by Invisible Man Fan » Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:29 pm
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
"If we fire our manager after just one bad season - We'll become Chelsea"
"If we think we can fix the problem by buying expensive players - We'll become City"
"If we remember the good times to entertain us during the bad times - We'll become Liverpool"
So, keep calm and do it the United way
"We invest in young players, That is what we are good at — we’re not like other clubs who can spend fortunes on proven goods. We know that Manchester City are going to pay stupid money, pay silly salaries and all that. We can’t do anything about it. We concentrate on what we can do to try to bring players in for the right reasons. We invest in those who will be with the club for a long time, who will create the character of the club, who will create excitement for our fans. We are very proud of that and we are going to continue that way" - Alex Ferguson 14th May 2012
