Edit: and you mate, hope you’re ok as well.
I’ve sent this:
“Hi Pop, I love and adore you but you’re recovering from a major operation and have a stress ulcer. I’ve spent an hour going backwards and forwards on this but I can’t in good conscience let you watch that game. We lose the tie and go out of the cup on away goals having finished 4-3 on the night.
The reason I have to tell you is because we think we score a 94th winner but it gets ruled out by VAR a minute later after everyone has jumped around celebrating. It’s probably the cruelest thing I’ve experienced as a City fan (relegations included) and I was nearly in tears myself. The thought of you going through that same range of emotions physically hurts my heart and makes me feel sick. I hope you can forgive me for ruining the game but I’d rather tell you and ruin it for you via text than let you go through that same experience. The boys were brilliant and I’m so proud of them, we did everything and thought we’d gone through but we just didn’t quite manage it. Sorry again for trying to ruin it, I posted the situation on the Bluemoon forum and every single reply said I should tell you, as did Poddy.
I’m really not trying to be a kill joy or moddy coddle you, but if the roles were reversed, I would genuinely rather have been told than go through it in ‘real time’ on record and I say that honestly, it was a horribly cruel way to go out. I love you very much and I hope you’re still speaking to me. Xx”