'We are going up, say we are going up.'

This post is a little tardy. I hadn’t planned to write about the promotion to the Premier League of my football club Ipswich Town. I thought if you’re not into football it’ll be dull and if your eyes have already rolled skywards at the very mention of the beautiful game, apologies, but you’ve probably clicked away from here already, hopefully not all of you.

I was prompted to write this post by this weeks’ edition of Desert Island Discs where actor David Morrisey was the guest. The first record he chose was ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ by Jerry and the Pacemakers, the anthem of Liverpool Football Club. As he introduced it he said, ‘If you don’t get football, then you don’t get it, but for me it’s a really important part of my life.’ I thought, ‘Same.’ Football is a big part of my life, I’ve written about it before, about how it feels to be a football fan here, so why on earth would I not want to write about how it feels when your football club has had a big moment, a massive moment; huge.

Ipswich Town fans have had many, many years in the wilderness, where success was hard to come by and then it feels like almost overnight things start to happen for us. We start to get some success and that success builds into momentum and then we are lifted to heights that had seemed, not that long ago, impossibly out of reach. We have enjoyed three momentous seasons in the last four years and I find it difficult to express how it feels other than to say it is utter, undiluted joy. It is elation.

The thrill of ‘jeopardy’ is essential to all competitive sport. The way football leagues are structured, teams relegated and promoted every season, the gaining or losing of huge financial reward dictating a club’s future, means the jeopardy in football feels particularly intense. It means a single player’s extraordinary skill, scoring a worldy out of the blue, or a simple bit of luck, when a deflection off a player’s arse dribbles over the line and you’re transported to heaven. Conversely a simple defensive error, a slip on wet grass, a poor refereeing decision and hell is where you’re headed. You can literally be seconds away from ecstasy, only to find yourself plunged into agonising despair. So, when it comes to the final whistle of the season and you’re safely in the arms of bliss, there is no feeling like it, I can’t help smiling as I write.

Here is that moment for the fans.

And for the team in the dressing room with pop royalty…

If you have got this far and you’re not that into football, thank you for indulging me and thank you to #itfc for the joy.