Ally
Active Member
This article is based on and expanded from a post made on the forum on May 8th, 2003.
Every match day, thousands of Arsenal fans take their seats in pubs across the country. I'm one of them. There's one matchday that stands out. I can remember my reactions to every bit of action on the park. Fine, I've been given a bit of help via. my tape of the game. But this one's different. It's more emotive than anything else. And therefore it's more easily remembered. Every word here is true.
May 8th, 2002.
Cloudy, grey day. Not cold, not hot. I wear my jacket going out anyway. Saw 'About a Boy' in the afternoon. Good film. Great bit about him typing in stuff on the internet search bar. No references to Arsenal. Great, I've spent the afternoon not worrying. Nice one. I'm not nervous. My mind has been blanked out of the red and white. This isn't like what would happen a year later. Waiting for the decider at Highbury, I would be up til 2 each morning watching Sky Sports News. Just watching. I went out to watch that game feeling like I was off to be hanged publically. Absolutely horrible. This one was different. Calm. I won't say 'nice'. The cup final had been torture. Spending 70 minutes hoping that somehow Chelski wouldn't break through. I'm anticipating another game like that. I listen to 'Design for Life' by Manic Street Preachers walking home. Got in and finally worried for a few hours. Change into the Arsenal sweatshirt (Old badge, natch) and then went out. Stop at the cashpoint on the way. Beautiful evening, really beautiful. Sun starting to set, 7:45. Awesome sky. Butterflies now. I've waited for this. THIS IS IT.
50/50 split of Arsenal and Man Utd fans in the pub. Unusual, usually it's more of them. Hiding at home? Electric atmosphere, buzzing. Manage to find a stool opposite the bar. I can't get a good angle on the big screen. Right, the smaller TV above the door, then. The stools are solid. They have that bar running across between the legs near to the bottom . When Henry scored against Villa to win it, I stood up on that bar (Meaning of course the general bar on all of the stools, not one specific seat), balancing myself on the edge of the seat without consciously realising it, and just looked at the ceiling with my arms in the air.
I get there too late for the build up, so I see the ManYoo team first. Blanc? Forlan? Who's that on the bench? WALLWORK???
The the Arsenal team. Jee-sus. What's Arsène playing at? Kanu and Wiltord, uh-oh. Bergkamp not there? This was his game. I look at the bench. Jeffers? STEPANOVS????
I don't hear Andy Gray's analysis. Too loud, There might have been music on, I don't remember. The pub don't turn the volume up until right at the point when the game kicks off. Anyhow, I don't hear how Gray reckons our weak link is Edu being pushed back on the defensive. He thinks that Veron has a responsibility to push forward at any point, perhaps interchanging with Solskaer or Giggs on the flexible midfield formation. In turn, that's their weakness. If there's no organisational discipline on the right hand side....Freddie. Martin Tyler sees where he's going and says the name at the same time (Nodding his head, I presume. Perhaps with a little smile.).
This is going to be one hell of a night. I check the fingernails. Durkin get us going. And then I realise. WE ARE GOING TO WIN THE LEAGUE TONIGHT. We are better than them. First minute, Wiltord volleys. I think it's in - it sails wide, turns out Blanc blocked it. "YEEAA-ooooohhhhhh......." Hands on head. Good start. Good good start.
Manc pressure, though. No doubt they're fired up. Desperation, Ally, desperation. Remember, even if they win we still have Everton. We'd just have to turn up to win that. Nice parallel with 97/98.Their fans making the more noise in the pub. Wes Brown heads an inch over the bar. I try to seem calm, take a sip of my drink. It's not beer. Not even alcohol. I have very good reasons why I don't want to be hungover the next day, but I won't go into them.
Replay - Did Vieira handle that? f*cking hell! What's he playing at then? I've actually nearly had a cardiac arrest. No more of them for the rest of the night, as it turns out. Would have been nice to know that at the time.
