Tag Archives: FA Cup

Final Day – Islington Pub guide…

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If you have a ticket or not there is no finer place to start and end the day than in Islington.

Some pubs have been very fair to the people who have been loyal to them for years, others due to numbers expected have sold tickets in advance and others, well there just looking to earn as much as they can. I will leave it to you to decide whose giving value for money and who isn’t….

The Gunners pub – £10 first come first served (1 free drink + band/dj tbc)
The Arsenal Tavern – SOLD OUT £10, tickets, 2 free drinks, The Away boyz after the game and a Q+A with Perry Groves
The Rocket – SOLD OUT all ticket
Twelve Pins – £10 first come first served on the day (inc 2 drinks)
Bank of Friendship – SOLD OUT, Private party
The George – Free, free  bar snacks, competitions
Prince Edward – Free, free spread
The Auld triangle – Free, free bar food
The Tollington – Free
Highbury barn – Free
Eaglet – Free
The Cannons -Free
The Kings Head – Free
The Florin – Free

The Lamb –  Free

 

If you run one of these pubs and i have got it wrong  or you wish to add a pub to the list please let me know I will amend it.

WHAT DID SHE WEAR ?

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon – 1 day to go

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Tomorrow is Christmas Day. Tomorriw is Hanukkah. Tomorrow is Diwali. Tomorrow is Eid. Tomorrow is Guru Nanak’s birthday. Tomorrow is your birthday. The FA Cup Final is every celebration, and more. It is the most important day in the English football calender. It is the day hero’s are made. And I am absolutely buzzing.

It has been 9 years since our last trophy. 9 painful years. 9 years filled with near misses and not so near misses. To say it has been tough to have been an Arsenal fan is an understatement. And the 9 trophyless have led to divisions within the fanbase, fights on the terraces, disagreements between friends. But all that is forgotten tomorrow. As the most important thing is the Red & White. The Arsenal.

The FA Cup Final has a massive place in the heart of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. As fans will know, the blog is based on the Arsenal song of the same name. The name of the blog came about by an agreement by the message board users at the time when they were forced to move network due to Sky. And how we have grown since then – thanks to all the readers / contributors.

Anyway, back to tomorrow. Buzzing. Yes, the magic of the cup has been lost a bit. I miss the days when the entire week leading up to the cup focused on the two teams involved. The TV coverage starting early on a Saturday, interview players by the pool of whatever sunny destination they went to for a pre-cup training camp. Following the players from their hotel, onto the coach to the ground. The ‘Road to the FA Cup Final’ montage. Red and white flags, balloons, bunting, on almost every house in Islington. 3pm KICK OFF. Sadly things change.

The press – unsurprisingly – are already digging Arsenal out. Having a go at us for organising the bus parade on the Sunday. Yes, it might look cringey, but the fact is, due to red tape, you must organise road closures in advance and warn residents. I work in Twickenham, and the yellow signs indicating road closures  before a rugby international go up about 10 days before.

Hull City also have plans for an FA Cup Final parade. There signs are also up, but where is the press commenting on them? They aren’t, because in reality, Hull City are not a story, they do not sell papers.

It is not just Arsenal though, the press have previously ran similar stories on Chelsea and Manchester City. The fact is, if you are a successful club, a club worth writing about, the press will write about you. So ignore it.

As for the bus, that is an indication of the world we live in, where everyone with a smart phone is now a private investigator. A journalist. The bus would have always had to have been prepared in advance. Only now, it is easy to take a picture and stick it up on twitter.

As for everyone wanting Hull to win (bar Arsenal fans), this is normal. It is not a bias against Arsenal. Last year, we all wanted Wigan Athletic to win. When it comes to football, the neutral will always supports the underdog, so do not fret about it.

Rant over. Let’s focus on tomorrow. Enjoy yourself, have a few beers before, and hopefully have a part after. Back the team for 90 minutes (or 120 minutes and penalties if that’s whats needed) and remember, we are The Arsenal. Back the boys in red and white.

Keenos

The Arsenal – We can win all of our last 5 games.

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We kind of limped to this position we are in through a mix of bad injuries, lack of signings and a manager whose tactics these days can often amaze, but I do honestly feel the tide is turning and we can go on and finish this season on a high.

Hull – We travel to Hull on Sunday and whilst they are sitting in 13th they are still 4/5 points away from staying up this season. It’s clear the problem with them this season has been not enough goals and having Steve Bruce as a manager. in the Prem this season we have scored 25 more than them. When we played them at home back in December we had a much changed team due to starting a run of 4 games in 10 days and Hull were that bad even Bendtner scored. This has comfortable away win all over it.

Newcastle – They don’t like coming to ours almost as much as we don’t like going to theirs. Newcastle is one of the few clubs whose season is over, they wont get relegated, they wont get into the Spursday Cup next season. The players have nothing to play for, apart from pride and to try and stitch us up, they will do neither and roll over much the same way West Ham did last week. We had a 2nd half backs to wall 1-0 win at Newcastle, a game we finished with about 7 defenders on the pitch, George Graham would of enjoyed that.

WBA – Currently fighting relegation and rightly so after only winning 6 Prem games all season, only bottom placed Sunderland can match them on winning so few. The only thing keeping them out of the bottom 3 is draws, all 15 (fifteen) which must be a record (?) the next nearest is Stoke on 10 draws. They even managed to get a 1-1 draw when we played them earlier in the season. They will be fighting for their life’s, but will think a point is a good result, we will roll all over them at ours.

Norwich – Hopefully by the time this game comes up we have either secured the 4th place cup or Norwich have already been relegated and hopefully both. The last thing we need a week before the FA CUP Final is a battle the game before. If Norwich can still mathematically stay up and we have nothing to play for then it put’s Le Boss in a position were he will be heavily criticized if he plays anything but our best team. We smashed them at our place this season 4-1 with Wilshere scoring the goal of the season, hopefully this will be a nothing game for both clubs. With cup final places at stake maybe a few players will trying to impress that day.

FA CUP Final – Now I hate being over optimistic about any final our history is littered with cup upsets and losing finals to teams well below us, but it’s Hull and its Hull without Jelavic and Long who are cup tied. Hopefully by then we should have a fully firing Ramsey, Ozil, Ox and Wilshere and that will prove to be too much for them. This is the first season in a long time we have been able to win ugly, the first time in a long while that the side have showed real ‘Character’ and i’d take a winning ugly with character all day long to see us win the cup.

WHAT DID SHE WEAR ???

GC

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