DATES VISITED THIS GROUND
24/5/2003 - Bournemouth 5 Lincoln 2
22/5/2004 - Man Utd 3 Millwall 0
28/5/2005 - Southend 2 Lincoln 0
The third time I'd visited the stadium 24 months was horrible. The other two had been
to the playoff final and the Manchester United vs Millwall FA Cup Final but neither had the nerves of this. In the other playoff final vs Bournemouth, it was all about the day out and I didn't
particully care if we won or not. The FA Cup Final was fairly relaxing as well because I honestly couldn't picture Millwall
beating United. However, this game was for promotion to League 1 against Southend and this was a MUST win.
Anyway, we got to Cardiff at around 11:30pm and Cardiff was packed with Lincoln fans. The previous
two years we'd gotten to Cardiff really early but then went to an obscure area of the City and didn't really see anyone else.
However, me and my friends went into Cardiff and into the Wetherspoons that was "chock-a-block" full of Lincoln fans. I'd
never seen anything like it.
Anyway, outside the ground, my nerves, which had been so tense for a few days were still getting
the better of me and a combination of those and that I hadn't slept for 2 days were really wearing me down. Eventually
getting into the ground, it proved a bit of a farce finding the seat. In the previous two visits, I had been in the lower
tier and was determined to get a better view this time so was in middle tier. After finally finding my seat after being confused
by the numbers being in reverse order, I was able to grasp my view of the action and was slightly disappointed because we
were so incredibly far from the pitch.
The ground is easy to describe, 3/4 of the ground are 3 tiers in the colours of green, red
and a bit of blue whereas the other 1/4 is two tiers and in green and red. The size of the ground was impressive and the pitch
was huge. Despite of this, the view of the action at that end was ok. If you couldn't see clearly what was going on at the
other end, all you had to do was look at the big screen.
It's quite hard to generate a decent atmosphere for a few reasons. One is the general spacing
between all the people who want to sing and the second being that this game brings out all the glory supporters who only go
to either the big playoff games or local derbies.
Overall Cardiff is a great experience if you don't have nerves but it's also an absolutly horrible
place to lose.
