Wembley Bound…
Walking out of Wembley station and seeing all the blue and white shirts made me feel so proud. There was omens everywhere which made us feel all the more positive - a KFC type place called “Royal Chicken” and then further down the road, a pub called “The Royal Lounge”!!
Paul Allen did a great job in getting the crowd going but I don’t think it would have taken much anyway. The noise around the ground was simply amazing!
As we went 2-0 and then 3-0 down, the haunting memories of the Bolton and Walsall games came back to me, my brother, my dad and my best friend. Half time was agony.
It was almost two completely different games. We came out in the second half and ran Swansea ragged. Jem and Legs were running things in midfield and Shane and Hunty were running themselves into the ground. It was a boost to see Kebe starting but in the second half he was more guilty than most with his misplaced passes and lack of ball control. Would have like to have seen HRK introduced for him early in the second half. It was more Colin Kebe than Thierry Kebe!!
When Hunty and Mills scored in front of the Royals fans, it gave us a huge lift. The crowd started to believe we could overturn the scoreline and win. However, the more we pushed forward, the weaker we looked at the back and Swansea took advantage of that by catching us on the break.
I looked a dejected figure as I left the ground. I’d been to 3 play-off finals and see us lose everytime. Failure is hard to accept in any circumstances but I know we’ll come back a better side. Yeah it may not be next season, or the season after, but we’ve shown over the years that we can re-invent ourselves. If Shane Long goes then someone will stand up and take his place. We’ve been through this so many times before - remember how we felt when we lost Quinn, Osbourne, Lovell, Taylor and even Cureton, Butler & Forster?
Pain is temporary, pride is forever…..
