After his goal which clinched Rovers’ promotion back to the Sky Bet Championship, in a 1-0 win away at Doncaster Rovers, the Blues’ skipper, Charlie Mulgrew spoke to the clubs’ media team about the goal, the promotion and his feelings after a long hard season.
“It’s a huge honour to have scored the goal that has gotten the club promoted back into the Championship and I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I have to give massive credit to the fans who have turned up tonight and throughout the season in their numbers on Tuesday nights at all sorts of places up and down the country and have constantly backed and supported us. I have to congratulate all of the staff at the club, from the coaching staff downwards, as they’ve all come together and helped us push in the right direction. Promotion is a collective achievement, and we’re just honoured to be the ones on the pitch.
“Words can’t describe the feeling of the goal. I can’t remember the last time I had a feeling as good as that. I’m really humbled and honoured to have been able to get the goal. The ball in from Bradley (Dack) was great and I definitely think that it’s come off Payney (Jack Payne), before landing on my head. When I initially made contact, I thought it was over the bar, but when I managed to look over, I saw that it had found its way into the net which gave me an indescribable feeling.
“Once the goal went in, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I don’t remember what I did, but I really wanted to run, in amongst the supporters, but I had already been booked and I didn’t want to risk getting sent-off, but to get the goal was a great feeling.
“I’m really proud of the team this year, because, as I was saying in the dressing room, there are lads here who got relegated last year and felt that they had to stay and get the club promoted again. It would have been easy to leave and push to go somewhere else, but we stayed together and felt that we owed the club something and it was all for this moment. We’re all delighted to do it for the staff, the fans and for us players as a unit.
“This is what you play football for. We’ve had a few lows on the road to this amazing high. We were close to tears after the late equaliser we conceded at Bristol Rovers, as although we got a draw, it felt like a defeat and it deflated the whole dressing room. Tonight, however, we’ve got the complete opposite feeling and we’re absolutely over the moon.”
The skipper was asked whether he, the players and the coaching staff still had their eyes set on the League 1 title, with promotion already secured.
“I personally can’t see Wigan dropping anymore points, but we’ll keep fighting. It’s their title to lose, so we’ll just continue to battle away and keep doing our job. We’ll do what we’ve been doing all season, and we’ll keep fighting, but the main thing from this season was promotion and we’ve achieved that.
“Tonight, the supporters have been unbelievable, 4,000 of them on a Tuesday night is incredible. They’ve stuck with us throughout the season, whether we won games, drew games or lost games, and that helps massively. We knew that, shooting towards the away end in the second-half would intensify them more and they’d continue to get behind us and suck the ball into the net. We’re so thankful for their support and hopefully we can do them proud next season.”
