09-02-2015, 03:56 PM
Just back from my USA hols and have missed the 'football craic' after having to watch three games on the TV whilst away which I had tickets for. Ideally a lazy weekend would have been good, but I had tickets for Swansea v United away with a Sunday 4pm kick off followed by Bank Holiday Monday. Given it's a fair journey, and three of us were travelling together we booked into a hotel for Saturday night and travelled down Sat afternoon.
After a fair old 245 mile journey, only getting slowed down around Birmingham on the M6 we were in Swansea for about 4pm. Good job my car is like wafting around in a big leather armchair. It made mincemeat of the journey. Parked the car up for the weekend, checked into the hotel and went down to the bar for a few beers and a bite to eat to 'acclimatise'.
Had a night out in Swansea on the main street on Bank Holiday weekend. I can honestly say I've never been anywhere like it before in my life. It's as rough as a bears arse! Incredibly busy and very social too, but rough. I've not seen as many drunk women before, or blokes off their tits on coke. No intention of hiding it, just full on madness.
I went for a pee. Before I got chance to wash my hands I was asked if I'd like to do a line of coke. I politely declined the offer.
By coincidence we met up with some folk we know that were going to the match and had a good laugh with them in one bar. Everywhere was rammed out and we had a great time.
We were wandering back to the hotel about 2.30am ish or a bit later and we heard an argument across the road developing. It quickly escalated and two girls started kicking seven bells out of each other. We paused, thinking about going and splitting it up. One of the girls started smashing the other girls head against the wall as both sets of mates shouted encouragement!
The 'dominant' girl them started to walk away, as the other pulled herself up and started following her mouthing off. We decided to walk on and leave the two sets of people to sort themselves out. Like I said - rough as a bears arse! 
We were up and out for check out at 11am and down to a cafe for a full English as we knew we wouldn't eat again. Back to the hotel/bar to watch the early footie kick off whilst Mark and Joe had a couple of beers and I stuck to coke (glasses not lines
) as I was driving home after the game.
Found the stadium easily and it's a nice place.
![[Image: IMG_20150830_145928_zps7v4khcqa.jpg]](http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/Muddymonkeys/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150830_145928_zps7v4khcqa.jpg)
Inside the concourse was buzzing. Fantastic atmosphere. Encouraged (if you are Italian) or spoiled (if you are anti football or love health and safety) by a red smoke bomb being set off inside. You can just make out a reddish haze. It didn't photograph too well.
![[Image: IMG_20150830_153312_zpsutmtfomo.jpg]](http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/Muddymonkeys/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150830_153312_zpsutmtfomo.jpg)
Got to our seats and we were front row. not always the best as many pitches curve up to the centre, but this one was flat enough to make it a good view. You do lose a bit of depth perception at the other end, but as we don't have many shots on target anymore thats not much of an issue!
![[Image: IMG_20150830_154546_zpsda3sdf7e.jpg]](http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/Muddymonkeys/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150830_154546_zpsda3sdf7e.jpg)
That ^^ is the United team before the game warning up. We looked unbeatable at that point! Ha ha.
As you may be aware we lost the game 2-1. As we scored first we got to have a good loon around for a while so thoroughly enjoyed it, but you can't win them all. The Swansea fans were good value. Nice and loud and the ground really helped with the acoustics. Despite it being a smaller capacity the noise stayed inside the stadium.
So, a great weekend. Shame about the result but it didn't spoil the craic.
After a fair old 245 mile journey, only getting slowed down around Birmingham on the M6 we were in Swansea for about 4pm. Good job my car is like wafting around in a big leather armchair. It made mincemeat of the journey. Parked the car up for the weekend, checked into the hotel and went down to the bar for a few beers and a bite to eat to 'acclimatise'.
Had a night out in Swansea on the main street on Bank Holiday weekend. I can honestly say I've never been anywhere like it before in my life. It's as rough as a bears arse! Incredibly busy and very social too, but rough. I've not seen as many drunk women before, or blokes off their tits on coke. No intention of hiding it, just full on madness.
I went for a pee. Before I got chance to wash my hands I was asked if I'd like to do a line of coke. I politely declined the offer.
By coincidence we met up with some folk we know that were going to the match and had a good laugh with them in one bar. Everywhere was rammed out and we had a great time.
We were wandering back to the hotel about 2.30am ish or a bit later and we heard an argument across the road developing. It quickly escalated and two girls started kicking seven bells out of each other. We paused, thinking about going and splitting it up. One of the girls started smashing the other girls head against the wall as both sets of mates shouted encouragement!
The 'dominant' girl them started to walk away, as the other pulled herself up and started following her mouthing off. We decided to walk on and leave the two sets of people to sort themselves out. Like I said - rough as a bears arse! We were up and out for check out at 11am and down to a cafe for a full English as we knew we wouldn't eat again. Back to the hotel/bar to watch the early footie kick off whilst Mark and Joe had a couple of beers and I stuck to coke (glasses not lines
) as I was driving home after the game. Found the stadium easily and it's a nice place.
Inside the concourse was buzzing. Fantastic atmosphere. Encouraged (if you are Italian) or spoiled (if you are anti football or love health and safety) by a red smoke bomb being set off inside. You can just make out a reddish haze. It didn't photograph too well.
Got to our seats and we were front row. not always the best as many pitches curve up to the centre, but this one was flat enough to make it a good view. You do lose a bit of depth perception at the other end, but as we don't have many shots on target anymore thats not much of an issue!
That ^^ is the United team before the game warning up. We looked unbeatable at that point! Ha ha.
As you may be aware we lost the game 2-1. As we scored first we got to have a good loon around for a while so thoroughly enjoyed it, but you can't win them all. The Swansea fans were good value. Nice and loud and the ground really helped with the acoustics. Despite it being a smaller capacity the noise stayed inside the stadium.
So, a great weekend. Shame about the result but it didn't spoil the craic.
![[Image: Crashtestmonkeyredsmall_zpsfc1e3d39.jpg]](http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/Muddymonkeys/Crashtestmonkeyredsmall_zpsfc1e3d39.jpg)
Croft 2005, Cadwell 2006, Cadwell 2007
