Wembley 3rd time lucky? by a very Drunk Rik, I bet this sounds stupid in the morning, but here's my memories of the 2000 Semi cup final against Chewsee With 3 managers in 3 seasons, Newcastle United once again visit Wembley in latter stages of the FA cup. Is it to be third time lucky for the rejuvenated Newcastle United team, or is the eternal curse of the twin towers going to continue for North Eastern teams? (Picture of Rik and co playing in Trafalger square, the night before the game) My weekend started at the Strawberry, the most famous of Newcastle United's public houses. This was followed by an extremely comfortable three hour train journey, to the neutral city staging this weeks game . I found myself killing time and sampling rather a lot of the local breweries finest ale, whilst I awaited the appearance of my companions for the evening. Twas the public house known as the Evergreens that was the recipient of myself and my colleagues from the frozen wastelands of the North, on the eve of our finest hour. This was followed by an hour of chanting and bonding with fellow northerners within the confines of Trafalger square. Eventually though it was time to rest our weary bones and after sampling local delicacies our host for the evening guided us to our resting place. Sunday started off with a familiar phenomenon , a horrendous hang over. The only cure of which is a traditional Geordie breakfast of fried mushrooms and beans, with Northumbrian sausages Black puddings , large donner Kebabs, Nan Roti, Onion Bhaji, tikka massala and chips all washed down with whatever beer is on special offer that week. Following the breakfast we made our way to Wembley village. A lovely rural community on the outskirts of our beloved capital, where many of our Asian cousins have made their homes and decorated the streets with their traditional artifacts such as the "anythings a pound" corner shop complete with market stall added to the facia. There was a party atmosphere about the whole day, with opposing fans, exchanging niceties outside the traditional watering holes of the English public houses. Whilst most the the Toon Army were arriving at Wembley on the underground, I decided to hitch a lift with my old friend Paul Gascoigne, ( a well known local football player). He kindly dropped me off on Wembley high street , where I met up with my friends. The police were doing there usual fine job of taking all of the insults hurled at them from the visitng foreign legio, then again perhaps they just didn't speak Geordie.  I wasn't too impressed with the keen prices and friendly service of the local shop keepers. Four cans of weak larger was "Six".  Not "six pounds please", or "that'll be six pounds you geordie bastard just "Six" . I suppose they mustn't have realised just who I was. We made our way to Wembley Park Undergound station, and the beginning of Wembley way. Never having been to such an occasion, I was taken aback by the shear lengh of it. The Journey up Wembley way, starts at the Bobby Moore bridge,. He apparently was the captain of England the last time we beat our local rivals the Germans some time after the............ oooops  better not  mention, the War.  It's politically incorrect. Strangely, Wembley Way was devoid of the home fans. Apparently they knew of a short cut and had sneaked in through the back door. !0,000 Geordies moving up the mile long concourse though was truly a site to behold. Entertainment had been laid on , with the geordie Elvis's the star attractions. Although they all claimed to be the real Elvis, I'm sure that I recognised one of them as Eric, a chip shop owner from North Shields. .As the twin towers came closer, the excitement built.   Eventually we made it to the turnstiles. Whereas all of the rest were relatively quiet, I, having only managing to get a cheap seat was relegated to the infamous turnstile A,,,,. I was greeted with a prohibited items sign, that frankly took my breath away. Why, in this day and age cant you take, Napalm, Petrol bombs and syringes into the stadium, as long as they are for your own use? It's bloody ridiculous. These prohibitions have taken all the fun out of football, No wonder crowds at lesser grounds, such as Villa park, White hart lane and Goodison are diminishing, I blame these new fangled rules restrictions Bring back football rattles, bows and arrows onto the terraces of our national sport and you'll bring back to true fans. The atmosphere inside the ground was electrifying, or at least it would have been if a certain Mister Bates of Chelsea football club had been allowed to put that electric fence around, the blues fans all those years ago.. Alas, it must have driven the majority of them out as there were none to be seen, atleast in the part of the stadium, that I was sitting in . We spotted a few who has opted to buy a ticket on the far side and pleasantries were again exchanged between the rival fans.. After less than a quarter of the game, a rather talented Urugyaun , soccer player opened the scoring. It was the southern teams first chance, but they took it well. All credit to them, one chance one goal. Newcastle though were in a fighting mood and fought back amicably. Time after time they pushed forward in the hope of an equalising goal.. After 40 minutes large Duncan's knees starred to give him some pain, and it was decided that he was to retire from the game, to be replaced by Didier Domi. It was a blessing in disguise. Domi took up the left midfield slot with Young Dyer switching to a more central position behind England number one. The second half saw Newcastle totally dominating the game. Solano, Domi, Dyer, Speed and Dabizas all managed to get forward into attacking positions, and an equalising goal was only a matter of time. The time came in the 66th minute when Shearer broke loose on the right wing. big al beat his man and played a superb cross into the centre where his best friend in the world eagerly awaited the chance to score for the first time in two years. Indeed it was exactly two years ago to the day that the former Newcastle captain had last found the net, and amazingly it was against Chelsea, back in 98........ There was only one team that was going to win this game now, so thought the toon army as they pressed forward for a winner.Our hearts though were broken for a third year row in succession as once again Gustavo Poyet, the South American scourge of NUFC, found the back of the net with another well placed goal. There were calls from the fans and players alike that there had been a fowl on Keiron Dyer. Dermot Gallacher the referee of the day, was having none of it and nothing was to keep him from his next appointment , a 5.30 rendevous with a Chelsea official at Stamford bridge . Despite numerous penalty decisions and free kicks in favour of Newcastle in the dying minutes, Mr Gallacher couldn't be late , he decided to end the tournament with the southerners as victors. The exit from the game, was a nightmare taking a lot longer than expected to exit the ground and Wembley way. Most of the Geordies had graciously stayed behind after the final whistle not only to applaud their local heroes but to congratulate their opponents on their victory. We may not like to be beaten, but atleast we were happy in the fact that today, unlike previous Wembley appearances Newcastle were the better team. Perhaps a new venue and an upturn in refereeing standards will bring a change of fortune to North eastern clubs, to which the old Wembley seems to have been cursed.   The Southerners, again sneaked out of the back doors, obviously embarrassed at the way in which the game had been decided. The stats show that Chelsea had four shots on target all day scoring from two of their chances, as opposed to Newcastle's 15 shots and one goal. All credit to them, they aren't a bad team, it's just that we are better. As we found out again though the better team, dosen't always win. Shots don't count, only goals do, and if the ref of the day dosen't want your team to win then you've got no chance. It's been said on many occasions, but the likes of Dermot Gallacher should be better employed as Bart Simpsons dad HOMER. He gave us nothing all day, and blatently favored the home side. Despite the defeat Newcastle United's players and fans left with our heads held high, every one of us proud to be Geordies. The Small print......, If you are reading this then you must be very sad and have extremely good eyesight. I certainly can't read it. soccer-uk / Riksplace and the-scum are best viewed using netscape Communicator v 4.5, with your screen resolution set at 800x 600 . All Items, ideas on these pages ©Riksplace, soccer-uk , SMB and the-scum team UK© All Rights Reserved. You can't steal anything off us, we will get very cross if you do and send the "boys" round to sort you out. 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