COVENTRY CITY AWAY PART TWO: Fancy dress, disco dancing and beer.

Fascist B@astards ensure our safety

We set off nice and early. Sparky thought too early, but it was not until we left the pub that he realised it was a 1:30 kick off. I was in the front by default, we tried it with me in the back but the other two were crushed (being big has its advantages some times).

Being in front also means being DJ, so we headed north as fast as Val’s new car would take us (not very) listening to selected highlights from ‘The Songs Of Cardiff City’, ‘F@ck Bush Volume 2’ and the free ‘Birth of Punk’ CD from this months MOJO.

On arrival at Corley Services, the allocated voucher exchange point, we were greeted by a Cardiff City Steward who tried to persuade us that we would be best using the park and ride that had been hastily set up once the law realised we were all going by car. We politely told him ‘No thank you’. The voucher exchange was remarkably quick, because they realised there would be so many people travelling independently they seem to have given up on the idea of checking everyone’s membership cards. We watched the coaches arrive and watched the Old Bill search all the coaches and film everyone on board, all the more bizarre because they were the pop and crisps coaches and the people on them posed no threat whatsoever.

Despite all the scare stories about lack of parking, we quickly found a fee parking space within walking distance of the ground, and with very little hassle found ourselves a pub full of Bluebirds. We sat in the beer garden and had a few pints under the watchful eye of the West midlands mobile CCTV unit, then wandered down to the ground. We walked past numerous bits of waste ground and works car parks that were being used as makeshift ‘match day parking’ at half the price of the official parking, we even saw someone trying to sell space on his drive for a fiver!

Scooby Do joins in the half time disco

The ground is apparently very similar to the new one planned for Cardiff, a soul less construction built into a shopping centre. I hope it takes along time to build our new stadium, cos Ninian Park has far more character than this sanitised place.

Apparently you could buy tickets on the gate, which made a complete mockery of the voucher scheme!

With our usual impeccable timing we found our spot on just in time to watch kick off. It was a bit surreal, just in the seats around us were Captain Hook, Elvis Presley, Scooby do, a squadie from Rawkes Drift, a Russian sailor, a Hawaiian dancer, a giant chicken and a huge carton of milk.. and that was just within a 5 seat radius!

At half time there was an impromptu ‘disco’ in the bar area, with beer flying everywhere. Riot police stood to one side this time; Cardiff old bill keeping an eye on things and with their ‘local’ knowledge they could see that there was no threat. The local Bill were quite bemused by it all, especially when a nun led a conga line around the bar then up to the terraces.

Close, but no cigar. It's points that make prizes

City played well, but it’s points that make prizes so it was the 3:1 to Coventry score line that counted. At this stage of the season there was nothing at stake so it did not really matter, but it was annoying that Dennis Wise, the only footballer I have ever REALLY hated, managed to score against us.

Captain hook don't care waht the score is

One of the best things about supporting City is the atmosphere with the away crowds. Even though we lost 3:1, the 1,000 away contingent (numbers down because of the voucher farce) we sang, chanted and cheered all the way through, when we pulled back a goal to make it 1:1 we even managed to out-sing the 22,000 home fans. I love the way that even when the home fans are celebrating a goal, Cardiff fans are sing at the top of their voices in a defiant ‘we don’t care’ gesture.

Goodbye from koumas?

At the end the City team came over to say thank you to us, though it was a little bit worrying seeing Jason Koumas take his shirt into the crowd, almost with a ‘see you lads, I wont be here next season’ look in his eye.

After the game we walked back to the car, mingling with the Coventry fans, proving that the police precautions had been on the whole unnecessary. We did see a vanload of Coventry jump out and attack a father and his ten-year-old son, but the other city fans that were around chased them off. No one was hurt and it was over in seconds, apart from that I am not aware of any trouble to mar a great day out.

We then sped South to the sound of a Paul Murphy mix I had downloaded and a Kinetic Records compilation. The only thing about travelling by bus I missed was the fact that they have a toilet on them!