QUOTE:
Can't you just let people cheer and shout and chant their own thing?

No, they can't. And they can't answer you either. I've asked the last three marketing gimps at the FA why on earth they feel the need to get warblers second-raters to drown out the crowd, and they never give an answer.

I mean, Abide With Me is a hymn, and there were 30000 Welshmen in the house, for fucks sake.

When I began watching City we were a Division Three/Four club. In a way I've never really got that out of my mindset. Yesterday was surreal, Cardiff City in a FA Cup Final. I don't think I'll ever truly accept it.

Down Wembley Way they had fairground style pictures where you could push your head through making it look as if you were lifting the FA Cup: http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8569/n6940063358557032548ch3.jpg

I always wonder what happens to all of this stuff (flags used on the pitch / banners outside the ground) after the Cup Final. I once wrote to FIFA asking what happened to the balls used in the World Cup draw when the draw had finished, I had an answer that was deeply unsatisfactory (to me anyway).

[There's a place in my study waiting to be filled by one of those "me with the FA Cup" boards - I'm sure I could fill many a boring evening with it...]

Oh, ha ha ha!

That picture is magnificent!

The Purple Cow wrote:

QUOTE:


W.C. (More than half jokingly) “So are you the Joe XXXXX who played for Arsenal against Cardiff in the 1927 F.A. Cup final?

O.B. Oh yes, that was me.

[Shocked silence]

W.C. Really?

O.B. Oh yes, I played for the Arsenal for eleven years.

[Second shocked silence]

W.C. Well?

O.B. Well, what?

W.C. Was the ball over the line, or not?

I don't think I've ever read or heard of any doubt at the time or since that the ball crossed the line, only if it should have been given as an o.g. for the keeper, Dan Lewis.

The Moral Animal wrote:

QUOTE:


SR: I don't know the name of the guy who did the piece on growing up as a football fan in South Wales, but he presents 'Soccer Sunday' on HTV Wales. From what I could hear, it seemed very good.

I've just watched his piece, it is largely excellent but I wish he'd give up with some of his "it's an attitude, two fingers up to the rugby squares, daddy-o" schtick , first aired in the piece below in the Guardian in 2006 along with some other questionable stuff;

QUOTE:
There is so much more to being a Cardiff fan than supporting the team. Any Bluebird will tell you we've been nothing but rubbish for decades: the odd promotion from the Fourth Division and winning the old Welsh Cup, but other than that, misery.

Yet to be a Cardiff fan always meant so much more than football. In a rugby-obsessed country, it was a statement of intent. You were different. You belonged to your own tribe. The way you walked, held yourself, dressed, even the music you listened to - it was a whole lifestyle choice.

The club itself became more famous - or infamous - through its fans than its team, and we knew that. Where Manchester United fans sang "you only come for United" to opposing supporters, we knew that people turned out because of us and not our team.

When football went "Sky" after Gazza's tears, Cardiff stayed working-class male while West Ham, Leeds and even Birmingham put in seats and welcomed the families. A Cardiff match was like an away day in 1980s nostalgia: terraces, pay on the gate, special away train and a few pints with the boys.

And then Sam came.

We loved Sam Hammam. He tried to embrace Cardiff and what we were about, but after Leeds in the FA Cup - when a huge TV audience witnessed yet another pitch invasion - things had to change, and change they did.

Cardiff are playing catch-up with the rest of football, yet because of us, the fans, we're the team everyone wants in the Premiership. I spoke to a good friend of mine who is a Liverpool season-ticket holder,and he said: "I'd love to see you lot in the Premiership - a proper club." And I knew what he meant, because we really would thrive in that league.

Now on to Mr Ridsdale. I've no doubt my curly-haired butty James Brown has every reason to be unhappy with how our new chairman departed from Leeds, but my grandfather told me "Always speak as you find" - and Peter Ridsdale has been great for us. He's brought in our manager, Dave Jones, and the striker Michael Chopra - not bad bits of work. He's helped manage the debts and pushed hard for our new stadium, which he says will get final approval by the council next month.

To me, he's the classic poacher turned gamekeeper. The perfect man to know how not to let things spiral out of control. People talk about our debts of £30m - so? Manchester United owe hundreds of millions, Chelsea would go pop tomorrow if the Russian pulled out. Who wanted to be safe old Aston Villa under Doug Ellis, managing their debts and trundling along in mid-table obscurity? Nah, give us a chance to shoot for the stars. We haven't been any good since 1927, so I'll take a season beating Milan, Lazio and Deportivo La Coruña thanks very much.

Some of my closest friends are Leeds fans but what he's done to them is nothing to do with us. As I said, we are our own tribe.

If, by some miracle, we end up in the Premiership with Peter Ridsdale at the helm, that's fine by me. I mean, who better to be in charge of a club which had a dodgy reputation in the past but is now on best behaviour?

place your bets on which OTF 1927er is this? His attire yesterday being based on 1927. seriously
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/8905/sl370129vp2.jpg

mnb098mnb wrote:

QUOTE:


Down Wembley Way they had fairground style pictures where you could push your head through making it look as if you were lifting the FA Cup

I couldn't go near them before the game, worried about cursing us and all that. I'd like one too.

