And breathe…

What an absolutely brilliant weekend it turned out to be. So often this season we’ve looked at the different possibilities and all so often the worse case has come to fruition, but against QPR on Saturday everything was well, perfect.

The sun was shining which was a good start, there was a free seat in the beer garden down Riverside and from the minute I sat in my seat just in time for Dion to come out for his warm-up I knew we had this one in the bag.

The atmosphere inside Carrow Road was electric on Saturday, it really was superb. If we could generate the same buzz and sheer volume for every home game it would surely be worth a few points alone next season (granted it would also be nice if we were to bare witness to the sort of performance we had against QPR every week as well, but one step at a time!).

In a lot of ways the build up to the game was reminiscent of the Stockport game a few seasons ago when Malky Mackay’s far post header booked our place in the play-offs and eventual date with destiny at the Millennium Stadium, and then sure enough Lee Camp rushes out and flattens Ched Evans after only four minutes in a foul eerily similar to that committed by Andy Dibble in the Stockport goal that day. I was a little surprised to see Damion Stewart given his marching orders instead but I wasn’t going to complain and Ched’s crisp volley just a couple of minutes later gave us the perfect start.

From that moment on there was only ever going to be one winner - and what a fantastic sight it is seeing the opposition forced into a double substitution within the opening ten minutes!

The lap of “honour” after the game was emotional as expected, but much to my surprise I managed to hold it together all afternoon. I thoroughly expected to be in tears either before or after the game, but my masculinity survived to fight another day and I’m putting that down as another victory.

I did have one nagging worry in the back of my mind on the way back to the County Hall car park though - what the hell are we going to next season without Dion and potentially no Ched, Hucks, Fozzy or Doc either?

With that in mind, now that our Championship status is secure Glenn Roeder has said he will be sitting down with all of the out-of-contract players to discuss the future.

The three most high-profile such players are obviously Darren Huckerby, Mark Fotheringham and Gary Doherty. In my opinion all three deserve new deals after their performances this season, all have made it pretty clear that they want to stay and I think at least two of them will probably still be here come August.

Come on Glenn, do the decent thing and get them signed on.

Delighted for Dion

I was absolutely delighted to see Dion pick up the Player of the Season award. At 39 years of age he has undoubtedly been our best player in the last two seasons and a joy to watch.

I could write about Dion for hours but people far more talented than me have already done that (and in case you’ve not read it yet you can read Alex’s tribute to Dion here), so I’ll keep it brief:

Thank you Dion. You have been a fantastic servant to the club in the time you have been with us, a real class act and a model professional for over 20 years. If that cheeky 50-yard effort had gone in on Saturday there is a real possibility that several roofing companies would now be busy working away at Carrow Road. Our loss is definitely Sky Sports’ gain.

And finally…

As I sat down to write this column the news came through that Aviva are to replace Flybe as club sponsors for the next three years in a deal described as being worth a “seven-figure sum” to the club and the new kit was launched.

It sounds like a good deal for the club so for my money it’s a good thing. Aviva are a large local company so on that score it sounds good all round but my first impression of the new kit is that it just looks a little too much like the last “Proton” strip we had with that funny collar thing. I’m sure it’ll grow on me though so I’m bound to be ordering it as soon as I can just like I always do.

Oh and that goalkeeper kit looks horrible. Can anyone remember the last time we had a “nice” kit? I’m struggling here…