The Bridge

Firstly I'm a Spurs fan. Just wanted to make that clear before I go any further.

I played in a football 5-a-side tournament on Saturday (FA Cup Final day) at Chelsea's ground, Stamford Bridge. Now this for me, although I'm not particularly fond of the Blues, was a very very exciting prospect. The chance to grace the turf of a Premiership ground was an opportunity not to be missed.

Unfortunately we had to meet at 9am at the ground so it was a very early start traveling down from Bedford, 6.30am wake up call to be precise. Arriving home the previous night from London at 1.30am was not the best idea I've ever had. Anyway it was a glorious day so what did I care.

The first disappointment was not being able to change in the actual dressing rooms. Instead we had to make do with 'porta-cabins' just outside the ground. Chelsea were still running their stadium tours (it's all money, money, money with them) so the changing rooms were off limits. Shame as a West Ham supporting friend of mine had requested that I 'relieve' myself in the middle of the home team dressing room floor.

The tournament was reasonably enjoyable although it was spoilt by the games being only 7 minutes long (one way) and the gap between games being around 40 minutes on average. You just couldn't get into it and by the end I still felt like I could play a regular 90 minutes of football. As a team we didn't do too well, the standard was quite high, and we ended up with a record of 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses in the group stages. We didn't progress further but to be honest it worked out perfectly as we popped round the corner just after 3pm to watch the FA Cup final and sink a few cold lagers.

It wasn't so good for my Everton supporting friend however as, apart from scoring after 25 seconds, he then had to endure watching his team eventually lose 2-1 in the middle of a packed Chelsea pub, 2 minutes away from the ground. I don't think he enjoyed walking to the station through crowds of celebrating Chelsea fans on the street, waving flags and tooting horns. Oh dear.

All in all a good day... but White Hart Lane would have been a million times better.