First away day in the Premiership

An account of the day by Tom Bendall.

The Etihad Stadium

We left for Manchester about 11 a.m. where the drink started flowing. Conversation turned to the match ahead and of course about how much Cardiff must hate the fact that we’re in the Premiership! After a few cans and 4 hours later, we finally arrived in Manchester.

Where we made our way for Wetherspoons, where we weren’t allowed in because we were away fans. After a change of plan, we headed for Yates. We stopped in a small bar called Edwards which was surprisingly cheap! Jägerbombs were only £1.50 because they miss charged me. “I’ll have three Jägerbombs please” “that's 4.50” “Oh, I’ll have another three then“. Then finally we headed for Yates, only to find the rest of the travelling fans had taken it over! It was filled with orange and white shirts. Following a few conversations with the local United fans, who hoped we’d beat City and a chorus inside the pub of “Cardiff city’s falling down, falling down”, we left for the stadium. 

We got the Stadium late and sat down about 5 minutes after kick-off. Watching the Swans out-pass city for the first hour was a site to behold, “you’re only here to watch the Swans, you’re only here to watch the Swans” the atmosphere was immense. The way we dominated possession lead to people chanting “Champions League you’re having a laugh”, “Cardiff City are you watching” was also a nice dig. Hymns and arias could also be heard regularly.  

The singing was momentarily silenced, after they scored. Still we sung our hearts out ‘til the final whistle and marvelled at the performance Michel Vorm put in. As for other highlights of the game, my friend asking one of the policemen if he had any cheap TV’s, that he had from the riots!

As for City’s food, well I had a very dry burger with floppy cheese for £4.50, no good. Considering how the stadium looked at night, I expected better food, maybe something a little more gourmet. As for the tickets, well what colour does City play in? Sky blue! Whereas the tickets were yellow and very plain, I defiantly expected better!! We left the stadium about 10 and didn’t get back to Swansea ‘til about half past three.

The worst thing about the whole trip was being robbed of £15 in WH Smiths in the services for a few snacks and drinks. Oh well, at least we showed the Premier League how we’re going to excite the world for the next few months.

  

Who cares we lost? All in all it was a cracking day out. Really looking forward to the next one! The journey was a hellish; I would’ve really suffered without my trusty mp3 player. Defiantly flying for Newcastle away!! Ha-ha.