People were stopping in the streets watching with amazement, their eyes wide and mouths open, as over 500 people walked and chanted in unison down a busy Church Street in the heart of the Parramatta restaurant and cafe district. Traffic was stopped as the supporters announced to the world that the Western Sydney Wanderers had finally arrived.

There’s been reports that people at the stadium could hear us coming from a few blocks away. People eating a quiet meal a few hours before kickoff could hear chanting and singing coming from the the direction of the supporter’s official pub. That very pub was absolutely packed to the rafters. Red and black everywhere, streamers, balloons, Wanderers kits worn by a vast majority of patrons (a site that will be duplicated at Parramatta stadium later on). There was a buzz in the air that something special was happening.

All week I’ve been walking through the office on the verge of belting out a “Come on you Wanderers!” chant, but my professionalism stopped me at the last minute. The anticipation and excitement was reaching ridiculously high levels as the moment we’ve all been waiting for slowly drew closer as the week dragged on. It was the slowest 4 day working week in the history of mankind.

When arriving at the stadium, we had to be told to “calm down” by the ticketing officers as we continued to chant as we scanned our membership passes through the turnstiles. I don’t think those staff members knew what was going on and that a historic moment was playing out right in front of their eyes.

I scanned the stadium from the front of Bay 56. At the far end I saw the new huge screen erected primarily for the Red & Black Bloc. On the main grandstands there were huge banners of “Welcome to Wanderland”. Behind me was another club banner “Western Sydney Wanderers FC Active Bays”.

It felt surreal to me. I was there in Bay 20 with the other Rovers supporters on February 14, 2010 when Sydney FC hosted Perth Glory. I was there at the very first fan forum a few months ago. I’ve been to every pre-season game the Wanderers have played in Sydney and I’ve stood with the RBB the entire time. I was also there in our home ground trial run against Parramatta FC in Bay 56. But this felt different. This was no mere friendly that meant nothing. This was the real deal. The season was finally going to begin. Everything we’ve been working towards was about to come to a head.

We made our presence immediately felt when Robbie Slater came around to do the pre-match comments from the ground. The chants of “we want Bozza” were deafening. Slater in good humour acknowledged us and laughed along. I watched this segment back when I got home and it was absolutely hilarious as Slater tried his hardest to answer the questions from the panel but couldn’t hear a word they were saying due to the noise the RBB were creating.

And then the moment of truth. The players started walking out, the tifo bearing the words “Football comes home” was raised - I saw many in the main grandstands looking towards and applauding the banner -  the entire crowd went wild, the Red & Black Bloc sung their hearts out as Western Sydney Wanderers entered the A-League.

The rain didn’t dampen our spirits nor the spirits of the entire crowd. Many had been waiting for years, or even decades waiting for this moment. Nothing was going to ruin the party.

Fifteen minutes into the second half the crowd of over 10,000 saw that marquee man Shinji Ono being called to the bench and to prepare to enter the fray. The noise that greeted him as he entered the pitch made me think to myself “Michael who?” His first touch was greeted with the same applause. It appears that the Wanderers fans have already welcomed Ono with open arms and he showed glimpses of what he is capable of in the short time he was on the field. When he integrates completely into the squad he can be a very important part of the midfield and in the final third.

Something that really annoys me about supposed “football” crowds in this city that I’ve seen in person at both the SFS and ANZ is when the 83rd minute comes around, many get up and leave to presumably “beat the traffic”. I made a point to look around the stadium when this time arrived on Saturday and to my delight, I saw no one leaving. This either tells me that playing out west means the journey isn’t so long so the traffic isn’t a problem, or that there was more of a real football crowd in attendance that understand the sport and know that the final 10 minutes of a game are the most crucial - especially when it is currently a tense 0-0 scoreline.

Five minutes before full time and most of the stadium were on their feet, willing their team on to try and steal a winner in an extremely gutsy and determined effort overall. The standing ovation the crowd gave the team when the final whistle blew was absolutely awesome and must have made the players feel like they truly were part of something special. A lot of these spectators would not have attended a preseason game and so this was the first time they would have seen the team in action. I think its fair to say that all of them will come back as the team has won them over in how they matched last year’s Premiers and didn’t get completely “smashed” as many foolishly predicted.

The players coming over to the Red & Black Bloc to shake hands with them was the icing on the cake and continues the trend that they’ve been doing since that first pre-season game. I think they know they have a 12th man behind the goals every other week.

To cap off a great night, the following day my father says to me: “If you guys play like that, you’ll beat Sydney” - he stayed home and watched both games back to back. I’ve just sent a screenshot of the table to a work colleague who is a Sydney FC member. It's only Round 1, but we’ll enjoy the moment for as long as we can.

Post game and a couple days later and all I’m hearing is praise for the team and how the RBB performed on the night. This is from internet forums, newspaper articles and apparently even commercial free-to-air networks have acknowledged our arrival. This is great to see and I hope we continue to make noise in the right kind of places over the coming months.

Our next home game is the Derby d’Sydney and everyone is confident that will be a sell out. The real test of the west is on November 2 when we host Melbourne Heart on a Friday night. By then, the A-League will be five rounds in, the marquee games and the excitement of the new season and team will have worn off. So to see what kind of crowd welcomes the Wanderers that night will be interesting. But I’m sure we won’t disappoint.