Crystal Palace fans on top of the turnstiles

‘105 years of history, we will not die without a fight’.

This is the message that greets me as I walk into the beer garden of The Albion pub in South Norwood. This is the message that the Holmesdale Fanatics (HF), a hardcore group of Crystal Palace supporters, wants to deliver as their beloved club stares into the abyss.

The 20 or so members who are smoking and drinking when I arrive are not exactly sure what is going to happen. What time we will set off for Selhurst Park and the expectations as to how many people will turn out vary. There is talk of 500 supporters turning up. Some are more cautious and put the turnout in the region of 250. How long the protest will go on for isn’t known either.

But they are all adamant that something must happen. In the words of one protester ‘a show of strength and unity is needed’. With the club’s fate appearing ever more perilous, the group began organising this protest on Facebook on Friday evening.

The smell of spray paint and marker pen wafts into the overcast air as they make the final preparations to the banner. One of the group uses a copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four to aid his shading in of an eagle – a part of the club’s badge. Another picks it up and jokes that he should find an inspiring passage to read out.

The laughter is punctured as James (not his real name) picks up a text on his phone. It says that the club will go into liquidation on Tuesday unless CPFC2010, the group trying to take control of the club, can do a deal.

As they take this news in, the reality of the situation hits them. The club that they have been following for years could very well cease to exist in under 24 hours.

When the time comes to leave, we all head outside and mass behind the banner and begin to march.

Video: The Holmesdale Fanatics arrive at Selhurst Park

Cries of ‘Eagles’ and renditions of the terrace anthem ‘Glad All Over’ fill the air as we walk past confused passers by. Some drivers blow their horns in support, others don’t know quite what to make of the couple of hundred red and blue clad people walking across the busy road, beers and scarves in hand.

We wind our way up Holmesdale Road, stopping traffic as we go. After the initial crescendo of noise, things die down. While a few of the HF are up in front, in the thick of the action, one or two are hanging back. As the anticipation builds to the protest’s focal point – the convergence on Selhurst Park – the noise level drops.

Hundreds of fans turned up on Bank Holiday Monday, with the club potentially less than 24 hours from going into liquidation

When we get there, hundreds more fans are waiting. When the HF see this, a loud cheer goes up and the two groups merge into one.

The chanting resumes, and the HF gets to work on creating a show. Amidst the noise and throng of people it is hard to stay with the group.

Two flares ignite and fans begin bouncing up and down. Bemused Bank Holiday shoppers from the nearby Sainsbury’s come outside to see what is going on.

Members of HF resurface on the roof of the turnstiles into the Family Stand and they unfurl the banner that was spread across the pub garden floor, along with another that reads ‘Ultras’.

From up high they play the role of conductor, leading the fans below through a catalogue of Palace songs, perhaps the final symphony in this storied club’s history.

All of this is being captured on film – a Sky Sports News cameraman is making his way through the throng, capturing shots of the spectacle.

Soon the police are on the scene as well. A single car drives slowly down the road leading up to the stand. The fans part slightly when they see it, however they don’t budge by much. The officers soon think better of trying to break up the crowd and retreat further up the road.

Four more cars and a van turn up. One officer told me the protest would only become a problem once ‘they try to get onto the pitch’.

That’s exactly what they do next.

Mark, one of the HF members on the roof, launches into a rousing tirade against the mess the club is in – and those he thinks are responsible. He implores people to get into the ground and onto the pitch.

Some fans surge forward and run through the unlocked turnstiles. A few begin to shake the big blue gates nearby, but they stay locked shut. Dozens get in before the police block the turnstiles off.

Those that do get inside get onto the stand and continue chanting. Cheers go up, although some fans aren’t happy with what the HF are doing. Someone starts a rendition of ‘Get off the pitch’. The police continue to watch.

Video: Fans inside the stadium

This continues for over half an hour before, slowly, they surface outside the ground. I spot them in the Sainsbury’s car park and there is excited chatter about how well the protest went. Just past 6pm we retrace our steps and head back to The Albion.

In the fading light of the beer garden we were in earlier we sit on a bench drinking. Mark, who has the logo of the HF emblazoned on his cap, begins speaking first. “I think a thousand people or more were down there. To have that many people down there is amazing. Everyone had the passion.”

Andrew, who is sitting directly across from Mark and taking periodic drags on his cigarette, listens intently and says: “We were waiting for the right moment and the right time to do this. Now it’s gone down to the wire and we decided this was the best time. We decided on Friday night that this was the time to do it.”

