Connect with us

Match Reports

We have lived the impossible dream

1007861-16334446-640-360I was only seven years old when we lost the league to West Ham in 1995 and I remember shedding bitter, youthful tears as the title slipped by.

My dad told me not to worry, “Fergie will be there next season,” he said and “we’ll win something next season, United always move on.”

He was right, of course, for the flurry of trophies was unheard of, even for the club’s immensely high standards.

Today, though, marked the last day of its kind. The last time Sir Alex would stroll on the pitch, the last time he’d address his trademark fist-pump to the Stretford End, the last time he would sit in the dugout from where he masterminded many a triumph.

I had dreaded the moment he’d walk out of the tunnel for the last time, the second when a week worth of talk would finally hit home and made me realise, brutally and undeniably, that the man who had shaped my whole life was to step down from his job at Manchester United.

I had dreaded it and I felt tears rolling down my cheeks as he emerged from the tunnel for the last time, humbled from the reception the crowd had reserved him for he was, as usual, eager to get on with the game.

Paul Scholes’ last appearance would normally have been a good enough reason to feel misty-eyed, but today even the retirement of the finest English midfielder of the last 30 years played second fiddle to Sir Alex.

I barely registered Hernandez’s opener, as he dispatched a mis-cleared ball into the net with customary coolness, nor I was too upset when Michu netted a wonderful equaliser just after the restart.

As Anderson replaced Scholes, Old Trafford erupted – a fitting tribute to one of United’s finest player ever – before Rio Ferdinand ensured Sir Alex’s last game at home was a successful one as he converted Robin Van Persie’s corner.

Normally I would look forward to Fergie’s end of the season speech, but today it felt like a sentence. An era has come to an end and a new one is about to start and, as Sir Alex reminded us, we should all get behind David Moyes.

As the players lifted the trophy, I felt tears streaming down my cheeks and I thought of what my dad had told me 18 years ago.

He was right, United always move on. But today even he would have shed a tear.

Thanks for making the impossible dream come true, Alex.

Dan (@MUFC_dan87)