OH YOU lucky people, it’s Easter and you’re all off work. But I’m not jealous. In fact, I’m delighted to be working all over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Me and my Brighton team-mates, along with the majority of every other player and coach in the Championship, will face D-Day not Easter Day.
After an epic weekend, we now go again in a run of games over the next four days which could well decide promotion to the Premier League.
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As if that wasn’t nail-biting enough, the way TV people have cleverly chosen the fixtures, you will be able to watch most of the drama unfold as it happens.
Huddersfield, who have been incredible this season under David Wagner, are up first at home to Preston.
At five, we’re live on TV at Wolves followed by Newcastle at home to Leeds on the box.
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In some ways, it’s hard to believe that it has come down to the wire with games so hard on the heels of others, where the slightest error can make the difference between going up and the play-offs.
We travelled up to the Midlands last night knowing that a win this evening will take us a big step closer to our dream of playing top-flight football next season.
The mood among our group is much more calm than you might imagine. It’s certainly nothing like the madness of last Friday night at QPR.
I doubt anyone with even the slightest interest in the Championship would have missed our superb win and last 20 minutes against Ian Holloway’s vastly-improved side.
At 2-0 up, we looked in control and heading for three points. But we lost the height and leadership of Lewis Dunk at half-time and, after QPR scored, they came at us like it was the Alamo.
Fair play to them, they gave everything they had to get a result and I hope that reminds people just what an honest and difficult competition the Championship is.
When we went to the away end to applaud our fans at the final whistle, I’m sure they knew we felt we’d taken another huge step to achieving our goal.
What we didn’t know then was that, as we recovered from our efforts on Saturday, both our closest rivals would lose — leaving us on top and so close to promotion.
People might tell you that they ignore other teams’ games and results because ‘it’s all about us and how we play’.
Not for me or most of the people in football I know.
You also may think that we celebrate when our rivals lose but that’s not true either.
We all know that the football boot could be on the other foot in a heartbeat — and my reaction was simply to reset my mind and focus on what we now need to do at Brighton.
And so to this evening and the improving team that is Wolves.
Come kick-off, we will know other scores and know that Newcastle must respond to ours.
However that turns out, we also know our home game against Wigan on Monday will be just as important — if not more so.
Crack those chocolate eggs people and enjoy your Easter weekend. I’m hoping for a cracker of my own over the holiday . . .
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