The aftermath, how good it feels to be one of the Rebel Army

Two days gone by now and every minute of Thursday night is still as vivid as if it were unfolding in front of me again.

There have been some very defining moments for me though over the past couple of days that really hit home what we have done for the Club and football in general in this country. Such as.........:

- At work on Friday people were coming up to me ALL morning congratulating me (you'd swear I'd been playing) on an incredible performance and, quote, "What an atmosphere. Is it always like that" etc. I don't know about the rest of the country but all of Cork seemed to have tuned into this one. Can't wait to see the viewing figures.

- The amount of people who said they went but were not regulars, but had a blast was fantastic. Many said it was the best night they have ever had at any match/sport.

- The number of people who regularly go to Engurland to support their "local teams" but admitted that Thursday matched anything over there for passion and atmosphere was brilliant.

- The emotion shown by all of us at the final whistle..............summed it all up. Non regulars just looked at us as they walked out past us and smiled, but they began to understand what it means to us and that this is the real McCoy.

- The most important one however, is the amount of good will we got from fans from all the other Clubs around the country. Those who made the effort to come to the game and those who followed it from home. A special mention (did I ever think I'd say something like this) to $hels fans who have been incredibly gracious on their own site ............ I almost shed a tear they were gushing over us so much.

To all "Thank you".

ROLL ON MONDAY NIGHT

Ye are flying the flag for yourselves, and the entire League and when ye play in Europe most of the genuine EL supporters are right behind ye. I wish Damien and all the players continued success in Europe.

In past years I travelled to watch ye play Cwmbran Town in 1993/94
Standard Liege in 1997/98 and Lausanne in I think it was 2000/01 .

I was not in a position to travel this season, but hope to watch ye in Europe again at some future point.in the Cross ... if I can get a ticket :D

i had loads of people coming up to me in work yesterday too, saying it looked claass on telly and that they'd go to the next game, even my boss who i've spoken about two words to was suddenly my best friend when it came to the game..

even walking through wilton yesterday i stopped and talked about tht game to a few people, in th queue for the atm two guys behind me were talking about it and the amount of city shirts about was unbelievable, we outnumbered any foreign jeresy 10 to 1.

in the pub last night people were talking to me about it, people i didnt really know but we chatted like old mates and then proceeded to get blind drunk together, i got texts from friends in dublin.. it's just unbelievable..

also, a lot of people commented that i was "beaming" all day yesterday... i fcukin was too!

in fact i still am!! :)

I've certainly noticed that the new jerseys are the in thing in Cork, like :)

Wife's best friend recently asked for a tip for a good game to go to. I said don't miss the Djurgarden game. But she had some high falluting ladies golf game on, and went to that instead.
She's sorry now. Even her golf friends are talking about City. :D
P.S. she has put the remaining home fixtures in her diary.

Even the haven of barstoolers where I work was talking about the game on Friday.
A few people were very eager to talk to me about the game, the Cross, upcoming games etc.
I reckon a few will come along Monday night to see whats going on.
One great thing happened though.
At breakfast, a died in the wool Everton fan, from the Liverpool suburb of Togher...:rolleyes:, said something to me along the lines of "I hope we get you in the draw, we'll show your pub team what football is". Quite a few people told him to cop himself on, and one guy( a Manure fan) asked him "how could he support an English team against our own".
Couldn't believe that, a small breakthrough, but a significant one!

Its amazing, it really is. You walk around Cork nowadays, anywhere- city centre, suburbs, anywhere, and you see kids (and plenty of adults) wearing City jersies. I was collecting a friend of mine in town the other day, and he'd taken a walk up pana (patrick st for ye non-corkonians) and he did a head count on the number of city jersies versus english jersies all the way up- he said that city jersies outnumbered Man Utd jersies 5 to 1, and this was before the djurgardens game! Every housing estate you drive past now, there's kids out playing ball wearing City jersies, not Man Utd or Celtic or Liverpool etc. Its brilliant. Supporting City is now seen as the cool thing to do, and the future of this club is in great shape if this keeps up.

I work in an off-licence, and I was working all weekend after the djurgardens game, and the number of people who stopped to talk to me about it was just amazing. The buzz in the city is fantastic

If its like this now. Imagin what it will be like if we win the League. Sports Shops will run out of City jersey's. That would be something else.