Flying High ! Our Lord and Master........Sir Chris Powell
Lo it came to pass, the Messiah returned to S.E. 7 and it truly was Heaven.
What a fantastic day on Saturday and for once, it went according to the script if not, indeed, scriptures !
It had to be like that as senior ANEM reporter Clive, will not be at the Valley on May 5th and would have missed a chance to celebrate. Why won't he be there ? A good question and I'm glad you asked. Well you've only got yourself to blame if :-
a) your better half is booking your holiday
b) you're not really paying attention when she tells you the date
A + B = disaster ! Oh dear !
Never mind, as we know it doesn't matter as much now that the lads have done the necessary. I always felt we'd keep our part of the bargain in beating Wycombe and also felt that MK Dons would at least get a draw against the Blades. United were always going to struggle, not so much that Evans wasn't playing, more the circumstances that surrounded his omission and the impact that was and is going to have on the club as a whole. The ramifications of that may continue for some time to come.
Anyway, I digress and we shouldn't fuss or bother over other clubs. What Sir Chris and the team and the whole club has achieved has been absolutely fantastic. This is a season that will live long in the memory. Many records have been broken and may be one more too that would be nice but I won't worry too much if we don't.
Saturday was pretty perfect and the weather too, played its part. A few leisurely beers in the Liberal club before the game helped put us in the party mood and we weren't to be let down.
I could review some player performances with some negative thoughts on a couple of the lads but it seems rather churlish. I will just say how immense Yann was yet again. I, like most others it appears, have cast my player of the year vote for Chris Solly. This was based on his consistent, excellent performances. Allied to that is his gritty determination and no little amount of skill. Solly being home grown had a lot to do with it too.
Many players in any other year would have won player of the year and Yann almost certainly would. I can't imagine where we would have been without him. His has truly been outstanding. He runs his socks off, his heading and first touch are second to none and he takes a mean free kick. There you go and I've not even mentioned the never say die approach of probably the league's most fouled man !
As we seek to build for next season Yann is a player we most definitely need to keep. We'll do well to keep the wolves ( could be the club too ! ) from the door for a number of players. We also live in fear that someone might try and tempt Sir Chris away of course.
The foundations for our success has been laid in our defence and that was acknowledged with 3 of our back 5 in the PFA's League One team. Given what's happened why a certain Blades player was included beggars belief. That aside it was good to see Skip included......we all know how valuable he is to our team.
Post match and all the celebrations, and yes, a few more tears, it was back to the Liberal Club. The place was rocking to We Are The Champions. After a swift beer it was off to Greenwich. We went to the Spanish Galleon, a Shepherd Neame pub and so a few Spitfires were in order. The pub has an in house chip shop too, Ketts would have been in his element ! We didn't eat there but it looked very nice fayre. Plans are in place to visit Greenwich again after the Hartlepool game.
Docklands light railway sped us onto London Euston via Bank. Back in Milton Keynes a visit to our favourite curry house completed a rather special day.
What a day, what a season and it's not finished yet ! There's so much to reflect on and I feel that may need to be done at a later date. Suffice to say we finally again have a manager and team to be proud of.
Thank you !