Manchester start to kick us off the park. 3 bookings in five minutes. Scholes on Edu is horrific, and Neville on Cole looks worse although it isn't as cynical, just stupid. "HE'S GOT TO SEND HIM!" Yellow card. I still say it should have been red. Replay. Looks worse. "Disgraceful.". "Shouldn't be on the pitch." Thank god there wasn't a red, actually. Once they'd established that we weren't rising to the wind-up, they stopped. Not before trying to break Paddy's ribs though. It's sick. I still say it is.
"C'MON SCHOLESY, GET STUCK IN!" Where did that come from, then? Across the bar I think. What are you saying, you plastic Manc bastard? This is our night. OURS, not yours. Why don't you just leave. We're going to win. Oh god, palms are sweating. How the hell are we going to score? Kanu's a midfielder. Wiltord is giving the ball away. Freddie isn't getting near it. The first half is actually quite uneventful. It's buzzing though. Two almighty teams going full tilt at each other. There's a let-off when Forlan latches onto a punt forward, Keown goes after him and falls over in the jump, and Durkin gives the free-kick our way. I still can't work out what happened there. The ref wasn't about to let a controversial call go. He's cracked down and booked Edu too. He reffed quite well, especially in the circumstances which were impossible. I vaguely recall making some loud quip about the probability of sending Keown off for tripping over his laces or something.
Half time. How have they still got 11 men? THEY'RE GOING TO SCORE. Oh god, nail biter on the final day. Chin up, look confident. No-one must know you're crapping yourself. Visit the bog, look in the mirror. God, you could be doing something else. What if you weren't a football fan? How many relaxing days off would you have? You'd never have to worry about this sort of meaningless crap. You're looking a bit worried there, Ally. 8:54. 2nd half starting soon. better get back to the seat before someone claims it. Good seat. Good picture quality on the TV.
9:00. Take a breath. As it stands, we win the league. Let's go.
More of the same. I think Seaman claims a cross, gathers a whipped free-kick easily. Maybe? Just maybe....? No. You'll only be let down. Wiltord's playing crap anyway. For god's sake, we lost 6-1 here last season. What if we had Thierry? Don't be stupid, he's not scored since April 1st. Bergkamp is apparantly being rested for Everton. Just in case. Yeah, right. Jeffers? Erm...no.
BARTHEZ KICKS THE BALL STRAIGHT TO WILTORD! G'wan Sylvain! Nah, he's been tackled. That's it. Heh, Fever Pitch quote. "That was it, that was our chance." What? Look at me, I'm less nervous than the FA Cup Final. Easily. What's there to worry about? Look, they've got to score. As it stands, we're champions. Just shut up shop. Boring boring Arsenal. I want a goal, though. That would be nice. Score in every game, like. Something to truly remember the game by.
9:09 PM. Didn't see it coming. You never remember the build-up to the goal. I remember nothing of Silvestre giving Parlour the ball with an absolutely schoolboy error.
Wiltord running at them. There's Freddie. Go yourself though, he's being marked by two. Chip to Freddie. Wrong option. Look, Blanc's there.
[CUE SLOW-MOTION] What happened next I can't describe. I've never known anything like it. It happened in slow-mo. Not quite B+W with Scorcese directing and flasbulbs going, but slow-mo. It happened in a blink, actually. WHY DID I SEE IT BEING PLAYED OUT SO SLOWLY?
Freddie Ljungberg pushes past Blanc. [Slow rise from seat to standing position] Eyes get wide. "GO ON FREDDIE!!!" They're all shouting it. The Manchester fans sit silently. He doesn't miss from here. Slight angle. Tuck it in the corner no problem, though. He scuffs it. It isn't a clean connection. Wes Brown has come back and taken him out. Desperate slide. Just somewhere in the general direction of the ball. It's wild. Goes right through him after the ball had gone. If Wiltord hadn't been there, would Durkin have given the penalty? Hahahaah. That's funny, Ally.
