Late drama and retrospective enjoyment!

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I don’t know about you, but I’m still walking about with a daft grin on my face — the type of grin that I’ve only had on a handful of occasions in my life. Happenings which make me stay under the shower with the water cascading over me, thinking “Wow. Just wow, we (or I) did it”.

Episodes which have caused this phenomenon in my life include degree results, finishing a marathon, the birth of children and Sunderland getting to a playoff final.

Since Tuesday, I’ve had what I’d call a huge sense of retrospective enjoyment, the kind runners talk about when they achieve a personal best.

Whilst agonising and straining to make the achievement can rarely be said to be enjoyable (unless you’re a masochist), once the achievement has been attained you can enjoy a well-deserved sense of retrospective enjoyment.

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So it was with Tuesday night.

I don’t think many will say they enjoyed the game itself until the resolution was known, and clearly there’s more work to be done, but at this stage with ten days to go before the final, please allow me a little self-indulgence.

I don’t think Tuesday night’s result properly sunk in until I reached the Stadium of Light Metro station and joined the throngs of others rubbing their eyes in disbelief. The train arrived, packed to the rafters and there were as many again waiting to board the train, but we all managed to get on.

The last time we won a playoff semi-final was when we overcame Sheffield Wednesday in the League One playoffs three years ago. Then, like on Tuesday night, we took a one-goal lead into the second leg, conceded a goal in the second half and scored a late equaliser to take us to Wembley.

Bizarrely, Coventry equalised this year’s tie in the 75^th minute — the same time at which Wednesday did the same thing three years ago.

We didn’t need extra time, then, to regain the advantage and although Patrick Roberts’ tie winner came in the third minute of injury time in 2022; on Tuesday night, Dan Ballard sent us to Wembley in the second minute of injury time. Of extra time.

Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

I also had images of David Platt scoring for England with the last kick of extra time against Belgium at Italia ‘90 and throughout the day after the night before, I kept thinking, “We did it” with a goofy smile on my face, whilst thinking how awful it would’ve been if the result had gone the other way.

So many things about the night were memorable: the crowd, how up for it they were, and no one leaving with ten minutes to go. The noise was immense and I kept recording sound notes on my phone.

When Coventry scored, the crowd could easily have got on the team’s back but they did nothing of the sort. If anything, they shouted louder to encourage the team, and boy did they get their collective just rewards.

For fear of jinxing the final, I won’t say what I want to say, but I feel that in Régis Le Bris, we have a special guy in charge. I learned from our own Haway The Pod that he did his thesis on training young footballers, and he’s now putting into practice what he learned when compiling his doctorate.

I think we have an excellent chance on Saturday week, and I can’t wait to get to Wembley.