An open top bus parade for the promoted Blades from Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane to a civic reception at the Town Hall this evening.
Here’s the plan:
Where else would you see:
“1950 Final rendition of Greasy Chip Butty on stage to finish”
Love it. What an evening. What a party. What a season.
What a team.
What a night under the lights at Bramall Lane! An expectant sell-out crowd. An opposition set up to defend and frustrate. A tense first half. And then, through patience and persistence, with a touch of Premier League quality, the breakthrough. And from that moment on, nothing ever looked to be in doubt.
The party atmosphere was augmented by a second goal 15 minutes from the end, and after that, it was just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s as we cruised to a victory and promotion back to the Premier League.
And then one big party for the 30,000 fans in the ground. I would have loved to have been there. There were a few tears last night and actually some mixed emotions. Sure: joy, relief, pride, but also a tinge of sadness, as well. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s missing out on these sort of shared moments that make me most homesick, even though I’ve been here for almost 20 years now.
But, what a night. What a team. What a club.
The Premier League is going to be a massive challenge – more so than maybe ever before – but with that combination of youth, experience, team spirit and those fans, I know we’ll give it our best shot.
A lacklustre football match in Berkshire last night, attracting only 14,000 spectators, ended in a 1-1 draw. This was unexpected, as the home team are struggling for survival, and the away team have only lost one game in their last eighteen.
But it did happen.
What are the knock-on implications of this (aside from some tautology)?
Well, I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations, and it does seem like Sheffield United need just one win from their remaining four games to clinch a return to the Premiership.
Finally, it does seem like it’s actually plausible.
The thing is, as a seasoned Sheffield United fan, you learn never to count your chickens. So instead of celebrating the fact that something is now more likely to occur than it was at this time yesterday, I’d rather wait and enjoy it when it actually happens.
Which could be as soon as Wednesday evening.
But before that, a little trip to Wembley and a match-up with quite literally the best club side in the world.
More of that later. In the meantime, carefully-controlled, quiet excitement will continue Chez 6000.
Last night went well then.
Dinner was great as well. A really chilled evening with one eye on events 6000 miles… away, and several (or more) drinks: some earlier on for Dutch courage, some more later to celebrate.
It was a messy, late night and I’m feeling it today.
We are having a science weekend at home (and in the lab). Science projects for both the kids yesterday and today, and the City Nature Challenge to play with this afternoon.
Finding 10 minutes alone to try and recover with something gentle like Agnes Obel’s Dorian has been the only saving grace for my poor, tired, aching body.
10/10 would do it all over again though.
Proud fan tonight.
Big hangover tomorrow.