Sense Of Pride

Where to start. The mixture of emotions is still powerful this morning. Yesterday was a day that brought with it travel frustrations, new friends, pride at a fantastic performance by the 'Young Guns', and complete and utter disgust at the assistant referee. Finals should not be decided by incompetant officials.

Let's start with Great Western Trains. I don't know who runs the planning department, but common sense surely tells you that when two London clubs are playing in the Welsh capital you can make a great deal of money by laying on sufficient trains to carry your customers in some small degree of comfort.

Apparently I was extremely fortunate to make the first train out of the West Country, although we did take just under three hours to complete a one hour journey, and the first class passengers whose armrests we borrowed to sit on were remarkably calm under the circumstances.

Behind us others were far less fortunate. I heard from one fan who said the standing passengers were removed from the train at Bristol. As we were to discover later when we were queued outside Cardiff station for another two hours to get home a large number of fans didn't get there until half-time.

Fortunately we arrived in time to enjoy some hospitality courtesy of Arsenal and Carling, that excellent brewer, who had returned just under a thousand tickets to each club for the fans to enjoy the corporate hospitality for once. Arsenal Supporters Club branches worldwide were represented. A special 'hello' here to the guys from Dublin, Drogheda, Armagh, and Tipperary. I hope you made it home in one piece.

The game itself has been covered in depth elewhere. In short, we were outstanding for an hour or so. The younger players were definitely winning their individual battles, including Traore who was solid at left-back, and of course the remarkable pairing of Diaby and Denilson who ran the show in midfield. It was no surprise that Chelsea only really started to feature as an attacking force once Diaby had limped off.

How I would like to be magnanimous in defeat, and not throw brickbats at the officials, but the assistant referee who judged Drogba onside for Chelsea's equaliser, and managed to get Adebayor sent-off in what appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, should be bumped back down the ladder. Either the occasion was too big for him, or he was looking to get noticed in a bid to boost his career. Yes, you imbecile, you were noticed.

So Chelsea have come home with the trophy, but Arsenal have won all the friends, and recognition that this great young team is about to achieve some very special things. It was a proud day to be a Gooner.