The Blues Are Back in Town

August 13

Coventry City 1-2 Cardiff City: Why are the Bluebirds playing Coventry City in Northampton in red?

This game could be looked at as typifying what some people might refer to as the downside of modern football, which usually is a metaphor for how money talks. A team known as the Bluebirds, but who were now playing in red due to the whim of a rich owner, met Coventry City, who due to the fact that they couldn't afford the exorbitant rent charged to play at their own ground, were having to play at their temporary home of Northampton, thirty-five miles away. For Cardiff, it could be said it was a case of one man having too much money and power, while at Coventry there was not enough of either, although it would take a diligent Coventry fan to properly explain the ins and outs of their own situation. In each case, the upshot was protests from fans in an attempt to force change.

Along with this, however, is another new aspect to the game - and that is fans of opposing sides feeling the need to jointly express their mutual pissed-offness. I found myself at this game as me and the g/f, Christina, were in Coventry anyway for the Goliath poker tournament, being played ironically enough at the Grosvenor Casino attached to the Ricoh Arena, Coventry's official football ground.

After a visit to Christina's gran who lives in Northampton (her permanent home, she hasn't been made to live there, although to make matters more confusing, she would have preferred to still be living in her original home of Bournemouth), we made it to the Sixfields Stadium a few minutes after kick-off. We'd bought tickets, and in fact found that the turnstiles were now closed, and we had to bang on the gates to be allowed in. You get that sort of thing at smaller grounds, I guess.

Well, we took our places amongst a good away following for a first-round Capital One Cup game that was also being televised. My first instinct was to turn to the Coventry fans, in their guise as the home supporters, and jeer, 'Is that all you take away?' Obviously, this is a common chant to fans of the away team who might have travelled some distance, but I thought it could work equally well directed at the meagre 'home' support, who in this instance had had to travel thirty-five miles.

I can't say there was much of an uptake for this chant. Maybe it's because I've never been the best at garnering support for one of my own chants, but more likely it was because I'd missed the point, unaware that it had been decided in advance that Cardiff fans at this game were here to show support for the opposition's own misfortune.

So had I taken the wrong approach? There's no doubt that Cardiff's support has changed in recent years. The hooligan aspect seems almost a thing of the past, with fans now being much more family-friendly. But should that mean adopting a watered-down attitude in general? Surely an aversion to fans of the adversary is part and parcel? Let's face it, if it had been Swansea who'd been made to move to, say, Port Talbot, the jokes would have come thick and fast - they have hardly held back on taking the mick out of our own situation vis-à-vis Tan and the evil red. Coventry is a side that really we have no bones with, but are they a side that, on the flipside, we should automatically show a collective brotherly love for? On a personal note, it was at Coventry that two friends were arrested back in the days when police treated arresting Cardiff fans like a national sport.

The amusing thing about Coventry's temporary home was that it was itself in the process of being reconstructed! Builders working on the stand being rebuilt had downed their tools for the evening to watch the game. Other non-paying punters were a group of around twenty or thirty Coventry fans on a hill outside the ground who held up banners of protest, clearly feeling that refusing to pay the £10 entry fee was an effective way of voicing their objection to the situation, while at the same time, they could save themselves money and still get to see the game.

Cardiff's early goal, which had been scored before we'd got in, ensured that the Bluebirds were mostly in pretty good voice - and yes, as expected, almost the entire Cardiff crowd were in blue (another irony as, in the past, Cardiff fans rarely wore colours at away games, with a good number instead preferring smart designer clothes, but anything blue is de rigueur now). A lull on around thirty minutes gave me the opportunity to start another chant I'd dreamed up. 'Can you hear Northampton sing?' I shouted at the Coventry fans, and again, I failed to get support for this one.

But then something happened that I hadn't quite expected. I mean, I'd seen it coming, because the paper signs I'd seen on the floor had said it would happen, but on thirty-five minutes, most people on both sides held up these paper signs which had 'Let Down' written on them, and this was the staged moment at which both sets of fans could express their combined dissatisfaction. Further songs were sung, and the game itself even stopped as the players took a drinks break.

For me, these sort of staged events are atmosphere killers. Perhaps that's the idea. But I'm really not sure if it's right for both sets of opposing fans to be doing this as a unified effort. I even sensed that some Coventry fans weren't that sure about it, because despite some Cardiff fans urging them to 'Stand up if you feel let down!', some of them looked to be doing this with some reluctance, I felt, due to uncertainty as to whether they should do this at Cardiff's requisition.

So then the game got underway again. Oh yes, the game! Cardiff continued as the better side, and sustained pressure resulted in another goal late in the second half (albeit, an own goal). Coventry quickly pulled one back for a slightly tense finish, although it always seemed fairly certain that Cardiff, much the dominant side, would hang on for the win.

The whole nature of the protest meant that attention was drawn away from the match itself and, like I say, had a detrimental effect on the overall atmosphere. It worked if that was the intention, but it did seem a little sad that people had travelled some distance to be part of a night of negativity.

One more traditional aspect of Cardiff's away support, particularly at these smaller grounds, was maintained, and that was the constant ribbing of the home team's goalkeeper. Poor old Burge, in the Coventry goal, came in for a constant barrage of stick from the Cardiff fans. He was told, after about the twentieth time of asking, that if he did the ayatollah, we would leave him alone, but he stuck to his guns and refused the invitation, even after a Cardiff player had shown him what this gesture entailed. In fairness to him, I think he was actually a pretty good keeper - never really thoroughly tested, but he dealt with everything effectively.

So a victory was achieved, and we sang, as you do, about being on our way to Wembley. Some things just don't change.

This was Christina's first ever Cardiff City match. Sadly, as both our mobiles were playing up, we didn't even get a picture of her at the game, but she's got her ticket as a memento. It was not a classic, but she'd learned a few things about what it was like supporting Cardiff, as things are now, and also as they always have been. When it was 2-1, there was even the old chant of being 'the best behaved supporters in the land (but a right bunch of bastards when we lose)'. Just who this bastardry would have been directed at if we'd lost though was not quite clear - surely not our newest friends, the Northampton-based Coventry fans, who we'd spent most of the rest of the match being sympathetic towards?

The good news for Coventry was that within a week of this very game, the announcement was made that, like naughty children who had spent time at a friend's until things calmed down, they could now return to their lovely Ricoh Arena home. Cardiff fans had at one point chanted, 'Stand up for your history', which definitely did not sound right as Coventry only began playing at the Ricoh ten years ago.

As for Cardiff, who knew what fate was in store for us? Unlike Coventry's mid-season switch, unless the FA took an exceptionally lenient view, I didn't imagine going back to blue would be a mid-season option for the Bluebirds. But the whole situation of the team playing in one colour, and fans wearing another, really was starting to look a bit ridiculous - would Tan ever see sense?

September 13

Cardiff 2-4 Norwich:

Norwich versus Fisk Family Wedding

I missed the Cardiff v Norwich game, and a good thing too, by all accounts. To throw away a halftime lead of 2-0, and end up losing 4-2 reeks of haplessness of the highest order, despite the fact that Norwich were a team with some good current form, and of good pedigree. My reason for absence - is a wedding a good excuse? And it just so happened to be a Fisk wedding, where I learned for the first time that my grandfather, hailing from Norfolk, was in fact a lifelong Norwich City fan. Just why my dad had neglected to ever before impart this knowledge upon me, I'm not quite sure. None of my grandad's three sons kept up support for the Canaries, so old man Fisk can't have been too persuasive of the merits of following the East Anglian side.

Norwich's is a ground I've still yet to visit. It's...