Have you recovered yet?
Last Monday’s titanic clash with Notts County wrote itself instantly into the club’s history. A high quality drama, it simmered with tension from the start, and exploded into a chaos of high-consequence events once the whistle for the second half blew.
Yet in some ways, the most pleasing moment came after the final whistle.
It’s captured on Ben Foster’s blog of the match. He and Paul Mullin are on the pitch, about to be interviewed by BT Sport. Foster is, understandably ecstatic, adrenaline still pumping after his glorious, stupendous 97th minute penalty save swung the title race massively in our favour.
Foster is excitedly explaining to the interviewer that the remarkable atmosphere is always like that, a look of delight on his face at having discovered, when he thought his career was over, that dropping down to non-league football had given him a thrill comparable to anything he’d experienced in his long career.
Throughout the exchange, Mullin remains silent, with a pensive look on his face. Once Foster has finished expressing his excitement he interjects with a comment which immediately brings everything back down to earth.
“It’s not done yet though.”
Foster immediately absorbs the point, a sober look comes over his face and suddenly it’s back to business as the interview begins,
Going forward, that’s my favourite moment of the day. We’re in the driving seat, but it’s still not over, and I won’t be able to bring myself to celebrate until County can’t overtake us.
Why I love Mullin’s dry comment is because clearly the players are viewing it the same way. Mullin was perfectly entitled to enjoy the moment after such a glorious victory, but he’d already turned his mind to next Saturday’s match. Fantastic!
We can’t afford a repeat of the Halifax performance, as that would throw the title race wide open again. Two wins and a draw will get us over the line, so we must remain focussed. Mullin’s words showed just how much he wants promotion, how determined the players are, and hopefully suggests we’ll go into a difficult game next Saturday determined to impose ourselves and take a giant step towards our goal.
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