Well since Kyle and Rob have done it, I thought I'd join in with posting about a Toon matchday and I've chosen to look back on another game in 2017-18 season and my favourite one of that season - the final day 3-0 win against Chelsea.
Because metro love to do works on their lines north of the Tyne on Toon matchdays, I had to get a replacement bus into town and as usual, headed straight into the ground but did appear in James Sharkey's match vlog and gave my prediction of a 2-1 win. Despite us losing four games in a row, I felt confident with our home record against Chelsea, our encouraging display in the narrow loss at Tottenham Hotspur four days earlier and their 1-1 home draw against Huddersfield Town on the same night, leaving them needing a win and realistically, Brighton to pull off a shock win away to Liverpool if they were to pip the Reds to Champions League football. Coincidentally, if that somehow happened, the Seagulls would've also finished above us. That and the fact that Antonio Conte was very likely to leave left me with the feeling that their focus was on the following weekend's FA Cup final.
We also had a top half finish to play for and despite Kenedy being ineligible to play against his parent club, we were the better team from start to finish as Jonjo Shelvey and Mohamed Diame bossed the midfield, as they had been since February. After they both forced Thibaut Courtois into saves, Matt Ritchie's cross found Jacob Murphy, who had a shot cleared off the line by the Belgian but it was an easy finish for Dwight Gayle. We deserved our half time but Olivier Giroud, who scored against us eight times during his Arsenal career, came close to scoring a spectacular equaliser early in the second half but Martin Dubravka produced yet another magnificent save in his last game before inevitably joining permanently from Sparta Prague. Six minutes later and we doubled our advantage as Jonjo Shelvey's long range effort was back-heeled into the Gallowgate net to double our advantage.
Eden Hazard's cross found Ross Barkley, who had a good chance to score his sixth career goal against us but was denied by Dubravka. Shortly afterwards, our third and final goal came from a Shelvey free-kick, which was left by an offside Jamaal Lascelles for centre-back partner Florian Lejeune to set up Perez for his second goal of the afternoon. The final whistle confirmed that we had earned a top half finish despite only around £30m being spent the previous summer as we beat Crystal Palace on goal difference to 10th place (had they won by two more goals against West Bromwich Albion, they would've pipped us on goals scored) and the end of season lap of honour was something special, especially in the beautiful sunshine.
After the game, I went on the channel's fan cams and expressed my joy over the day and the season as a whole. Afterwards, I went to the Goose, a very popular venue for me to go after home games, with some friends that also have disabilities and then to the Five Swans. When I took the replacement bus back home, it was certainly a happy journey for me, especially seeing the sun set on an excellent campaign for us, there's just something about the final day of the season that makes winning all the more sweeter and to be fair, our last five final day games have all been memorable occasions.
I ignored the statement put out by Mike Ashley after the game and just enjoyed the win and Match of The Day that night. What followed was a summer to remember as England reached the World Cup semi-finals in the first men's international tournament where I was allowed to buy alcohol and the night we finally won a penalty shoot-out in a World Cup and the day we beat Sweden 2-0 in scorching weather were just completely memorable before the semi-final heartbreak against Croatia.