We drove down the day before, 7 of us in 2 cars. Never seen anything like it, all the bears and all the bridges.
We booked an apartment beside the station after the 1st leg v Fiorentina, just in case!
That evening was great, chinky in China town and swally and sash up in the pub (Press gallery or something like that)
Next morning was a full fry up, i went out to get plastic glasses and some fruit and saw the bears in the square, it was 9am and already i noticed a few english firms, guys with slates of bucky and beer and the sea of blue.
The day was glorious, we were all in the TC so no ticket problems, apart from one friend who had to go out to cheshire to collect a corp ticket from his brother in law (Fenners from SoccerAM). and another who got one for the Zenit end.
We started in the station, drinking in the bar overlooking the concourse, watching the bears arrive in staggering numbers. Piccadilly and Albert Sq were incredible, I hardly drank, had a couple of glasses of fizz, I wanted to be sober. The site of 200,000 plus bears was something I'll never forget. I remember standing on a tram station platform looking each way down the street and I couldn't see a single patch of pavement, it was just bears in blue.
About 3pm the mood perceptibly changed, the cops had left the city and left us to ourselves, there wasn't trouble as such, just lots of bears who had been drinking all day in scorching sun, I felt a little bit of aggro, although this was as much the complete failure to provide any services from water to toilets that got people a bit pissed off.
We went up to the FF do and met Del Monte as he led off the procession to the ground. My mates from Ballymena had a massive red hand that we carried behind Si, blocking the traffic all the way to the ground.
Arrived in plenty of time, had the worst burger i've ever eaten, actually had to throw it up (which is a bit of a metaphor for the organisation and quality of the experience laid on by the City authorities) got into the ground and had pretty crap seats, the last row, wall behind us right below the screen. Minnow got into the Zenit end at the second time of asking, he just exchanged his top with a Zenit fan and tried again, well done lad!
The game, I recall little of, other than numbness at the end. We all grouped together after, (had to wait about half an hour for Minnow to escape the Zenit end) then strolled back to the city.
Very quickly apparent that something was badly wrong. Helicopters in the sky, meat wagons parked in their tens in a shopping centre car park, police done up like Robocop and very very angry. Streets all blocked off, glass everywhere, cops fuming, we got back to the apartment, i was gutted, nobody went out (I know the H&H boys went to the gay village) as we were told to stay in as pubs all shut.
I went for a shower and there was a radio in the cubicle, listening to the first reports of carnage.
The next morning I again went to get some messages from the shops and, well, I haven't seen or smelled anything like what I saw in Piccadilly. Smashed glass covering every cm of the area, the stench of pish on every corner, cleaners moving in to begin the wash up.
On the road up GMS was telling us about the video of the cop being attacked and what to say if we met any press, all in all a sombre end to the ultimate trip of 2 halves.
I've never watched the game back, seen the goals mind.
I heard the theory that the screens were deliberately turned off as, if RFC scored, there was danger of death. I'm quite willing to believe that. The city council, GMP and RFC were totally and utterly unprepared and their refusal to believe the reality of potential numbers caused the madness. They catered for 30k fans and got over 200k. Disgraceful.
