And now the end is near…

A strange sensation to be going to Stoke tomorrow when it feels like the season has ended and we're homeless. But away games at least prove that West Ham is a moveable feast. We're still West Ham even up in the Potteries. Perhaps WHU is more of a concept, a state of mind, than a club tied to a stadium. There were 10,000 fans outside the ground on Tuesday night, so crowd control was always going to be difficult (and this Guardian piece has some sensible points such as why wasn't Green Street closed to traffic?). Get those extra 10,000 fans inside the Olympic Stadium (minus the bottle throwers) plus another 15,000 fans on top of that and the noise of 60,000 fans should be frightening, at least if the new roof does its job.

It's been a long season, we were initially at Upton Park in July for the Europa League qualifiers. But at least next season we'll be talking about firsts rather than every game being the last something or other. It's been an emotional marathon, but if we can go out on a win then Europa League football is guaranteed — a real achievement. Irons!