Cardiff City vs Arsenal - Ninian Park, Cardiff - Sunday 25th January 2009

When Arsenal were drawn away at Cardiff in the FA Cup, I immediately wanted to go. This is Cardiff's last season at Ninian Park, a historic football ground that is one of the last relics of what the game used to be like - at least, certainly one of the few grounds that Arsenal would be likely to visit now. The floodlight pylons come into view as you approach the (quite rough) area, and the 4 stands make this out as an old, traditional ground. Getting inside and onto the away terrace, the Popular Bank looms large to the right, bathed in the afternoon sun (which I'd guess is what makes it popular).

This was obviously a big day for all at Cardiff, and the PA announcer did a great job of building up to kick off. He got the fans to Do The Ayatollah, talked about the long and famous history between Cardiff and Arsenal football clubs, encouraged a warm welcome for Aaron Ramsey back to Ninian Park, and played some really rather good music - including local favourites Stereophonics, and Rage Against The Machine's Sleep Now In The Fire. So, when the teams came out, everybody was up for the game.

Which made the game itself an even bigger disappointment. Although there were a couple of decent chances on both sides; Arsenal played very poorly and lacked much penetration in their play; and Cardiff played well, but not well enough to really cause sustained problems for Arsenal. So the game was a bit of a nothing, somewhat of a stalemate. Robin Van Persie had a couple of decent shouts at goal, Bendtner and Nasri were wasteful on a couple of occasions, and Cardiff had chances - a good free kick, and at least one shot that flashed dangerously across the face of goal. But in the end, a disappointing 0-0 draw, that deserved to be a 0-0 draw. During the game, standing on the terrace, I noticed that the terracing area was much less packed than it would have been in the past - no fun allowed any more. Probably the biggest regret of the day was being denied the chance to have a good old goal celebration on it.

When the final whistle went, a minority but a significant section of the Cardiff fans immediately resorted to their tough guy antics. Many of the fans on the terrace closest to the Arsenal fans hardly seemed to watch the game at all, watching the Arsenal fans instead - they really seemed to hate English people more than they actually liked their own team. So, a familiar sight at the end (also seen the last time they played at Highbury, of dozens of coppers standing in front of them, physically preventing them from getting onto the pitch and near Arsenal fans, whilst they stood and postured. It all looked a bit pathetic - it is a minority of Cardiff fans, but a sizeable one, that seem to play up every time they get a big game. So, a bit of a shame that they get to come to Emirates in 10 days time, to play the idiots again. Hopefully it will be a better game next time.