Newcastle 0 Swansea City 0

For an early Christmas present, Christa gave me a pair of tickets to see Newcastle United against Swansea City. This was my first chance to see an English Premier League game, and of course I took Will along to share the experience. Not having grown up playing football (soccer), it really wasn't until 1994 that I started to follow the sport. My friend Scott Caulk and I saw a World Cup game in Washington DC (Italy 1 Mexico 1), and I couldn't get over the passion of the fans and the excitement of the game. Over the years I have become a fan, and going to an EPL game has been high on my list of "must-do's" while we're in the UK. Newcastle is only about two hours south of Dunfermline, so we all took the train down and made a day of it. 

Kick-off was at 3:00, but we had to get here a little early to soak up the atmosphere. It was fun to see everyone decked out in their Newcastle gear, singing songs as they walked up to the stadium. We also needed to check out the shop, which sold every Newcastle-related item you could imagine.

It was quite a maze of turnstiles and staircases, but we eventually made it inside. Program in hand, we finally found our seats and settled in for the game. Temperatures were in the the 30's, but the skies were clear and it was a beautiful afternoon.

The teams lining up before kick-off- Swansea in orange and Newcastle in black.

Here's a crowd shot from our seats. The atmosphere did not disappoint, as the fans were constantly singing, chanting, and cheering throughout. The announced attendance was around 52,000 people, and I couldn't wait for Newcastle to score a goal, so I could hear the place erupt. The only little problem was, yup, no scoring. Quite a few close calls, but nothing for all 52,000 of us to go crazy about. Now I know many Americans can't stand the idea of low-scoring, or no-scoring games, not to mention the travesty of a tie- which I can understand. In fact as the game was coming to a close, I kept thinking about this Simpson's classic clip:

However, you really need to be there to appreciate the game, and the level of crowd intensity. Just trust me on this. We had a great time, irregardless of the final score, and I was thrilled with my Christmas journey to Newcastle.

Game action (still 0-0)