Barthez saves it. "OOOH!" Start to sit back down. It was actually a decent save. It bobbled right in front of him. There was no way he could have held it. He just happened to parry it straight into the one area where...you know the rest.
I see someone running in from offscreen. Towards the ball. Who is it? Can't see. Brown, yeah, Brown coming back to clear. Wait a sec. Brown is on the floor having tried to tackle Freddie. Referee then. Yeah, Durkin back to award offside. It's an Arsenal shirt.. Ally, THAT IS AN Arsenal SHIRT!
Wiltord floats towards the rebound. No "GO ONNN!" this time. He gets to it. there's no-one around him. My god. IT'S AN OPEN GOAL. God, he missed one from exactly the same situation against Boro in the FAC Semi. At the same ground. At the same end. Wouldn't this be ironic, hahah.
Sky it, that's what he'll do. Useless bastard. I believe the euphanism is "erratic".
The net bulges.
"YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUURRRRRRRGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AA!!!!!"
He runs towards the camera. For some reason, I think that it might have been offside. I don't know why. When he scored against Everton - that shinner which Simonsen ran into the goalpost trying to save, yeah that was a classic - I didn't actually shout 'Yeeees' or anything, because it didn't look like he was celebrating. I thought it had been disallowed or something. Don't get me wrong. Here , I stood up on that bar connecting the stool legs, clenched my fists together (I didn't raise my arms in the air, like I always do. When Parlour scored on Saturday I went f*cking mental, but this was different. Confirmation maybe, not relief as the Cup Final had been).
I didn't hear Tyler's commentary, obviously. I think I heard it for the first time the next day. I was really anxious to hear it. I was wondering how he did it - the calm guy hardly ever raises his voice, so I never thought it would be his 'scream'. I think I heard Tylsdley's first. What a let-down. Remember how commentary can define a goal. Thomas. Even Motson managed to do a commentary that will always be synonymous with Sunderland's goal in '79. Tylsdley sounded like he'd just lost a sizeable bet. "..And in by Wiltord." It was so dull, so dry, so unmemorable. Then I heard Tyler's.
His narrative on the Cup Final had been good. The Parlour goal was an astonished, throaty cry, the Ljungberg goal was better, with the disbelieving waver as he held the "Ljunbeeeeeeeerrgg...." with Andy Gray shouting a loud "Ohh!" as it hit the net. The again, Motson's commentary was good as well. Peter Brackley's was for my money better still. "Still Freddie Ljunbeeeeerrggg...Oh! WHAT A FINISH!"
But Tyler on Wiltord is now classic. You can't imagine the goal with any other commentary. When I finally heard it, I broke out in a huge grin. It's brilliant. A commentator forgetting himself for a moment. Refreshing change.
After the goal, the game kind of fizzled out. Nistelrooy was immediately brought on. I honestly don't remember his punch on Freddie. I don't remember there being any particular reaction from the Arsenal fans in the pub either. The Manchester fans sat silently. I wasn't watching for any of them leaving. I think some might have done, but most stayed til the end. Credit to them.
Seaman deals with some crosses and some free-kicks. There's a set-to between Keown and Ruud van 9.5. Sol and Vieira step in and break it up. I'm watching it through a haze. It didn't all sink in until the final whistle. There's never any incessant period of serious Manc pressure. It's actually quite relaxing. Weird.
And then before I know it, it's all over. We all stand up and clap. A guy in the gold shirt passes me. I tap him on the shoulder, and just clench my fists and go 'Yeeessss'. He does the same back. It makes no sense. We've all just gone brain-dead with joy and happiness, and this just feels wonderful. This is why I'm a football fan. I can't describe what it felt when Wiltord's goal went in. So I won't attempt to.
I didn't attempt to make any sense or rationalise it then, either. I think it's better that way. I picked up my coat, floating on air (AND I wasn't even drunk!), and walked out into the night.
