Shocked

Yet another photo based entry...


Yupz I went to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday for the Carling Cup semi first leg. No I didnt have psychic powers before hand to know that it would be a good match or Mourinho would play practically his first team. I guess its just my reward. It was just like a normal league match, very worth it.

Some other photos:

The infamous Chelsea Village, a Ken Bates legacy








Me on enemy territory


The Chelsea megastore, complete with idiot security guard inside who told me I can't take photo of a Zola cutboard figure. WTF?


Me getting closer to enemy soil. My spiked hair looks like cock head instead. KNN.






Carlo Cudicini in warm up

Petr Cech in warm up


Before kickoff


The boy wonder cum (pun intended) prostitute visitor taking a corner


Daft Duff taking a corner. He would really so much better in the red of Man United

Yeah anyway as you can see my seat was quite near the corner, behind the goal in the first row. I was at the end where United were attacking in the first half. Wonder if anybody saw me during the match on TV? I was right behind Quinton Fortune when he got rammed by the ball in the head and banged into the advertising boards. Did anybody see me?????? I guess that's about as close to being on TV as I can.

And yeah the Saha penalty incident was right in front of me, it was very clear cut. It was a penalty as neither Chelsea players got anywhere near the ball. Mourinho is an idiot.

Quality cheers during the game:

1. You sold your hearts to a Russian, sold your hearts to a Russian, sold your hearts to a Ruuuuuuussian.
2. You are not Chelsea anymore, you are not Chelsea, you are not Chelsea, you're not Chelsea anymore!
3. Peter Kenyon, you're a wanker

But the main topic of my post isn't the match itself, it was what happened after the match. For a brief idea of what happened, click on the following 2 links:
What happened after the game
Discussion on hooliganism

Ok I know most of you can't be bothered to click on them so I will briefly summarise. After the game, there was fighting between United and Chelsea fans outside the ground. And apparently it was very serious. I didn't see it myself because I left pretty soon after the final whistle. But if I had left later I could have been affected. I was still joining in the singing of United songs outside the stadium :S. Anyway there were hooligans on both sides looking for trouble but the Chelsea fans apparently targetted anyone who was wearing a red and white scarf (lucky I kept mine at home too...) regardless of whether the opposite side was looking for trouble. On one of the trains back up north some Chelsea hooligans (whoever said all fans of other clubs lived within 5 miles of the club?!) apparently started messing around with a woman on a wheelchair. WTF?!?! How low a lifeform can you get?

Then the second link goes on to discuss the existence of hooliganism in English football. And this really got me shocked. It was a serious problem back in the 80s but I am still surprised to read that some people actually do not think that fighting etc is wrong! Apparently each team still had perhaps groups of 15-30 people in the away support who go round to pubs and dark alleys before games looking for people to fight. I guess I had been very naive about my views about the state of hooliganism in UK previously, but surely it is senseless and wrong to fight for the sake of fighting? I am a very violent person myself but I don't see the point of gang fights. If you want to fight so much, join the army! You can even kill with machine guns! Isn't that more cool? I don't know, perhaps it can never go away, but I just hate the idea of my favourite sport being tainted with such an image. My ideal world consist of banter on the pitch during the games, and plenty of goodwill off it after the game. Very very disturbing, I better watch my arse in future when I go for matches...

And finally, I also must add...

GO LIONS!!!!!