FA Cup final: CARDIFF CITY vs Portsmouth. May 17th

[Gromit]

Placid I understand your despair, but I strangely was not gutted at the whistle. I realised that we had actually achieved something truly remarkable this season, and as I got out of my seat at the end and saw the broken bodies of our team lying on the turf I appreciated that they could not have given anymore.

If you want to talk about absolute 100% gut wrenching emptiness can I just remind you of that night at Ninian when having done the business away we lost in a play-off semi final. That night was the most sickening of my life ever. Four of us sat at the bar in the Ninian Park after the game and looked at our pints for fully 40mins before anyone said a word. I never want to experience anything like that again.

It took me an hour or so after the match to stop being gutted. Luckily for me a mate selfishly fell asleep and kindly let us balance beer mats on his head in kind of a pub version of jenga. Cheered me up no end.

 

[spacemonkey]

Good post Placid & another superb match report by Pauld.

I was proud to be a bluebird that day. Those big football occasions are special and I hope we can be part of a few more in the coming years.

Only 2 arrests all day as well, fantastic.

 

[pauld]

Dear Paul (and Ed, Marius, Drraig, 1927, Spacemonkey, Phildwyer and all other Bluebirds on here)

<...>

Thanks mate. With our little picks and shovels, bloody hell, we were there.

Respect.

Thank you Placid - the positive feedback on here and elsewhere is very much appreciated. The latter part of this season has been a surreal time full of unfathomable highs and soul-sapping lows.

What people seem to have failed to grasp about Saturday is that we (the fans, the players) were absolutely not there to "enjoy the experience" and "have a great day out", but were there to win it - hence the crushing post-match despondency.

Had a top night out planned in the Smoke, but was hurting so bad I just could not go through with it, and felt myself drawn back to Cardiff.

It was only on Sunday at the superb homecoming that the clouds started to lift and I was able to savour the achievement of the team and soak up the passionate intensity of the crowd as they paid their respects. Sounds stupid, but it gave us all some kind of closure and sent the crowd dispersing to the four corners with a warm, satisfied glow - positive and itching to have a crack at next season after having had a taster.

As for the beers...please feel free to look me up in sub-urban75's favourite pre-match watering hole the Romilly any time next season, and I'll be happy to accept your kind offer!

(I'm still waiting for one off the editor! )

Cheers and chin up - next year's gonna be a corker.