So the day started with an 8am flight out of Bristol, 9am we were on the ground in Dublin and at 10am eating breakfast in one of the City's hotels.
On travelling from the airport several Welsh flags were noticeable outside hotels and what appeared to be public buildings, a sign of the warm welcome from the Irish to their nearest overseas neighbours.
The taxi brought us close to Croke Park as we headed to our destination, a hotel just 100 yards from the Liffey in the Temple Bar area of the City. I imagine 99% of the Welsh fans in Dublin over the weekend spent some time in Temple Bar, an area congested with pubs and on most weekends stag and hen parties from the UK.
Soon enough 11am had arrived and the first Guinness was going down (my first anyway, I'm sure there were plenty already on their 2nd or 3rd by then). Several of my friends had congregated in the same bar, faces not seen for weeks, in some cases months and some just the other day, came together and enjoyed the "Craic".
Croke Park is about 30 mins walk from Temple Bar, it was a beautiful day so the walk was very pleasant, full of atmosphere with Welsh and Irish fans sharing the streets and the pubs. No seggregation, no heavy hand Garda, just a party atmosphere. Also no shortage of bars on the journey so I was able to top up the Guinness levels on the way.
Croke Park is a huge concrete structure. Impressive from the outside only by it's size. It's an 82,500 capacity Stadium with three sides completely built up and an open end.
The open end is significant though, it's called Hill 16, it's said that the rubble from the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin was used to build the terrace at Railway end of the ground. That terrace had had seats added to it for our visit as per Uefa / Fifa requirements of all seater stadiums.
I'm not sure if they'll take the seats out when the Gaelic matches are played or whether they will stay. Anyway we had an area behind the goal that was bathed in warm sunshine, because of the size of a Gaelic Football pitch being so big the normal pitch we used was smaller than the grass available. Therefore the goal line was 20 yards or so from the edge of the grass in front of us and also the pitch was a good 10 yards from the edge of the grass on the side.
From our position we must have been nearly 50 yards behind the goal that Wales defended in the first half, making us 150 yards away from the other end of the pitch. I'm sure the views are great from the impressive three tiered stands, we could see it all from where we were just we were a long way back.
The less said about the game the better. It really was shocking. Ireland controlled the first half, Wales moreso the second half. Between them there mustn't have been more than 5 decent efforts on goal all game.
Wales slim hopes of possible challenging the top two were wiped out by Stephen Ireland's goal. The Irish, under Steve Staunton find themselves in a position to challenge. Even though they don't appear to like their manager, he still has them 3 points behind the leaders. For Wales we have 8 games remaining inc two against Germany, it's difficult to see where any points are going to come from.
What's worrying is that we face San Marino on Wednesday in Cardiff. It should be an automatic three points, San Marino have never earned a Euro qualifying point, let alone got near a win. After the shambolic performance in Dublin I fear that San Marino will see the game against us as a chance to pick something up.
Back to Dublin, after the match I managed to catch up with a mate of mine from Dublin. We supped a couple of pints before heading back to the airport. He was just as upset Ireland had won becuase he wanted them to lose so Staunton would be sacked. I was upset that Wales lost but soon told myself I'm used to it. Already I'm hoping for a successful WC 2010 campaign.
By 7pm we were at the airport, 8pm taking off and through customs in Bristol at 9.
Back in Cardiff by 10pm.
An excellent day out that shows just how easy it is to hop around Europe, Ryanair charged us £35 quid for the return flights (inclusuve of all taxes), same price as the match ticket.
So a good day out, great experience and another disappointment on the pitch.