Aldershot Town - Saturday Night
We arrived at Aldershot Town at 12:30am and were feeling very tired and ready for bed. We weren't expecting people to meet us but a great guy called Wally was just closing up as we arrived. He said he was expecting us and we went up into the bar for some photos. He came back with an away shirt and a jumper for us! We also went onto the pitch and Wally turned the lights on for us! It was a great morale boost.
Bristol City - Sunday afternoon
After 2 days of foul weather we were surprised when Bristol City unexpectedly let us into the stadium on Sunday afternoon. They were selling tickets for the Carling Cup game so people were around, we explained what we were doing and they let us wander around. We were all very impressed with Ashton Gate and took many photos. This one is from the tunnel area.
Liverpool - Monday
There were many highlights during Monday; getting tea at Stafford Rangers at 8am; getting on the pitch at Shrewsbury Town; getting a signed shirt at Bolton. But THE highlight was Anfield. We already knew they would lend us a shirt for the photos, but we cheekily asked if we could get pitch-side. The guy in the Tours said he could get us in if we waited for 50 minutes, we couldn't really afford to because of the schedule, but we did anyway and it was well worth it. The stadium, dressing rooms and people were amazing.
Tuesday - Sunderland and Carlisle
Both of the clubs were amazing. Burnley were too as they leant us shirts each, but Carlisle and Sunderland went way above the call of duty. We weren't expecting people to meet us at Carlisle but they did and gave us a full tour of the stadium and leant us shirts for the shots and donated us a shirt and picture for the cause. Sunderland also met us and they took us on a tour of the stadium, leant us a shirt and also donated a signed picture of the stadium for us to auction.
Wednesday - Bradford and Notts County
Bradford City were the first club we visited on the Wednesday. They met us, leant us a shirt and showed us Valley Parade in all it's glory. They were very good to us and the contact was made through the Chairman, Mark Lawn, the only chairman to contact us directly. Notts County had arranged to meet us and they opened the doors to the ground and let us take photos inside. They also donated a club pennant for us to auction. Both clubs were very hospitable and this appreciated greatly.
Thursday - Rushden & Diamonds and Paul Ince
On paper this was going to be the worst day. The only club that had responded was Rushden & Diamonds and there was a lot of mileage in the day. The club that one us despises were also very welcoming. They let us in, let us onto the pitch and we got to meet Paul Ince. Also on the way out they said they'd donate a signed shirt and the cameras of Soccer AM may well have picked up on our adventure. Keep watching the program to see if we do! Thankfully Rushden & Diamonds went one better and made us feel very welcome. They let us on the pitch, leant us shirts for the photos and donated a bag of goodies. They have also put out a press release.
The Final Day!
Many of the London clubs were very good to us, including Brentford who let us pitchside and donated a club pennant. However, getting into White Hart Lane (after some tugs at heart-strings) and Upton Park made our day!!
Conclusions
We need to say thank you to so many people. All those of you that donated money to us, those of you that prayed for us, those of you that met us along the way and those of you that housed us, namely The Wrights, Sarah Beer, the Stafford family, Lindsay, The Dixons, Paul Rickard and Paul Broughton. We had such a good time over the week and all 5 of us (Pete, Matt, Dave, Steve and Barry) are greatful that we could do this for charity. Please keep giving and we'll let you know soon about how to buy the donated stuff and any future media involvement as well as a final sponsorship amount.
1 comment:
Very nice blog.
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