Off To Wemberly
Having been to Wembley quite a few times over the years to see England games and a couple of play off final games involving Yeovil and then Gillingham tomorrow I will finally get to see my club play there as West Ham take on Blackpool in the Championship Play Off Final.
It’s been a few years since West Ham were in a big game such as this. There were two previous POF games in 2004 and 2005 as well as the FA Cup Final in 2006, but these were all played in Cardiff. I couldn’t get tickets for the first two games and then I wasn’t even in the country for the FA Cup Final (still had a great night though!).
The last time we actually played at “the home of English football” was in 1981, when we drew with Liverpool in the League Cup (we lost the replay at Villa Park 3 weeks later) and so it’s been a long time coming, and I can’t wait!
The only problem is, I’ve not been able to get a ticket in the West Ham end and so will be sitting with the Blackpool fans. This means that I am going to have to be extremely quiet should we score (or even come close to scoring!) and keep my wits about me for the whole game.
West Ham only sold their tickets to STH and Memebers and then those that had bought a home ticket at some point during the season. This is how I knew I wouldn’t be getting one. I hadn’t got a membership this year and hadn’t made it to the Boleyn Ground either.
So as soon as I knew who our opponenets could be (Blackpool played Birmingham in the other semi final) I signed up to both teams’ websites in the hope that I might be able to get a ticket from this source.
When I tried to book the tickets via Blackpool’s site it actually stated that you needed to have bought tickets from Blackpool previously to qualify for a ticket this time. Despite not having bought anything I went ahead and tried anyway. And what do you know, it worked! So much for having a buying history!
Because of the fiasco with Blackpool’s tickets (they failed to sell about 9,000) a lot of West Ham fans have ended up buying tickets in the tangerine end so hopefully I won’t be alone. The rumour is there’s about 1,500 – 2,000 fans that have managed to do the same as me.
I might try and sneak into the West Ham end at half time (when they’re not so strict on checking tickets) and enjoy the rest of the match with my compadres. Fingers crossed, eh?
Whatever happens it’s going to be a fantastic day out and I plan to enjoy every single minute of it!
