We were all so excited! The anticipation was immense! Let's face it, we were in such good form and our manager Mark Robins had just been awarded Manager of the Month for completely turning around our football team. The Ricoh was going to be "A FORTRESS" with all seats SOLD OUT meaning the atmosphere was going to be be incredible! We were all BUZZING!
So I filled Orla up and set off, braving the sleety, snowy A41, and bringing with me my bag full of Peter Storm thermals, belvita breakfast biscuits, CCFC scarf, hat and gloves, IT WAS GOING TO BE SOOOOO FAB!!
Well..... it started off OK.
I met Kat's new baby, Joseph, and gave him his picture - can you tell how excited I was??? I even managed to colour a couple of Sky Blues hats on it! PUSB!
We had a pot of tea each at the Holiday Inn and would you believe it, the Crewe players arrived while we were there.... maybe I should have known then that THIS WAS NOT A GOOD SIGN!
I should have popped the team bus tyres as I left... that would have thwarted them.
I had time for another cuppa with my sis.
I got to Burbages Lane about 2 and half hours before kick off so...
...I actually managed to park! It was all going so well.
The Sky Blue shop was rammed, I had never seen so many people around the Ricoh.
It was all so exciting, you could almost FEEL the buzz.
Within minutes I was hugging Dave Busst and then THIS gentleman who approached me announcing "I know your brother!"
(Mr Haynes, the Ledge, played football (goalie) with Diddy, back in the day.)
What could possibly go wrong?
The Ricoh Arena was FULL! What a great opportunity for the lads to put on a good show and win some of the CCFC doubters and armchair supporters back to the matches.
SkyblueSam kept JENNY's seat (JENNY's seat????!) warm for her... and we were off!
Actually, he might not have but he usually does.... =)
We had shot after shot after shot and we also hit the post, but it was one of those nights where the ball just would not go in. Crewe's goalie seemed to find a knee or a hand or a foot to block the ball and at half time it was nil nil.
We SOOO should have put away a couple of those chances. When Crewe hit us on the break THREE TIMES and scored THREE goals (from their 4 on target) after we had peppered their goal with about 28 attempts, the crowd were devastated and started to drift home, leaving me in the middle of an empty row!
Even Hendo deserted me just before the final whistle.
It was such a shame that it all went horribly wrong in front of a capacity crowd. We were stunned.
I'm not going to write a match report. We lost three nil and that's all you need to know. We just have to score 3 or preferably 4 at Gresty Road in 2 weeks time.
"Schimples, hic."
I thought Cyrus played well, McSheffers and Baker were vastly improved and Moussa wasn't A TENTH as bad as the chap sitting next to me seemed to think.
We were absolutely MAGNIFICENT compared to the away game at Shrewsbury in September.
I actually had a brilliant night. Dick and Pam are the nicest people you could ever meet, I didn't need my handwarmers or even my gloves, I had 7 cups of tea, I had a Bussty hug, I met the last of Mrs Brown's Boys, I gave my little Orla a good run, I got discount on the M6 toll (it is £3.80 after 11pm) and I didn't waste any money in the shop on a silly foam hand at... a fiver? (A fiver for a bit of foam???)
What a "Jem" ! They are such a fun crowd.
Mr Brown with Mrs Browns Boys (who are both little "Jem"s.)
Thank you for having me, see you all again soon.
See you at Wembley!!! Well, you never know. Keepthefaith. PUSB!
