Dreams are made of this

Today was the fifth best day of my life - after my wedding and the birth of my three children (I'm contractually obliged to say that!)

I've followed Manchester City since the mid-1960s when my dad used to take me along to Maine Road, park me in the Kippax Street stand and hope I'd be bitten by the blue bug.

City last won England's top prize in 1968, when I was still a bit young to realise the significance. It was the season afterwards that I first truly appreciated the marvellous talents of players like Lee, Bell and Summerbee.

Well, today City were crowned kings of England for the first time since those heady days.

And although phenomenal demand for tickets meant I missed out on a seat at the match, I was in Manchester to savour the atmosphere with hundreds of ticketless fans who watched at a pub directly alongside the Etihad Stadium.

It was a mad, mad place packed to the rafters with excited, raucous fans belting out all the songs at ear-splitting volume.

And it was the most nerve-shredding roller-coaster ride as City scored twice in injury time to take the title. An explosion of deafening cheers and roars greeted Sergio Aguero's winner and we danced and hugged complete strangers as the final whistle went.

As we were so close to the stadium, my quick-witted friend suggested we sneaked into the ground after the final whistle.

As you can see in the photo, we managed to see some of the lap of honour from the lower tier.

We then celebrated in Manchester city centre with thousands of fans before returning to Bristol.

I've dreamed of the day a City captain would lift this trophy for so many years. Today it finally came true.