The view of the protest from inside the stadium

David, who is standing just behind Mark pacing around, explains why he let off a flair on the roof of the turnstiles. “I got up at eight o’clock in the morning, I was here first. When it comes to this club I go out of my way.

“A little bit of smoke, it’s like letting steam out of your ears. I bought a new pair of trainers today and I ruined them. Do I give a fuck? Of course not, for this club, anything.”

Who is to blame for this mess? The group are very clear about who they believe are the culprits: Sky’s vision of ‘modern football’ and former chairman Simon Jordan.

Andrew makes the point that there are more Manchester United and Chelsea fans in Croydon than there are Crystal Palace supporters because of what he sees as Sky’s ‘version’ of football that they promote. This has led to a drop in gate receipts, he says.

James has this to say on Jordan: “Jordan came in and treated it as his plaything and he didn’t want anyone else around him, he didn’t listen to anyone, he just ran it as he thought fit.

“He was making terrible decisions, taking loans out when he should have been investing his own money and spending that money on the club. It’s ended up costing us fans more than it will ever cost him.”

They all think more clubs will go the way of Crystal Palace. Mark says football as it is now is not ‘sustainable’.

“We’re going to be the first of many clubs to start toppling over,” warns Andrew.

“This is going to be the start of a crazy conga line of clubs going bang, bang, bang because companies like Sky are packing millions of pounds into the Premier League, this traveling circus.

“They believe that’s the promised land, they see it as some Harlem Globetrotters situation. They don’t care about the finances of smaller clubs going under, they just care about the big rich clubs.”

“It won’t be long before there’s two divisions that are professional in English football and the rest are part time. There’s no way it can sustain itself.”

Mark employs an analogy to make his point.

Dozens of supporters managed to get into the ground

He says: “You’ve got two sides of the river. There’s only four people on one side of the river and everyone else is the other side and if you want to get to the other side of the river you have to have a big enough boat. But if you pile that boat full of money that boat is going to sink. This is Sky’s river that they’ve created.”

The conclusion that cannot you cannot escape from is that there is a degree of powerlessness to such a protest. Mark and Andrew continually emphasise that it is the fans that matter in all of this, not the ‘money men’.

They think liquifying the club will be the end of it. It will only be the start, it really will

Mark tells me: “A football club is the centre of the community. It’s not like a business – it’s not like if WHSmiths or Woolworths goes out of business and you have to sack the members of staff.

“People have invested not just money but their emotional attachment. This is something with a passionate history. Football represents the culture of a certain area, this is a club in South London that represents a wide catchment area.

He adds: “This is people’s lives. Banks think this is just another business but it’s not, this represents so much more than that.”

Short of printing money, there is little the Crystal Palace fans can do to alter the dire financial straits the club is in. For the HF the prospect of just watching this was not an option.

“You grow up with the club. You go from the age of three or four every single Saturday for almost the whole year. With the group [HF] it becomes more of a Saturday thing. You put everything into it. For that to be taken away by something you can’t control is sickening,” says Andrew.

Mark continues along the same theme. “Think about the amount of people that have supported this club and brought it to where it is now. To have people that are using it as a fucking toy and deciding our fucking future – it should be Palace fans that push this forward. How’s that fair?”

The television in the pub broadcasting Sky Sports News provides the soundtrack to our conversation.

Every time Palace get a mention, the fans out the front go rushing in to hear of any new developments. When they hear the downbeat assessment of the administrator Brendan Guilfoyle, some in the group want to go back to Selhurst Park and break in again, but this is quickly nipped in the bud.

The police have wised up to what’s going on and a repeat of the scenes earlier would be stopped very quickly. Some do go back, and later on one of the group comes back to tell the others that around 25 fans are in the ground, and one of them is even streaking.

Video: The group were in a boisterous mood when they arrived

As the fans begin to head off, their instinct is to say to their mates: ‘see you next season’. There may not be such a thing for this football club. For the HF, such a prospect is unthinkable, and they say liquidation will not be the end of their action. Throughout the day there are mentions of the possibility of setting up an ‘AFC Palace’ team.

Adam dismisses such talk with contempt. “That will never be talked about, fuck that. Some fans talk about that but I think they romanticise it. That’s bullshit, not now.”

Their focus remains firmly set on the here and now.

