With Spurs beginning to get a bit of form under the belt, and Newcastle having put a good run together, a match up at St James' seemed like a mouth watering fixture. The added bonus of 6000 travelling fans and the fact it was a cup quarter final just made it all seem more worth the 250 mile trip from Cambridge. My dad and I drove and thought we may as well make a weekend out of it, so went to Harrogate and spent the Saturday night in a hotel there. It was only a 1 1/2hr drive the next morning and a trip up the A1 seemed surprisingly easy, not to mention the fact that you can easily spot St.James' from miles due to it's position on top of a hill right in the centre of Newcastle. We managed to find a car park right near the university medical buildings, just opposite the rail station for £4, which wasn't bad.

Spurs fans had gathered in a pub just near where we parked so went in quickly before moving on to the ground, and what a ground it is: I had a walk the whole way round, and it was absolutely huge. The most interesting thing was the sort of concourse area where the turnstiles were, rather than the usual street access. Home and away fans had to enter the ground (on the Sir John Hall Stand area) just a few yards from each other, making for some enjoyable banter. 15 flights of stairs later, and a few minutes of recovery time and level 7 had been reached, with a spacious concourse area which meant a pre-match drink could be enjoyed rather than cramped. Moving into the seating areas suddenly made me realise that the £20 ticket was worth every penny. Yes the pitch is bloody miles, but the legroom and quality of the arena in terms of size, atmosphere and view of Newcastle more than compensate. Also what was surprising was that no netting or rows of stewards separated the away section, just a police officer every 3 rows.  Both sets of fans shared the same stairwell to return to the concourses, also making for much banter.

The game itself was promising: Spurs went 1 down after 5 minutes, but spent the last 85 minutes absolutely hammering the Geordies, scoring once (disallowed), and getting two blatant penalties  (neither that were given). Not to mention the refereeing was rightly questionable, and Spurs' cup exit was slightly marred by some of the decisions that were made by the man in black. The atmosphere at times during the match was good, but still not what was expected from such a large following of Geordies.

Getting away from the ground was slow at first because of the walk through the thick crowded concourse full of Newcastle fans, but once we reached the car it had thinned out. There was, as you'd expect a slight delay on getting onto the A1, but once we were on it, a smooth journey home was to be had. All in all a great day (apart from the result); St James' is an awesome arena and I'd recommend to anyone to go at least once, even though it is a long way from near enough anywhere. Definitely one not to be missed.