Burton’s Banter: Robin Hood celebrations exposed

We’ve all been there. That moment when a girl flashes a truck full of beery blokes while they crawl down Front Street boisterously showing off the Corona League trophy.

What? Never experienced that? Well, take it from me, you’ve missed out. Girls, that includes you, because I’m positive it was the highlight of her night as well.

Two hours earlier on Friday night, Robin Hood and Flanagan’s Onions were 2-2 at BAA, with Hood needing a win to lift the title and league leaders Flanagan’s requiring only a draw.

Personally, I had just been brought off, having managed to rack up more fouls than completed passes. It did mean, however, I had the pleasure of listening more intently to the Hood fans – yup, that night we had fans – taunt Flanagan’s with the poetic ‘you’re blue, you’re white, your team is full of…… rubbish’. Or something like that.

In short, Hood then won a penalty and Gary ‘Sting’ Ray planted it past the keeper. Flanagan’s poured forward but found an inspired keeper – who we’ll simply call ‘Beast’ – in their way and Hood held on to win the league in dramatic circumstances.

Sometimes you aren’t really in control of your actions — like when you’re skydiving, on a rollercoaster or when you find yourself marching off to Mr Chicken at 3:30am. Well, this was another such time. At the final whistle all the players on the sidelines ran on to the pitch faster than any of us managed in the previous 17 games to… well, jump on each other, basically.

Now I was lucky enough to be in Napoli as a young boy when they won the Serie A in 1990. The city was shut down, everyone jumped on their scooters and in their cars to beep their horns, shout and generally wave their flags.

So it wasn’t quite like that but the journey back to Robin Hood after the match was the closest I’ll ever come to emulating the Italians. To the few unfortunate drivers caught up in the mayhem, we  apologise.

‘Let’s go ******* Front Steet’ is now a certified entry into the Robin Hood club songbook. Like the team, the song’s aim was clear. And like the team, it delivered. We all jumped in the truck and did two (very slow) laps. All I can say is everyone out that night was left in no doubt who we were and what we had won. The good people in Port O’ Call spluttered into their gin and tonics; the good people in the Beach cheered us on; and the good people outside Flanagan’s… well, anyway.

At the end of the night one team got to act like fools on a truck with a giant blow-up Corona bottle, the other was left genuinely gutted. The match was hard but fair, and the spirit of both teams was superb, a testament to the two clubs and the atmosphere fostered by the league as a whole.

It was grassroots sport at its best. Teams going that extra mile for one another, friends and club-mates coming out to support, good banter and handshakes at the end.

You can bet everyone will be back next season to do it all again. And to the girl on Front Street, from all the lads at Robin Hood Football Club, we thank you.

Some of you may think I blurred some of the facts of Friday night after a swizzle, I mean Corona, too many. Well here’s a link to prove at least some of it did happen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDiawKb8EeI Parental guidance advised for bad language.