Saturday, August 18, 2018

Watching Cardiff .vs. Newcastle...

Cardiff City are currently playing Newcastle United. It's 0-0 and all I am thinking about is about a time when I wanted to see these two teams play against each other.

The sides have met numerous times in recent years. However, back in 1994, Cardiff City was hovering in the third tier of the football league while Newcastle United - under Kevin Keegan - was playing Premier League football.

Amazing Premier League football, I must add.

If the previous sentence doesn't explain it accurately, let me say it out straight.

I loved Newcastle United back then. As my local side, Cardiff City was also the team I rooted for.

City did something amazing in the fourth round of the FA Cup when they beat the Premiership's Manchester City.

From there, they were to meet either Luton Town or Newcastle United in the fifth round.

Cardiff was drawn at home. Tickets went on sale on a Saturday of a league game against Wrexham. I went to that game and purchased my ticket for the fifth round there and then. The ticket read 'Cardiff City .vs. Newcastle United/Luton Town'.

All Newcastle had to do was beat Luton in the replay and I got my dream match. And boy was it a dream match.

Only it didn't go to plan.

Luton beat Newcastle. I watched the game live on Sky Sports and was so distraught that I genuinely felt like crying.

Then - to top it off - Luton came to Cardiff and beat them.

It should go without saying that whenever I hear the word 'Luton' in any sentence, I think back to how much that team did two of my favourite teams in the FA Cup that season.

If you've read all of this post, you're not alone. I shared the same story one drunken night when I bumped into John Hartson in Cardiff City Centre many years ago. He was part of that Luton side before moving on to Arsenal the following season.

The score is still 0-0.

No comments:

Post a Comment