Tuesday 9 February 2010

Eight year anniversary

A bit of spring cleaning this weekend unearthed the ticket stub from my very first game at Craven Cottage: Fulham v Blackburn eight years ago today. It's interesting to see the old stadium diagram on the back of the ticket. Away fans in the A&B sections of the then Stevenage Road Stand (now Johnny Haynes Stand of course) with the Putney End no longer broken up with a 'neutrals' area.
Of course the old look Craven Cottage used to have a standing area - terracing at the front of Stevenage Road Stand - which is what attracted me to the match in the first place. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to stand and watch as my ticket was bought for me by a work contact (play Namco games, kids) but I was still given a complementary Fulham poncho in case I got wet. I've still got it somewhere, as well as I had no reason to unpack it on the day.
The game itself is an odd one for me. I knew Fulham won, but was a bit fuzzy on the score. I thought it was 2-1 to Fulham, but it turns out the game ended 2-0 to the whites. What I did have a clear memory of was the Blackburn red card. Excpet I thought it was Brett Emerton getting sent off, not Craig Short. And I thought it was much earlier in the game than the 90th minute. I can't remember a thing about the goals scored. reading the match report archived on Fulhamweb, it sounds like a cracking match but none of it rings a bell. All I remember with clarity is a Blackburn player getting a red.
Mind you, the number of times I've had to refer to this very blog to remind myself what happened in a game, what the score was and if I was even at the Cottage for a match, is a little disconcerting. I've started using the site as a virtual football memory.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fulham were lucky! Rovers should have done ya! Haha! Always liked Fulham tho, and Bolton came up to the prem in the same season and all of us have stayed there since - credit to all ours clubs! Although hope the Trotters get relegated this season along with Burnley!!!

Doompickles said...

Reading this made me think about my first game down the Villa. I believe I was six at the time and, I am making a bit of a guess here but, I think it was against Bordeaux in the Uefa Cup and Savo Milosevic scored the only goal of the two legs in extra time.

Bad Andy said...

It can be tricky, can't it?

I don;t remember my first Manchester United game (although I would have been 9) and I don't really remember the first time I went to watch Preston either.

I was sure that my first game at Old Trafford was against Chelsea in the FA Cup with United going down 1-0 to a Kerry Dixon goal, but there's no such match around those dates.

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