“They think liquidizing the club will be the end of it,” Andrew says laughing.

“It will only be the start, it really will. I don’t mind what I do after that.”

As the clock ticks ever closer to Crystal Palace’s possible extinction, Paul finishes. “If those fucking companies are responsible for our death then those same Palace fans will be on their fucking front doorsteps. We broke into the stadium – the last thing they want us to do is go to their headquarters and do the same thing. We will not die without a fight. Full stop.”

One of the prevailing features of modern football is the decline in atmosphere. Many causes have been identified. The move to all-seater stadiums, ticket prices and television are all cited as reasons.

At Chelsea fans are doing something about it. In 2007 Jerry Kendix, a Chelsea season ticket holder who was fed up with the lack of atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, set up The Return to the Shed campaign. Three years on I caught up with him to learn more about the campaign and how it is going.

Jerry Kendix fondly remembers the old days, before all-seater stadiums, when the atmosphere at games used to be “electric”. Since the abolition of terracing in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster he has noticed the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge getting steadily worse.

The inspiration for the campaign came on a cold December’s day back in 2006. The Blues played Newcastle at Stamford Bridge and won a tepid encounter 1-0 thanks to a late strike from Didier Drogba. The game was pretty forgettable, but Kendix has one memory of the game – the complete lack of atmosphere.

‘The abiding memory I have of that evening was that the whole game was almost witnessed in silence. I sat there and thought: “This is just too much”’.

‘The game was so poor because of a lack of atmosphere and the staleness of everything that I thought “I’m going to have a crack at doing something about this”. So that’s what gave me the idea’.

The Shed End then...

After that initial idea he set to work on laying the foundations of the campaign. He set up a forum and began to contact prominent fan websites.

‘We got together with reps of the Chelsea Supporters Group and Dave Johnson of CFCNet and the guys on Vital Football and The Shed End and we basically promoted the campaign that way and through various other channels’.

‘We got the campaign off and running and we had a forum which I called Club Shed. We invited people to participate either by reading what was going on or just having their name as volunteers or members if you like’.

And with that the campaign was born.

It initially started out as The Return to Shed campaign and aimed to get fans who wanted to sing and chant to sit together at matches in the Shed End. ‘I thought there were, enough people dotted around the ground who could make a difference, who would make a difference, if they were sat in the same place,’ explains Kendix.

But improving the atmosphere is not the only aim of the campaign. Kendix also wants to bring back some of the sense of community that was present back in the “old days” he refers to with so much affection. Back then, going to a match was an entire day out, you knew everyone and you all drank in the same pubs. Now he says people can just turn up five minutes before kick off and there is none of the camaraderie that characterised going to football back then.

And the Shed End now

The first game that was targeted by the campaign was the clash with Middlesbrough in February 2007 and while it was a good start, at the next game against Sheffield United there was a marked difference in atmosphere. ‘By the end of the season we’d had the makings of a success’, says Kendix.

The club began to take the campaign seriously and started to listen to their views. Season ticket holders can now sit in the Shed End. With that goal achieved, Kendix changed the name of the group to Club Shed. It now works much more closely with the club. ‘I’m part of an atmosphere committee – there are three or four reps from the supporter’s clubs who meet up with the ticket manager and Ron Gourlay.’

‘We basically push ideas through, anything atmosphere related. So the club have been willing to help on many issues, they’ve realised that it helps them if we have a better atmosphere in the ground’.

The dialogue hasn’t always been harmonious though. To Kendix’s frustration the club have rejected many of the ideas that they have put forward. Club Shed presented the club with a 10-point plan to improve the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge.

‘What we did was we put up a 10 point plan and presented it to the club and said if you really want to make a difference these are the 10 things that you need to do. We didn’t say bring back terracing but we said the importance thing is to get like-minded people who are going to get behind the team to be in the same area and that either means terracing or more realistically, unreserved seating’.

To his surprise, the club didn’t completely dismiss the idea. In fact, they said they would consider trying it at a Carling Cup game this season. However, after speaking to other Premier League clubs Chelsea decided not to go ahead with it, which was a real blow, according to Kendix.

He remains convinced that unreserved seating or standing in some form would help arrest the decline in atmosphere he has witnessed down the years. But with seemingly little chance of that happening in the near future he has set his focus on other ways of reversing the trend.

