Who will ever for get that glorious day on 17th May 2008, or as it reads with the tattoo inscribed on the inside of my right arm to remind me every day, XVII – V – MMVIII.
One of the greatest days of my life – and of course most other Pompey fans’ lives – was the moment on that day in mid May when a lifelong dream for just about every single one of us was fulfilled – the winning of the FA cup!
I have cherished that moment, maybe not as much as I should have, but to have been their with plenty of my family and countless other friends and mates meant the world to me – none more so, and as I am sure I have ‘bored you with before’, than being there with one of my brothers. For those not ‘bored’ by this before, or unaware if it, my brother was almost killed in a motorcycle accident a few years before that – for him and me his recovery coincided with so much good in our lives and in the life of PFC culminating in that cup final win. So on a day where we could stand, well at least sit, side by side was truly special for me.
Anyway, enough of this… I do not know if anyone else feels the same but for me this weekend the realisation that the defence of ‘our cup‘, not ‘his’, is really over and we are out of the competition has completely sunk in for me – and this leaves me truly sad…
Of course I know we went out a couple of rounds ago – after firstly stuttering through round 3 – for my sins I was of course there on that miserable day when we were totally outclassed, outfought and outthought by Swansea, having literally crawled off my sick bed to leave at ‘stoopid o’clock’ in the morning to make it to the game via a combination of foot, bus, train and car!
The fact that we played Citeh in a rearranged game when the last round took place for me meant that the fact the holders were out was not anywhere near as apparent – but today, and over this weekend it is, as we do not have a game to distract from this and all I can do this weekend is watch the feast of games with nothing other than a ‘if only’ thought…
But hey, at least we can say ‘we have’ seen us win the FA cup, and I can say I was there!
You cannot expect anything in life but I hope, not expect, that I can one day return to the national stadium and see us win a domestic trophy again – I appreciated winning the best cup competition in the world, but maybe I was a little guilty of not fully appreciating this?
Oh, and this seems like a good opportunity to say so, one thing that I bloody well wish ITV would do is change their title captions!
It winds me up every time I see it that the likes of Eric Cantona, Dave Beasant, a keeper that we of course know well, and other winning captains are shown holding aloft the trophy yet ‘he’ is the one basking in ‘our’ glory – why is it not Sol pictured holding aloft the cup? Which to be fair is something that I would have felt should have been the case even if ‘he’ had stayed… well, maybe not felt quite as much 🙂
You know what guys, later on I may well break the seal on my cup final DVD and recapture the glory of that day in surround sound with a couple of jars, and of course get all emotional and choked up again…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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