I still have flashbacks to watching the ball bury itself in the net - genuinely one of the most shocking moments I've seen in sport.
Our support was immense in getting behind the team after the first couple of minutes of shared disbelief. I think it made the day more memorable.
So pleased for Dillon and Naby that we won.
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Was sitting there in shock for about 10 minutes thinking we’ve blown it on the big stage - but we grew into the game.
Unreal feeling when Pat scored, I had so many emotions!
Equalising before ore half time was sooo vital
Fresh from losing count of the pens vs Doncaster I also recall thinking I really must stop being so casual when witnessing Charlton history.
my head was distraught for Naby and more so Phillips, having met him at the training ground and seen first hand what a genuine nice lad he is , he got my two boys to have shots against him and signed his gloves and gave them to them (all off his own back) i just couldn’t have the game ending 1-0 cos that would be too cruel .
i was speechless for 10/15 minutes
the save he made shortly afterwards evened it out - and luckily for him it didn't cost us dear - Sunderland left there scoring boots at home.
As time went on I thought we must have at least one goal in us. Fortunately we did, really didn’t want to see the own goal win the game for Sunderland.
For about 10 minutes my thoughts were a mixture of "i hope we don't lose 1-0 to that goal" and "if they score a second here we're fucked".
Mate next to me was amazingly calm and confident and kept saying we'll be fine, it's better that we've gone 1 down as it'll ensure they keep their concentration. I wasn't as confident.
Getting back level before half time was absolutely vital though.
Sorted out in my head that if we did lose by one goal in the play off final, there was only one person getting the blame, and it wasn't Sarr or Phillips.
For most of the season we'd been a bunch of "part-timers" in that we rarely put in a superb 90-minute performance; it tended to be a wonderful half instead and mostly the second half. On the odd occasion we'd storm into the match, rip it to shreds in the first half, and then sit back in the second. We hadn't started like a house on fire so I guessed we had a comeback due in the second half.
In a way, the match resembled the game at The Valley in January where they scored in the opening minutes and bossed the opening section but by half-time we'd come back into it and the second half was mostly ours. The only difference was on that occasion we couldn't get a second.
It was also good that Dillon had a couple of good saves to make soon after to get his confidence back up. Unfortunately BeckenSarr was targeted by their players and they seemed to be struggling with the big unit's gravitational field as they kept being drawn to the ground whenever they got near him and the referee fell for it every time. If Lord Bowyer hadn't made the decision to bring on Pearce I think Naby would have been invited to make first use of the shower facilities.
Like Taylor I thought that was it though, after the goal we got proper nervous and for a good 20mins looked as though the players werent coping with the occasion
But like others, I wasn't in despair. I just wanted them not to panic, and not to concede another before half -time. I could see that, as a Mackem had told me, they had sod all up front while we had Lyle.