Wick to Wembley?

The National Football Museum

2009-02-20T08:00:00.005Z

The ‘Wick To Wembley’ display has opened at The National Football Museum, in Preston, and will run until August 2009. If you have never been to the museum, and you love football, then I highly recommend it. On three levels, it is free to get in and it is crammed packed with memorabilia and artefacts from all periods and covers all aspects of our beautiful game. It is also great for kids and there

Memorabilia

2009-01-02T15:53:00.007Z

memorabilia n. pl. objects kept or collected because of their associations with memorable people or eventsNot satisfied with the normal memorabilia of matchday programmes from every tie on my journey to Wembley, I spent some of my son's inheritance on Cardiff City and Portsmouth FA Cup Final 2008 shirts, and framed them alongside the ticket stub and programme. Here is a photo of the end result:My

'Wick To Wembley' published

2008-09-18T21:00:00.001+01:00

'Wick To Wembley' has now been published and is available to order online from Centre Circle Publishing. Thank you to everyone who has placed an advance order, your copies will be dispatched imminently. The official 'launch' will be held at Dartford FC on Saturday 27th September, and I will be there to sign copies before and after the Dartford v Hampton & Richmond Borough FA Cup tie. The book

Online Ordering Now Available

2008-08-31T16:30:00.003+01:00

The publication date for 'Wick To Wembley?' is fast approaching with a mid-September release. Planning is underway for the official launch (date and venue to be confirmed), but in the meantime copies can be pre-ordered from the Centre Circle Publishing website.

Chasing The Vase

2008-08-27T15:20:00.002+01:00

Want to know what I plan to do this season (2008-09)? Take a look over here.

Wick To Wembley? - Blog to Book

2008-08-02T21:13:00.009+01:00

Almost one year on since the conception of this blog, it is time to cut it loose and commit it to the archives. The reason is simple: the ‘Wick To Wembley’ blog has now become a ‘Wick To Wembley’ book. There is no feasible way that both blog and book can coexist.The book ‘Wick To Wembley…on the trail of the FA Cup’ is to be published mid-September 2008 by Centre Circle Publishing.The book will be

Only the beginning

2008-05-23T10:15:00.009+01:00

Can you see that question mark in the title of this, my first ever blog? Wick to Wembley? In my very first post I explained that the question mark was there for a reason, a very significant reason. It symbolised the fact that there was every chance that I would not complete this journey from Alwyns Lane, Chertsey to Wembley, North London. These two locations are physically separated by a mere 58

Game 16: Cardiff City 0, Portsmouth 1

2008-05-18T16:45:00.004+01:00

FinalSaturday May 17th 2008Kick Off 3:00pmAttendance: 89,874Weather: Damp and coolDistance travelled: 58 milesWaking up this morning I felt somewhat drained. Emotionally, mentally and physically. But in a satisfied and almost smug way. As my 16th FA Cup game yesterday drew to a close under the magnificent Wembley arch, the realisation of what I and my friends have achieved finally sunk in. In the

The innocence of youth

2008-05-16T12:20:00.003+01:00

When my son opened the front door this morning, as we were rushing away for school, he was confronted by a huge cardboard box which had been left on the doorstep. In itself, quite exciting for an eight year old boy. The fact that this box carried my son's name on the address label was doubly exciting. The rush to school would simply have to be delayed for a little while yet.Wide-eyed and fit to

The final countdown

2008-05-12T20:00:00.003+01:00

There’s an old saying that the more you watch the clock the slower time passes. I seem to have been waiting an age for Saturday’s FA Cup Final; six weeks will have elapsed between my last trip to Wembley and my next, but it feels much longer than that. When I was a kid, the six week summer holiday seemed like an eternity. This, by comparison, seems much longer. And the slow passing of the minutes

Eastbourne Borough FC

2008-05-09T10:02:00.003+01:00

Eastbourne Borough were victorious in the Blue Square South play-off final against Hampton & Richmond Borough last night, winning 2-0, with two late goals from Nathan Crabb and Paul Armstrong. That result at the neutral venue of Stevenage Borough (a night of Boroughs?) means that Garry Wilson's men will be playing football in the Blue Square Premier (the old Conference) next season.I am genuinely

Please don't give up the day job

2008-05-07T21:45:00.009+01:00

I feel I must warn you now that this evening's post will not make for comfortable reading. The subject matter makes me cringe somewhat, and I have been putting off bringing this up for some time. But I can no longer ignore it. An inevitable evil. Such as taxation, death and politicians. Not nice but unfortunately very difficult to ignore.This is something that comes around every year and no

A continental break

2008-05-04T20:00:00.006+01:00

As our Eurostar train emerged from the tunnel English-side on Saturday afternoon my mobile phone signalled an incoming text. It was POSH mate explaining that he was sat in a beer garden, in the warming May sunshine, supping a pint of real ale poured straight from an oak barrel an hour before Peterborough United's final game of the season. Painting a quintessentially English scene the contrast to

