29th December 2015
Cardiff City 1 Nottingham
Forest 1 (Football League Championship)
The first time I went to Millwall I was scared,
scared of the reputation that went before them, and I have to say while I got
away from the New Den safely, it wasn’t the most comfortable and
straightforward of experiences by any means. Around the same time, the mid
nineties, another club had a shocking reputation in football violence terms,
and that club was Cardiff City. Battles with Stoke, Leeds and indeed the much
lauded conflicts with Swansea City were well publicised, a trip to Ninian Park
was not one for the feint hearted.
So when Rach suggested we got to the Cardiff v
Forest game, and take George with us, I have to admit to being a touch nervous,
especially when she was insistent we went in the away end. In all fairness, it
was probably going to be fine, but I could still recall the TV images of the
battles taking place on Sloper Road.
The ‘Soul Crew’ had a big name for themselves,
in fact a BBC documentary was devoted to them, it portrayed images of battles
adjacent to our hotel with Manchester United fans, it showed some horrendous
scenes inside and outside of the ground against Leeds, while faces like Annis
Abraham, Tony Rivers and Dai Thomas were some of the most feared in football.
On top of all that, owner Sam Hamman not only
refused to condemn the Soul Crew, he actually glorified it by socialising and
travelling with them, and to an extent, employing some of them! My only issue
with them previously actually formed part of the documentary in question, an game away at Chesterfield when I was working that day in the town centre. We
had police horses charging up and down the road outside the office, while the
walk back to my car just after the game finished was an interesting one as
battles reigned all across the town centre.
Our Hotel in Cardiff was a lovely one, the
Marriott adjacent to the Railway Station, as I previously mentioned, the area
where battles have taken place in the past, and having spent a fantastic day
touring the City and looking round the Bay, we were set for our evening at the
Cardiff City Stadium.
Rach was excited, it was her first Forest away
game for years, and George’s first ever Forest game. I don’t particularly like Forest for
obvious reasons, but I agreed to go in the away end for them, it wasn’t going
to be easy, but if I got a few pints down me I was sure I’d be ok!
We got the train, just one stop along to Ninian
Park Station, Forest fans were wearing colours, no great fear in that respect,
and as we walked down the station to Sloper Road you could see where the new
housing development had been built on the site of the old Ninian Park stadium.
The shiny new Cardiff City Stadium sat on the opposite side of the road in a
large open expanse that was once a car park and an athletics stadium. It looked
imposing on the skyline, but it didn’t feel especially busy.
We were soon in the away end and I have to say
that the welcome from the stewards was a really friendly one, we downed a few
pints and took our seats. Description wise, it wasn’t dissimilar to Derby
County, Middlesbrough, Leicester City, or any of the new build stadiums around
In the top two tiers of football. However, one thing stood out and that was the
recently added tier to one of the stands that was full of red seats. The story
behind that stems back to crackpot owner Vincent Tan (they have a track record
with nutcase owners!), who changed the club colours from blue to red, partly
due to his business dealings in Malaysia and Thailand, and partly to do with
the national team colours. It went down badly, they have now quite rightly
reverted back to blue again, but the bizarre tier of red seating remains, it
was closed tonight though, and I suspect only ever opens for international
games.
The Forest fans created a good atmosphere and
they took the lead in the first half through a fantastic effort from Ollie
Burke, but soon after Cardiff equalised with a deflected effort. The second
half was dull by comparison, Cardiff seemed content with a point despite being
the home side, while Forest didn’t have enough guile to force a winner, albeit
they did miss a last gasp chance in injury time. As for the Cardiff fans, and
this is the thing. The crowd was given out at just over 15,000, the largest of
the season, but it looked less than that to me, 10,000 maybe? And while the
atmosphere at Ninain Park was hostile and intimidating, in the new surroundings
it was sterile and morgue-like, the Cardiff fans barely made a murmur, and
while I was pleased it had been safe for obvious reasons, I was disappointed it
wasn’t a bit more lively.
The walk back to the station was the same, as
was the train journey back. If Cardiff have managed to solve their hooligan
problem then fair play, but I suspect it’s more to do with the opposition, for
a bigger name with a bigger reputation, maybe also on a non festive weekend,
then they may well have been out in force.
But the overriding one for me was the lack of
numbers and the lack of passion, that in itself may be a bit of
post-Premiership blues, and also some disillusionment at the way the club is
going under Tan, and Manager Russell Slade. Get Sam Hamman back, he’ll soon
stir it up again!
Rach and George loved it though, that was the
main thing, and they were soon back safely in the hotel, whereas I had survived
ninety minutes with the Forest fans, they weren’t that bad a bunch after all!
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