My eleven-year-old lad said to me with five minutes to go, "Dad my throat hurts, I can't speak, have I not drunk enough water?"
I said, "Son, no, that's what happens when we all support the team."
Two very sore throats today. My lad enjoys going every week going with me, but last night was the first time I felt he was swept up by it all and I didn't need to tell him to concentrate or watch the game, haha!
For me, it was better than Hamburg and certainly on a par with that game against United.
Say what you want about standing sections and stuff, it's always about the needle and just wanting it that much more.
"Needle" is a good word for it.
I thought "conflict", but it's much the same idea.
The atmosphere has always been good at derbies, because there's conflict there.
In the 70s and 80s there was obviously running conflict every week, so the atmosphere's were generally good.
In the 90s we were fucking terrible, and the atmosphere came from the fans conflict with the board / managers / players. "We're shit and we're sick of it".
In recent times, we've had it too good. It's been a happy camp. We've not really had any conflict to help generate an atmosphere.
The derbies are still good, usually the Chelsea games if they're battling us for the title, and recently, Liverpool. But when we're strolling to a 3-0 win against Brighton, it's hard to find any conflict there.
I think it's a cultural thing. The Shite and Liverpool consider themselves as better than everyone else, so when that position feels threatened, it creates conflict and maybe a bit of atmosphere.
Whereas I think culturally, City fans are used to being the underdog. It's not really our style to rub it in the opposition's face when we're the best team. Maybe that will change in the future, I'm not sure if that's for the better or not.
But hopefully, the Liverpool game is a turning point. The needle / conflict now should be that we're the champions, arguably the best champions in history. The second half of this season is about proving that. Showing all of the doubters that this team is special. We showed last night that as fans, we can all play a part in that.
