I hate football today. I grew up loving the hard game and the naivety around it. The comparatively level playing field for all clubs. The local boy done good. The excitement of being part of it at the weekend and the build up before. The jostling at the turnstile for your money, the floodlights, stale pie, the 8 foot bloke in front of you and that smell you always got around grounds.
But this and this season has hammered home more than ever what we gave all lost from the sport today and how ugly it is. Where man can put everything in, yes make mistakes, and still people baying for more. When we were in this mess in the 80s it was about regrouping and rebuilding. I am proud to say I was there and witnessed that. To a lesser extent in the early 00s. But the PL and the money that community is now all gone.
So even though for large part of my life I have lived and breathed Derby Coubty to be part of that again is exciting, not frightening, it brings people and the club back together rather than being a bunch of success hungry snowflakes.
And if the worst did come to the worst, which it won't, Derby is a footballing town. Wimbledon isn't and look what they have achieved. Maybe ..... just maybe .... some of what made football so special we would finally get back?