Thetownend.com

I just arrived back home after an intense and great weekend at Wembley. We arrived from Paddington to Wembley Central around 12 am and I went straight to the ticket office to pick up our tickets.

Then me and my mate Vegar met up with the other norwegian fans - berswin who I hadn't seen since our trip to Swindon in 93/94 and his girfriend, and a fellow Swindon-fan from Oslo named Stian.

We got into the ground and saw the spectacular stadium - nothing like it in Norway - and the impressive numbers of food and beer outsales.

We had some pre-match beer and berswin pulled out his norwegian flag - which none really noticed, except a couple of other norwegians that also were on the game - they were neutrals but sat in the Swindon section as well.

We found our seats and prepered for the game. The atmosphere was great, but to be honest I think the Millwall fans sounded a bit louder from were we sat. We didn't know any other songs then the regulars, but we tried to follow when the crowd around us sang.

The game were nervewracking, but sadly Millwall won. They were the best team on the day, I hate to admit. I think Swindon Town was a too little direct/too slow when attacking. Short passes are lovely to watch, but Millwall made the difference with speed forward.

I felt bad for Charlie Austin missing his sitter - we all couldn't believe it - but chin up, Charlie, you've had a brilliant season!

We clearly missed Gordon Greer at the back, and I must say that Lescinel Jean-Francois was our weakest player saturday - very insecure with his feet and his resolution is bad. I think Danny Wilson should let him go really, since he's out of contract.

After the game we went to a Swindon allocated pub by Wembley Central and had a good laugh even though we were heartbroken about the loss. Congratulations to Millwall. Swindon Town will come back stronger next season, as Danny Wilson also summed it up.

Chin up, fans and players - come on you Reds and thanks for a brilliant day!

The Norwegians

NorwayRed :)

Glad you enjoyed your trip despite the poor performance and result! Hopefully you'll be able to come over for more of a celebration next season!

Well done guys. Pure commitment. Shame we showed such lack of ambition on pitch, but all in all we can salute the efforts the team made over the course of a thoroughly enjoyable season. Yesterday's dissapointments won't obscure from the fact we've done bloody well.

 Hope to see you all in future.

Shame we took one hell of a beating.

Good one 8)

Great effort fellas! Come back next year when we'll be a far more viable option for the big step up.

Was that the case?  :sherlock:

haha, that's a norwegian classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqZTP8-8wIs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqZTP8-8wIs)

I have to say that is the only time I have enjoyed losing a game. CLASS. Because it was a complement.

Looked it up. Compliment. I think.

sorry you guys came such a long way for such a poor game from towns point of view. I hope next time isn't 17 years away and we can meet up for a few beers. you have a few new friends on this board, stay in touch.

hope the whole experience wasn't terrible.

i think it's fairly safe to say that if you make it over for a game next season, you'll be made very welcome.

We definitely will try to visit again sometime soon. Maybe next season in Swindon for a home game if it fits the bill and all of us can work out a weekend where we can meet up again and go to see a game.

The norwegian Swindonfans should really be able to make an annual thing out of travelling over to see a game - since the tickets for flights aren't that expensive to London anymore! It's just to fit the timing and pay off the missus!  8)

Abso-ferking-lutely
As long as you can sort out your Icelandic brethren and have a word with them about that bleeding volcano

you can sleep on my sofa if you bring a six month supply of brunost

haha! Then you'll be the second foreigner I'm bringing brunost. The first one was David Lynch!  :I'm a complete mofleakin Deak

Pre Match Photo from where I sat:

brunost is the best thing ever. no surprise that the great auteur david lynch likes it too.

i got dizzy just looking at that photo.

David ate big chunks without bread, like it was some delicate french dessert cheese. He said it tasted like butterscotch !

 

It was a great experience to see Swindon play at Wembley, and we'll come back to see them play again.

My missus liked the trip as well, some due to the football and some due to shopping in London on Friday.  Even if the trip cost me around 1000£ (I bought the trip for her), I'll be back for more.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Hope she made it worth your while ;)

She did in a very generous way :D

Fair play to all you Norway reds. Show some of the locals what it's like to really support a team.

Impressed with you guys & girls, & it's good to have you in our 'family'.

Also your use of the word 'missus' makes me smile - I thought that was just an English slang thing.

Brilliant effort.

Apologies for the awful atmosphere - It was the worst i've ever experienced at a town match.  It's not normally like that

It beat the atmosphere at any matches for my local team IK Start who are in the Norwegian Premier League. 

I've been to a few matches in England from Macclesfield-Hartlepool with 1700 spectators to ManUtd-Everton at Wembley with 90.000 spectators and there haven't been a particular better sound level at the PL-matches either.

At San Siro last easter, 55.000 AC Milan supporters were so silend, so you would probably be able to hear a bird fart during the match.

Berswin - if only you'd been at Charlton on May 17th!

We (the fans) are beating ourselves up at the moment about our collective failure to create proper vocal backing for the team at Wembley.  But what we're forgetting is that just weeks before we did a great job in both legs of the semi finals (comfortably out-singing Charlton on both occasions).  The night at the Valley is one of the best I can remember in recent times.  Electric atmosphere.

We can do it...it just didn't work out on Saturday.

I watched both matches at tv in Norway (a football pub in Kristiansand has almost all available football-channels) and I totally agree with you.

My experience is that there seems to be a louder crowd at away matches as there are more supporters and fewer spectators, in contrast to home matches where the numbers are opposite.  And when 30.000+ supporters travel to Wembley, many are not used to sing their hearts out for the team and expects to be entertained rather that participate in generating an atmosphere.  It sucks, but it happens all over the football-world :(

It was better at the valley than it sounded on TV. They put the microphone in front of the Charlton fans.

i agree with you, away games are always better for vocal support.

the noise from the town fans completely drowned out the charlton fans when i watched it on telly

Yup, even at 2-0 up the charlton fans weren't making a huge amount of noise, at the CG everyone was going nuts when we were 2-0 up.

Those clappy things did the business at home to Charlton. Even the happy clappers that were in for the night joined in.

Maybe we should've dished out 30,000 of them at Wembley...

Nicely summed up.

When Andy Mutch equalised in over time away vs. Coventry to give us 1-1 in 93/94 - well that was ELECTRIC! The Swindon bus had some problems on the way back to Swindon, and the last train to Bristol - were we stayed - had left the station when we got back.

The club arranged for me and berswin to be escorted back to our hotel in a private car with our own driver! :D

8.30 minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYLdNXNsHDE

you have been away too long my friend

Fred: I know!

Wow, that was a great clip to watch! :D

Remember it well, you're right that was one of those memorable goal celebrations! Shame there were no cameras on us. Understandably the players didn't look too excited though, must be soul-destroying being rooted to the bottom of the table.

"Coventry must've made a mistake" - fuck off Yorath you Leeds/Welsh twat.

I remember that game.  Seem to remember CCFC underestimated the number of travelling fans and had to open another section of the stand (or something like that).  Brilliant equaliser.