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Just had a conversation with CtK and we shared our final fixture day stories, and I think throughout the year it would be a nice addition to the news page to have a few articles that weren't previews.

So if you'd like to share your day, that day, that special day with me and I will publish it and make you famous to the 200 odd people here, and whoever reads NN, so like 250 total.

You can reply to this thread with it, or message me and send it there, whatever you like. If you want pics in it, you can add the links in where you want them(don't BB code) or you can leave that to me.

104 views and no comment, anyone interested in doing it at all?

I just watched the game then got absolutely pissed, so can't really help.

I didn't see the match live. I was at Stamford Bridge with some mates. One is a Utd supporter and was sitting about twenty rows in front of me.

I didn't have a good phone then and could only follow the match with updates from Virgin radio or whatever its called nowadays. Anyway they dont have live commentary, if something happens they update, but only after whatever song their playing is over.

My mate was listening to radio 5 commentary and texted me at the end of their match to tell me that it was all over and they won and we lost. I was pissed off and stopped listening to my radio which was in the middle of a tune.

Little did I know what was to come.

Another mate texted me with congratulations. "What the fuck" says I to myself. "Must be a windup". By this time the Chelsea match was over so I hurried into the back of the stand where the monitors where showing SS news at half time. Off course the friggin things were turned off. Nobody was talking about our match and my mate was walking around with a stupid big grin on his gob. He had turned off his radio as well and didn't know what happened.

Then another text. "Well done. Come on City", and this is from a Liverpol supporter.

"Fuck me" I said. "I'm ringing home". So I phoned the wife and she turned the TV over from a Catherine Cookson and thats when I offically heard we won. Off course the mate with the stupid grin then didn't believe me, and he had to ring home too. But he was dead on about it. Although Im sure he was calling me all the cunts of the day because I was dancing around the stand cheering and singing. It probably looked a bit weird to the Chelsea fans, but I didn't give a flyin fuck.

Went to the pub then and got merrily pissed.

PS

Chelsea won 1-0 but I cant remember a thing about the match.

The week before the final game of the season, seemed like the longest week of my life. I had already endured the taunts from the reds at work since we 'threw' it away against Arsenal. "Mind the Gap", "Champions 20". They started at the beginning of April, but seemed to slow towards the end, and by the time 9:45 had come on that glorious Monday night they had stopped altogether.

Fast forward to the morning of 13th May 2012, I had endured the worst nights sleep of my life, but had buckets of energy flying round my body. I was meeting the lads at 11, and needed to pass the time, so I put the 1-6 derby on, I knew there was a reason I kept it on the planner. Re-living every moment as if it were a live game.

Pumped up, I donned my City shirt and headed down to my mates around 10:45 to get the train to Ashburys. We didn't have a ticket for the match, children & fiancee's have taken the place of season tickets and beer, but this was one day that I was having all to myself.

We decided to watch the match in Mary D's in the hope of a good atmosphere, with hindsight, anywhere in Manchester would have been a sure bet. We got in, got a drink (after a while) and waited for the game to start.

2.55 rolled around and none of the tv's had been turned on. The bar became very restless, people trying to watch the game on their phones with the building seemingly built from lead, as nobody could get a signal. The TV's eventually came on around 3.15 to a rapturous applause. Word soon filtered through that United had scored, the atmosphere changed in the room, every misplaced or slow pass greeted with a groans and mutters.

Half time approached and it seemed for all the world that we were never going to score. Zabaleta whipped the ball in against a solid QPR defence and it bounced back to him, he knocked it to Merlin who played a simple pass to Yaya. Toure then slots Zabaleta through who powers it against Kenny's hand, and eventually ends up in the back of the net.

The pub erupted, men hugging men, men falling over, men almost crying. We were in front, we were going to do it, typical City will be dead and buried forever. Half time came around, I needed to get some fresh air and have a cig, so I went out onto the decking, there was a huge sense of relief around, we were on the verge of winning the league.

The second half started and QPR soon equalised. I muttered some choice words about Joleon Lescott and was met by a wall of insults and abuse from a guy in front of me defending Joleon. I was drunk and angry, what did he expect?? Soon enough, that horrible excuse of a man, was assaulting half of our beloved team, he saw red, the atmosphere lifted.

That was soon demolished by a fine counter attacking move from QPR. Jamie Mackie appeared to have not only ended my dreams, but to have sentenced me to yet another season of 'banter' from the City of Salford. I was devasted, almost visually upset. I tried to stay positive, but I feared the worse. One of the lads who was with us decided he had seen enough and left to get a lift home, probably wanting to go home and hope the ground opened up and swallowed him.

