The New Wembley - my first experience

This was the second England match I’d seen live, but my first time to the new Wembley. In actual fact my first England match was the friendly with Australia held at Upton Park, memorable only for Wayne Rooney’s debut, oh and a fully deserved 3-1 defeat.

The Journey There
Fantastic. A short bus ride from Bearwood and a direct train from Snow Hill (or Moor St) to Wembley Stadium station, pretty much right outside. If only getting home was as easy, but I’ll come to that later.

Outside The Stadium
Approaching the stadium it looks incredible. I never liked the idea of the arch, but from a distance it looks impressive and sets the pulse racing just as the old twin towers used to. Immediately outside the stadium though, the pulse settles down. There is nothing there. No entertainment, no stallholders, no food vendors, no nothing, no buzz. Just bland grey emptiness. Apart from the Bobby Moore statue.

Inside the Stadium
On entering the stadium you are greeted with nothing but an escalator. Then another one, then another one. I almost felt underdressed in an England shirt for a day at the office…

The acid test for me was walking into the arena itself. My overriding memory of the old Wembley was at the 1995 FA Cup Final, walking up then down into the seated area, getting my first view of the stadium, the pitch, the fans and my first taste of the atmosphere. As a 14 year old lad it totally overwhelmed me and that memory has stayed with me forever.

While not quite the same in 2007, I was still blown away by the arena itself. We took our seats half an hour before kick-off, but there was still a great buzz about the place. But can you expect anything less for £757m?

One amusing moment came when Gordon Brown appeared on the video screens, to a chorus of boos.

Finally, we got to take part in the “Danke Fur 2006″ lettering during the national anthem!

The Match
What a start! We looked like worldbeaters for the first 15 minutes and took a thoroughly deserved lead. Then what happened? Well let’s face it, it was a friendly. I know it was against Germany, but there was less incentive to go on and score more than there will be against Israel next month. Germany won through a mistake and an unstoppable thunderbolt. Otherwise, they were a very, very, poor team. Overall, I’m not disheartened by the result because for the first time in a long while, we created good chances. With a fit Rooney and a fit Owen we would’ve comfortably won the match. Of course, whether we get a fit Rooney and a fit Owen again is an interesting question.

I was hugely impressed with Nickey Shorey. Despite making a couple of mistakes towards the end of the match, he was generally confident and very assured on the ball. The same was true of Micah Richards in the first-half, although I was less impressed with him when he moved to centre-back in the second half. Man of the Match for me was Joe Cole. You could almost taste the anticipation in the air every time the ball fell to him. Some lovely touches, nice shimmys past hapless Germans, and a spark of creativity that is much needed in this England side. I also must mention Gareth Barry who I thought added a great deal to the midfield when he came on.

The German fans were fantastic throughout, mind you they were winning at the new Wembley so it was to be expected I suppose.

Getting Home
Those of a nervous disposition might want to look away now. The match finished at something like 9.50pm. I got home at 2.18am. My Dad was home, in a village 10 miles from Northampton, at midnight. I understand that managing 90,000 people leaving a “public transport stadium” is never going to be easy, but improvements can be made. The queue into Wembley Stadium station was split depending on if you were going north (Wycombe, Birmingham) or South (Marylebone). Local trains were put on every 10 minutes either way but only 2 of these went all the way to Birmingham. It took over an hour to reach the platform where we were ordered on a train to Banbury. At Banbury noone seemed to know what was going on, as luck would have it a train eventually turned up to take us back to Snow Hill. There is enough room at Wembley Stadium station to shunt those going north of Banbury into a seperate waiting area. There is also plenty of space on the line (at that time of night) for an extra train to Birmingham. I shall be writing to Chiltern Trains with some polite suggestions for improvements to their after-match service.

For England v Russia, I’ve booked a hotel.

My Dad and me taking our seats

 

The German “fan flag” during their national anthem

 

The home end during the match

 

The stadium and arch after the match. Note the queue for the train station!