Being a Barnsley FC fan has never been easy, in fact, sometimes its almost impossible. Today, however, was almost unbearable!
You see, today was the last day of the season (other than the Premiership) and we needed to win today's game against Huddersfield Town to stay in the Championship. A draw would be enough provided Peterborough lost. As a Barnsley fan, it's not unusual to have to rely on other teams to help us stay up - the bottom half of the table is familiar territory to us at this stage of the season.
After last week's win against Hull (the team in second place in the table) hopes were high but I'll admit, the nerves were jangling somewhat.
So, after a morning shopping, we settled in front of the TV with Jeff Stelling and co. Unable to sit still for the first ten minutes, I paced the floor, got out the laptop, thought about doing some washing up, anything to get rid of the nervous energy that had taken over me. Until, fourteen minutes in, a goal had been scored. Crossing over the commentator at the John Smith Stadium, home of Huddersfield Town, it shown that Barnsley had drawn first blood. Cue crazy lady being unleashed. I started bouncing round the living room shouting "COME ON" and "GET IN" repeatedly. My neighbours are so lucky to have such a quiet placid lady living next door.
The rest of the first half went by with little event. Commentary suggested that we had the better half, with the majority of possession and the best chances, but no further goals were scored.
The came the second half. While we were still winning, all was good. Peterborough were drawing but this didn't affect us as we only needed to win. All was going swimmingly until Jeff Stelling announced they were going back to the John Smith Stadium. Ian Dowie broke the news that Huddersfield had scored - "BUGGER!" That put us back in the relegation zone. This was not good. Especially when Peterborough scored and were now winning!
It was a tense twenty minutes (it felt like hours). Then they handed back over to Ian Dowie and I hid behind my hands until I head that Jason Scotland had come to Barnsley's rescue. Were were 2-1 up with 16 minutes of normal time left. Once again crazy lady had entered the building. My other half was amused, I was now bouncing around the living room like Tigger of speed!
The euphoria lasted all of ten minutes. Huddersfield scored in the 81st minute, signing out death warrant once again.
This was it. I was close to tears at this point. No two ways about it, we were going to be playing League One football next season. I had managed to keep the faith all season, even through out worst patch before we got a new manager, but there come a point when you have to face facts.
I had my wine glass at the ready. I was ready to drown my sorrows with a bottle of dry white. Then news came through the Crystal Palace had scored. This meant Peterborough were losing and had taken out place in the bottom three. It took a while for it to sink in. Cue Crazy Kerry again! This time I could not sit down, I was pacing the floor, I was jumping up and down, I was singing. The other half - a Manchester United fan - was still laughing at me (these Man Utd fans don't understand what every other team goes through!).
The final whistle went in our match. It looked like we were staying up provided Crystal Palace could hold onto their lead until their final whistle! It was an agonising couple of minutes. Then, just as I was about to spontaneously combust, the final whistle was blown. Peterborough were down and we had survived by the skin of out teeth! I upped the craziness and I think only dogs would have heard me at one point!
The last day of the season is always eventful, but I think I went through almost every emotion possible today.
I'm off to lie in a dark room for a few hours!
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