As 2006 comes to an end, it gives me great pleasure to trawl through my memories of the greatest year of my life so far....
I awoke on the first day of January in Edinburgh and with a stinking hangover. The Cobblers had lost the local derby to Peterborough the day before and meant that I didn't feel as guilty as I could have done about choosing a new year in Scotland rather than the Town-Boro derby! I had no idea what a great year it was about to be...
January saw Jamie's 21st birthday and a night that shouldn't be repeated anywhere, especially after the bits I didn't know were revealed last week in a "let's embarress each other with funny stories" game at Dave's flat! So I won't say anything about that I'm afraid.
February saw Dave's surprise party at the Soul Cellar and he was suitably surprised, especially after throwing Marti her own surprise party the night before!
March included a completely useless "careers day" in Cardiff that helped us in the way that we found out that to work in Wales you must be welsh or speak it. More vital information from that day was that Newport's guildhall looks exactly the same as Southampton's!
Into April and the Cobblers were in the promotion mix. A win at Oxford on a glorious sunny day meant that victory the following week at Sixfields against Chester would secure us a place in League One. Plans were laid out for a celebration back in Southampton should we manage the win.
And so to April 29th, 2006, one of the days of the year. A nervy Sixfields Tavern awaited, my uncle came to a football game for the first time in 40 years and after a Scott McGleish goal, we hung on for a 1-0 win, sparking incredible scenes at Sixfields. Colin Calderwood burst into song on the micraphone, the players sprayed champaigne everywhere and Martin Smith was carried off the pitch by jubilant Town fans. Back in the Tavern, we found out that Rushden and Diamonds had been relegated on the same day. More champaign was popped by fans as the Tavern partied hard.
I had to leave the celebrations early to be able to pick them up again in Southampton and we discovered the glorious Frog and Frigate near Ocean Village, a venue that we continue to frequent after the party of April 29th.
There was no time to recover and as May approached, so too did the final hand in date for dissertations and more reasons to celebrate. I decided against a final day of the season trip to Grimsby in favour of the Summer Ball. In Cleethorpes, Ryan Gilligan's goal in injury time meant that Grimsby faced the playoffs while we confirmed a 2nd place finish in League Two. Meanwhile, we partied away (again) this time at the Guildhall and finished off university life (for now).
June meant that the World Cup was upon us and the Walkabout pub in Southampton hosted most of our drunken trips through narrow England wins and a nervy route to the second round. Ecuador awaited and it was back to the Walkabout with a 1-0 win meaning that England were back in the Quarter Finals and also sparked the fantastic celebrations with a plastic football up the high street, a chance meeting with a "Bo Selecta" version of Craig David and a chance to hold a wooden world cup! It was up to London for the quarter finals for Jamie's BBQ but as we all know it was another penalty shoot out exit for England in the year that it was meant to be ours.
The football continued into July as pre season began and John Gorman replaced the Nottingham Forest-bound Colin Calderwood as Cobblers boss. The World Cup had got me raring for the new season to start and with a new job also starting things were looking up as we headed into the second half of 2006...
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