‘The main problem for me is that people are still too far dispersed around the ground. What you need is hubs of people that would lead the other along. I’ve seen it in so many other grounds, especially if you go away in Europe – the grounds are really rocking. Primarily because there are 2 or 300 people in one particular section usually behind the goal who…are really sort of cheerleading if you like and leading the rest along’.

Kendix also wants to make it cheaper for younger fans to go to matches. Once you hit 16 you are classed as an adult and have to pay adult prices for season tickets, which can be as much as £800.

Of course the danger with such attempts to make a bit of noise is that it can all feel forced, contrived and stage-managed. Steve 52, who started going to Chelsea games in the 1960s, said: ‘A lot of the people who are involved don’t understand what needs to be done. Also, the younger fans aren’t really capable of recreating the atmosphere of old – different generation, different times’. Mark , 34, agrees, but thinks that it’s better than doing nothing.

Kendix understands such criticism and insists that while there has to be some element of stage-management to the whole process, the campaign doesn’t put forward ideas that are explicitly contrived. People have asked for claxons and drums at games, but they haven’t got off the ground because of this very reason. ‘You’ve got to generate it [atmosphere] somehow so there’s going to be an element of stage management of course but we all agreed that anything that was clearly forced wouldn’t progress’.

There has been a definite improvement at Stamford Bridge, but there’s still a lot to be done.

Kendix says; ‘It’s been a very interesting road that we’ve gone down. We could do so much more if we were allowed to and once we put a few things in place we would let it naturally run its course. Once you put the framework in place, i.e. get the people in the right place, coordinate things with the club, then you just let people sing and shout and do what they like’.

He concludes: ‘But until such time as we get either unreserved seating or an area behind the goals where we can put the 16-21s, people we can actually harness and get them to continue the good work then our work isn’t done. We’ll still crack on in the hope that we can get there one day. We keep banging away at the club, it’s just a case of watching this space really’.

This month I began work as a Chelsea Featured Columnist on Bleacher Report.

It entails me producing weekly columns about the team which will be syndicated with websites such as USA Today, Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated and the Telegraph.

You can read my first column here.

John Terry could lose the England captaincy following the revelations about an affair with Wayne Bridge's ex-girlfriend

On the pitch, John Terry is the embodiment of the power, passion and dedication that marks out any great leader. Throughout his career at Chelsea and for England, the 29-year-old has put his body on the line. Managers across the world would kill to have some like Terry in their team.

There is no doubt that he is a fantastic player, but as a man he leaves a lot to be desired.

Normally I am ready to overlook a player’s indiscretions off the field if he performs on it.

Ashley Cole is a case in point. His acrimonious falling out with Arsenal is well-documented. He cheated on his wife Cheryl (absolute madness if you ask me) and on Friday he was fined £1,000 and banned from driving for four months after being caught doing 104mph in a 50 zone.

On the field though, he is a brilliant left back, one of the best in the world.

But Terry is different. He is the leader of his country. He should be held up to a much higher standard. He should be an example for others to follow.

If the papers are to be believed, he didn’t just have an affair with anybody - he slept with his ex-team mate’s girlfriend, got her pregnant and then arranged for an abortion.

When Wayne Bridge left Chelsea last January for Manchester City – a club Terry nearly joined in the summer - the Chelsea skipper said: “He’ll be missed and I’m still in shock a little bit, because it’s a shame to see one of the lads go who you have grown up with and been with a long time. I’m disappointed but for him it was the right decision. He was great to have around the place.”

The pair were clearly good friends.

Bridge is said to be ‘in bits’ after finding out about the affair, and who can blame him? How would you feel if someone you thought was one of your best friends was sleeping with your girlfriend?

Of course everyone makes mistakes, no one is perfect. The problem is, this is not an isolated incident. Terry has done this before. Most people learn from their mistakes. Terry hasn’t. In 2005 he said: “I’ve mis-behaved and slept with girls behind her [wife Toni Terry’s] back. I’m not going to cheat on her ever again and I want to marry her more than anything.”

The affair could affect dressing room unity just four months before the start of the World Cup.

Noises coming out of the Football Association’s headquarters is that the decision will ultimately rest with manager Fabio Capello. He will have to decide how damaging this affair is. Should what a player gets up to in his private life affect his profession? Such a judgement is not black and white. This fling blurs the distinctions between the two.

Losing the captaincy would be a crushing blow to Terry. He clearly wears it with pride. Sympathy would not be forthcoming, because, in the end, he would have no one to blame but himself.

