Isaac's First EVER 'Proper' Football Match - Cardiff City 1 Fulham 1

This entry here is dedicated to my son Isaac (above) who had a new experience this weekend… his first ever (‘proper’ as he called it) football match.  

Straight after his swimming lesson, I broke the news to him in the car park that we were going to watch City instead of going food shopping with the ladies of the family (A cunning ploy from me to boost the appeal of the event!).  

And to up the ante that little bit more, I also chose this moment to reveal an outstanding packed lunch to take to the stadium, complete with Kinder Hippos, Moams and all the trimmings - I knew what I was doing. You could only really better this if a Transformer was giving us a lift to the game. 

I remember not really enjoying my first game in 1990 (aged 9) and my main overriding emotions being fear for safety (we were stood on the terraces). It took a few games to get into it and it wasn’t until the following June when Wales beat West Germany famously that I got ‘the bug’ for football. At five years old, I'm easing Isaac in very delicately. 

His enthusiasm levels were higher than predicted whilst parking up at the ground, even though on route he had informed me (quite sternly) that he ONLY supports Wales at football and nobody else. Seeing the boy using his own ticket and entering the stadium in the hustle and bustle of thousands of other fans for the first time got me all emotional and nostalgic. Elton John could’ve soundtracked this moment on his piano in the Cardiff City Grandstand foyer and if it was a film it could've been in slow motion for dramatic effect.  

As we know, it can be tricky for a Dad not to come on too strong with sports for their son, and I’ve always been conscious of that going for a drip feed of exposure to the game instead of forcing a season ticket on him. He prefers spaceships, ninjas and Minecraft to sport at the moment but that could change over time of course. 

Watching the game itself, we analysed the new City ‘Bluebird’ mascot’s outfit and the amount of seagulls flying around instead of tactics. A comic and the packed lunch had seen us through till half time but the second half saw the boy getting bored resulting in him playing an emergency game of Angry Birds on my phone in a bid to see us through till full time as City pushed for an equaliser. 

Sure enough, in the 87^th minute, Craig Noone smashed one in from outside the box and the stadium erupted. The scenes on our row were a tad different to the rest of the place though with Isaac only looking up from Angry Birds for a split second to punch the air and then it was eyes back to the iPhone. He would later report to his mum that these celebrations were too loud. 

Overall, Isaac enjoyed lots about his first time at the football - mostly the snacks. If only I could go back to 1990 and read what my Pop put on his blog about me.