Semi-final memories
Another excellent piece by Kerry Andrew on the Two Unfortunates blog, this time about the semi final at Villa Park - http://thetwounfortunates.com/semi-final-memories-wycombe-wanderers-2001/
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Another excellent piece by Kerry Andrew on the Two Unfortunates blog, this time about the semi final at Villa Park - http://thetwounfortunates.com/semi-final-memories-wycombe-wanderers-2001/
Comments
"We beat ... Wimbledon in the best football experience of my life..."
Absolutely. Last Tuesday pushed it close though!
The reference to the Walsall defeat reminds me of one of the best chants I've heard, "Are you watching, Liverpool" as the fourth or fifth goal went in. Priceless.
This a brilliant piece, well worth a read.
this bit:
"The whistle blew, the glory supporters who’d come for a nice day out turned to each other and said ‘ooo, that was good fun, wasn’t it?’ whilst the regulars sat very still, inwardly weeping at having been ten minutes away from an FA Cup final"
my exact memory of that day
Kerry's piece on the cup run from a few years back is well worth a read too; she's a fantastic writer and really captures the emotion of the occasion. She's also in the brilliant You Are Wolf, if you like a bit of experimental folk music.
Stamford Bridge - bad evening all round for me. Made the mistake of driving to the ground - the first and only time I literally found nowhere legal to park in the vicinity of the ground, so had to leave the car in a restricted area on an estate, and got a ticket. Then the match - once Tommy D had gifted them the first goal, it was all over really. Then driving away after the match, some goon in a big 4x4 bumped me while reading his match programme, got abusive, blamed me, and took me to court for damages. Didn't have to pay anything though.
That's terrible. We parked somewhere near Craven Cottage and had a lovely thai curry beforehand. The match was a bit of a non-event in the end but that's the way it goes sometimes. As for Villa Park, what a day. My dad locked the keys in the car as we were about to set off and ran through the house like a mad-man with a hammer shouting about "having to smash the window". He ran past me and chucked the hammer through the rear passenger window and managed to cut his hand open in the process. After that, the day could only get better and it did. So proud of the club, the players and the town that day.
Like Rolo, I had an eventful day.
Must have slept oddly that night and woke up with a trrapped nerve on the left side of my neck. Couldnt move my head to the left at all. Drove 200 miles or so to Brum only able to turn left (couldnt turn right as couldnt see what was coming from that way). If I needed to turn right, go left, go to next roundabout, go right round.
All went well, got to the ground in some pain but manageable, jumped up when Ryan scored. oh the exquisite agony.
Just about got in the car as neck stiffened on way home, but couldnt stop for a much needed p*ss as knew there was no way once i got out of the car I would be able to get back in again. Long long trip home (still turning left).
Surely the only day in Dev's life that he's only been able to turn left?
I seem to remember that if we had got to the final we would have been playing in Europe regardless of the result.
Filbert Street was incredible we were dancing on the back of the seats when teletext Roy Scored.
Had tickets right behind the goal but in the Leicester home end, I took a call at half time from a mate watching the game at AP, as soon as I opened my mouth the bloke next to me stood up and announced "these two guys are Wycombe!" Made for a very difficult moment when Roy scored, sitting staring straight ahead as every eye for seats around was on me and my mate wanting like anything to be in the away end going nuts....
Stayed at the Holiday Inn and went out on the lash into Leicester in the evening....scary place...makes Wycombe town centre look positively upmarket.
Quality piece.
That match should have been the best watching Wycombe Wanderers. It wasn't.
I couldn't sleep or think since the Wednesday, was out every night to block out the thoughts of the semi-final out of my mind.
Then the day came, a horrible anti-climax, I'll never forget the awful feeling in my stomach as the rain lashed down on the Villa Park turf. It felt like a week's hangover hitting me at once.
A shame because the rest of the cup run was out of this world.
That Leicester game. I was sat directly behind the comanche head-dress guy. Couldn't see half of what was going on on the pitch, but couldn't bring myself to ask him to remove the head-dress. I have a moment in time frozen in my head when Roy leaped like a salmon and was about to make contact with the ball. In that moment I pictured it sailing aimlessly wide or tamely into the keeper's arms but of course it flew like a missile into the net. The entire coach on the way home was eerily silent. Everyone just sat in disbelief while I quietly shed a tear. Incredible incredible memories I will never forget. The next day my right arm was in the paper photo-bombing head-dress guy.
The chap who regularly went to pretty much all games home and away in the head dress is a friend of my family, I was delighted to see him in the papers on the Sunday morning when I was on an appallingly timed French exchange trip that started the Friday before the Leicester game. Fortunately I never had to sit behind him in his full Comanche head gear!
@ReadingMarginalista Having sat behind him once before, I now take scissors just in case.
Sadly Eddie no longer wears his head dress due to ill health.A real character who signed my granddaughter' s autograph book Eddie Threefeathers.
Anyone else watch the game at Adams Park, sitting in the Woodlands stand with a massive screen on the pitch? Thinking back now I have no idea how the screen was suspended, and it must have been pretty big to be able to be seen from the upper tier!
@Croider I was there at Adams Park as well watching the big screen, it came in on the back of a lorry if I remember rightly
@ReadingMarginalista Although I don't think I've ever spoken to him, please pass on my best wishes to him. Characters like him are what make football clubs like ours special.