After years of waiting we had finally made it: The Champions League Final

This is something I have been working on for a few months now, when I had the idea of writing an e-book on my experiences following Chelsea from the arrival of Jose Mourinho in 2004 to the present day. Let me know what you think.

I will never forget the night of April 30th 2008. Chelsea 3-2 Liverpool, 4-3 on aggregate. It meant we were going to Moscow and the first Champions League final in our history. The atmosphere at the Bridge that night was unlike anything I have ever heard, then or since. It was incredible and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The Matthew Harding Stand was literally shaking and my vocal chords took one almighty pounding.

After the pain of the semi final defeat in 2007 and the five-hour coach journey back from Anfield this was sweet revenge. If you had said to my Dad 20 years ago that he would have the chance to see his team in a Champions League final he would have thrown his head back and laughed. But in 2008 it became sweet reality.

There was no doubt in my mind that we would go, could we really miss the biggest game in the club’s history? My Dad required a bit of persuading I’ll admit. Initially he decided we wouldn’t be going. It would cost us near enough £1,000 each and I had A Level exams – my future – to worry about. I needed two As and a B to get into university and a Politics resit was on the Friday after the final.

I began to resign myself to defeat and tried my best to keep my head buried in books instead of up in the clouds dreaming of a Chelsea triumph in Moscow.

The Luzhniki Stadium

Then my Dad realised – he might never see this day again. I have my whole life ahead of me. He had just hit 50 and who knows what the future holds? We took the plunge: we got tickets and return flights for just under £1,000 each. All that was left was to wait for the day to roll around. I vividly remember working in the pub in the run up to the final and dreaming dreams of triumph during quiet moments, with Dad the other side of the bar nursing a pint and no doubt doing the same thing.

I could think of nothing else. This was the biggest game in Chelsea’s history and of my life. Winning the Premier League, Carling Cup and FA Cup was special but nothing would compare to the Champions League. The Holy Grail.

The game dominated my every waking moment. These are the moments that every football fan lives for.

Since this was no ordinary game, our preparations were that extra bit special. We bought home shirts with the match details on it and my Dad got a banner made. It read: ‘Chelsea is our name, keep the faith…With special thanks to Rafa and Riise’. Our gratitude to the Norwegian was self-explanatory. His own goal at the end of the semi final first leg proved crucial. Benitez also helped us get to Moscow – by taking off Fernando Torres when the Reds still had a chance to win the tie.

The banner we had made for the game

Gatwick airport. 7:00am, 21st May 2008. This it. We are sitting in the airport’s departure lounge, nursing a Magners over ice. I have been up since 4am. A four-hour flight lies ahead of us. Our pre-flight chat was on one subject and one subject only. The papers were full of news and comment on what for many was the biggest game of football since 1966. I was an absolute nervous wreck.

The hours before kick off flew by. We got lost for a while amidst the hustle and bustle of Moscow, eventually managed to find the stadium and then milled around in the fan zone before heading through the turnstiles to our seats. We were right above the tunnel, Row 16. For a long period of time I just stood there and took it all in, I do not think what I was witnessing had quite dawned on me. This was beyond my wildest dreams.

40 years on from Munich, Manchester United fans believed this would be their night

The big screens were playing classic finals moments on a loop – United’s incredible comeback in Barcelona, Zidane’s volley in 2001, and ‘that night in Istanbul’.

When kick off actually came my stomach felt like a mass of jelly. We started sloppily and should have been a couple of goals down within the first half an hour. We were being run ragged. Ronaldo put the United ahead just before the half hour mark and my heart sank. My legs were aching – I was far too nervous to sit down. I belted out the usual Chelsea chants and tried to keep my hopes up. After all, there was after all a long way to go.

Just before half time we leveled things up. Michael Essien hit a shot and the ball deflected through to Frank Lampard, who stroked the ball past a stranded Edwin Van der Sar. The pandemonium in the Chelsea end was simply unforgettable, I’ve never experienced a feeling quite like it. Gone was my usual reserved nature. I exploded into life, fueled by a cocktail of heady jubilation.

Like most of the night, the half time break was a blur. As the second half progressed I became more and more convinced that this would be our night. The Chelsea side I witnessed in the second half bore no relation to the lethargic imposters I had watched with such despair in the first period.

