The day when fans returned
THIS was the fans’ final. That may seem an odd description of Saturday’s showpiece at Wembley given that, bar last year’s behind-closed-doors event, it was the lowest attendance for an FA Cup final since 1901, when Tottenham beat Sheffield United in a replay at Bolton’s Burnden Park.
But it is an apt summary of the day at Wembley, which provided a reminder of what football means to people, and why it is the nation’s favourite pastime.
As Brendan Rodgers has said during the past 12 months of empty stadiums, football revolves around the connection between the players and the supporters.
The soullessness of grounds over the past year is hopefully now a thing of the past. This was the last test event before stadiums up and down the country welcome back the people that call them home. Hopefully it will stay that way. So it was the fans’ final, and by extension, given the result on the pitch, it was Leicester City fans’ final.
The atmosphere created by the 4,000, mostly neutral, spectators at City’s semi-final with Southampton, where finally there was an audible response to events on the pitch, suggested Saturday’s game, with 21,000 people present, could be a sight and a noise to behold.
It proved to be. Every tackle, every chance and every decision was reacted to boisterously.
Here were thousands of people getting to do what they loved most for the first time in 14 months. They were understandably rabid.
It started early. Forty minutes before kick-off and the City end was filling up, ready for an occasion they had waited 52 years for.
The Chelsea end was rather sparse, their fans maybe blase about appearing in a FA Cup final for the 13th time since City’s last appearance in 1969. It was not such a rare treat for them.
Back at the King Power Stadium, before Covid-19 closed stadiums down, the players appearing for their warm-up earned a smattering of applause.
Here, there were cheers worthy of a goal celebration.
Leicester City’s fans had the experience they craved. It was their day as much as anyone else’s
The teams were read out over the PA. Chelsea’s first. There was polite applause for N’Golo Kante, and pantomime boos for Ben Chilwell. Then came the City names. Just hearing the squad list read out prompted wild roars from the City end, who as usual, saved that little extra noise for their favourites, such as the talismanic Jamie Vardy.
Kick-off came and there was palpable tension, despite limited action on the pitch.
Every now and then, there would be jolts of excitement and nervousness, with screams from one corner of the City stand as Caglar Soyuncu twice connected with first-half headers.
By half-time, fans were finding their rhythm again.
Referee Michael Oliver’s blows of the whistle brought indignation from whichever set of supporters had been wronged.
The second half came and brought with it a goal of unimaginable quality.
The City fans behind the net had the perfect view. They knew the top corner was about to ripple as Youri Tielemans put his full might behind his boot.
There was only one place for the Belgian to go.
Celebrations in Covid times have been muted.
Without their finishes followed up with euphoria, there was little for the players to do but high-five their team-mates, and maybe give a thumbs up to the bench.
But with his strike greeted by a wall of ecstasy, Tielemans ran straight to the crowd that had willed it in, followed by team-mates overwhelmed with joy and disbelief, Marc Albrighton particularly flabbergasted at the quality of the goal he had just seen, running with eyes wide and hands on his head.
The City fans celebrated double, maybe triple, the time they usually would, and quite rightly too.
With the patience they had shown for this moment, they were well within their right to make the most of it.
But when that dies down, nerves come. The City players did their best to stave off an anxious energy that might affect the events on the pitch.
When City won a corner with five minutes to go, Vardy turned to the
crowd and shot his arms up, sparking the 6,000 back into life.
How he has missed his crowd, and how these fans have missed him playing to them.
Vardy knows as well as anyone that matches are theatre and that they need audiences to amplify the drama.
In the 89th minute came the late twist, the shock that any good thriller needs as Chelsea poured forward in search of an equaliser.
Pantomime villain Chilwell was at the centre of it, the ball cannoning off the left-back as Caglar Soyuncu tried to clear, and looping into the City net.
In the City end, silence, glum faces, heads in hands.
This was not the day out they had dreamed.
Sixty seconds later, after VAR had its say, raucousness, huge grins, still heads in hands at the unbelievability of it all.
Five minutes later, City players sank to their knees while City fans leapt into the air, celebrating the same achievement.
They were defending their own goal when the final whistle was blown, but after overcoming their initial emotions, the City squad made their way to their own fans’ end, taking it in turns to run and jump for joy in front of the celebrations. Those highs continued as the players accepted their medals, and lifted the trophy in front of fireworks and flames.
The silverware was paraded and the cheers and applause kept coming.
Both players and fans had had the day they had been dreaming of. But City fans had had two waits to overcome. They had the long, long wait for an FA Cup triumph, as well as the comparatively shorter, but perhaps tougher wait to see their team in the flesh again.
It was the players that walked off with the medals, but City fans had the experience they craved. It was their day as much as anyone else’s.