Amidst all the general excitedness of match report writing and reading just about every website in existence that mentions yesterday's game, we thought that it would be appropriate to give a Rage Online run-down of the day that made history for our football club.

Pre-match
From our privileged position in the tunnel as the players were lining up to come out for the game, it was heartwarming and gratifying to witness the amount of abuse that the Oxford players poured on Chris Carruthers, who seemed rather subdued in contrast. It was probably all meant in jest, but Billy Turley's exclamations of “You fucking hippy” were, it has to be said, hilarious. It was also notable how confident and relaxed the Oxford players seemed compared to their York City counterparts.

First half
Wembley was a sea of Yellow and a wall of noise. But if the background roar was loud enough, the cacophany that greeted first Matt Green's and then James Constable's goals was deafening. York were rocking, and if Jack Midson's header had gone in instead of rebounding from the post who knows what kind of score United might have wracked up. As it was, a rather calamitous error from Ryan Clarke led to the first sign that there were supporters of another club in the ground, but the goal came close enough to half-time to mean that it wasn't sustained.

The second half
Expectations that York would come steaming into Oxford proved unfounded, and the first 20 minutes or so were relatively comfortable. Then York started turning the screw and created some decent chances without actually forcing Clarke into doing much. As the tickets ticked away, York got ever more desperate and United's fans started to believe. Then came that magical moment from Alfie Potter and four-fifths of the stadium's occupants went wild, while the other fifth started sloping away. And United are a Football League club again.

Afterwards
Happy, happy, happy. Children smiling and dancing, adults smiling and dancing. Everybody singing and crying and generally forgetting the last decade of shit. The glow of triumph will last all summer, particularly exacerbated on 17 June when the Football League fixtures come out (Football League fixtures which will include Oxford United, by the way). So tomorrow the United players will have a victory parade, ending up in Broad Street, and soon we'll start hearing transfer news (as opposed to rumours) and announcements of pre-season friendlies. It's good to feel good about being a Yellow again.

The lads
Every single one of them did themselves proud yesterday. Clarke's error aside, he had a capable game despite looking the most nervous of the Oxford players. Damian Batt had the measure of Carruthers, not allowing the former United player to keep him from pushing forwards. Mark Creighton and Jake Wright were immense at the back, both making match-saving tackles and blocks and keeping Richard Brodie and Michael Rankine quiet. Anthony Tonkin set aside two previous times of Wembley misery to put in a commanding performance at left-back, both defensively and attackingly. Adam Chapman was able to forget about his recent problems to give a midfield performance that enabled United to stay on the front foot for much of the game and forget the absence of Adam Murray. Dannie Bulman and Simon Clist both complemented Chapman perfectly, neither putting a foot wrong and both preventing the York midfield from getting a foothold in the game and supplying their forwards. And up front Constable, Green, and Midson did what they do so well; linking up, making life difficult for the opposing defenders, and finishing clinically. The twin diminutive substitutes of Potter and Sam Deering gave the initiative back to United and sealed the result. Even Rhys Day, on for only five minutes or so, was imperious, probably. And manager Chris Wilder joined a select band of just four Oxford managers, with Arthur Turner, Jim Smith, and Denis Smith, as the only ones to win promotion for United.

This might all sound over the top, but sod it. Yesterday was our day, and we're never going to forget it.