David Artell / David Artell / 15 May 2008 / Leave a comment " class="free-bet-btn" rel="external" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/G4/inline-freebet');" target="_blank">Free Bet

Non-league columnist David Artell was our guest at the FA Trophy final. He and his wife decided to take the opportunity to explore London's West End. Read all about that, and his FA Cup Final tip in his latest offering.

Last weekend saw the wife and I head south to London to be treated like royalty at the FA Trophy final. It's not very often League 2 footballers and their wives/girlfriends get invited to anything let alone to be treated like high ranking officials of the aristocracy and our thanks have to go to Betfair who were fantastic hosts.

The weekend certainly didn't start as planned, though. We were running late thanks to TWO car fires on the way down. After checking in at the hotel (and parking the car - the hotel car park was a ten minute walk away; us Northern folk expect a hotel with a car park on site!), we then had to find the entrance at Wembley. Needless to say we turned left and walked all way round the ground when turning right would have saved both time and our legs. All this added up to us been over an hour late but our chaperones Joe and Robin were hospitable as we tucked into some of the best food I've ever eaten.

The game itself was a good advert for non-league football as Ebbsfleet hung on in for the first twenty minutes before finishing the half strongly and scoring the only goal on the game through Chris McPhee. He must have been a relieved man as he had missed a penalty only moments earlier. Torquay couldn't muster up the energy to put any real pressure onto the Ebbsfleet defence in the second half and they held out for a deserved victory. I very nearly didn't see the second half because the ribs and chicken served up at half-time (along with a cold beer) were going down all too well!

Wembley itself is a fantastic stadium, certainly the best in England. It seemed empty but there were over 40,000 people in attendance which still made for a great atmosphere. Each corporate box has its own kitchen, bar and butler who served the food and drink until we finally got kicked out by security!

We headed back to our hotel, worked out which train to get on, which is quite difficult for a pair of novices, and made the short trip into the West End. On the advice of our hosts we got off at Waterloo and walked back to where the main entertainment was. London is an outstanding place (if a little scary) and we walked for as long as our legs could to see Big Ben, Downing Street, Covent Garden as well as walking through Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

After a spot of shopping on Oxford Street, it was time for something to eat. We plumped for Chinese so headed for Chinatown where we passed around 50 people with crazy ponytails chanting stuff about Hari Krishna. The last train back to our hotel passed the Wembley arch lit up in all its glory. Much has been said and written about the cost of building Wembley but for me it knocks spots of the Millennium Stadium although I'm not sure it justifies the difference in build costs.

There will be a slightly more important game at Wembley this weekend as it's the FA Cup Final. Cardiff have done brilliantly to get to the final but I think it will be one step too far as I can't see Portsmouth giving up the chance to play in Europe too easily. One of the main reasons for Portsmouth's success this season has been their defence. David James, Sol Campbell, Sylvain Distin and Glen Johnson have all had an excellent season so I'm going for a Portsmouth clean sheet at [2.16].

Tags: David Artell, FA Cup Final Betting, Football Betting, Morecambe, Non-League Football