Bristol City Win Promotion to the Championship! 5th May, 2007

On the morning of the game I had received a text message from Jonny asking me to film the pitch invasion. Given that we needed to win the game to assure automatic promotion I spent the rest of the morning convinced that he had jinxed us.

By the time I arrived at the Gate, I was a nervous wreck. I've seen City throw away promotion too many times over the last eight years to believe that beating relegated Rotherham was simply a formality. The atmosphere inside the Gate was electric, yet somehow tense.

I filmed the teams' arrival onto the pitch, and should apologise for the camera-wobble, which was purely a reflection of the amount of adrenaline pumping through my body. Towards the end of the clip, the guy who sits behind me leant over and asked: "Are you keeping this up next season, getting here before kick-off?"



I should explain that the guy that sits behind me suffers from Tourettes syndrome, and tends to mutter "F***ing B**tard" quite a lot under his breath, as a kind of deep grunt. He's also recently taken to patting me on the back really very hard whenever City score.

Anyway, somehow having him mock me for my punctuality helped to calm my nerves slightly, combined with the fact that the stadium was crammed with 19200 Bristol City fans shouting their heads off. Rotherham didn't quite sell their allocation of 300 tickets, and in a bid to get more Red shirts into the stadium we stuck the Rotherham fans in the corner of the East End, behind a pillar, in the darkness...



Which meant City fans were cheering on their team from all four ends of the ground...



Of course, taking the lead after seven minutes also helped calm those nerves. In fact, I went completely mental. After jumping up and down screaming for a good 20 seconds I turned to the people either side of me, as clearly this warranted a "hug a random stranger" moment. Unfortunately they were already busy hugging each other, but before I had a chance to react I was bear-hugged from behind and then lifted up and down off the ground four or five times.

I'm not sure if that really counted as a 'hug', but I figured it would have to do.

Having regained my composure I still managed to film the team returning for the kick-off.

Just before halftime my back took another battering as we took a 2-0 lead, and when we made it 3-0 in the second half it soon became clear it was City's day after all. It's very rare to see the entire crowd singing in unison at Ashton Gate, as I'm sure Jonny will vouch for, but it happened regularly that afternoon...

Action and Chants

I actually missed Rotherham's consolation goal. Completely! I was texting the various people I had promised updates, and didn't even hear the handful of Rotherham fans' cheering. No matter.

Stand up if you're going up!

Finally the ref put the whistle to his mouth to end the game, and then promptly legged it, as the pitch quickly became a sea of red...





Around fifteen minutes after the end of the game, an announcement came over the tannoy that some of the players still hadn't made it back to the dressing room. A couple then appeared on people's shoulders near the halfway line, completely stripped, and gradually made their way through the hoards.



Meanwhile all the usual classics were being belted out...

Hi Ho Bristol City!

Drink Up Ye Cider!



Eventually I made my way onto the pitch in time for the players to appear at the director's box.



Where they did a lot of jumping around, and took it in turns on the mic to make silly noises, and start chants.





Eventually at half past five, I made my way out of the stadium, and was amazed that there were still a group of about twenty Rotherham fans in their seats clapping the city fans out of the ground. Nutters!



Bring on the Championship! (and not before time)