Game Sixty Nine - Scunthorpe home

24 April 2009

The final home game of a long and productive season. We've seen so much since we kicked off against MK Dons and now we prepare for the last game at the Walkers as a league one side, already crowned Champions!

To finish off the Walkers campaign in style, I headed over to the Walkers straight from work at 5pm to welcome the players in, for some of them, for the last time. I generally try and do it at least once a season for no real reason but to grab a photo with the cult hero of the season. As I arrived, I checked out the new kit for the season (very sexy I might add!) and then met up with Helen, Emily and Granno who I met for the first time. From then on we just waited for the main men to arrive. For me: Barry Hayles.

For Helen: Matt Oakley.

And finally - the legend himself: Chris Powell.

Before heading into the stadium though, we had to find time for the Champions picture. We've had a lot of photos throughout the season so we have to mark the trophy presentation with one as well.

With a while left to kill before kick off, I ventured into the ground and watched Birch doing his 29th run - a massive acheivement and proof that he does deserve the freedom of the city. He deserves all the plaudits he gets! Legend!

Helping out this time was none other than Lee Jobber who chose to do it on a bike and must have wracked up no end of laps as he whizzed around the pitch raising a great deal of money for charity himself. Hats off to him - a great acheivement and one he has worked hard for in recent weeks.

As kick off grew ever closer, the stadium started to fill - it was quite surreal to see the stadium full for once and there was a real party atmosphere in the place from the part time barmy army with flags, balloons and confetti being thrown around.

It almost seemed like the days of old at the Walkers Stadium when we were in the premiership and we produced something resembling an atmosphere at home games.

The game itself started at a frantic pace from the visitors who needed the points to ensure they finished in the play off. Twice they found themselves clear on goal only for Stockdale to deny them with good saves.

On 13 minutes, City created their first chance. Fryatt turned on the edge of the area and hit a shot across the keeper only for him to get fingertips to it and turn the ball just around the post. 2 minutes later though and we had the lead. A deep corner was headed towards goal by Howard and Michael Morrison was on hand to turn the ball in for his second of the season.

Scunthorpe always looked dangerous on the break but it was City who came closest to adding to the scoreline before the break. Fryatt was played in on goal, rounded the keeper and then paused, allowing the ball to be cleared off the line with Dyer hitting against the crossbar with the goal gaping. A glaring miss but thankfully the game didn't mean anything for us and so we let him get away with it!

At half time we had a very entertaining penalty shoot out with ex-leicester legends along with ex-Tigers players, and other sportsmen from Leicestershire sport. Made a nice change to the usual dross we have to watch and a fitting contribution to the party night.

In the second half, Scunthorpe didn't take long to get back onto level terms. A deep cross was controlled by Hayes who turned a lashed his shot in from 10 yards. Ten minutes later, and the visitors had the lead. Berner, coming on as a sub two minutes before, brought down Hayes in the box and McCann made no mistake from the spot. Party poopers!!

10 minutes later and another corner was headed back again by Howard and Morisson looped a header into the goal for his second of the game. Personally I think that the keeper should have saved it but I'm not going to complain!

From then on, both sides seemed to just play out the remaining time and settle for a point each and at least that preserved our record of only one defeat at home all season in all competitions. I think it's 28 games at home this season and we've only been beaten once.... impressive in any league you're in. True a lot of them were draws but at least they wern't defeats - easy to look back that way when you've won the league!

From the final whistle onwards it was just a case of waiting for the podium to be built on the pitch and patient waiting singing songs as the excitement grew amongst the crowd.

As I was filming the presentation, I've stolen the pictures from the official site as they capture the magic better than I ever could:

The trophy presentation left us all with a real lump in our throats as the sounds of "We are the champions" and "Simply the best" sounded out - a magic moment and something I feel I've waited for all my life!

The players led the parade around the pitch taking it in turns to show the trophy off to the fans - for once an end of season parade that the players could hold their head up high at!

Oakley with the trophy and Pearson celebrating in the background - magic!

Moments like these are ones that I will savour. I don't care if it's "only" league one - it's still an acheivement to win a league and is a fine reward for a seasons hard work!

The fireworks over the stadium topped off a fine night of celebrations as we prepared to head into town to finish off things in style.

From then on, I met up with some of the other foxestalkers and we headed into town to get some food before venturing to Fan Club for a proper round off for the home season. Loads of people showed their faces making it a night to remember and gave me the chance to meet some new faces, mainly Benji and Lou.

Here are just a few pics from the night:

Miiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllll.......
Robinho celebration:

Left to right: Alex, Dave, Ben, Me, Potter, Scoweh, Stez.

At 3am, as the club was about to close, we were asked to leave for singing football songs and getting the whole club going in a rendition of "Champione Champione Ole Ole Ole." From then on we walked down High Street singing a massive selection of football songs that even had the police laughing - a brilliant end to a brilliant night.

And generally that rounded things off for the Walkers Stadium for league one football. We've had the highs of the Peterborough and Huddersfield games and the lows of that run of draws in a row. I'm not a massive fan of the place but when we win, it's a good place to be and home to many friends acquired during the season. Only Crewe left now of the league one tour and it will be an odd game knowing that a City win will send them down... I will almost feel guilty after the memory of Stoke last season and how that still hurts. This season has gone some way to clearing the hurt and we can rebuild next season. We are the champions. Champions of league one!