Anyway, I digress - the point I want to make here is that the win over Palace represented the point where I moved from HOPING we would go up that year to just KNOWING that we were! Although there were still four matches to play and we didn't finally clinch promotion until we won at Bury in our last game, I "just knew" promotion was in the bag.
It took thirteen years for me to witness a Cardiff City promotion campaign and the long wait for one probably made it all the sweeter when it happened in 1976. I suppose one of the compensations for the spell of almost twenty years that we had in the lower divisions between 1985 and 2003 was that there were, inevitably, more promotions to celebrate and I have never had to wait anything like thirteen years for one since then.
As you get to experience more promotion campaigns, I think it becomes a bit easier to spot one when you are in the midst of one - that doesn't mean you "just know" that we are going up from the moment the first ball is kicked, but it doesn't take long for the feeling that we should be going up to kick in.
Although the amount of financial resources a club is becoming ever closer linked with it's chances of success on the field, I still believe that, because of the lack of quality in that league, the basement is the only division you can really buy your way out of. Therefore, I'm not really sure that there was a moment during our promotion campaigns of 92/93 and 00/01 when I "just knew" we were going up, there was just that feeling that, with the money we had to spend, we should be going up from a very early stage in the campaign.
Once you get out of the basement though, that feeling that we should be going up becomes counter productive and it can be an anchor that can drag the club down - for example the two years we spent in League One under Sam Hammam were played out against a backdrop of a home crowd that soon turned against the team if things weren't going to plan. This was almost entirely down to two things - firstly, we were spending more money than our rivals and, secondly, we had a Chairman who was telling us that we were bigger than Barcelona - as a result, I didn't get my "just knowing" feeling in 2003 until Andy Campbell lobbed in that late winner in the Play Off Final!
My "just knowing" feeling isn't infallible mind. In 98/99 we went through a spell around Christmas/New Year where Mark Delaney was bombing up and down the right touchline and we were banging in three and four goals a game at Ninian Park. After Jason Fowler's brilliant lob helped us to a 4-1 win against Brentford at the end of January, I "just knew" that we were going up as Champions - in the event, we sold Delaney within a fortnight, Brentford were Champions and we limped over the line courtesy of a nail biting 0-0 home draw with S****horpe.
Similarly, I "just knew" we were going up in 1992 after Eddie Newton was chaired off the pitch by supporters after the final game (a 3-1 win over Barnet) of his loan spell with us (we didn't even make the Play Offs!) and nothing was going to stop us being promoted after we had beaten Stoke at the Britannia Stadium in 2002!
In my experience, this feeling of "just knowing" comes earlier in relegation seasons - indeed, when Alan Durban was manager, it tended to kick in sometime in July!
So, where does the current season fit into all of this? I am sorry, but I think anyone who says currently that they "just know" we are going up is letting their heart rule their heads. After we beat Forest on 31 January, I thought a real challenge for a top two place was on because we were looking pretty unbeatable at the time, but that feeling was never strong enough to be called a "just knowing" one. As it was, the weather beat us and, since we started playing again after that enforced three week break, the momentum we had has, largely, been lost.
Therefore, I haven't had that "just knowing" feeling at all this season as far as automatic promotion is concerned but I have thought that we should be in the Play Offs since around the turn of the year and I would say that I have "just known" that we are going to finish in the top six since Ross MCormack's 94th minute penalty against Watford - mind you, I have been wrong before and I am sure I will be again!