Were off to Wembley

It was some weeks ago that Alison phoned from work to say that we had until 5pm to register with the FA website as England Fans and enter the public ballot for tickets to the two world cup qualifiers against Israel and Russia. I managed the registration process and a few days later we were offered, and bought, tickets for the Israel match for the Saturday 8th September.

I had wanted to go to the new Wembley Stadium ever since it was completed, and tickets for the first England competitive game there meant even more. Years before the reconstruction started I was constantly dismayed that our national stadium was so old and tired. It was just about OK in 1966 when I went to the world cup games there, but even then the views were obstructed and far away. The athletics track had hosted speedway and greyhound racing but was then a redundant gap for the spectators. So now I wanted to see where all the money went.

We were not disappointed. The exterior views of the stadium is nothing special, apart from the arch. We found our entrance and were ready for a long climb up the stairs to our position at the highest level. However, we found the escalators, and once through a short queue we were carried gently up a series of escalators to the top.

I had reservations about our seats as they were some of the cheapest, right in a corner near the top. I should not have worried. The view was spectacular. We were directly above the far left corner flag in the photograph, half way up the top level. It was so steep, we could not even see the lower levels below. And the height gave a great perspective on the play. We were told there is not a bad seat in the stadium and they were right.

And the game was good, England played well and won 3-0 with the first two scored at our end. The atmosphere was awesome. The noise was so loud I had to shout for Alison to hear me. We joined in the singing so I was pretty hoarse by the end. The journey home was so easy. The stairs down and the concourse around the stadium are so so wide, there is plenty of room and we didn't have to stop once. The route out was pretty crowded but we kept moving and once onto the main road, it was a normal walk to Wembley Central to catch trains home with hardly a wait. That all makes for a great all round experience.

These are not our photos by the way, someone who was there published these on Flkr.