Come join the parade

Today was all about celebration and elation.

Our Glorious boys in Black and white would parade around the city so we could all welcome them back from Wembley.
The parade was due to start at 6.30pm at the Cockpit island and go down The Morledge, up Albert st, along Victoria street and then round Bold street, back up Full street over the island down The Morledge again and up to Pride Park.

I thought the best place to stand would be on The Morledge as we could then stay where we were and see them on the return as well.

We got there about 6.10 and the place was already heaving. We crossed over and stood on the paving in the middle of the road. At that time we were the only ones there apart from another woman with a black and white wig on who looked like she had been camping out.

The anticipation was almost unbearable as we waited for the bus to arrive. Several more hundreds of people took up their places before us and our lovely little spot became crowded. Our perfect views were gone.



As the bus approached on the horizon the crowds went wild. I was so glad to have been a part of it. The Boys were all in good spirits waving and shouting at people and cheering as they went by. DD and her friend even got sprayed by beer courtesy of Scouser Jay McEverly.

The funniest thing for me was Paul Peschisolido on the back on the bus wrapped in the Derby flag filming the whole thing on his mobile phone. When they do stuff like that you know it means something to them. Most of the players were filming it all or taking pictures which really made me proud of them.

As they turned the corner into Albert street, lots of people streamed up the street on their way to Pride Park stadium to see the big presentation. I decided that we wouldn't bother as it would make it very late to walk back home later and so I promised the children McDonalds instead. DD's friend couldn't go to PPS anyway as she had to get her little sister home.

We waited nearly an hour for them to come back the other way but we wouldn't have had it any other way. I was caught up in the moment and this would be a great memory to have in the future especially as we didn't get to go to Wembley.

We even saw my sisters walking behind the bus and my little nephew came over to say hi which is lovely as I haven't seen him since his birthday in February.

I took some little bits of video of the bus parade and someone from Ramsnet mixed them with some interview bits which really puts a lump in your throat.

A Glorious Victorious day

Sorry if I have stayed quiet the last few days. It has been a mixture of excitement, nervousness, frustration, elation and altogether madness.

The day of the big game came and I couldn't sleep so I was up early tidying up and pottering round. I stopped to look at my emails and see what others (that weren't lucky enough to go) were doing to pass the time. Then I got up washed the pots and did a bit more tidying and sat down and read a few more emails.
This continued until it was time to put the food in. OK so it was just me and DD in for the game but I thought that as we get more nervous, it would be a good idea to have food at hand to keep our hands busy. I opted for Pizza and Wedges as they are great finger food, not fussy to prepare and they can be warmed up later if they don't get eaten (Or eaten cold for breakfast as in the pizza)
All the time I had on Radio Derby, building us up to a frenzy while they were interviewing the lucky ticket holders on Wembley way in the rain.

At 2pm with an hour to go I could hardly stand it. I put Sky Sports on with the TV on mute and carried on listening to the build up from Ross and Ted on RD.

I think I had eaten half a pizza and half the plate of wedges by the time 3pm came. I had a lump in my throat already as the Bright brothers lead out the team.
We thought we would try to watch the TV and listen to the commentary on the radio but a few seconds in and the delay was too obvious for us to continue so we had to say ta-ra to Ross and Ted til half time.

I could hardly watch as the first half unfolded. It was full of incident and exciting football.
Half time loomed and it was nil nil and still all to play for.
I was absolutely dying for the loo so what a relief when the whistle went. We switched the radio back on to hear the half time chat on RD.

The whole of the second half is a complete blur until the hour mark when this happened




Me and DD went absolutely mad. I did my patented high pitched squeal and both the kids were jumping around the room all 3 of us singing Come on Derby and all the other top Rams tunes. My heart was beating like mad and I was sweating and shivering and shaking. I couldn't bare it as the next 34 minutes went by in ultra slow motion.

Finally as the Baggies took a dangerous corner the ref blew his whistle and everybody went absolutely mental.

Derby had actually gone and done it - We are back in the premiership after all these horrible years of being in the grotty Championship. On screen we could see the players and all the coaching team going mad on the pitch. I turned on the radio again to listen to Colin Gibson as he could hardly speak through being choked up and emotional.

It was so amazing I didn't actually know what to do. I was stunned into silence for the next few hours. It all seemed too unreal. Well I guess that's Derby County for you. They take you on a massive Roller Coaster ride right up to the very last second. What choked me up though was actually seeing how the players were all so happy and excited. Stephen Bywater in particular (Derby Supergoalie) was acting very strangely by jumping on people being interviewed pulling strange faces and roaring.

The worst bit of the game was about 88 minutes, Seth collapsed as his knees just gave up on him. One of the WBA players berated him for time wasting but Seth was in pain and had to go off. This seemed to be the actual first time that Billy was going to leave him on till the end but obviously he just couldn't make it and had to limp off the pitch but as always he got a rousing send off.

We watched as the players mounted the stairs up to the royal box. It was wonderful to see Club captain Michael Johnson holding aloft the cup aside team captain Matt Oakley.
The cup means nothing really though as it is all about The Premiership and the £60 million.