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Celebrate good times

It's great to have Steve's £10 Celebration back

Last updated: 18th November 2009

After talking politics for a little bit, we started talking Derby... It was interesting to hear him explain just how important the football club is to the town. And how well supported the club is. "We could put 11 bin bags on the pitch and we'd still get 20,000" he told me.

Max Rushden
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I was very excited that Steve's celebration returned to Soccer AM last week. It was one of my favourite bits of the show. And it has the added excitement of watching the goals and seeing who, if anyone, has done it.

And it makes watching the goals a little more interesting. I reckon most lower league fans will understand what I'm talking about here. My team are in the Conference. So I care about the Conference.

I want to know exactly how close (or not) we are to the play-off spots, and if we're going to lose for the third year in a row in the final at Wembley.

I want to be in League Two. But right now I honestly couldn't care less about it. The same goes for League One. If and when Cambridge get back there, then that is all I will care about.

But until then, sometimes I lose track of who's in what division, until suddenly Norwich play Southampton and it's in League One. And it just doesn't look right. Or I meet, say a Sheffield United fan, and only then realise that it's weird they're doing so badly.

My interest in other divisions is punctuated by the randomness of who my friends support. So I always look for Torquay, cos of Helen, Bristol City (my mate Ian), Luton (my mate Matt), and Spurs (my Dad). But after that, I quickly forget exactly who's where, and who's doing well for who, and how important all of these clubs actually are.

Derby

I met a Derby fan the other day, who incidentally used to work for the Government.

He wasn't a spy. He was a political aid or something. But after talking politics for a little bit, we started talking Derby. And although maybe subconsciously I knew this anyway, it was interesting to hear him explain just how important the football club is to the town and how well supported the club is.

"We could put 11 bin bags on the pitch and we'd still get 20,000," he told me. And then we got onto the history, the importance of Brian Clough - how Derby fans are somehow able to disassociate Nottingham Forest from Clough's double European Cup win. "He never left Derby!"

And how that, even though they are struggling now, there are just so many people there who support the club who simply wouldn't accept the sacking of a Clough - which means hopefully Nigel will be given as much time as he needs to prove he's a good manager, as he did at Burton.

It's almost irrelevant that it was Derby who he supported. It could have been any club. He would have shared the same passion, excitement, and love of his club - over and above the rest of the league and what happens around it. So I guess it sounds a bit trite that I need the return of Steve's celebration to get me really excited about the football league.

Celeb

I watch the goals with added vigour, checking and hoping that someone will follow Steve's lead. Last week, when two Swansea players had done the David Haye celeb within minutes, I was very happy. How many others would try it?

Turns out loads did. A great start, but what about this weekend? Steve was a little nervous this Saturday - only two divisions playing making it all the more difficult.

And lo and behold as far as I can tell, no-one did his Brucie Bonus. You can never be totally sure cos lower league cameramen have a tendency to just start filming a pillar or an old woman half way through some goal celebrations.

But if no one did it, then why not? Do professional footballers not share the universal love for national treasure Bruce Forsyth? Do they (like me) watch X-Factor over Strictly every time?

Should Steve have come up with our mate Dermot O'Leary's salute and spin that he likes to kick of the show with? And what does Steve do now? He'd recorded his own little intro and everything.

We argue about this in the office. But I'm all for rolling it over every week, for as long as it takes. Even if it was for a whole season. Then we'd be talking a few hundred quid.

Last year everyone got bored of the snow angel. It died a death. But I was all for just hammering it, week in week out. The longer we wait, the more exciting it'll be. I guess what we really need is for John Walters to start scoring regularly for Ipswich. He was always up for it...

Have a good week...