Ally Winford
Every match day, thousands of Arsenal fans take their seats in pubs across the country. I'm one of them. There's one matchday that stands out. I can remember my reactions to every bit of action on the park. Fine, I've been given a bit of help via. my tape of the game. But this one's different. It's more emotive than anything else. And therefore it's more easily remembered. Every word here is true.
May 8th, 2002.
Cloudy, grey day. Not cold, not hot. I wear my jacket going out anyway. Saw 'About a Boy' in the afternoon. Good film. Great bit about him typing in stuff on the internet search bar. No references to Arsenal. Great, I've spent the afternoon not worrying. Nice one. I'm not nervous. My mind has been blanked out of the red and white. This isn't like what would happen a year later. Waiting for the decider at Highbury, I would be up til 2 each morning watching Sky Sports News. Just watching. I went out to watch that game feeling like I was off to be hanged publically. Absolutely horrible. This one was different. Calm. I won't say 'nice'. The cup final had been torture. Spending 70 minutes hoping that somehow Chelski wouldn't break through. I'm anticipating another game like that. I listen to 'Design for Life' by Manic Street Preachers walking home. Got in and finally worried for a few hours. Change into the Arsenal sweatshirt (Old badge, natch) and then went out. Stop at the cashpoint on the way. Beautiful evening, really beautiful. Sun starting to set, 7:45. Awesome sky. Butterflies now. I've waited for this. THIS IS IT.
50/50 split of Arsenal and Man Utd fans in the pub. Unusual, usually it's more of them. Hiding at home? Electric atmosphere, buzzing. Manage to find a stool opposite the bar. I can't get a good angle on the big screen. Right, the smaller TV above the door, then. The stools are solid. They have that bar running across between the legs near to the bottom . When Henry scored against Villa to win it, I stood up on that bar (Meaning of course the general bar on all of the stools, not one specific seat), balancing myself on the edge of the seat without consciously realising it, and just looked at the ceiling with my arms in the air.
I get there too late for the build up, so I see the ManYoo team first. Blanc? Forlan? Who's that on the bench? WALLWORK???
The the Arsenal team. Jee-sus. What's Arsène playing at? Kanu and Wiltord, uh-oh. Bergkamp not there? This was his game. I look at the bench. Jeffers? STEPANOVS????
I don't hear Andy Gray's analysis. Too loud, There might have been music on, I don't remember. The pub don't turn the volume up until right at the point when the game kicks off. Anyhow, I don't hear how Gray reckons our weak link is Edu being pushed back on the defensive. He thinks that Veron has a responsibility to push forward at any point, perhaps interchanging with Solskaer or Giggs on the flexible midfield formation. In turn, that's their weakness. If there's no organisational discipline on the right hand side....Freddie. Martin Tyler sees where he's going and says the name at the same time (Nodding his head, I presume. Perhaps with a little smile.).
This is going to be one hell of a night. I check the fingernails. Durkin get us going. And then I realise. WE ARE GOING TO WIN THE LEAGUE TONIGHT. We are better than them. First minute, Wiltord volleys. I think it's in - it sails wide, turns out Blanc blocked it. "YEEAA-ooooohhhhhh......." Hands on head. Good start. Good good start.
Manc pressure, though. No doubt they're fired up. Desperation, Ally, desperation. Remember, even if they win we still have Everton. We'd just have to turn up to win that. Nice parallel with 97/98.Their fans making the more noise in the pub. Wes Brown heads an inch over the bar. I try to seem calm, take a sip of my drink. It's not beer. Not even alcohol. I have very good reasons why I don't want to be hungover the next day, but I won't go into them.
Replay - Did Vieira handle that? f*cking hell! What's he playing at then? I've actually nearly had a cardiac arrest. No more of them for the rest of the night, as it turns out. Would have been nice to know that at the time.
