Tell me how you can support anyone else

Andy Townsend famously claimed that Carragher had pulled “both his groins” in Istanbul which is impressive in itself but to have a whole team with sixty three games in their legs go and do that because they had to is beyond words. Had we lost 3-2 we would have shrugged, scowled at UEFA for putting us in the qualifiers and got on with it. Fortunately the eleven men on the pitch prefer medals to excuses and no matter how tired they are there's always a gargantuan effort in the locker somewhere.

You have to believe, Richard. You have to believe.

So said Phil Thompson when the hairy hands man asked him if there was any way back at half time last May. Those words became a mantra outside the ground to the thousands of ticketless fans and later when the injury time board came up. We do believe. We dream, knowing that the impossible occurs when you never give up. This is an element we lost in the early nineties and, at times, under Houllier but now it's back in spades. At 0-2 I was wondering who would score our winner. We're a strange breed sometimes.

A word too about West Ham. Staying behind to applaud our lap of honour when others might have ran to the station is an act of genuine class. That made my day. Pardew replacing his strikers with strikers rather than going with defenders was a bold and impressive move and it nearly paid off. It was a privilege to play against their players and drink with their fans. If only some of their London counterparts had the same ethics.

Such a great day. David Moores gave me a thumbs up as the coach went past as did Phil Neal later that day. Gary Mac walking past, the Rafatollah, Whelan and Aldridge, Chris De Burgh (!), Ian Rush, Trevor Brooking and Ray Winstone, the fake European Cup, the flags, the banners, the City Arms, the stewards for letting me in to see the trophy being raised, our fans shaking my hand before they went in, the banners, the songs, the flying footballs, the wit, the bonhomie, the match.

How could you support anyone else?