I'm afraid I listened to the quarter final with Manchester United, intermittently, on the radio and let's be honest, I didn't really think Pompey would win. I thought and hoped that maybe a draw and replay at Fratton Park would be a good outcome. Lets face it, we have had a fair few pretty good cup runs before only to fall at what in each case was the expected hurdle to fall at.

Oh me of little faith !

Stand Up if you hate the Scum !

I'm not going to rant on about the Ticketmaster fiasco, enough people have done that already, or the fact that Southwest Trains saw fit to plan engineering works for the 5th April. This is the UK, what do you expect.

So there was me, Dan, Sproolzie (IOW), Pete (IOM), Darren (IOM) and Lee (IOM) and we decided to meet up in London on the Friday evening, thus avoiding the planned engineering works and just generally making a more leisurable outing of it. It was a chance to get together with Pete for a few wets anyway.

Me and Dan met Sproolzie at Portsmouth Harbour station for an early evening train to Waterloo. No problem you would think, Ah but Southwest Trains decided to block the line at Guildford with a broken down train and we were advised to take the slower train to Waterloo via Basingstoke. Ok, No problem, just means I have longer to drink the cans and whiskey.

Meanwhile, on the IOM Pete and co were doing their best to go one better and they did, by having their flight cancelled, something to do with a dead parrot at Manchester. Actually that is an exageration. It was not a parrot and it was not dead until it decided to have a more in-depth look at one of the engines on the plane, which was going to the IOM and then on to Gatwick, I think. Then as they were about to board the re-arranged flight they were to find that there were not enough seats for the three of them. Oh Joy ! Still they did get a free meal and a few drinks out of it, I think, as well as eventually and most importantly, a flight to London.

Any way we had a nice walk past The London Eye, over Westminster Bridge, past Parliament Square, through St. James Park, parallel with Birdcage Walk, past Buckingham Palace, up Constitution Hill, through or across Hyde Park Corner, into & across Hyde Park, (which by the way is full of all sorts of weird characters after dark) and finally to the Best Western Shaftesbury Paddington Court Hotel in Devonshire Terrace, Paddington.

We checked into the Hotel, dumped our bags in the rooms and set off back down the road to a pub we had passed, called The Mitre, to settle down and await our missing IOM persons who eventually arrived at around 22:00, I think. There are a couple of pictures below, not very good, of some of us outside The Mitre. (As you can see, everything was a bit blurry by now.)

After a couple of fun soaked hours in the torch it was time to set off to the Stadium. None of us wanted to miss any of that, never having expected to be here at all.

I'm afraid I did't take any more pictures coz I was too into the match. Hooray! I hear you say, but no I'm just going to waffle through the rest. Hehe !

The match? Well I'm no football expert, but I think I know a good game when I watch one and this was not a good game. Generally it was a pretty lack lustre afair, with only ocasionally both sides showing a little of what they are really capable of. All credit to West Brom who at times gave as good as they got. I think that once they settle down in the Premiership they will do alright.

It was, however, thanks to Kanu another win for Pompey, which made everthing ok. Elated was me and all around me though it took a while to sink in. Pompey through to the FA Cup Final ! Against who though ? Barnsley or Cardiff ? Of course we had to wait until tommorrow to find out that it would be Cardiff City.

I would like to add that it was really nice to see both sets of fans just out to enjoy the occassion without so much as a sign of trouble, at least not from what I saw. That really did help to make the day.

After the game we met up with the IOM contingent again, they also struggling to take it on board. never mind, I have no doubt that the next few weeks and the inevitable strugglr to obtain tickets for the Final will bring it home. Hehe !

As we proceded down Olympic way it was brought to our attention that the British transport system was continuing it's relentless pursuit of disruption. Police annouced that passengers intending to travel to Portsmouth should go via Victoria as no trains were leaving Waterloo due a signalling problem. It would appear that even if they do not plan it the system fails. Oh more Joy !

Even that was not enough. I got a text from Pete later to tell us that all trains from Euston were cancelled. (They were meant to be travelling back to Liverpool on the train to get a ferry back to the Isle of Man.) I think that they ended up on a train to Derby and then to Manchester where they had to stay overnight in a Hotel and then a flight in the morning. They wonder why people are reluctant to abandon their cars in favour of public transport ?

We in the meantime ended up on a train to Clapham, where we hung around for about 30 miutes only to board what can best be described as a cattle train. Eight coaches of standing room only with only the front three coaches going to Portsmouth.

All in all, not the British transport system's best day, especially as they appeared to have no knowledge that some twenty thousand Pompey fans would be travelling to and from Wembley today, or at least made no real attempt to facilitate it. Happy to take all the ticket money though. Let's hope they do better next time, coz now there is a next time.

We're all going to Wembley . . . . . again !

Chris Walker