Firstly, apologies to my boss, I may be a little hung over at work tomorrow morning!
I`m not he`d understand as he`s not a football fan but the win today means everything to me. It`s the end of three months of Premier League, three months of having the p*ss taken out of me and three months during which the faith has been tested.
Now, I`m going to celebrate like hell, there is light at the end of the tunnel and after beating Aston Villa we can be full of confidence with regards to our Premier League future.
However, before the celebrations begin, I`d like to toast the remarkable Jimmy Bullard, a player who went through so much and is now reaping the rewards for the sheer hard work he`s put in to come back from a career threatening injury.
The fixture gave us the first chance to see Hangeland, Andreasen and Nevland in the flesh and they all gave good performances. In fact, everyone did us proud!
The first half was, to be honest, poor with the highlights perhaps being a Dempsey shot that was saved low down, a header from the same player that was hacked clear by Bouma and a superb move involving Dempsey, Nevland and Davies that resulted in Davie snot quite being able to get any power behind the shot.
The second half was altogether different. Villa started as if they meant to put us to the sword but slowly we started to get back into the fray. Dempsey headed wide from a Konchesky cross and then as so often has happened this season we fell behind to a soft goal.
It came from a Petrov shot that was deflected for a corner. Unfortunately from the corner Hughes somehow contrived to stick his clearance in his own net. He`d never scored whilst at Villa but had opened his Villa account in a strange manner.
Hodgson instantly threw Brian McBride into the action giving the American his first action since his horrific injury. Four minutes later we were level. Bullard delivered a magnificent ball into the danger area and Davies flicked it home for his fifth Premier League goal of the season.
But we were not finished there, as the game headed into its final five minutes a surging run from Kamara saw Davies foul him. From a central area some twenty-three yards out, Bullard curled home a gem of a strike to give us all three points.
If the match report seems a little short, then tough! There`s the little matter of several pints of ice cold lager waiting for me down the local.
Jimmy Bullard, you are a one in a million!
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