Hello and welcome to my last blog of the 2009/10 season.
Well, what a weekend that was! It was a tense one for us all but we got the result we needed.
We were on the bench and getting updates from the other games, which were changing from one minute to the next. One minute Exeter were down, then it was Gillingham but at no point were we down which was good.
When I went on to the pitch with about twenty minutes to go, I knew that a point would have been good enough for us.
There was a tackle or something that meant there was a break in the play and Ritchie Humphreys came back from talking to someone on the touchline and he was motioning for us to go forward and I thought that meant we needed to score.
When I got closer to him though, he was saying we needed the point and to keep it in the corner.
With five minutes to go, I got the ball in the left channel and I could have gone for goal but when I looked up there were three defenders and the keeper between me and the goal so I went to the corner - I didn't want to risk the point. In that situation, the corner flag was definitely more appealing. I think a bit of experience kicked in there, going for safety instead of the glory of scoring a goal.
The fans were brilliant all day for us - they even kept singing through half time.
They went from singing 'we are staying up' to going quiet and then singing it again as they heard the other scores coming in.
I know the circumstances were really tough but to get that kind of support was great and it was really appreciated by the boys.
The lads on the pitch deserve credit as well because everyone worked their socks off from start to finish to make sure we got that point at least.
It has been a long season for me, not necessarily in terms of football with the injuries I've had but mentally I've had to be on it all the time.
At no time did we know we would be safe so I have been trying to get fit to make sure I was available and the Exeter goal was crucial.
I scored a couple of goals at the start of the year and then with the injury I felt like I hadn't contributed as much but then the goal against Exeter ended up being very crucial.
It felt very good to get back in there and I must say a big thank you to Buster (Ian Gallagher), James (Haycock) and Alex (Seward) for getting me back in time to play.
At one point it looked like I might not be fit until the end of the season but the work we did paid off and I came back in time to play in a couple of the games.
We've all done our final testing now and that's when the season is really over and done with.
I am back in Cork now and will have a couple of days off seeing family and friends and then I'll get away for a few days. Then it will be a case of getting back training hard for next year.
Next season is huge for the Club - the nucleus we have is very good and I'm sure we'll add a couple of players in there.
Hopefully I will get a good full year next year, injury free and we can all show that we are better than our finish showed last season.
The fans have been very good to me this year and hopefully they will still be as nice next and get behind us all - they played a huge part at Brentford and having that kind of support behind us is a big boost.
Finally, I hope you all have a good summer and a good rest and are ready for the new season in August.
I'll be back with my next blog early in pre season so if you have any questions, email them in to media@hartlepoolunited.co.uk.
Denis
