But 24 hours on, I feel something of a physical wreck. The emotions and the celebrations have somewhat taken their toll, but more importantly the match itself that I'm meant to be reporting on seems to have been such a small part of Saturday, that its easy to almost forget about what happened in the game.

The build up to the game was a little bizarre. Previous games against Torquay and Darlo both had that "This is the One" feeling about the whole thing, and as you know we were left with just our BFH from those games, and as such the game was approached with more than its fair share of trepidation.

Nerves? Not really, because the chances of us losing all of our remaining games and Rotherham winning all over theirs were probably the same odds as Keith Hill winning the Nottingham Man of the Year competition, but it had provided us with a feeling that this was a game where success has to be achieved rather than just handed out to us.

It was pretty much the same as Tuesday in terms of the line up, with just the one change from the Darlo game with Kallum Higginbotham in for Obadeyi on the left.

What stood out for me in the early stages was that the past four games had done nothing to diminish the confidence, and rightly so. Whilst on paper, they had a certainly slump like quality about them, but it was only the Torquay game where the opposition could claim to have outplayed us. That said, it should be noted that we are clearly made of finer stock as we refused to allow this perceived slump to derail our season.

We were up and at them right from the start, and you could almost think that their instructions for the day were to go and secure promotion in the opening five minutes, then just enjoy the rest of the game. Our movement up front looked far too sharp for Northampton's patched up side to deal with, and it seemed just a matter of time before we'd find the breakthrough.

But we were given a very strong reminder that things need to be earned, and Northampton weren't just here to play the patsy role in our promotion party, and as our old pal Simmo might say, they gave us one hell of a scare after that initial Dale pressure.

Liam Davis suddenly forgot who he was and he became some sort of League Two version of Messi as he started a run from the half way line and went unchallenged as he made towards the Dale box. Despite the challenge of three defenders in his vicinity, the challenge saw him receive the ball in an even better position, but after making it past Frank Fielding, he was probably just a little wide to trouble the empty Dale net.

But that scare kickstarted us into action, though we did have a spot of good fortune to it. Dale were awarded a corner which had Goal Kick written all over it, and the corner itself was probably one of the poorest that Tom Kennedy has taken all season. But it was enough for Joey Thompson to get on the end of, and direct it towards the six yards box.

From there, it was enough for Chris O'Grady to spin round his tight marker and hammer the ball into the back of the net to score our first goal in almost 400 minutes of League Football, but more crucially was this the goal to end 41 years of hurt? Was this the goal that was going to give us the letter P to stick next to our name that we craved so much?

Dale were rampant at this time, and a second seemed almost inevitable but that would involve doing things the easy way, and despite 95% of "the Rochdale way" now being consigned to history, the easy way still remains some a different option for us.

Dagnall in particular looked intent on adding to his twenty goals for the season, and he came close time after time again but a bit like on Tuesday, it was just not to be his day.

The second half was a little more even in the proceedings, but whilst Northampton were more in the game, there was very little to suggest that the 1-0 lead was in doubt at all, and we still remained the more likely of the two sides to score.

But again, like the first half, it was visitors Northampton who had the first decent chance of the second half, when one of their strikers got the better of Craig Dawson as he chased down a ball which split Stanton and Dawson, but Fielding raced out to collect it, with a little help from Wiseman.

But after that, the question was only whether promotion would be sealed by the referee's whistle or a second goal. Jonah came close to a fitting finalé with a low drive which tested the opposition keeper, but it was with around ten minutes to that our best effort of the half came.

Chris O'Grady had the Cobblers defence all at sea, and when his deflected shot was saved by Steele only to rebound to the former Oldham man, the follow up header seemed destined for the back of the net. The cross bar got in the way but it cannoned off straight in the direction of Joe Thompson.

JT did everything right, and he steadied himself but volley was blocked on the line as 10,000 hands simultaneously covered heads. It would have been a wonderful way to seal promotion for a player who has had to work harder than anyone else to achieve recognition and respect for all he has done for his local side.

A late Stanton injury saw McArdle introduced for a brilliant ten minute cameo in which he won every single aerial battle going. Nothing was going to stop us at this stage.

And with about five minutes of the game to go plus stoppage time, the Dale supporters decided that was that.  The lovely white line around the pitch was replaced with a sea of bodies that was determined to enjoy their moment in the Sun.

God knows how it must have been for the players of both sides to have thousands around the pitch ready to invade and start the biggest party this town had ever seen. I couldn't actually tell you anything which happened during this waiting time, other than to say that had we made it 2-0, then there may well have been very good cause for the referee to prematurely call an end to proceedings.

The referee didn't get the chance to even finish blowing his whistle. As soon as it reached his lips, the Dale support turned all Usain Bolt as they raced on to celebrate with the players who's names we'll be talking about for years and years and year. This current crop have achieved far more than our heroes of yesteryear.

And if you any sort of context to put things into, its been over 20 years since the last player was carried shoulder high from the Spotland pitch, but little Lyndon wouldn't begrudge anyone enjoying a repeat performance on this special day.

The on field celebrations saw the players come out at the top of the main stand in front of what seemed to be the whole five thousand, compete with the Northampton fans who remained for that little bit of history. We had Wonderwall, we had Flicker rapping and we couldn't understand a single word of anything being said or sung. But this was something to be felt rather than heard.

And the fans eventually walked back to celebrate in their own way. Some still chanting, some in tears, but the vast majority leaving Spotland in a way that they never have before with the biggest bugbear in football finally off our shoulders.

The celebrations continued long into the night. It became an evening of celebrations, champagne, serenading drivers, Rory Bremner, Chairman led congas, headaches,  and singalongs at various little pockets of heaven around town. But you'll know that, because you were there.

Rochdale Division RIP 1974-2010. The Revolution is complete.