A view from the ticketless in Soho | OneFootball

As the dust settles on Liverpool 1 Newcastle 2 and Simon Ritter pings out an excellent summary of the day at Wembley from his vantage point, here comes the view from the ticketless.

The possibility of tickets for the Carabao Cup Final were raised when I did some work with Charlton Athletic and their people said tickets may come.

It was not to be.

We live in London and on the Saturday, me and the missus decide to do the walk up to Covent Garden (no buses as the Irish had commandeered Trafalgar Square), 4 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon and Covent Garden is packed.

Black and white flares are being set off and police stand by smiling while the tourists are bemused and struggling to comprehend what is happening.

My phone buzzes with messages, asking are you there? Great atmosphere, but I was still of the opinion that us Geordies are more interested in having a good time and a good drink, than winning football matches. We would get beaten in the final.

Onto the day of the game, me and my lad are up for it but bracing ourselves for another Wembley defeat.

Heading into Soho we take up our position as we did two years previously. Once again surrounded by black and white and no Liverpool fans in sight.

In my mind’s eye, I had envisioned loads of Liverpool supporting cockneys or tourists, but just like two years previous there were no opposition fans around.

We had taken over but wait…no, on the table next to me is a Boro boy. He has his MFC away shirt on and is orchestrating anti-NUFC sentiment among the neutrals, to put it politely.

I get talking to a Scouser and his wife who is from Consett. Turns out he is a true blue, regular at Goodison Park and was loving us beating Liverpool.

When our goal is ruled out for offside, the Boro guy celebrates too hard, so it is time to give him some abuse.

As I was now full of afternoon shandies the words, the expletives were choice, which made my lad laugh.

At the final whistle me and my lad hug.

The lass from Consett gets a massive hug.

The Boro boy comes straight over to me with a big smile on his face, congratulates us and shakes our hands.