the match, especially during the periods we had the ball. Mario Balotelli was working hard upfront on his own, chasing down each of the United centre backs when they were in possession. Kompany looked at home straight away but Lescott seemed a bit nervy, you could see it in his legs whenever he touched the ball but rest assured he was fine soon enough. The next major point in the game was the Berbatov chances, I was level with Gareth Barry on the pitch when he did that strange backwards pass to Lescott on the stretch which instantly United turned into a one-on-one with Hart. My heart sunk, I knew United were going to score because it was in such a great position, then Hart came flying out, he had his body spread similar to how Schmeichel had done a million times before for United, what a save. The fans behind the goal celebrated the save like we had scored, when straight away Berbatov found himself in the middle of goal, an open net with Kolarov a few steps behind him. The ball came flying in at his feet, he stretched for it and I knew then that United were going to score. The United fans were cheering but we were cheering louder, how Berbatov managed to miss that chance I will never know, I would miss those chances week-in-week-out for half the wages he was receiving if anyone’s interested in signing me up. City then went on to have a few chances of their own through Barry, Balotelli, Lescott and Kompany but all to no avail. The half time whistle blew and I remember thinking to myself that I was happy/relieved we had made it to half time having not conceded and not trailing.
During the half time interval, I mostly looked around, my friend had gone to the toilet so I was free to imagine. I took a few photographs using my mobile phone and watched the entertainment which was taking penalties at Dave Beasant, that was a bit of a letdown but it passed the time. Before I knew it, it was time to kick-off again. The teams had remained unchanged and it was as you were in the Semi Final of the FA Cup. This half had a different feel to it, City started to show the United players less respect and we were flying into challenges. Pablo Zabaleta was not taking any prisoners yet he was winning the ball every time, Gareth Barry was getting stuck in too. City gradually worked their way into the match, United and in particular Scholes had taken a strong hold on the centre of midfield during the first half and it wasn’t until we had come to terms with this that we really started to look like we could go on to win this. We were dominating from the off and before you knew it we had scored. I was sat right near the front but more towards the half way line, from my angle it looked like a very easy goal and it wasn’t until I saw a replay on the screen had I realised that Yaya Toure had done so well. He came and slid just to our right and I have never celebrated so much in my life, I jumped up and down like I was on a trampoline shouting “yessssssss, yessssssss, yesssssssss” for about five minutes continuously. Everyone around me was the same, I had my arms on people all around me, and they were jumping too. Then out came the Poznan, “let’s all do the Poznan, let’s all do the Poznan, naa, naa, naa, na”! I cannot describe the feeling in words but I will never forget this moment as long as I live.
Now this game was ours to lose, we were dominating possession and position but in my mind as a City fan there is always that feeling of anything can happen. I spent the rest of the half watching and analysing the situation in my head, United were having chances but everything seemed to end up in Joe Hart’s hands. At one point I remember hearing from behind me, “Oi, are you a red”, so I quickly turned round and spotted trouble on the row behind me. A City fan had noticed a United fan sat in the City end on the row in front of him, he was far from happy and took it out by repeatedly punching the man in the back of the head. He quickly moved towards the stewards and was gone, people around him told him to leave him alone but then he questioned whether they were reds too, luckily one had a City tattoo on his arm which calmed everything right down and we were back to normal. Nani was lining up a free kick at the time, the one that... you guessed it... went straight down Hart’s throat.
What happened next could not have been better written, Paul Scholes the United legend was sent off for a disgraceful challenge on Pablo Zabaleta. “Cheerio, cheerio, cheeriooo”, we waved goodbye to him as he walked towards the tunnel, I received text messages from friends telling me they had seen me on TV waving goodbye to Scholes. I knew then that this was a chance like no other for us to make it into the final. The picture of me can be seen below but the much better video can be seen by clicking here.