The minutes ticked on and the earlier feeling of thinking we wouldn't score crept back into my head, getting stronger with every passing minute. It got to 90 minutes and I had began to accept that we wouldn't win the league. Already thinking of witty comebacks to the taunts I would receive on Monday morning. It was heartbreaking, I couldn't believe we had thrown it away.

Half of the pub thought Balotelli had scored, I got a split second butterfly feeling in my stomach, but that soon disappeared. Then Dzeko stepped up, lost his marker, and stuck it in the back of the net. I've never seen a more reserved celebration in all my life. Do I dare to believe again? All I could think of was Gillingham, I was only a 13 year old boy at the time, but I remember it so clearly. It was the first time I had cried tears of joy.

As Nasri allowed the ball to go out of play from Zabaleta's challenge I thought it was all over. I put my head down, unable to watch as QPR played it into the corner and saw out the remaining seconds. Little did I know, but Lescott won the header and played it to de Jong, I glanced up, Manchester City are still alive here, Balotelli, Aguerrrrrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

The room erupted, i kissed and hugged people I had never seen in my life, I punched one of my mates in the face, accidentally of course. We had done it, Champions of England, and for just the third time in my 27 year existence I cried tears of joy behind Wembley '99 and the birth of my daughter.

Forza Mancini
Forza Man City

5p a word?

Dunne's Half-Time Pint wrote:5p a word?

You just need to start posting again before you start charging people...and welcome back.

I posted this a few days after the game, so this is just a cut and paste:

Alright, no-one likes a long self-indulgent thread, but if you want to read, please do. It’s cathartic for me to write it as I can’t get my head around yesterday at all.

From the outside, listening in:

OK, we drove up from Coventry and arrived outside the ground at about 1. I and a mate have SCs. I brought my wife and daughter with me and a wad of cash for any willing sellers. There were none, not at least as far as I could see. My strategy was to wait until 3 and see if anyone would be offering anything at a decent price. Great strategy. My mate went in at 2.50. There were a few thousand outside and it was obvious that my brilliant strategic plan had fucked up in my face. I then made the biggest decision of my life and gave my SC to my daughter. She’s 17. I love her more than the world itself, so I couldn’t not do it. Anyway, I didn’t fancy the 2 of them outside. The crowd was clearly made up of decent people, but I couldn’t just leave them both. She was crying as she went in. That was enough for me and set me off on my rollercoaster afternoon.

The game kicked off and the missus and I milled down to the QPR end and sat on the seats outside K entrance. There was an odd roar and I thought that QPR had scored. The slow roar turned out to be QPR fans realising Stoke were winning. We walked back to City Square where there were a few people round iPads. Surreal. It dawned on me to check out my Skygo app on my phone and bugger me, it worked. A few of us huddled around the small screen and saw the action, only spoiled by a 1 minute delay! Zabs goal was a bit weird. It was not an explosion of noise, more a sort of slow build up of noise. I worked that out when I saw it was a dribbler of a goal and not a net bulger, more of a sort of slow-realisation of a goal.

Half-time. Spoke to me old man who was in Level 2. ‘Pissing it, Michael, QPR have no ambition’. Great, way to jinx it, Dad.
They equalized. It was a smaller roar, so I was totally sure who had scored. Some clowns started singing ‘Championees’. That stopped sharpish upon confirmation from a steward that it was 1-1. Shit, fucking shit. Believe it or not, I figured out there was a red card by the noises emanating from the stadium. A roar, lengthy anger and booing gave it away. I notice a woman peering in through the slats, she was waving both arms in a ‘Goodbye’ motion. Twitter confirmed the red, with the missus checking that fucking thing every 8 seconds.

We started to walk back towards K entrance. Coppers were telling us to clear the area as the club wanted everyone away. Whatever. I said we were going back to car at St Brigid’s school car park. As we trudged away, it went 1-2. That knowing away support roar. I heard a copper say, ‘That’s 2-1, it’ll kick off now’. The walk became slow and desperate. Passed a silent Mary D’s, utterly lost and disconsolate. We couldn’t speak. Horrible. Back in the car, 15 minutes left. We listened for 7 or 8 minutes before turning off and driving to a spot virtually outside Mary D’s, figuring Graham and Clare would be solemnly trudging back any time soon. I parked facing away from the stadium. What followed was something I’ve never seen before and maybe never will.
There was this noise. It’s hard to articulate what it sounded like. There were maybe 300 people suddenly out of the street, literally screaming. It was almost primeval, animal, crazy. I could see it all in my wing mirror. I got out of the car with a sense of fear, initially. I mean, WTF was going on. There were people yelling, hugging, dancing and wailing. Raw emotion, utterly bizarre. I told the missus that 2-2 was no good. Then I thought maybe Sunderland had scored. What I did know was that these were people going mad for a very special reason and hope suddenly welled up. One bloke ran by screaming ‘3 fucking 2’. On went the radio! Well, you know the rest. Some random stranger, City fan, stopped and asked what was going on. I didn’t know what to do or say as I’d just sort of lost it in the space of 30 seconds. The next sound was the commentator screaming that we’d won. The missus kept pointing at Twitter, saying that it was still 2-2. Me and said random bloke danced and screamed. People came out of the houses, people fell out of Mary D’s. You had to see it, it was like carnage in the street. Some bloke had a bottle of champagne, spraying it from his balcony. Madness. Wonderful. Unforgettable.