At least I don't have to argue with my wife about my Cup Winners 2008 tattoo and trawl e-bay for a full-size replica of the Cup now though.

I guess the Chairman.

Fred Keenor wrote:

QUOTE:
I've just watched his piece, it is largely excellent ...

Did you tape it or is it actually online somewhere?

Well, that lays to rest the theory that a borefest between two teams outside the top four is any more bearable than a borefest between two of the top four.

Credit to Cardiff for at least trying to attack. Enkelmann might well be the first keeper ever who did not have a save to make and yet still cost his team the Cup.

Credit to Portsmouth for winning me $100 for correct score on the most predictable 1-0 result in history.

The Abide With Me debacle was a shame as that normally gives me goosebumps.

And enough of the fucking kids coming out with the players nonsense. Just, you know, fuck off back to school or the orphanage or whatever. Same for players carrying their kids around at the end. Treat them all as pitch invaders and chuck 'em out.

"I don't think I've ever read or heard of any doubt at the time or since that the ball crossed the line..."

That wasn't what the dispute was about. It concerned the ball having crossed the by-line (or not) before a crucial cross.

The "was it over the line" final was in 1932. Newcastle United won the game 2-1 against Arsenal.

From the pictures I've seen the ball was over the line before the cross was made.

Fred Keenor wrote:

QUOTE:
The Moral Animal wrote:

QUOTE:


SR: I don't know the name of the guy who did the piece on growing up as a football fan in South Wales, but he presents 'Soccer Sunday' on HTV Wales. From what I could hear, it seemed very good.

I've just watched his piece, it is largely excellent but I wish he'd give up with some of his "it's an attitude, two fingers up to the rugby squares, daddy-o" schtick , first aired in the piece below in the Guardian in 2006 along with some other questionable stuff;

QUOTE:
There is so much more to being a Cardiff fan than supporting the team. Any Bluebird will tell you we've been nothing but rubbish for decades: the odd promotion from the Fourth Division and winning the old Welsh Cup, but other than that, misery.

Yet to be a Cardiff fan always meant so much more than football. In a rugby-obsessed country, it was a statement of intent. You were different. You belonged to your own tribe. The way you walked, held yourself, dressed, even the music you listened to - it was a whole lifestyle choice.

The club itself became more famous - or infamous - through its fans than its team, and we knew that. Where Manchester United fans sang "you only come for United" to opposing supporters, we knew that people turned out because of us and not our team.

When football went "Sky" after Gazza's tears, Cardiff stayed working-class male while West Ham, Leeds and even Birmingham put in seats and welcomed the families. A Cardiff match was like an away day in 1980s nostalgia: terraces, pay on the gate, special away train and a few pints with the boys.

And then Sam came.

We loved Sam Hammam. He tried to embrace Cardiff and what we were about, but after Leeds in the FA Cup - when a huge TV audience witnessed yet another pitch invasion - things had to change, and change they did.

Cardiff are playing catch-up with the rest of football, yet because of us, the fans, we're the team everyone wants in the Premiership. I spoke to a good friend of mine who is a Liverpool season-ticket holder,and he said: "I'd love to see you lot in the Premiership - a proper club." And I knew what he meant, because we really would thrive in that league.

Now on to Mr Ridsdale. I've no doubt my curly-haired butty James Brown has every reason to be unhappy with how our new chairman departed from Leeds, but my grandfather told me "Always speak as you find" - and Peter Ridsdale has been great for us. He's brought in our manager, Dave Jones, and the striker Michael Chopra - not bad bits of work. He's helped manage the debts and pushed hard for our new stadium, which he says will get final approval by the council next month.

To me, he's the classic poacher turned gamekeeper. The perfect man to know how not to let things spiral out of control. People talk about our debts of £30m - so? Manchester United owe hundreds of millions, Chelsea would go pop tomorrow if the Russian pulled out. Who wanted to be safe old Aston Villa under Doug Ellis, managing their debts and trundling along in mid-table obscurity? Nah, give us a chance to shoot for the stars. We haven't been any good since 1927, so I'll take a season beating Milan, Lazio and Deportivo La Coruña thanks very much.

Some of my closest friends are Leeds fans but what he's done to them is nothing to do with us. As I said, we are our own tribe.

If, by some miracle, we end up in the Premiership with Peter Ridsdale at the helm, that's fine by me. I mean, who better to be in charge of a club which had a dodgy reputation in the past but is now on best behaviour?

The main bit I didn't like about his film was his apologism for Soul Crew violence in the 70s/80s. It went something like "Being a Welsh club in the English league, inevitably you play a lot of your games in England... South Wales is a tough area... You're representing where you come from..." etc.

The symbolism of him looking at his watch and the shot of Cardiff City hall's clock when Portsmouth was mentioned was obviously for the same effect and I am surprised the BBC didn't check up on it.