Show us your Bristols!

The other weekend we went along to see Bristol City FC play Middlesbrough in the fourth round of the FA Cup. For those not familiar, the FA Cup is the annual competition where every single soccer (aka Football) team registered with the English Football Association has a chance to go all the way to the top and play at Wembley to win the aforementioned cup, and hence (in theory at least) be the best team in the land. It's the oldest such competition in the world, and with over 680 teams playing in sudden-death knockout format, and soccer being a low-scoring sport, there is always a chance for a "giant-killing" performance where a minnow from the lower leagues can have a dream run and knock off mega-clubs like Man United or Arsenal.

Bristol City have had a bit of a run like that, being a League One team (that's the 3rd-best league) and now taking on the Premier (topmost) League might of Middlesbrough. To put it in AFL terms, it would be like the Northern Bullants taking on a side like Geelong. Anth did brilliantly to score us four tickets down by the sidelines on the wing for the big match - it was a complete sellout - but his internet force is strong. Here's the view we had:

The atmosphere for our first-ever English soccer fixture was fantastic. Chanting, singing, ridiculously one-sided P.A. announcements, dancing girls, the works. Almost the entire stadium (20,000) was Bristol City supporters, with just one little pocket in the corner for brave - some would say foolhardy - Middlesbrough fans who had made the six hour trek from Yorkshire. They were pretty confident of a win however, and league positions would tend to back that up. Sure enough, they started proceedings quickly, banging in their first goal within 3 minutes of starting! This temporarily silenced the crowd, which until then had been happily chanting the City club song, and other great tunes like I'm City Till I Die - reproduced below in the correct West Country accent:

Oym city till oy doy,
Oym city till oy doy,
Oy know oy am,
Oym sure oy am,
Oym city till oy doy!

Borough then fired in another goal to make it 0-2 at half time. The Boro' fans were loving it, singing (to the tune of La Donna e Mobile):

That's why we're Premier League,
That's why we're Premier League...

etc etc. The City boys must have had something very special in their oranges at half time however, because they came out breathing fire, and quickly converted a penalty kick.
The crowd went absolutely berserk - their Bristol boys had got one past Boro' (and Australia!) keeper Mark Schwartzer!


1-2, and a whole new round of chants were unveiled:

To the tune of Guantanamera:
Small town in Scotland,
You're just a small town in Scotland

Fifteen minutes later, and City headed in another penalty to equalise! The roar nearly collapsed the stadium!



The City fans delighted in taunting their Premier League opponents with:

Two nil.... and you f#@%ed it up,
Two nil.... and you f#@%ed it up
to the tune of Go West.

The match finished at 2-2, with smiles all around. They'll replay it up at Middlesbrough in a few weeks, but I think we'll cheer from afar. Come on you Reds!