The 2 ticketed ones returned about 45 minutes later. Clare said that she had been hugged and kissed by hundreds. She was born a blue. She was 4 when the wife and I went to the Gillingham game. Now she understand why this club mean to me what they do. After those two ladies, City are it.

Got back at about 7.45 and watched the goal for the first time. I just sat and cried. Then went out a got pissed. Tonight I’ve got it all to come. Watch the game for the first time, Jeff and the boys (recorded both full programmes), MOTD and some You Tube shit I’ve collected today. Oh, and the parade.

This club are amazing. They are a cult. Unique.

So, I was there. Kind of. 3 season tickets next year. Absolutely.

Any other stories?

Michael.

s1ty m wrote:
So, I was there. Kind of. 3 season tickets next year. Absolutely.

so did you?

I've just gone back through my texts to my dad to get the 'before game' feeling:

Night before:
Dad - 4-1 to us
Me - Hope we get the first 4
D - 0-1 till 83rd minute to make it more nervy. Imagine the feeling a goal at last and the the second in the 89th minute.
Me - looking back it would be wonderful, at the time it would be horrendous. I want to be 4-0 up and the rags 4-0 down after 20 minutes.

On the day:
D - Only 6 hours to go
Me - Hope the players are calmer than me. If I was playing, they'd have to install a loo in the centre circle.


Looking back, it was a strangely accurate forecast.

I felt ill all day on the game. If it had been a normal day, I'd have been convinced it was something I'd eaten and would have spent the day near a bathroom. Getting to the game, I started to feel a bit calmer. Stood at the top of Joe Mercer Way with my supremely confident 10 year old daughter waiting for my mum to get to the top of the hill watching Cheesie doing some fan interviews.

Mum arrived and tried to go to the right round the shop 'to see what's going on there'. Now I'm a grown civilised man and obviously I don't believe in astrology, magic or superstition. 'Where do you think you're going?' 'Pardon?' 'All season, we've gone through the shop or to the left of the shop. You're not going right today of all days. If you take another step that way, I'll carry you back'. Football - brings out the best in us.

Once the game started, I finally felt calm. The players didn't understand 'typical City'. They were professional, organised, calm. We'd win. We always do in this alternate universe we've suddenly joined.

Zab scores, place erupts. Let the celebrations win. I'm genuinely pleased that it's him who's scored the goal that is going to set us on the way to win the league - a player from before the money who is universally loved.

Yaya gets injured. Not a problem, he's helped us on our way to win it. Great player, but we don't need him from here on in.

Second half comes, great, means we can see lots of goals down our end. We'd scored 17 goals in the last 10 minutes of games, so it looked promising. Then a mistake and we're level again. Not great, but not a problem, as I said, we always score late.

Then a second goal. OK, this isn't good, as now we need to score two.

As time ticked by, I started to laugh. Honestly, I sat that smiling and laughing to myself. A billion pounds spent and still 'typical City' is alive and kicking. I knew I'd be gutted and angry later, but, for a few minutes, City were back. The City I'd grown up watching, the City I'd been to the depths of the 3rd tier with. We were going to get the Cup for Cock Ups to keep this time.

Still cheerful daughter asks me if we win it if we only manage to draw. I explain problem to her and watch her turn into a true City fan, as all the enjoyment drains from her face, to be replaced by fear.

Dzeko scores - the hope is back. Oh god, the hope. It's the hope that hurts.

A cheer down to our left - Sunderland have scored. Hundreds of phones being held in the air as everyone tries to get a signal. Its wrong, a false rumour. The hope again and the pain it brings.

Then Balotelli, surely being fouled in the area, but somehow passes to Aguero. The tackle, the side step, the shot. I haven't screamed at a goal that much since Dickov scored in front of me at Wembley. The stand erupts, bodies fall forwards from the row behind, strangers hugging each other, some bald bloke kisses me.

Then finally the kick off again. Come on City, not even you can throw this away. What am I saying, of course they can. Then the ball goes back to Hart and I see the referee wave the linesman on the far side over. As the linesman starts to move and the ref begins to head to the tunnel, the whistle blows. Unbelievable.


