Dear Paul (and Ed, Marius, Drraig, 1927, Spacemonkey, Phildwyer and all other Bluebirds on here)
I have kept my silence until now after one of the happiest periods of my 40 years so far on this earth was brought to an end on Saturday. Like Marius has admitted, and like some others may have experienced, I took our defeat harder and worse than my pre-match intellectualisation of it made me believe I would. I took it bad, I was truly gutted, not least by the narrow margin of our defeat and some of Portsmouth's relatively negative and cynical tactics (eg Mendes, and Johnson's sly dirtiness throughout). Gosh Diarra was class, though.
What has pulled me through and made me truly delighted and honoured to have been part of this amazing thing is Paul's article on this site today.
Paul, I have never met you mate but I hope I do and when I do I will buy you a beer or two. The sheer eloquence of your article moved me considerably - you are a great writer mate and I am proud to agree with your analysis of our team, our performance, our club, our fans on Saturday who covered themselves in some (rare!) glory inside and outside the stadium.
Your analysis of the need for us to sort the squad out whilst keping Joe and Rambo (some hope) is spot on. Your ability to comunicate what it meant to all of us, and its place in the collective psyche of all of us who follow football in our corner of south Wales, and maybe at all lower (non-Premier League) levels, is spot on.
Sorry if this sounds like I am being obsequious, that is not my intention. I was lucky enough to go to Rounds 3, 5, 6, semi and Final. I had some of my greatest days ever (since 1976) at football. I saw wonderful goals (2 v Wolves, 2 v Boro, Joe v Barnsley, the sheer transcendental joy of which, in the case of Boro and Barnsley, I will take with me to my grave). Saturday was one of the greatest days of my life, the sheer magnitude of which, and our ultimate failure to take the glittering prize, tipped me into the trough of despond.
In the entire torrent of media outpourings around this final, which has been amazing (Lego, making me laugh my head off, Thommo's song making me so proud of him and our players, etc etc), there are two things that moved me deeply. Jonathan Owen's feature on the BBC lead-up to KO on Sat, which put following City into its rightful cultural context (and made me cry last night when I saw it for the first time), and Paul your article.
You have summed up the entire experience for me, and with wicked photos. In my treasured box of programmes, tickets and articles, yours is the only FA Cup Final article I am going to keep. It is brilliant and I just wanted to thank you for summing it up so eloquently.
Thanks mate. With our little picks and shovels, bloody hell, we were there.
Respect.