A mix of fortunes

2008-04-30T18:30:00.002+01:00

Whilst Cardiff City and Portsmouth play out their league campaigns, with one eye on their sojourn to Wembley in two and a half weeks, many teams across the country have reached their season end. Some of the leagues lower down the pyramid played out the final games at the weekend; for other clubs with league games to complete the season is effectively over anyway.My visit to Chertsey Town on

Wembley at Chertsey

2008-04-27T20:55:00.003+01:00

It seemed rather fitting somehow to go to the Chertsey Town v Wembley match, a Saturday afternoon Combined Counties League (Premier Division) encounter with a traditional 3pm kick-off. My FA Cup run had started here at this ground, Alwyns Lane, way back at the start of this season. A team called Wembley were in town for the final game of the campaign and catching this one felt quite apt.The game

A team of (mostly) strikers

2008-04-25T12:00:00.018+01:00

Jack Pitcher (Gloucester City), Matt Townley (Team Bath), Andy Forbes (Eastleigh), Craig Farrell (York City), Stuart Beavon (Weymouth), Craig Mackail-Smith (Peterborough United), Michael Mifsud (Coventry City), Alfie Potter (Havant & Waterlooville, on loan from Peterborough United), Luke Steele (Barnsley, on loan from West Bromwich Albion), Kayode Odejayi (Barnsley) and Joe Ledley (Cardiff City).

It's a funny old game

2008-04-23T19:25:00.003+01:00

The big talking point in the world of football today was the own-goal expertly nodded in by Liverpool's John Arne Riise in yesterday evening's Champion's League semi-final against Chelsea. The reaction to that goal has, at times, been quite ridiculous. Riise has been given a real slating in most quarters; one commentator on a well known sports radio show even suggested that Riise should never be

Fulham on the edge

2008-04-20T16:06:00.007+01:00

I took my son and his friend to Craven Cottage yesterday to see Liverpool collect a comfortable three points against a Fulham team who are clinging on to Premiership survival for dear life. My friend Chopper (author of The Hammy End Chronicle) had got tickets for us and we met him and Chop junior for an afternoon sat in the part of the ground lauded in his blog title.I always enjoy my trips to

Trivia matters

2008-04-17T12:00:00.007+01:00

Did you know that turtles can breath through their bottoms? Or that there are more mobile phones in the UK than people? Apparently, there are no public toilets in Peru and four out of ten people that come to a party in your home will look in your bathroom cabinet? What's more, Captain Kirk never ever said "Beam me up Scotty". Not once.We are a nation of trivia lovers. Completely useless facts

Sans Interdit

2008-04-14T18:30:00.005+01:00

I found myself Saturday evening trying to explain to a stranger the complexities of qualification into European competition for clubs plying their trade in the English pyramid. The fact that the rather attractive brunette I was talking to had no interest whatsoever in football (I think she was a Tottenham fan) made the conversation somewhat perplexing. I couldn't even tell you how we arrived at

Portsmouth FC - the final piece of the jigsaw

2008-04-10T20:55:00.003+01:00

Well, there we have it. All three of the Football Association's major cup competitions have reached the final stage. Before the weekend, the line-ups for the FA Vase Final and the FA Trophy Final were already decided; Kirkham & Wesham v Lowestoft and Ebbsfleet United v Torquay United respectively. And now we know who will walk out at Wembley on May 17th for the 2007/2008 FA Cup Final - Cardiff

Game 15: Barnsley 0, Cardiff City 1

2008-04-07T13:50:00.013+01:00

Semi FinalSunday April 6th 2008Kick Off 4:00pmAttendance: 82,752Weather: Cold and sunny, melting snowDistance travelled: 58 miles"Men of Harlech on to gloryThis will ever be your storyKeep these burning words before yeWelshmen will not yield"At the final whistle yesterday I witnessed scenes at a football game that I have not seen for a long, long time. A tide of emotion, jubilation, ecstasy, joy

Fever Pitch

2008-04-04T10:50:00.006+01:00

FA Cup semi final weekend is here and I am quite excited. Actually, that is a real understatement. I'm not sure if I can contain myself. The tickets for the Sunday game between Cardiff City and Barnsley (as if I needed to tell you who was playing) arrived this morning. They actually arrived yesterday morning but needed a signature so they were lovingly looked after, fed and watered and tucked up

The Hammy End Chronicle and my breakdown

2008-04-02T21:30:00.014+01:00

Today some football tickets turned up on my desk at work. Not the long-awaited tickets that will gain me access to Wembley on Sunday. These have still not arrived and I'm starting to get a little anxious. The tickets that landed on my desk are for a Fulham home game in April, opponents Liverpool.I mention this as the arrival of the Fulham tickets set me off on a train of thought which, rather

Polos at Princes Park

2008-03-30T11:46:00.014+01:00

My eight year old son has, all of a sudden, discovered Polos. Round, minty, hole in the middle. Not that he leads a particularly deprived life, but he tried one last week for the first time when we visited relatives in South Wales. And he now loves them.For some time my son has been asking if we can go back down to Princes Park, home of Dartford FC. Regular readers will know the circumstances