What a week it has been. It began with a 5am alarm last Saturday to go and see Luton at Carlisle.
I say it started with the alarm but that is nonsense. It didn’t. I couldn’t sleep I was so excited about the day ahead. Match the Exeter result at Carlisle and the Town would be promoted. It wasn’t just a promotion we were ready to achieve though. It was closure. Closure on what I hope is the worst 10 year spell the club has to endure.
That all began back in December 2007. The club had been placed into administration even though a consortium was being put together to buy it and stop such action being taken. I was in Las Vegas for the Floyd Mayweather vs Ricky Hatton world title fight on the Saturday. On the Tuesday night the Town faced Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup second round. It is no exaggeration to suggest had Calvin Andrew not bagged the winner that evening there would have been no last Saturday. The club would have folded.
We won that tie and drew Liverpool in the third round. After holding Rafael Benitez’s men we went to Anfield for the replay. We got smacked 5-0 but it didn’t matter. We still had a club and on that day the 2020 consortium had been chosen as the preferred bidders. The following day Kevin Blackwell was sacked and Mick Harford installed as manager. We were going down but at least there was light at the end of the tunnel. Or so we thought.
Little did we know that a points deduction of 30pts was to follow that summer. We begged and pleaded with the Football League to punish the people responsible. They didn’t listen. They tried to kill us off but they failed.
Our spell in the league was coming to an end. We couldn’t survive that. Five years in the Conference followed, which included two heart-breaking playoff final defeats, one on penalties and one to a goal so offside there would have been three VAR lines between the scorer and the last man. We lost to clubs like Hyde, Braintree, Alfreton and Tamworth among others. Finally we climbed out. Four seasons in League 2 followed which came to an end amid fantastic scenes last Saturday.
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There were occasional highs mixed in of course. We won the JPT, which was a middle finger salute to the Football League the season we were relegated to the Conference. There was that amazing day we went to Norwich and made history in the FA Cup, the incredible Conference promotion season, the day out at Newcastle in January and of course this promotion season but cast over all of that was the shadow of that unjust punishment.
We can now put that period behind us. I’ll never forgive. I certainly won’t forget either but that horrible circle has finally been completed. We can look forward with pride at the fight we’ve shown, the never say die attitude we’ve displayed and the club very much on the up and back where it belongs.
I can’t wait to get to Kenilworth Road on Saturday. I’m going to enjoy the day like mad. It won’t just be a promotion I’m celebrating. I’ll be celebrating the end of a dark period in our history and the beginning of a new dawn, a bright new exciting period for our football club.
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