We were right at the back of the top tier, Matthew Harding stand. Unlike the back of the east stand, it's still close enough to get the atmosphere, plus the significant advantage of being able to stand up without getting in anyone's way.

Needless to say, the atmosphere was crackling, in spite of the DJ's efforts to gee up the crowd, which consisted of playing "Blue is The Colour" three times, each time telling us what we already knew, ie. the boys needed our support on "this day of all days", "let's make it the loudest yet" etc., ad nauseam.

Needless to say only the drunks were singing along - me and my mates were in particularly fine voice.

I'm not saying don't sing or shout, just that we don't need patronising by a bloke who has about as much idea of how to create a vibe as a traffic warden on Valium.

Somewhere there must be an enormous pool of morons from which matchday DJs are drawn. AND he has the best seat in the house, the fuckwit. And another thing: that song "The Final Countdown" - WHY ?? Surely something like "Born Slippy" (Lager Lager Lager..) would be more appropriate ?
Or how about "The Teddy Bears Picnic" ? (If you go down to the Bridge today..) That would be a laugh.

The Geordies must have been pissing themselves.

The match was one of the best I've seen for some time. Right from the start Chelsea were climbing all over Newcastle, there were 20 yard passes along the ground that were splitting open their defence like "a ripe chicken" as my slightly pissed mate announced. We knew we were in for a treat, it was only a matter of time before we scored.

Zola, playing just behind Vialli and Hughes, was showing his class within seconds of the start, his passing was frightening the geordie defence big time, poor old Peacock didn't know what was going on, and Srnicek was flapping at everything. Talk about Son of Beasant.

What impressed me most about Zola was the way he worked for the team - there's not much glamour in chasing back 70 yards to defend, but he was more than willing. He was also very unselfish when on the ball, passing quickly when needed, and when he didn't have the ball he was making runs to draw defenders and making a general nuisance of himself. Vialli knew what Zola was about, as soon as Zola got the ball he was off on a run, expecting (and usually getting) the ball laid on. it's going to be frightening when they get used to each other.

Inevitably Zola was involved in all the free kicks and corners, (Den seems to have taken it like a man, good for him) and it was no surprise when his curler went straight in the net, having taken a tiny deflection off Vialli's napper (so he says - wouldn't you if you were on a reputed Ģ3,000 a goal bonus !). To be fair, the ball probably wouldn't have gone in if Vialli hadn't made the run across the goal, so fair play to him. It didn't matter, we went barmy anyway.

We went off the boil a bit after that, although it's fair to say that we were bossing the midfield. Asprilla and Shearer were largely being suppressed, and their midfielders couldn't hold the ball. On the other hand our build up wasn't half as positive as it had been earlier. You have to hand it to Shearer, he did well to score, although he shouldn't have been given a second chance after being dispossessed by Frodas' dive at his feet. That's what you pay Ģ15m for, I suppose. Poor old Clarkey nearly had his head taken off when he stupidly (sorry, bravely) put it in the way.

The second half was a dour affair until Hughes and Batty decided to enliven the proceedings by having a tiff right in front of Terry McDermott (a risky undertaking, given our Te's liking for a ruck). A tiff is a tiff, and Hughes could have been guilty of a foul, but a huge swinging elbow to the face is something quite different. Batty was given three verses of the Red Card Waltz by the ref, and was pointed firmly in the direction of away. To be fair he didn't complain. Unfortunately you couldn't say the same for the two wise monkeys Keegan and McDermott, who were jumping up and down as if they were in the world Bouncy Castle finals...

All three of my mates were rubbing their hands together with glee, no doubt looking forward to a goal feast. I tried to tell them that being reduced to 10 men is not necessarily the end, quite the opposite in fact, but was told to "Shut it, Old Man". Nevertheless, it wasn't quite the walkover they imagined it would be, was it ?

I felt a lot better when Ruud brought himself on for Bob, who had had a surprisingly quiet game, and the boys did become more positive (one of the advantages of the manager coming on). One of the funnier (!) moments was when Ruud told Minto to "get on with it" in no uncertain terms, he was right, Minto was snail-like when he got the ball, in contrast to Zola, Hughes, Vialli, etc. I'm not slagging him again, it's just that he needs to wake up a bit - Vialli and Hughes belted off on run after run when Minto got the ball, but Minto was never quick enough to actually get the ball to them.
Only a minor gripe, but irritating all the same.

The last ten minutes can only be described as a siege, how we didn't score was beyond belief, and still is. When Den got the ball just outside the area, the drunks were yelling: "Shooooot!", but I told them that Den "never shoots these days", just in time to watch him unleash a curling 25 yarder that beat Srnicek all ends up but glanced off the bar. You can imagine the derision I was subjected to after that.

Then it was Zola jinking through the box but failing to shoot, and Spooky having a point blank header from a cross unbelievably palmed onto the roof of the net by Srnicek.

All in all, I'd put it in the category of pretty damn good, but will definitely get better.

Great moments (1): Someone started singing "Stand up if you hate Man U", whereupon the whole crowd stood up, including the Geordies, who got a round of applause, then later someone started "Stand up if you hate Geordies", naturally Chelsea stood up, but blow me if the Geordies didn't stand up as well ! How we laughed - full marks to the Geordies for having a laugh as well.

Great moments (2): Franck sliding Asprilla just as he was through and about to score - incredible skill, if it had been anyone else it would have been a penalty.