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Match Review
Match Number: 566
Date: Saturday 31st January 2009
Kick-Off: 3:00pm
Match: Cardiff City 2 Nottingham Forest 0
Competition: Coca-Cola Football League Championship
Stadium: Ninian Park
Attendance: 18,779 (1,030)
Stadium Stats
No. of visits to stadium: 1
Total no. of stadiums visited: 104
Programme and Ticket
Photos
Review
Travel to match
Method of Travel: Car
Travelling time: 4hrs 45mins
My wife and I were spending the weekend in Cardiff so we set off on the Friday morning. Leaving Carlisle at 8:00am we had a 15 minute break at Knutsford at 10:00am and then arrived at Cardiff at 1:00pm. We travelled using the M6, M5, M50 and M4.
I visited Ninian Park on the Friday and managed to get into the ground - photos are available in the tours section.
Pre-Match
We spent the Saturday morning in the city centre looking round the shops
and getting breakfast/lunch. I was surprised that I didn't see many CCFC
shirts/hats/jackets etc or even a shop in the town. We headed to the stadium
at around 1:30pm and the traffic was still fairly light so didn't take
long. As my wife was shopping we were able to use the shopping complex
opposite the ground though this wasn't available for "football only"
cars. This also gave a good view of their new
stadium that is still in the process of being built.
Stadium
What another great stadium that is getting replaced by one with no character.
I love Ninian Park and wish I'd visited it years ago with Carlisle. The
floodlights are impressive, as is being able to see the Millennium Stadium
in the distance and the city centre historical sites.
Admission
I paid £16.00 (in advance via the clubs online ticket office) to
stand in the popular bank terrace and the view was ok though the terrace
was a bit more shallow than I had expected.
Programme
£3.00 got you 68 and the centre page spread was a re-print of a
famous match at the clubs ground. There was plenty to read though I have
seen better.
Food and Drink
As we had eaten earlier in the city centre I didn't get anything in the
ground.
The Game
The match was good- although Cardiff run out comfortable winners it could
have been different had Tyson put away one of his many chances. Both teams
tried to play football on the deck and was of good standard. If my team
Carlisle United had been promoted I think we'd definitely had been relegated
in the first season on this evidence.
Home Fans
The Cardiff fans at times were loud and their hatred for the English was
evident through out the match! Although I didn't witness any trouble it
was clear they had a lot of Stone Island wearing fans who looked like
they could be up for a fight!!!!
Away Fans
At the time of writing I don't have the official figure for the number
of Forest fans there, but I'd estimate there was 1,500 of them. Their
support was good earlier on but once the first Cardiff goal went in they
went fairly quiet.
Stewards / Police
The stewards seemed fairly lenient letting fans stand in walkways etc
and although the police were there in large numbers they didn't really
get involved with the fans.
The Ref
I thought the referee was excellent bar only two decisions and perhaps
a little slow to get his yellow card out after a few bad tackles from
Forest.
The Journey Home
Travelling time: 4hrs 50mins
We stayed in Cardiff until the Monday morning but left early due to the snow that was hitting the UK. Departing at 7:10am we stopped off in West Bromwich to get some sandwiches and petrol in case the weather got worse. However although it was snowing most of the way we got home ok at 1:00pm only stopping again at Forton Services for 20 minutes.
Statistics
Travel: £50.00
Ticket: £16.00
Programme: £3.00
Total: £66.00
Mileage: 590
Travelling time: 9hrs 35mins
Stadium character: 9/10
Facilities: 3/10
View of pitch: 6/10
Atmosphere home fans: 7/10
Atmosphere away fans: 6/10
Match Rating: 7/10
Wish to go back to stadium: 9/10
