Last week I was sat in Mid air on route back from Portugal. It was a pleasant and peaceful flight. Winning is a great feeling but when it's the FA Cup and you've beaten a team two leagues higher than you on their home patch its even more special. You have to savour these moments as they don't come around often and in some cases never. I on the other hand am very lucky, someone's been looking down on me.
Two weeks ago we beat Championship side Hull City 1-0 to put ourselves in the 5th Round of the Cup. This is the second consecutive season that we've made the last 16. Last year people may have said it was lucky but you can't say that anymore. If you were at the KC Stadium then you would have agreed that the better team won. The feeling after the final whistle was amazing. Our fans were terrific throughout the whole game and the boys showed our appreciation by celebrating with them. For the last 10 minutes of the game it was a nervy period as Hull tried their best to get an equaliser. As a player you do keep thinking in the back of your head please don't score. Every time you looked at the clock to see how long's left it felt like it's moving in slow motion, every minute that passes feels like 10, it reminded me of when I was in school looking at the hands of the clock ticking away counting the seconds of every minute until class finished just so I could go and play football in the lunch break! I can imagine every Crawley supporter had no finger nails left by the final whistle. We did it, the lads gave their all. In the changing room after the Gaffer said his bit and then the boys had a chill out to soak up the moment. Hull had laid on some food for the lads after which is rare these days so as you can imagine we didn't leave a crumb spare. Ice bags were passed around for the lads that had picked up some bumps and bruises which is the norm after every game.
A few of the lads know I like to catch everything on camera so they like to hammer me a bit for banter but pics like these are more than worth it ;)
The 4 hour journey home is always better when you've won...
And I couldn't resist putting this video of the Salsa King himself Sergio Torres showing us how the real Latinos do it...
The past few weeks have been a busy period for us. We've travelled many miles starting with Bristol Rovers 2 weeks ago, followed by Plymouth Argyle, then last week the FA Cup game. This week we've had a treat to switch off. We arrived back from Hull last Saturday night and then Sunday 2pm we were 30,000 feet in the sky on route to Portugal. Some people may of thought it was a reward for reaching the 5th Round but actually the Gaffer had planned the trip months ago. We did the same last season and it's a great way to relax from the busy period we've had. It is hard being away from your families but that's always been part and parcel of a footballers life. It definitely hasn't been a holiday out here but its been enjoyable. We trained as normal as we would of back home but with the bonus of having facilities like this to train at...
It's also a good way to help some of our new signings settle in as we are with each other 24/7. Aside from training we've been having a good chill out. The table tennis has had it's fair share of usage with Scott Shearer and Pablo Mills winning their fair share. Seeing John or should I say 'Job' Akinde in the pool was a funny sight. I say Job as the lads grabbed his passport and found out that is his real name ha ha. I as usual couldn't help but play a few practical jokes to keep the time ticking by. I also managed to get a sneaky photo of this fine chaps passport pic without him knowing ;)
Like I said it's been a busy schedule and it doesn't stop here. I originally wrote this on Thursday 2nd February after our Portugal trip, we landed at Gatwick in the afternoon but then had to pack our bags again to travel to Bradford City the next day ahead of our game Saturday. We've put in some mileage recently and I have missed my girls but I do love my life and wouldn't change it for the world. I appreciate how lucky I am and I'm making sure I remember it...
