We sat on the verge of a glorious promotion having overturned a deficit to move ahead of our local rivals. However my build up didn’t exactly go to plan.
4th May - The night before...
Sat at 10:30pm in an A&E department with my four week old daughter. She was eventually diagnosed with a hernia and referred to a specialist. Great start to the weekend. After years of drama on and off the pitch why was I surprised?
On the day of the game I was up early with my little girl. It was a bright warm day, the sun shone high in the sky. Things looked good. Too good for my liking. I logged onto my rarely used betting account and put money on every possible scenario where Wednesday messed this up. I had seen far too many times us being able to snatch failure from the jaws of victory!
I set off early with my lad, to beat the traffic, it was a good idea. Arrived about two hours or so before kick off and there were already thousands of fans mulling around outside. Shirts of this and yesteryear were out on show. In the build up it had become clear that this would be a sell out, with the visiting Wycombe fans, who faced relegation, being forced into the cheese wedge in the uncovered corner of the ground.
The crowd was big. The crowd was tense. The crowd was expectant.
We all know what happened that day!
Our neighbours and promotion rivals were away at Exeter City. On 24 minutes they were a goal behind, and as the news began to filter into Hillsborough Michail Antonio put the owls in front! And then on 36 minutes news came through that Blades striker James Beattie had received a red card, the blades down to ten men in a must win clash. The dream was on. However just before halftime the blades found an equaliser. The race was finely poised.
The second half kicked off and within minutes the blades had turned their tie around and now led. A hush fell across the ground momentarily. Wycombe we’re doing their best in the tie but Wednesday were pretty comfortable, then on 52 minutes loan striker Nile Ranger knocked in a goal at Hillsborough to extend our lead. Cue an eruption from the crowd. The party started. The action became pretty irrelevant as the fans just waited for the full time whistle. Even a last minute equaliser at Exeter, that certainly ensured our promotion, went unnoticed.
5th May - Owls 2-0 Wycombe
At the full time whistle a roar from the crowd preceded a pitch invasion and scenes at Hillsborough I had never seen before. We had secured promotion back to the Championship under Dave Jones, with a Gary Megson squad!
What a day! And certainly what a night! Quite possibly one the best feelings ever experienced! For me this topped the victory Cardiff in 2005. This was our rising!
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