John McCormick writes: I e-mailed Colin yesterday to say I wouldn’t be available to do much this weekend (what with birthdays, daughter flying in from the States, alcohol to be consumed, etc.) I nearly wasn’t around right from the start as everyone had left for the restaurant before the final whistle blew and I had to shut down various feeds, set the alarm, leg it to the meal, and so on. But I did get there in time and then, as one of the people at the party was just over 1 year old (Born on the day we did 5 in a row, as it happens) we had to leave early, which meant I got back earlier than expected. As a result I had time to log on and find the very personal letter our manager had sent to Colin, and which had been forwarded exclusively to me.
It was so good I just had to share it.
Dear Colin,
I’m absolutely shattered after that one. I’m so pleased we got the result as it would have been such a shame to have given such a fantastic fight back away.
We slipped up twice after giving two sloppy goals away, but then we had that stunning goal from Wahbi [Khazri] which thrilled everybody! It had the fans on their feet.
It was a sucker punch at half time but our recovery was magnificent; the players didn’t feel sorry for themselves and they came out in the second half and showed a real fighting spirit.
Having to come back twice and get the win really shows the character we’ve got in this team, it’s one hell of a result against one of the Premier League’s big boys.
It’s a great boost and it has put us in a great position, with our destiny back in our own hands.
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They were three very good goals; a change of tactics on 60 minutes where we put Fabio [Borini] in the hole and just gave Jermain [Defoe] that little bit of extra support, and they’ve both gone on and got a goal each. |
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Every man pulled together; we can enjoy it today, but tomorrow we have to start getting ready for Everton.
The fans were our twelfth man today, they cheered every pass, every tackle and at every goal they screamed for joy. We’re all enjoying the moment.
Hopefully we can play as well as we did today on Wednesday night and get the job done, it would be fantastic to do that in front of our home fans.
Keep the faith
Sam Allardyce
I might not be posting Pete’s report tomorrow. The party’s on:
Whatever happens , I want this man to be our manager next season . Sam , you know it makes sense !