My Day

Used with permission from Simon Lewis

What can I say. What a day. A day that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I feel so honored and privileged that I was at the game and able to watch such a momentous moment in my life.

This was my day:

9:00am Bit early to set off but I'm pacing around the house and my wife just tells me to go and stop being so annoying so off I go.

2:20pm After a terrible journey with loads of traffic on the M6, I finally come off the motorway and see The Reebok. It is a lovely looking stadium.
I parking in a match day car park and head off to The Barnstormers pub to meet some mates. The pub has signs up saying no away support but I'm not in colours today so I get in. The place is half full of Chelsea but the large bouncers are telling people in blue tops to cover up. Pointless.

4:00pm Nerves are starting to show. Conversation is difficult and people just want the game to start. Bolton fans in good sprits especially when the scores come up that Liverpool are drawing and Everton losing. We even hear them talking of trips to Milan and Barca next season.

4:40pm Off to the ground.

5:15pm Great noise from Chelsea fans singing our hearts out. Bolton were nice and noisy as well making it a great atmosphere.

6:00pm First half over and we were rubbish. It looked like we were told to go out and not lose. We didn't have an attack of note and the dream of becoming Champions today looks a long way off.

6:30pm Drogba nods the ball onto Lampard who beats two players before blasting it in. Queue mad celebrations. We'd done it. Quick look at the time left - 30 minutes. Could we hold on. Last time Bolton got a draw when we were 2 up. Its going to be a long 30 minutes. I noticed it wasn't just me who was looking at the clock every couple of minutes.

6:40pm It feels like Bolton are camped in our penalty area. Will this game never end.

6:46pm The excellent Makelele flicks a lovely ball to Lampard and there is no one in front of him. Can he do it, please please please.......YES. 2-0 and game over. We've done it. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.

What follows is surreal and I still can't get my head around it. We spent the rest of the game looking at each other. Sometimes with blank looks of disbelief, others with inane grins. Lots of hugs and some kisses. Even some tears of joy and relief.

The singing went on and on and we never wanted it to stop. Particularly good was the 20 minutes of "Hello Hello we are the Chelsea boys" which was awesome.

Players stayed out for ages, then went it and then Terry came out with Roman and then all the players came back out.

We eventually made it back to the car (after a stop off in Tescos) and started the long happy drive home. I couldn't resist driving past The Bridge on the way back to Clapham and there were still people partying at 12:30 and I got out for a little sing before going home. I couldn't sleep so I watched the game again on Sky.

The feeling is every bit as good as I thought it would be. Thank you Chelsea.

Simon

PS Quick not about Bolton fans. They had a game where they were clearly the better in the first half and a valid shout for a free kick before our first goal. Yet a lot of them stayed for a long time after the match and clapped us and the players. That is classy.