THE STRETFORD END ROAR
Adam Marshall: Referee Pierluigi Collina famously likened the United fans’ celebrations in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final to a lion’s roar.
Having been part of that spectacle, there is also something very special, and unique, about seeing Old Trafford reverberate to the sound of unbridled joy and chaos, in response to a big goal.
I know we have to retain some degree of respectability in the press box but there are times when emotion simply gets the better of you.
What I noticed on Sunday was the fact there was something of a prolonged reaction to Benjamin Sesko’s winner. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why but, after the initial sound to acknowledge the strike finding the net, there was prolonged noise and then, in my mind, a second big roar.
It was hard to tell from my vantage point whether this was in relation to the players’ celebrations, which were pretty wild, but it was too early to pre-empt the absolute confirmation that the goal was going to count and there would be no VAR intervention or delay. I also don’t really see how there was any pause for parts of the ground to acknowledge the goal.
To me, it just felt like it was an outpouring of a bit of relief in the way we had responded to adversity and surrendering a commanding two-goal lead. In the 180 seconds that separated Kevin’s howitzer and Seko’s effort, so many things raced through my mind, an extraordinary amount when I later realised it was only that short period of time.
A lot of it was of a professional nature. The whole week ahead, without a game until Spurs come to Old Trafford on Saturday, but also the sadness in not being able to secure a third successive win, when we had done so much to warrant it.
So, all things considered, it felt like a burst of elation to see the shot hit the net but then a second dopamine hit when registering that, after all, the winning run, and all that it means under Michael Carrick, was continuing after all.
Our head coach was right to acknowledge the unique buzz of a Stretford End winner in injury time. Surely nothing could possibly ever match the thrill of witnessing the Treble at the Nou Camp but losing yourself in that moment, at our brilliant spiritual home, is precisely why we are so utterly devoted and addicted to United and the game.
