Craven Cottage Newsround

As promised, here follows Mart’s account of England v Brazil, which he viewed first hand from the brand new Wembley:

(pictures tomorrow)

Horrifically over budget, overdue to such an extent that we use years as the primary unit of measuring its lateness, and beset with teething problems from fading seats, and leaking roofs to obstructed view seats in the Royal Box. However, on Friday night Wembley threw open its doors to England’s supporters once again – and my, what a treat it was. I had only visited the previous Wembley on two occasions – once to watch an England schoolboys team featuring Nicholas Barmby and Ryan Wilson (nee Giggs), and secondly to witness the full side beat USA ’94 bound Greece 5-0. As such ‘old Wembley’ was more or less something experienced through television for me. Indeed huge stadia in general are not something I have regularly found myself at – given most of my time as a Southend fan has been spent in the bottom two divisions. The most obvious comparison I can draw is with the Millenium Stadium, where I went twice in six weeks in 2005, seeing Southend lose 2-0 aet in the LDV final, and then win by the same score in the substantially more important playoff final. It has to be said Wembley beats it hands down.

Cardiff simply cannot compete with the walk up Wembley way. By definition if you are going to a game at Wembley it must be of some importance, and that walk up the ramp from Wembley Park station builds the anticipation in a way Cardiff city centre is unable to. We made our way to entrance K (which was well signposted) and up 4 escalators to our block. After the farce in Greece we had arrived in plenty of time and made our way to the bar. There were no queues, and you could enjoy your beer on a huge balcony overlooking Wembley way. I went to watch the Ashes in December and the MCG has a number of these style balconies. Not only is it a much nicer place to enjoy a drink than the immediate area by the concession stand, it also eliminates the crowding that generates from people congregating in a thoroughfare. Big thumbs up there, but the beer? To borrow a phrase from Sven – setting good, refreshment not so good. The price of £3.50 a pint was not surprising, but really it tasted foul. Can Carlsberg not supply the plastic bottles – you get less, but at least it’s half palatable. I didn’t sample the food, but unless my eyes were deceiving me it combined hugely optimistic pricing with substantial deficiencies in flavour and nutrition.

So what about the view? Row 28 in the top tier at many grounds would necessitate the use of binoculars, however we had a clear unobstructed view of the pitch as you can see (below). The pictures do not actually do the seats justice – the players were that small, but were recognisable and it was very easy to follow the game. There was adequate legroom, and the seats were comfortable enough. The atmosphere was electric – this was as much a homecoming party as it was a football match – with Baddiel and Skinner piped out as the players prepared to emerge. The roar on their arrival was as loud as I can remember, until the announcement of the England player wearing number 7 which bettered it.

After all the cheering and singing, it almost came as a surprise when the game actually started. It was by no means a classic, with England playing well in patches but subject to the usual deterioration in the final third. On the left, debutant Nicky Shorey saw much of the ball yet appeared to lack the confidence to play to his full potential. Shorey’s debut has been described as ‘creditable’ and ‘one of the plus points of the match’, and while defensively he made no errors, his lack of attacking enterprise was worrying. At times he played the safe short pass rather than running into space, when at times there was lots of it. If he plays in Estonia he will need to show more going forward. In attack Alan Smith was dreadful, and the midfield of Gerrard and Lampard failed to gel for the umpteenth time. On the right Beckham looked very good – he was a constant threat at set pieces – almost scoring in the first half, and setting up his successor as captain in the second half. England’s lead looked reasonably safe - Brazil didn’t exactly throw caution to the wind in search of an equaliser. The closest they got was when Wes Brown apparently thinking he was in a cartoon and had overlooked a discarded banana skin, slipped and allowed the Brazilians a great chance. The finish from Alves, who probably couldn’t believe his luck, was poor – however with the game about to end they got their equaliser, when Gilberto’s cross from the right was headed in by Diego. It’s hard to remember an occasion where a last minute equaliser has been met with such an incredulous reaction from the home support. No-one really cared - the result was not important. Some shrugged, others grinned at the grim predictability of it all, while the half dozen Brazilians (or maybe Scots) sprinkled liberally in our section erupted as if they’d just won the World Cup.

All in all, it was a fantastic experience. The toilets stood up to the half time rush-hour, the atmosphere was awesome and though there were 90,000 people present you never had to queue very long for anything. Getting away from the ground was something of a mission – we chose Wembley Central assuming there would be considerably less of a crush compared to Wembley Park. We had to queue for roughly an hour before we were able to board the tube, however if there is one thing us English do well, its queueing. If you can get to a game I’d very much recommend it – I got my tickets through the ballot, so give it a go!