Manchester start to kick us off the park. 3 bookings in five minutes. Scholes on Edu is horrific, and Neville on Cole looks worse although it isn't as cynical, just stupid. "HE'S GOT TO SEND HIM!" Yellow card. I still say it should have been red. Replay. Looks worse. "Disgraceful.". "Shouldn't be on the pitch." Thank god there wasn't a red, actually. Once they'd established that we weren't rising to the wind-up, they stopped. Not before trying to break Paddy's ribs though. It's sick. I still say it is.
"C'MON SCHOLESY, GET STUCK IN!" Where did that come from, then? Across the bar I think. What are you saying, you plastic Manc bastard? This is our night. OURS, not yours. Why don't you just leave. We're going to win. Oh god, palms are sweating. How the hell are we going to score? Kanu's a midfielder. Wiltord is giving the ball away. Freddie isn't getting near it. The first half is actually quite uneventful. It's buzzing though. Two almighty teams going full tilt at each other. There's a let-off when Forlan latches onto a punt forward, Keown goes after him and falls over in the jump, and Durkin gives the free-kick our way. I still can't work out what happened there. The ref wasn't about to let a controversial call go. He's cracked down and booked Edu too. He reffed quite well, especially in the circumstances which were impossible. I vaguely recall making some loud quip about the probability of sending Keown off for tripping over his laces or something.
Half time. How have they still got 11 men? THEY'RE GOING TO SCORE. Oh god, nail biter on the final day. Chin up, look confident. No-one must know you're crapping yourself. Visit the bog, look in the mirror. God, you could be doing something else. What if you weren't a football fan? How many relaxing days off would you have? You'd never have to worry about this sort of meaningless crap. You're looking a bit worried there, Ally. 8:54. 2nd half starting soon. better get back to the seat before someone claims it. Good seat. Good picture quality on the TV.
9:00. Take a breath. As it stands, we win the league. Let's go.
More of the same. I think Seaman claims a cross, gathers a whipped free-kick easily. Maybe? Just maybe....? No. You'll only be let down. Wiltord's playing crap anyway. For god's sake, we lost 6-1 here last season. What if we had Thierry? Don't be stupid, he's not scored since April 1st. Bergkamp is apparantly being rested for Everton. Just in case. Yeah, right. Jeffers? Erm...no.
BARTHEZ KICKS THE BALL STRAIGHT TO WILTORD! G'wan Sylvain! Nah, he's been tackled. That's it. Heh, Fever Pitch quote. "That was it, that was our chance." What? Look at me, I'm less nervous than the FA Cup Final. Easily. What's there to worry about? Look, they've got to score. As it stands, we're champions. Just shut up shop. Boring boring Arsenal. I want a goal, though. That would be nice. Score in every game, like. Something to truly remember the game by.
9:09 PM. Didn't see it coming. You never remember the build-up to the goal. I remember nothing of Silvestre giving Parlour the ball with an absolutely schoolboy error.
Wiltord running at them. There's Freddie. Go yourself though, he's being marked by two. Chip to Freddie. Wrong option. Look, Blanc's there.
[CUE SLOW-MOTION] What happened next I can't describe. I've never known anything like it. It happened in slow-mo. Not quite B+W with Scorcese directing and flasbulbs going, but slow-mo. It happened in a blink, actually. WHY DID I SEE IT BEING PLAYED OUT SO SLOWLY?
Freddie Ljungberg pushes past Blanc. [Slow rise from seat to standing position] Eyes get wide. "GO ON FREDDIE!!!" They're all shouting it. The Manchester fans sit silently. He doesn't miss from here. Slight angle. Tuck it in the corner no problem, though. He scuffs it. It isn't a clean connection. Wes Brown has come back and taken him out. Desperate slide. Just somewhere in the general direction of the ball. It's wild. Goes right through him after the ball had gone. If Wiltord hadn't been there, would Durkin have given the penalty? Hahahaah. That's funny, Ally.