We had been through so much to reach this moment – Monaco, Barcelona, Liverpool (twice) – I began to develop an iron conviction that we would do it. Every year I had got my hopes up only to have them dashed. Surely tonight would be the night?

We came agonsingly close. Didier Drogba could have won it in normal time but his shot cannoned off the post. Extra-time came and with every passing minute the horrible spectre of penalties loomed ever larger.

This was the scene just before kick off

The pivotal moment in extra time came in the 116th minute. Didier Drogba once again displayed the unsavoury side to his character by slapping Nemanja Vidic. This occurred over the other side of the pitch to where I was standing and confusion reigned in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Someone behind me shouted out that it was Terry that had been given his marching orders.

Then as Drogba trudged towards the tunnel it all became clear. He received some hefty abuse from the fans around me and while I did not join them, I could understand their reaction. Drogba had done his team no good and put them at a disadvantage with a bout of immature petulance. That short walk must have felt like miles for him.

As the whistle blew for the end of extra time I let out a groan. I did not want it to end like this. Chelsea’s record at this point in penalty shootouts was quite frankly shocking: you would had to have gone back to a cup game against Ipswich in 1998 to find the last time we triumphed from the spot. But still, ever the optimist I tried to believe.

The banner making its first appearance

To be perfectly honest, given how things panned out I have repressed nearly all of the penalty shoot out. The misses by Ronaldo, Terry and Anelka I remember. When the Portugal international stuttered in his run up and then saw his kick parried by Cech the reaction in the Chelsea section of the ground was sheer mayhem. Supporters around me were celebrating like we had won the thing as John Terry stepped forward in the driving rain and readied himself for the kick that could win us the Champions League.

What happened next was an iconic moment, a passage of time that will never leave the conscience of any fan watching the match. Terry slipped as he took his kick and the ball brushed the post. Van Der Sar had gone the other way and was beaten. A wall of noise from the United end hit me like a slap in the face. Terry lay on the wet turf, crestfallen. A sickening feeling of despair swept over me. I knew then that we had lost it.

Anelka’s soft spot kick was academic. I could tell just by observing his run up and general demeanor that he was going to miss.

The United fans and players were mad with joy and celebrated as such. There are some moments in life that just leave you speechless. What could we say after witnessing what we had just seen?

We stayed to see the United players lift the trophy just to the left of where we were sitting. As the seats around me emptied I sat back down and looked around. The United players were parading the trophy in front of their fans and rogue streams of ticker tape were blowing around the pitch. The dejected Chelsea players and staff were long gone.

Frank Lampard salutes the fans as he leaves the pitch

I tilted my head back despairingly and looked up to the sky and contemplated the now undoubtedly nightmarish journey home that awaited me. I had no idea how right I would be.

The biting Moscow night cut through me as I walked with my Dad to our pick up point. Hordes of fans from both sides were everywhere, under the watchful guard of the Russian army and police. We didn’t have to wait long to catch a bus. As I sat back in my seat the piercing silence said it all. By this point I’d been awake for nearly 24 hours and I drifted off to sleep, occasionally being jerked awake as our bus meandered its way through the streets of the Russian capital towards Vnukovo airport.

My sense of time was hazy by this point. It was the early hours of the morning Russian time when we walked through the airport towards our gate. What awaited us was akin to a scene from a disaster movie. Hordes of people were massed in front of the departure gates. Amidst all of the confusion I managed to spot a handful of Chelsea’s youth team, which diverted attention away from our predicament for a minute or two.

The procedure Thomas Cook chose for getting us back home was a curious one. We were not given a specific flight back. Instead we went to whichever gate had a flight going back to the airport from where we came from. We would be in the air by 3am at the latest they said.

Avram Grant, in what turned out to be his last game as Chelsea manager

Suffice to say this did not work too well in practice. Nothing seemed to happen and the hours passed. Frustrations boiled over and our Thomas Cook reps were in the firing line. When we finally got to the front of the gate we were told our plane had a cracked windscreen. A replacement would have to be flown in. ETA?

12pm.

A rueful smile passed over my face, I was too tired to get worked up about it. People were angry, and the fact that we had lost did not help matters. If we had won I would have been on such a high that I would have probably had a go at fixing the cracked windscreen and then offered to fly the bloody plane as well.

I found a few spare seats and tried to get some sleep. A bar close by had a Russian news channel on, which showed highlights of the game every 20 minutes or so. I did not need much extra incentive to doze off by this point – but here was some more.

