(The great part of yesterday) Hey Bulldog... some kind of innocence is measured out in years

Up until about the 45th minute of the match, Boxing Day was a great day.

'The atmosphere in the first half was the best I have even experienced at a match.'

I woke up to poring rain and my wife asking me whether I was 'really going down there in this?' Oh yes I was.

We went to catch the train and there were already other Roar fans on the platform. Got on the train. More orange. No seats. Changed trains. More and more orange. Soon it was full. Then chok-a-block. We stopped at stations and we could hear platform announcements 'in the interests of safety please wait for the next train. It will arrive in 5 minutes.'

It was packed and 95% orange. It was families and very passive. No singing or chanting. Just quiet conversation. Even deep into Gold Coast territory there was barely any yellow getting on the train. A young women near me said, 'all this orange, I'm loving it, oh there is a yellow' pointing to a small boy. 'He's English' said his mother. That explained it. His father was all decked out in Leeds United gear with sandals.

Someone was talking about Miller. He'll get a hat-trick today. We all agreed. (We didn't expect to win but we didn't expect surrender either).

We arrived and wound round like a giant orange snake to the stadium. I yelled at a shirt vendor 'You should be selling orange.' Hardly anyone was interested in his yellow. He gave me a foul look. There was a rock band which sounded great. But getting into the stadium was a drag, even though we had bought our tickets at Ticketec. I spoke to the yellow in front. They were Roar fans last year. They couldn't believe the crowd. They said they were going up the home end 'You'll hear us soon'. Yeh right I thought and I was right.

Inside it was clear that there were even less Gold Coast supporters than usual. But a sea of orange. And more vocal than at home. The stadium echoed the sound. There was pogo dancing and lots of singing and chanting.

Skilled is a very good stadium. Even with 10,000 it sounded great. The atmosphere in the first half was the best I have even experienced at a match.

Some yellow turkey let off a flame at the other end (the pebbly beach or whatever they call it).

In the first half it was all orange. When we scored it was incredible. We started to believe. And Miller kept miss-kicking the ball. (He's behind you someone shouted. He blew us a kiss. It was a home game for the Roar. Till Miron's left back did his knee. Then Anderson came on and the game changed. So did the mood. He is an expert diver and the ref was up for it. At half time Miron got Culina running against Zullo and he could keep up. But neither could Moore stay close to Smeltz. Two soft goals and it was all over. Our worst ever loss. As Fox Sports said 'You can loose a derby, but not 5-1.' Miller should have been on our side. We were clearly missing some talent.

On the train home it was, at first, crowded and quite. Except for a women singing to 'He's a jolly good fellow':

'At least we have never lost to the Phoenix,

At least we have never lost to the Phoenix,

At least we have never lost to the Phoenix,

A least we have never lost 6 nil.'

'Come on join in' she cried. 'Come on.' But nobody would.