The events, on the day and those surrounding it, as the 2010/11 season continued against Cardiff with the league game at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday 16th April 2011.
2010/11 season v Cardiff in the league at the Cardiff City Stadium, Saturday 16th April 2011 – stubbsy007 gives us an account of his…
Those nice Cardiff people……………(Soul Crew)
I had an interesting day in Cardiff on Saturday. When I arrived I went for a pint at The Wetherspoons and then over the road to O’Neill’s after a swift one I though I would find another pub. Outside two Welshmen, (probably early 40’s) saw my Pompey shirt under my open track top and told me that I should go up the road as all the Pompey fans were in a pub, I said I was going to go into Wetherspoons but they said the fans were definitely up the road.
So off I trundled up a small side street with lots of Police; I turned the corner to find about a dozen Police keeping Pompey fans inside a pub which, from the chants, had stopped selling beer. I looked across the road, saw a place called Sam’s bar, zipped up my top and walked in to buy a lager. Next minute one of the men I had met earlier came up to me, ‘Your pub is over the road’, I told him I didn’t want to go there as there weren’t serving and the fans were going to be taken on a bus to the stadium. He then said ‘You shouldn’t be in here, it’s a nasty bar but stay with me and I will see you’re alright’. He then bought me a pint and we went outside to join his friend.
We engaged in conversation about football performances and then it got on to the tastier aspect of Cardiff City, the gents I was with were obviously original members of the Soul Crew and had many a story to tell about how they would all wait in Sam’s Bar (where I had wondered into) and then attack rival fans as they marched up the road. I bought a road of drinks and by this time a few younger Cardiff fans had joined the group – when it was pointed out that I was a Pompey fan there were some raised eyebrows.
Anyway, I won’t go into full detail of what we spoke about as it’s quite ‘full on’. Time was ticking by so my new buddies said that they would look after me and walk me to the ground the quick (but dodgy) way to the ground. We set off, over the river by the Millennium Stadium and then ducked through an underpass when they turned to me (one had been carrying a glass since we left Sam’s Bar) and said – this is where we have had some great scraps, it’s a great place for an ambush. For a split second I thought I could be in trouble but it seems that I was actually a ‘guest’ of theirs. One of them piped up ‘I know what, let’s take him to The Neville, now that is the toughest and nastiest pub.
So next stop the Neville – how great it is to have a southern accent when you are in a pub full of some notorious Welsh fans! To cut a long story short we had a quick pint and then carried on to the ground. A group of four inconspicuous youths were pointed out to me – ‘they are looking for Pompey fans’. We walked past a park and I was told a story how a Police helicopter once hovered very low to keep fighting fans apart!
I was walked to the away end and we parted with a handshake and our goodbyes.
I left the game about 5 mins before the end and went to retrace my walk back to the station, a policeman stopped me as I was about to turn into the road I had walked down to get to the game ‘Cardiff or Portsmouth he asked’, I told him I was Pompey and I knew my way back as I had walked through with some Cardiff fans earlier. ‘Can’t let you go down there Sir as we cannot guarantee your safety’.
Written by stubby007 and originally posted in the forum – here.
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