Yet another amazing chapter was written in the story of Rickie Lambert at Wembley last night that even if he had written the script himself he would have thought was asking a bit much to cap an unbelievable four years.
To paraphrase the Pogues and their Christmas song The Fairytale of New York City, if you had been sat in the drunk tank on Xmas eve four years ago and somebody had told you that Rickie Lambert would lead Saints to the Premier League you would have thought that the guy was drunker than you were, if he had proceeded to tell you that Rickie would go on to play for England you would have wished you had been drinking what he had been drinking, if he had told you that Rickie would score with his first touch only a minute or so after coming on in what would be the winning goal against the Auld Enemy Scotland, you would have called for the gaoler as you feared for you safety as your fellow cellmate appeared to be criminally insane !
Well just over four years after arriving at St Mary's Rickie Lambert has achieved all those things and more, but last night could surely have not been in his wildest dreams even as he warmed up on the Wembley turf.
Im not going to go on about the goal im sure we have all read and seen the replays till we are blue in the face, but for Saints fans and indeed Rickie himself its the culmination of a four year journey that has lead to this point.
I don't think any Saints fan in August 2009 would have expected Rickie to be such a big success and cult hero, at 27 years old this was his big move and it was still only to a League 1 club, yes one that was in the doldrums but was about to begin its fightback, in many respects Rickie was that beacon of hope for Saints fans, he symbolised that the club had survived its most turbulent period and was now ready to begin its fightback, he was the talisman and didn't disappoint although ultimately that season Saints would, a Wembley appearance being scant consolation for a disappointing league season.
The next year Saints went up and even then there were those that wondered whether a 29 year old Rickie Lambert after a decade in the lower leagues would be good enough for the Championship, history shows us he was, he adapted his game and prospered at the higher level, 12 months later and with Saints back in the Premier and with Rickie as the song went having taken them there, the fans still questioned whether their talisman would be good enough, some blindly thought he would be, many though deep down felt that he had taken them as far as he personally could go.
Another year on and Rickie as the joint top scoring Englishman in the Premier League was still a long way from the England team and he like many perhaps assumed that at 31 the chance had passed him by, a couple of years younger and he might have had a sniff but surely not now, circumstances though overtook and a plethora of injuries etc meant that he was called up to the squad, again as in most of his career, many wrote it off as perhaps a just reward for his play over the past few years, but would he get a game, perhaps like Adam Lallana a year before it would be a memory of sitting on the bench, if he was lucky then a cameo appearance in the second half.
The Fairytale just keeps on going though and when will it stop, a goal on his debut for his country and with his first touch as well, not only that, but in just about the only friendly that means more to England fans than competitive games, the winner against Scotland, as Rickie said when interviewed and asked whether he dreamt it the night before, ? "No I have been dreaming about it for 31 years" perhaps what made the nation and not just ngland fans take to him was that he was genuinely pleased, not for him the token words of Wayne Rooney or Ashley Cole, here was a player who hadn't turned up to go through the motions, who was not blaise about it and stuck up his own arse, but was actually proud of being picked and having scored the goal.
There are those that will say that when the next squad is named and that all the big guns suddenly declare themselves fit (as im sure most who cried off last night, will for their club on Saturday) then Rickie will go back to normality and this will just be a memory, however as he has done at Saints Rickie continues to defy his doubters, perhaps he is what England need, a talisman who can change the spirit of a football team from one of defeat and a couldn't care less attitude into one that wants to play for the shirt and for whom representing his country is an honour rather than an inconvenience apart from the increased sponsorship opportunities, perhaps with more players like Rickie who hasn't got the spoilt brat attitude of many in the England squad, there can be a sense of pride in playing for the Three Lions again, certainly I think most England fans would rather see a side full of Rickie Lamberts go down fighting and with pride, than watch a team full of Ashley Coles and his ilk once again fail without a modicum of humility.
So perhaps the fairytale will continue, perhaps Roy Hodgson will grasp the chance to break the circle that has grown around the England squad of the last decade, one of Wag's, scandals and contract demands, if Roy Hodgson see's in Rickie what I saw last night then perhaps he will grasp the chance to set himself a part and change history, or perhaps he will recall the old guard and achieve the same as his successors before him, ie underachievement by a overpaid squad who couldn't care less"
Whatever the future last night was a hark back to the old days, a battle against Scotland and true boys own stuff, in parks across the country today, kids will be Rickie Lambert heading the winner instead of Ashley Cole arguing with a linesman and that has to be a good thing.