Barthez saves it. "OOOH!" Start to sit back down. It was actually a decent save. It bobbled right in front of him. There was no way he could have held it. He just happened to parry it straight into the one area where...you know the rest.
I see someone running in from offscreen. Towards the ball. Who is it? Can't see. Brown, yeah, Brown coming back to clear. Wait a sec. Brown is on the floor having tried to tackle Freddie. Referee then. Yeah, Durkin back to award offside. It's an Arsenal shirt.. Ally, THAT IS AN Arsenal SHIRT!
Wiltord floats towards the rebound. No "GO ONNN!" this time. He gets to it. there's no-one around him. My god. IT'S AN OPEN GOAL. God, he missed one from exactly the same situation against Boro in the FAC Semi. At the same ground. At the same end. Wouldn't this be ironic, hahah.
Sky it, that's what he'll do. Useless bastard. I believe the euphanism is "erratic".
The net bulges.
"YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUURRRRRRRGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AA!!!!!"
He runs towards the camera. For some reason, I think that it might have been offside. I don't know why. When he scored against Everton - that shinner which Simonsen ran into the goalpost trying to save, yeah that was a classic - I didn't actually shout 'Yeeees' or anything, because it didn't look like he was celebrating. I thought it had been disallowed or something. Don't get me wrong. Here , I stood up on that bar connecting the stool legs, clenched my fists together (I didn't raise my arms in the air, like I always do. When Parlour scored on Saturday I went f*cking mental, but this was different. Confirmation maybe, not relief as the Cup Final had been).
I didn't hear Tyler's commentary, obviously. I think I heard it for the first time the next day. I was really anxious to hear it. I was wondering how he did it - the calm guy hardly ever raises his voice, so I never thought it would be his 'scream'. I think I heard Tylsdley's first. What a let-down. Remember how commentary can define a goal. Thomas. Even Motson managed to do a commentary that will always be synonymous with Sunderland's goal in '79. Tylsdley sounded like he'd just lost a sizeable bet. "..And in by Wiltord." It was so dull, so dry, so unmemorable. Then I heard Tyler's.
His narrative on the Cup Final had been good. The Parlour goal was an astonished, throaty cry, the Ljungberg goal was better, with the disbelieving waver as he held the "Ljunbeeeeeeeerrgg...." with Andy Gray shouting a loud "Ohh!" as it hit the net. The again, Motson's commentary was good as well. Peter Brackley's was for my money better still. "Still Freddie Ljunbeeeeerrggg...Oh! WHAT A FINISH!"
But Tyler on Wiltord is now classic. You can't imagine the goal with any other commentary. When I finally heard it, I broke out in a huge grin. It's brilliant. A commentator forgetting himself for a moment. Refreshing change.
After the goal, the game kind of fizzled out. Nistelrooy was immediately brought on. I honestly don't remember his punch on Freddie. I don't remember there being any particular reaction from the Arsenal fans in the pub either. The Manchester fans sat silently. I wasn't watching for any of them leaving. I think some might have done, but most stayed til the end. Credit to them.
Seaman deals with some crosses and some free-kicks. There's a set-to between Keown and Ruud van 9.5. Sol and Vieira step in and break it up. I'm watching it through a haze. It didn't all sink in until the final whistle. There's never any incessant period of serious Manc pressure. It's actually quite relaxing. Weird.
And then before I know it, it's all over. We all stand up and clap. A guy in the gold shirt passes me. I tap him on the shoulder, and just clench my fists and go 'Yeeessss'. He does the same back. It makes no sense. We've all just gone brain-dead with joy and happiness, and this just feels wonderful. This is why I'm a football fan. I can't describe what it felt when Wiltord's goal went in. So I won't attempt to.
I didn't attempt to make any sense or rationalise it then, either. I think it's better that way. I picked up my coat, floating on air (AND I wasn't even drunk!), and walked out into the night.
Ally Winford
