This
was going to be fantastic. Blog guest Tim Webster managed 4 corporate tickets
for the Semi-Final against Wigan and we had high hopes of a repeat performance
as Tim asked for 7 tickets. Ex blog guests were invited to return and two
genuine Hull fans (from Hull) were invited along. We were gonna spent the
weekend at ex blog guest Carl Meakin’s Choc Towers and spend the day drinking
and singing… so we thought… until… Tim could only get 2 tickets. All the other
parties dropped out and I ended up driving to and from Wembley in one day… it
broke my car. At least the tickets were free and should have cost £83 each.
Just
like in previous games at Stevenage and Doncaster I drove over to Yorkshire the
night before to stop on Tim’s sofa. We
set off at 10am to give us plenty of time to get to Wembley, straight down the
M1. My sat Nav reckoned 3hrs
15mins. As soon as we hit the M1 we saw
signs about an accident so came off and went down my old favourite the A1
instead.
A quick stop off for fuel and lunch at
this lovely garage
We were flying and arrived at Wembley
Stadium and through the traffic at around 2.30pm
Time for an overpriced pie
The place seemed to be teaming with
Hull fans
As I made my way up the escalators
towards the seats we were surrounded by Hull fans singing the same song over
and over again at full volume. They were clapping, singing, drinking and having
a whale of a time. Fans were coming over to me and getting me to join in and
the atmosphere was amazing.
We made our way to the excellent
half-way line seats for an excellent view.
The stadium appeared to have a 50-50 split of fans and to the right of
the half way line was a sea of red and stripy Tigers engulfed the left.
We had fireworks
But the real fireworks started as Hull
scored early… and then they scored again.
The Hull fans could not believe it and my area erupted with joy until…
Arsenal scored and about 40% of my
stand stood up and cheered. I thought I was in a Hull area but once again it
was a mixed corporate area. Three Hull
fans turned to two Arsenal fans and they were in each other’s faces until
security came along to break up the ‘fight.’ The Arsenal fan started to draw
back his fist as if he was going to punch the Hull fan, but he only did this
after two security guards stood between them. The Hull fan leaned across and
said ‘I’m going to cut you up and feed you to your mate.’ Security dragged them
away and an American guy in front of me thought it was brilliant. He said he’s been to loads of sporting events
in America but never once seen any trouble. 5 mins later security brought all
the ‘trouble makers’ back and made them shake hands. At half time the Arsenal
fans left and didn’t come back for the second half.
Arsenal pulled it back to 2-2 which
meant Extra Time. Fans in front of me
complained that if it went to penalties they would miss their train’s
home. This is why I don’t agree with a
17:00 kick off. It should be 15:00 to
give fans travelling a long way a better chance of getting back.
As you know Arsenal won and it was all
over. The Hull fans stayed in the
stadium to cheer their team’s amazing achievement and I took the opportunity to
skedaddle whilst the cars were clear. We
got out of the car park quick and the Wembley staff made for an easy escape as
they opened up a one way street for us.
The Sat Nav said 2hrs 45mins and we were back by 11pm. A great day and a great amazing fantastic
final adventure…
The Giant Killing Adventure Awards…
Most
fans
89,345. Arsenal V Hull. The Final: 17
May 2014
Least
fans
58. Ashton Athletic V St Helen’s Town.
The Extra Preliminary Round Replay: 20 August 2013.
Most
Prize Money
£3z060,000 Arsenal
Least
Prize Money
£1z500 Ashton Athletic
Cheapest
Program
Lancaster City FC £1.50. 2nd
Qualifying Round: 01 October 2013
More
Expensive Program
£10. The Final: 17th May
2014.
Leading
Goal Scorers
Matt Warburton 3 (Curzon Ashton)
Ryan Rowe 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Luke Benbow 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Steven Naismith 3 (Everton FC)
Most
Points
Boreham Wood had 11 points with 3 wins and
2 draws from Hull's half of the draw. The Giant Killing Adventure saw Curzon Ashton take 10 points with 3 wins and 1 draw.
Most Goals
Most Goals
Arsenal with 11 goals…
The Giant Killing
Adventure reported on 1,620 minutes of football, £370 on the turnstiles, 279,478
fans, 63 goals, 4 pints of larger (£20) 4 pints of bitter (£9.90), 1 pint of
Guinness (£3.10), 1 pint of cider (£3), 3 70p cups of tea, 15 £1 cups of tea,
2£7 meal deals, 1 £1.10 cup of tea (large), 2 £1.50 mochas, 2 70p cans of coke,
2 £3.50 cheeseburgers, 2 £1.80 chips’n’curry sauce, 2 £1.20 chips, 1 £1 chips,
1 £1.80 chips and gravy, 1 £3 Bacon roll, 2 £1.60 pies, 2£1.50 pies, 1 overpriced
pie, 3 £1.50 handmade Balti eggs, 1 pork, stilton with apple and ginger
chutney pie, 1 ham and pease pudding stottie, 2
£16.50 Lobsters, 4 2-4-1 cocktails, 1 weekend in London, 1 hectic tube journey,
1 Lebanese meal, various Gin and tonics, 2 bottles of red wine, 1 City Break, 1
Sandy picnic battle, 1 Zoe food mountain, 1 Morrison’s sandwich platter, 1 pack
of mini Cheddars, 5 website promises (Marine, Curzon, Stourbridge, Workington
and Biggleswade), various Twitter retweets (too many to keep track of from
clubs, fans and supporters clubs), 3 lower-league-victories, 1
relationship breakdown and the journey travelled 1587.2 miles from the FA Cup’s
old home in Wigan to its new home in the Emirates.
