Watch: wild scenes at Chesterfield pub as Jude Bellingham rescues England at Euro 2024
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After a frustrating 90 minutes for everyone on the pitch, in the stands and watching back home, many glum conversations had already turned towards the end of Gareth Southgate’s reign as manager, the perennial problems of England at major tournaments and the echoes of previous embarrassing defeats.
At the Barrel Inn, on Chatsworth Road, attention had started to wander from the television screens. There was a more engrossing game of pool to finish, and thoughts of getting home and ready for work on Monday morning.
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Hide AdBut for Real Madrid’s Bellingham – the man who says he ‘writes his own scripts’ – it was the moment to take his place in the showreel of moments which fans remember forever.
It was the stuff that every one who has ever played the game dreams of. The dream that every fan had once upon a time.
With seconds of injury time left on the clock, Bellingham took flight and hit a perfect overhead kick to send the game into extra time and an eventual victory.
In the Barrel Inn, all those hopes and fears were uncorked, and what else was there to do but leap acrobatically on to the pool table – and tumble off - and hold your friends tight.
If there is any better feeling, we will all hope it arrives in the quarter final against Switzerland on Saturday night.
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