A Young boys dream

Monday night was a dream come true for my young nephew. His under 8s football team were playing a special game at Pride Park.

Tickets were £2 and kick-off was 4.15pm and there was also the promise of free Curry.
Zoe had offered to give me and Debz a lift up there so I got to Debz about 3ish and then Zoe pulled up at just after 3.30pm.

When we got there Joe and his team were taking penalties on the pitch in the actual full sized goals. They were all really excited and we turned up just in time to see Joe put one away.

The pitch was split into 2 smaller pitches so they would have 2 games going on at a time. Joe's game was being played at the pitch on the North stand side so we went and joined The others in the West stand seats near the front. The stand wasn't full of people but people would be coming and going as the evening went on as there were lots of games happening.

It was so emotional to see Joe and his team come out of the Derby County tunnel onto the Pride Park pitch.

The team they were playing were pretty useless and Joe's team were all over them. If it hadn't been for their big goalie I am sure it would have been about 8-0 in the first half. It is incredible how good Joe's team are. They play like a team. Great passing and moving and thinking like a team not like you would expect schoolboy team to be all running after the ball.

By half time I was exhausted, I don't know about the teams on the pitch.
Then they changed ends and play began again. In the second half they played much better and the opposing goalie didn't have a chance as the goals went flying in.
The poor Mackworth goalie had been bored stiff so he was swapped out at half time to play in the outfield so he could get a touch at the ball. The new goalie also got bored pretty quickly and we were giggling at him slowly edging up the pitch but then panicking when it looked like the ball might be coming back.

One by One the goals flew in and Our Joey also scored one. The rubbish announcer bloke kept making comments about both games that were going on but kept saying that our game was still 0-0. So we all shouted out that it was 4-0.

By the final whistle the score was 5-0 and how proud were we of those fantastic talented kids.
There was lots of debating over who scored all the goals and the children seemed to be so nonchalant about it while the parents were all jumping up and down.

The next couple of hours we just sat around watching the other games whilst we waited for the presentations.
The children got quite bored but I was quite in awe of being in our wonderful stadium and having it just there to wonder around as I wanted.

Finally the Curry was announced and Debz and I joined the queue.

We got 2 chapatis and a dollop of curry on top. I think the idea was to make a kind of a wrap with it but it was just too messy. Ange managed to wrap hers up without making any mess but Debz and me managed to get it all over our hands and down our coats.
After our curry Debz suggested we go and see if we could have our pictures taken with the Steve Bloomer bust. Unfortunately it was cordoned off so we couldn't stand next to it but we could take our photos of it.

I didn't get any photos of the presentation as I stayed back to let all the parents in to see their children. It was a bit overwhelming I think as the winners were presented their trophies by Tom Glick from Derby County and the head of the Derbyshire FA.

After the presentations were over we headed off home.