[Dulwich. Thursday April 12. 07:14 BST.]
I woke up before the alarm and lay on my back looking at the ceiling for ten minutes without moving. Emma was asleep on her side with one hand under her cheek and one strand of red hair across her mouth that was rising and falling each time she breathed.
I had managed Crystal Palace Football Club for eleven months. Crystal Palace Football Club had been a football club for one hundred and twelve years. In one hundred and twelve years they had never won a European tie at the quarter-final stage.
In one hundred and twelve years they had never played for the right to be in a European semi-final at Selhurst Park. The closest they had ever come to playing on a continental stage that mattered was Steve Coppell's 1990 side finishing third in the First Division and not being allowed into the UEFA Cup because the English ban had been only partially lifted.