What happened next could not have been better written, Paul Scholes the United legend was sent off for a disgraceful challenge on Pablo Zabaleta. “Cheerio, cheerio, cheeriooo”, we waved goodbye to him as he walked towards the tunnel, I received text messages from friends telling me they had seen me on TV waving goodbye to Scholes. I knew then that this was a chance like no other for us to make it into the final. The picture of me can be seen below but the much better video can be seen by clicking here.
The final whistle drew closer and closer, I wanted the game to end sooner rather than later but on the other hand I was having a great time and so were all the other City fans. The United end was clearing quickly and for what seemed like the longest five minutes of extra time ever my heart was in my mouth. United came close twice through Evra who should have concentrated more on not being left in the dust by Shaun Wright-Phillips and Adam Johnson rather than smashing the ball into side netting. Then we heard it, the final whistle... oh wait, no it wasn’t. We played on with a goal kick by Joe Hart, there it was... the final whistle and up went a loud cheer of celebration. In a way it did feel like we had won something, but we hadn’t, at least we were now in with a chance of winning something. Our first final in 30 years!!!
We had yet another party in the stands, the inflatables were everywhere, scarf’s were swinging and the fans were singing. Straight away the sore losers showed their true colours, Anderson and Rio Ferdinand were looking for any sort of excuse. Balotelli was the easy target who kissed his badge towards the United end from the half way line. Someone should have told the United players that all their fans had left already anyway. We didn’t realise there was a practise fire drill at our of the stadium end because there must have been something that made the United fans leave so quickly. The players did the Poznan which was a nice touch after being asked to do so by fans at a meeting a few days before the match. I didn’t want to leave the stadium, we waved the players off and I grabbed an inflatable beach ball that was my souvenir of the day.
We had yet another party in the stands, the inflatables were everywhere, scarf’s were swinging and the fans were singing. Straight away the sore losers showed their true colours, Anderson and Rio Ferdinand were looking for any sort of excuse. Balotelli was the easy target who kissed his badge towards the United end from the half way line. Someone should have told the United players that all their fans had left already anyway. We didn’t realise there was a practise fire drill at our of the stadium end because there must have been something that made the United fans leave so quickly. The players did the Poznan which was a nice touch after being asked to do so by fans at a meeting a few days before the match. I didn’t want to leave the stadium, we waved the players off and I grabbed an inflatable beach ball that was my souvenir of the day.
As soon as I left the ground (with a huge smile on my face) there was trouble, United fans walking along next to City fans. Are the people that organised this a bit simple because what did they expect to happen? A few fist fights broke out but nothing too serious, it was right where I had arranged to meet my brother so I was worried about him. Luckily it all died down and we were able to make our way to the City coach parking area. It was yet again another party, I felt someone grab me from behind, and it was a friend from back home who started crying with joy. We waited around for the area and roads to clear and we were back on the coach home.
The journey home seemed much quicker than the journey down, my bum didn’t get numb once and I spent almost the whole time talking to my brother about the game. We had the radio on listening to some daft United fans ring in to Robbie Savage complaining about one thing or another and we just spent that time cheering. We arrived home around 1am where I instantly went to my bedroom and watched the match again, I was on a natural high and didn’t want to go to sleep. I used the #cityatwembley hash tag on twitter like I had been doing all day and it was used by Manchester City on their fans view of the day on the website. It can be seen below, my tweet is the top one @AndySlow.
The journey home seemed much quicker than the journey down, my bum didn’t get numb once and I spent almost the whole time talking to my brother about the game. We had the radio on listening to some daft United fans ring in to Robbie Savage complaining about one thing or another and we just spent that time cheering. We arrived home around 1am where I instantly went to my bedroom and watched the match again, I was on a natural high and didn’t want to go to sleep. I used the #cityatwembley hash tag on twitter like I had been doing all day and it was used by Manchester City on their fans view of the day on the website. It can be seen below, my tweet is the top one @AndySlow.
Eventually I felt tired and retired to my bed, I managed to watch the whole match before falling asleep. I woke the next morning and got ready for work, for some reason I had never looked so forward to work in my life!!!
Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the FA Cup Semi-Final and what you thought about this blog using the comments section below... why not follow me on Twitter too @AndySlow.
