Great to see the win today, even if it sounds like we were a tad lucky. Who knows, we might even make the play-offs.
Sitting here watching the Norwich v Liverpool game, however, brought into sharp relief my expectations (or lack of) about what I would see if we did go up.
Significant investment in players ? Ground redevelopment ? New investors brought in ? Better track record on fan inclusivity and communications ( we are ranked 91st out of the 92 league clubs in a recent survey ) ?
Norwich is a city of 132,000 population, about half the size of Medway. Today we hosted Doncaster and got a crowd of just over 4500. Norwich's fantastic redeveloped Carrow Road stadium was full to capacity ( 27500 ), absolutely rocking and watching a side play that includes homegrown talent like Cantwell, a 21-year old who was born and went to school in Dereham, about 5 miles from where I'm sitting.
Why can they do this and we can't ? It's certainly not because the are owned by some rich oligarch or potentate. The club has 8,000 issues shares and the majority but by no means all, are owned by TV cook Delia Smith and her husband. Now good old 'lets be 'avin yer' Delia is a wealthy lady but her estimated worth in total (£36 million ) wouldn't buy a half share of just one of the top Liverpool players.
Norwich will probably lose tonight and almost certainly get relegated come the season's end but each and every one of the kids I saw today in their Norwich shirts, their mums and dads, brothers, sisters and best mates will be talking for weeks about seeing the European and World club champions at their place.The club enjoys fanatical support, a really high and positive local profile with the media, business and full cooperation from the local authority.
I know why I believe GFC will never enjoy this level of football, success and popularity and it can be summed up in four initials. PDPS.