Why the flogging by Leeds may have done more harm than ever : Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:19 pm
As promised here is Barry McKenzies view on the debacle at Rodney Parade on Saturday evening.
I made the trip up from London with 3 others. We stayed in Cardiff and had a few beers in the Walkabout on Saturday before making our way to Newport at about 4.
First impressions of Newport. Not very good. Whole place looked a bit run down and the river would make the Thames look clean.
Ground itself. Rodney Parade looks NOTHING in person like it does on photos!! Millenium Stadium, ANZ, SFS...this place is definately nothing to write home about. We sat in the Hazell stand. To our right was the 'hospitality boxes' ....a structure that looked like it should have been condemned in 1943. The Pitch looked in good condition and the playing surface was good.
The announcer told everyone to prepare themselves for the 'loud pyrotechnic bang' from the pre match fireworks. This involved some bloke with a trolley with what looked like a mortar on the back wheeling it onto the pitch and setting it off when the Crusaders ran on.
That was as good as it got.
Leeds scored soon after kick off. Then they scored again. And again. And again. And....well I think you get the picture.
The crowd...I suspect it was well short of the 7000 plus that people promised. In front of us were about 20 Welsh fans chanting 'Sheep Sheep Sheep Shaggers' ....for about 15 mins. Then like the rest of the crowd...they got bored.
We got talking to a few Newport Gwent Dragons Union fans that had been given free tickets to swell the crowd a bit.
None of the ones I spoke to would want to come back again.
As everyone expected Celtic got a horrendous flogging. It reminded me of a typical Australia v England/GB test. So incredibly one sided.
If the idea of this was to make people turn up again....it wont happen.
This game has effectively finished Celtic as a footy club.
Shame really, but there it is.
The weekend wasn't wasted though as I pulled a cracking sheila from Magor