We love you Burnley, we do … what a night

Just got in. Not a hope in hell of getting to sleep. Too wired. Watching it all again on Sky. What a fantastic night.

Better than beating Chelsea. I feel so so sorry for people who do not get football, who will never know what it is like

to feel as the Burnley fans felt after 50 and 58 minutes of tonight’s match at Reading when two of the best goals any

of us will ever see went in, first from Martin Paterson, then Stevie Thompson. It was bedlam, absolute wonderful

bedlam in the away end. As it was a warm evening, I’d taken my coat off and put it on the floor. I had removed my

coat and placed it on the floor because it was a warm evening. My coat was ten seats by the time the chaos

subsided.There aren’t many better father-son hugs than the ones that come when a goal is scored in front of you, and

both of my sons were with me. People were clambering over chairs to give complete strangers hugs by the time the

second one was in. So, on May 25, my 52nd birthday, we are heading to Wembley, as if the season hadn’t already had

enough to offer. When we play Sheffield United, I only want one gift: another victory like the one we had tonight.

Kevin Blackwell, the manager of Sheff U, was in the Sky commentary box behind us and endured some very loud,

amusing taunts. However, he is aware that we have already defeated his squad twice this season going into the

playoff final, and our So much sport is about psychology. I have spent a lifetime following Burnley, and for many of

those years I have gone to matches with a vague hunch we might lose. I was often right. It’s why we went from top to

bottom of the Football League in 25 years. These days we turn up feeling a win is likelier than a defeat. Just one more

win, and we are in the Premiership, the greatest football league in the world. It would be a fantastic achievement for

a small town club. Most of the Burnley fans stayed in the ground singing and dancing and generally having a good

time for ages after the final whistle in the hope the players would come back out. Once it was clear they weren’t, I

went round to the main stand to take up Reading chairman Sir John Madejski’s pre-match offer of a post-match

drink. He was very generous in defeat, as was manager Steve Coppell when he came up later. I also took the chance

to congratulate our chairman, Barry Kilby, and his directors. Chairmen and directors get a lot of grief from fans at

most clubs, and are all expected to have the kind of money Clubs are thrown at by Russian oligarchs. Barry is a true

Burnley fan, but the team’s success is his, the board’s, the manager’s, and the players’. We will be the neutral’s

favourite, based on the Reading response to our victory and the overwhelming number of SMS messages that were

sent in from all over the place as the game came to a close. This season, Burnley has truly captured the interest of the

football community. We shall have our own tremendous support as well. Tonight will be a huge boost for the entire

town. Football’s ability to provide the excitement of the next eleven days and the joy it brought tonight cannot be

matched by anything, nothing at all.