Last night I did something unusual, and I went to the theatre to see a play. I’m pretty sure that despite it being there for years, it was my first visit to the West Yorkshire Playhouse. I’ve been to a few plays in the past but not for quite a while, so it was a nice change to be doing something different. The play in question had captured my interest for several reasons, it was centred around the 2 promotion campaigns of the Bielsa team, the main characters had a passion for Leeds United, and it dealt with the dealing with dementia. ‘Through It All Together’ had been written by Leeds playwright Chris O’Connor and starred Reece Dinsdale (star of Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Spooks and others), Shobna Gulati (star of Dinnerladies and Coronation Street), Natalie Davies (The Full Monty series and Hullraisers), Dean Smith (Waterloo Road, Last Tango in Halifax and more recently the Square Ball Podcast) and Everal A Walsh. Reece and Shobna play Howard and Sue who are a Leeds supporting couple working their way through Howard’s dementia diagnosis whilst enjoying the ups and downs of the first two seasons of Bielsaball.

Having read some of the information about the play and the subject matter, I was expecting an emotional evening, but that description wouldn’t really have done it justice. Ever since we had the diagnosis that my dad had Alzheimer’s disease it’s been a case of, as they put it in the play, crossing the bridge when you get to it. There is the constant fear that one day he won’t remember who we are or who he is. It was diagnosed pre-Covid and fortunately we haven’t reached that point yet. It does feel like it is something that is hanging over us and it can feel like you’re waiting for it to happen but the longer we go without reaching that point the better it is for us all. Seeing Howard deteriorate through the play was heartbreaking as was the effect that it had on Sue. It is often said that dementia is hard on those who are watching it take over a loved one and that has been my experience.

From the start, it was an emotional ride, especially as the setting and the period it covered stirred such stark emotions. There were the highs and lows of following Leeds through a section of history that brought the deepest lows with the playoff defeat to Frank Lampard’s Derby to the highs of winning promotion when we were still going through lockdown. The Bielsa era was one of the things that rekindled my interest in coaching and coaching has been one of things that has helped with my own wellbeing. There are times when, like with many other things, I put too much pressure on myself, but it is something that I get a great deal of enjoyment out of. Seeing the players develop and start to thrive whilst enjoying playing the beautiful game is one of the most rewarding things that you can do. There are occasional times when it can get the better of you and you feel like you’re letting the kids down or situations out of your control take over, but you have to try and remind yourself of all the positives. I first started coaching many years ago when I was at university when I started coaching the Collingwood College Women’s Team but stopped around the time I stopped playing as I fell out of love with it all. That love started to return when the triplets started playing and since then I’ve got fully back into it and last year completed my UEFA C licence. The other catalyst to the love returning was watching the Bielsa Leeds team play and seeing how you could transform players through coaching. That’s what I’d like to be able to do but I’m a long way off the levels of Marcelo. The other effect was to bring back a sense of doing the right thing despite the circumstances or any opposition that was there. He wanted the players to represent themselves and the club in the best way and often spoke about the damaging effects of money in football. When I’ve thought about what I wanted to achieve through coaching one of things is to try and get the players to do the right thing and behave in the right way as that will have an impact on their lives away from football as well as on the pitch. All I can do is try and have a positive effect on the players and try to help them be better footballers and better people.

Going back to the play, seeing what all the people were going through, you could empathise with them due to the performances of the actors and how well the script was written. By the end I felt like I needed to rehydrate as I had cried pretty much all the way through the show, even when I was laughing. It was so well written with great performances from all the cast. It was one of those where you could laugh, cry and ended up doing both at the same time. ‘Through It All Together’ isn’t on for much longer at the Playhouse but hopefully they will find a way for it to reach more people as more people need to see it. Despite the tears it was a story that filled me with hope and joy.

We’ve been through it all together
And we’ve had our ups and downs
We’re going to stay with you forever
At least until the world stops going round