Keeping The Dream Alive

There are some things you just never expect to see in your lifetime. Peace in Northern Ireland was a classic one from my childhood. The Lib Dems in government was a more recent pipe-dream. And of course I was suitably surprised when each of these things eventually came to pass, but if you'd told me at three o'clock this afternoon that my humble football club would, within the space of seventy-odd minutes, be three-nil up on the turf of one of the best footballing sides in Europe, in all honesty, I would have had you sectioned.

As it was, I struggled not to ring up the mental health hotline and declare myself insane as I watched Peter Odemwingie score our first, Gonzalo Jara smash home a second, and Jerome Thomas make it an incredible three. In spite of a spirited Arsenal comeback, we clung on for the points. In twenty-one years of watching West Bromwich Albion, there are few performances or results that have left me as dazed and gobsmacked as this one.

The photo itself is terrible; I know that. My hands were still shaking when I took it, even though the match had ended half an hour earlier. But the looks on the faces of Gonzo, Brunty and Quick Feet Pete speak volumes about what today meant to me and tens of thousands of other Baggies. Our stars in stripes have done us proud, and for tonight at least, the sky's the limit.