The replacement plane came and that afternoon – nine hours later than planned – we were finally on our way home. My phone picked up a flurry of texts when we landed. Most expressed sympathy and said how unlucky we were. I stepped through my front door at 6pm on Thursday, 42 hours after me and my Dad had set off.

When I say to people that I was in Moscow they often say how disappointing it must have been. While it was, my memories of the day are bittersweet. My Dad saw something he never thought he would see in his wildest dreams, as did many of the 21,000 Chelsea fans in the Luzhniki on that night. We witnessed history. Chelsea’s first Champions League final and the first all English one to boot.

We will do it one day, and the pain of Moscow will make that eventual triumph all the sweeter.

It is something that will always stay with me.

I’ve currently got a month off from university (I go back on 18th) so I’ve decided to give my somewhat neglected website a bit of attention and add to the portfolio section of the site.

Now you can view some of my work for Goal.com by clicking here.

Happy New Year.

After just under eighteen months writing for Bleacher Report I’ve decided to call it a day.

You can read my write-up of the game here.

I also wrote two post match reaction pieces:

Portsmouth manager Paul Hart refuses to criticise players after Stoke City loss

Stoke City’s Tony Pulis disappointed with performance but pleased with Portsmouth win in ‘difficult conditions’

Tomorrow I’ll be doing the live commentary on Liverpool’s crucial Champions League encounter at Hungarian side Debrecen.

Kakuta finally got the chance to showcase his skills against Wolves this afternoon

Over the last few months Gael Kakuta has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The precocious 18-year-old was banned for four months by Fifa in September as a result of his move to West London in 2007 from French side Lens.

It was the first time many people had heard of him. But for keen followers of Chelsea the buzz surrounding the Frenchman has been apparent and burgeoning long before Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber sanctioned him. And it seemed as if that ban would delay his inevitable breakthrough into the Chelsea first team.

That was until the Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the ban, pending a final decision on the case.

This turn of events, combined with the Blues’ injury problems – the likes of Michael Ballack, Deco, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard are all currently out of action – to present Kakuta with his big chance against Wolves at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

And he grabbed it with both hands.

Those massed inside the stadium gave the youngster a thunderous reception as he took to the pitch, and he soon showed them what he could do.

His first action was to leave his defender for dead with a lightning quick turn and shot that had fans up off their seats.

Kakuta proceeded to display all of the attributes you would want in a winger – an eye for goal as well as a pass, the ability to deliver a telling cross and pace in abundance.

It was reminiscent of Arjen Robben’s debut for Chelsea against Blackburn in 2004, and some will be tempted to compare the two.

The cameo in Chelsea’s 4-0 win will undoubtedly leave Carlo Ancelotti beaming with delight. The Italian was gushing with his praise for him in the build up to today’s game.

“At that age I have never seen a player with his talent,” said Ancelotti.

“Technically he is fantastic. He is a No10, like Joe Cole or Deco. Physically he is not yet strong enough to be a first-team regular but technically he is certainly ready to come on [as a substitute].

Carlo Ancelotti wil have to manage the precocious youngster carefully

“He can be a big player for Chelsea with his quality, and his character is very good too.”

That is heady praise indeed, and it will increase the pressure on the youngster’s shoulders.

After today’s performance people will sit up and take note. The question is, will he kick on from here and make this the start of something special?

Ancelotti will have to ensure he manages Kakuta carefully. Plenty of youngsters have shown early promise before fading away into obscurity. For a case in point Ancelotti doesn’t have to look very far.

Scott Sinclair had many Blues fans purring with his displays for their youth and reserve sides not so long ago but he failed to make the step up and is currently out on loan yet again.

If Ancelotti gets it right with Kakuta, however, he could have quite a player on his hands.

I’ve now got a good number of shifts at Goal.com under my belt and it’s going well so far. I’ve done three shifts writing news for the website. Here’s some of the articles I’ve had published:

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger: Tackles need to be fair as well as firm

Sochaux president Alexandre Lancombe in shock over Charlie Davies accident

Owen Hargreaves desperate to return for Manchester United

Ex-Portsmouth owner Sasha Gaydamak willing to help Sulaiman Al-Fahim sell club

Last night I did my first live commentary. I covered the Fulham v Roma Europa League game at Craven Cottage, which finished up 1-1. A frantic last 20 minutes ensured that I had to think (and type) fast but I enjoyed it.