That night, my best mate, who's from the dark side, rings me. 'You'll never enjoy another one like that'. I point out that I'd like to win it this season in about February - 'It's not the same. Meaningless games at the end of the season, or worse, winning it without playing because someone else doesn't win. Nothing will ever beat that'.

And he's right. If you written that end of the season for a film, it would have looked corny. To win like that. To win against them. To see their faces afterwards when they thought it was theirs for a minute. If Carlsberg did season finale's, it wouldn't be half way as good as that.

We used to put news on the news now feed from the old mancity.net. Can remember being first to break the news we had qualified for Europe by the fair play table in the Keegan years and also the first on there to confirm that Uwe Rosler WASN'T DEAD as was being reported elsewhere. Both were thanks to tip offs and investigations by board members.

Socrates wrote:We used to put news on the news now feed from the old mancity.net. Can remember being first to break the news we had qualified for Europe by the fair play table in the Keegan years and also the first on there to confirm that Uwe Rosler WASN'T DEAD as was being reported elsewhere. Both were thanks to tip offs and investigations by board members.

Not sure what your point is...

Hi

I'm from spain, a Real Madrid Fan, and also a ManCity Fan, so proud Javi Garcia got there, he wont' let you down.

I cant' go to the next match between both teams, and I've got two tickets, if anyone is interested please email me, not private message

jmdu2_lug@hotmail.com

Great mathc is coming¡¡¡¡

Hi,
I'm looking for a pair of last years home socks. My girlfriend bought me last seasons kit as a gift but forgot to get the socks. I have searched everywhere but they are all out of stock in my size (size 8). Have any of you got a pair for sale? If you can help me out to get a pair I'd be really grateful. Thanks

Sandy84 wrote:Hi,
I'm looking for a pair of last years home socks. My girlfriend bought me last seasons kit as a gift but forgot to get the socks. I have searched everywhere but they are all out of stock in my size (size 8). Have any of you got a pair for sale? If you can help me out to get a pair I'd be really grateful. Thanks

Hi mate,

I'll ask for you at work, id imagine we still have some old stock in the warehouse

Invisible Man Fan wrote:

Sandy84 wrote:Hi,
I'm looking for a pair of last years home socks. My girlfriend bought me last seasons kit as a gift but forgot to get the socks. I have searched everywhere but they are all out of stock in my size (size 8). Have any of you got a pair for sale? If you can help me out to get a pair I'd be really grateful. Thanks

Hi mate,

I'll ask for you at work, id imagine we still have some old stock in the warehouse

Thanks mate. That would be brilliant.

Sandy84 wrote:

Invisible Man Fan wrote:

Sandy84 wrote:Hi,
I'm looking for a pair of last years home socks. My girlfriend bought me last seasons kit as a gift but forgot to get the socks. I have searched everywhere but they are all out of stock in my size (size 8). Have any of you got a pair for sale? If you can help me out to get a pair I'd be really grateful. Thanks

Hi mate,

I'll ask for you at work, id imagine we still have some old stock in the warehouse

Thanks mate. That would be brilliant.

looks like these might have some and ship :

http://www.theusasoccercleat.com/201112-manchester-city-umbro-home-soccer-sock-p-2731:b833a7dbf56814dfd219a320d094c5f5.html

Alex Sapphire wrote:

Sandy84 wrote:

Invisible Man Fan wrote:

Sandy84 wrote:Hi,
I'm looking for a pair of last years home socks. My girlfriend bought me last seasons kit as a gift but forgot to get the socks. I have searched everywhere but they are all out of stock in my size (size 8). Have any of you got a pair for sale? If you can help me out to get a pair I'd be really grateful. Thanks

Hi mate,

I'll ask for you at work, id imagine we still have some old stock in the warehouse

Thanks mate. That would be brilliant.

looks like these might have some and ship :

http://www.theusasoccercleat.com/201112-manchester-city-umbro-home-soccer-sock-p-2731:b833a7dbf56814dfd219a320d094c5f5.html

Thanks so much for that. I looked for hours and couldn't find any in stock. I've ordered a pair so hopefully all good. Cheers

Slim wrote:

Socrates wrote:We used to put news on the news now feed from the old mancity.net. Can remember being first to break the news we had qualified for Europe by the fair play table in the Keegan years and also the first on there to confirm that Uwe Rosler WASN'T DEAD as was being reported elsewhere. Both were thanks to tip offs and investigations by board members.

Not sure what your point is...

that it was/is worth doing if someone has time to do it...

Alex Sapphire wrote:

s1ty m wrote:
So, I was there. Kind of. 3 season tickets next year. Absolutely.

so did you?

No chance. I renewed mine but the 36k sold like hot cakes. They have Blue with priority though and it seems to get them tickets for each game. So far, at least.