Once again I walked away from Wembley as the supporter of the losing team, not a great feeling I can assure you.

As far as days out goes this is not a bad one. 2000 was a great day even though the match was pants and I knew the feeling of going to the home of football was going to give me that special buzz.

The day started early, in fact a little too early. I had set the alarm for 6.30 and knew I wasn’t getting much sleep. We had been out the night before and I had restricted myself to only a few beers. My wife woke me at 5.30 and said it was time to get up and whilst I was up could I get her some paracetemol  and a glass of water ( she didn’t take it so easy with the drinking the night before !!!), that was me awake then! I decided to get an early start so was out the door for 7am.

It is about a 4 hour drive to London from where I live and it is not the most interesting of journeys I will ever take. The only thing to keep me company was a full packet of ciggies, a flask of coffee, the cricket on the radio and a strange green cloud which accompanied the beer farts!

I arrived on the outskirts of London and parked up at the train station I had chosen. It was a 15 min journey to Wembley from here and even at this hour the train was full of, mostly, Villa fans.

The next 2 hours involved waiting around in the freezing cold for my brother’s mate who had my ticket. He was travelling down from Birmingham on a later train and it didn’t get in ‘till 1pm. I did partake in a local North London delicacy, for my lunch, McDonalds…..now there is healthy living for you!

One crap burger and 10 fags later I was in possession of my ticket, it was time to make my way to the ground. If you haven’t been to Wembley before here is a quick description of the surrounding area….s**t hole.

Once inside the stadium, which is very impressive, I had the fortune of bumping into the only cockney/aussie bloke I know….that’s right folks Shirdi !!! We had a couple of beers (4 quid a bloody pint) and put the worlds to rights. It was great to see him again, it’s been a while.

As I walked up the steps, from the inner concourse, the stadium opened up before me and I have to say a little lump came to my throat. It is an awesome sight, pity the rest of it is crap….long waits for the toilet, 4 quid beer, 7 pound 50 for a dodgy looking burger and chips (which I didn’t have) over priced everything, in fact from merchandising to lemonade.

The pre match build up was good, big claret and blue cloths covered our end of the pitch and the army chaps with the players names on banners unfurled as their names were read out. Flames and Wolfmother (joker and the thief) blasting out as the players made the entrance, national anthem etc etc.

I am sure we all saw the game so I won’t bore you too much. Vidic should have been sent off, my pre match joy at the bench bound Rooney was destroyed by his replacement Owen, then compounded when he did come on and scored he winner, Heskey and Cuellar were crap, and besides a good go at the end we never really looked like winning.

I didn’t hang around to see manures best player, Phil Dowd, lift the trophy as my thoughts were turning to the journey home.

I stopped at Reading services to have my second healthy meal of the day, Burger King, (do you aussie boys remember the advert…’It takes 2 hands to handle a whopper, the 2 fisted burger from Hungry Jacks’ ?..how gay was that advert!?) As I walked out of the toilets passed another Villa fan and we gave each other that ‘oh well’ smile and off I went home.

Got home late to my wife giving me the ‘I want a slap for being a stupid bitch’ comment of “oh well dear it’s only a game”.

On the whole it was a good day out and I am left with the hope that there is still the FA Cup to lift the spirits once again.