The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good

We had 4 letters over the past 2 days, the first was from Salisbury City who inform us that they have a home game that day and we are welcome to go on the pitch from 6pm and they're lending us a shirt for the photos. Next up was Bolton Wanderers. I wasn't expecting positive responses from Premier League clubs due the huge amount of charity work they already do. Their letter surprised me, as they said they would be "delighted to supply us with a shirt". Cardiff City phoned up too and said that the groundsman is around on the Sunday afternoon and we will be allowed on the pitch and will be borrowing a Bluebirds shirt for the photos. Preston North End also phoned to inform us that they too can accomodate us and lend us a shirt for the promotional shots.

The Bad

Aston Villa "regret" they cannot support us due to the overwhelming number of requests. The next one is a cracker, I couldn't help but laugh at this one. The letter from Halifax Town reads as follows: "...we do not the stadium and our rent only covers us for admittance on match days." How bizarre. And finally Sheffield Wednesday replied with a letter which said they've suffered severe damage to the flooding. We do have permission to take photos outside their reception though. Tough situation for them.

The Ugly




We were also asked to do some promotional shots for the Herts Advertiser, these will be also be useful for the other media sources that are wanting to cover us. Thanks to Sophie for her expert photography skills here.

Yorkshire Replies.

Leeds United, the club in massive problems up north, have said they can't help and listed about 30 charities they already support. Doncaster Rovers have responded positively, so much so that we've said we'll delay our arrival by 45 minutes in order to meet people there and wear one of their shirts. Nice fellas up north!

Taf, Matt and Pete met up for the first time since deciding to do this and the meeting went well. Over a pint of Guinness we discussed how excited we were and tried to sort out accomodation, 3 nights of which are already sorted. We do still need housing (and sponsorship of course) so please check the facebook group for details.

Watford, Bradford and Leicester - out of hours ggrrrrr!

All 3 clubs responded positively, but unfortunately we're visiting both out of hours so they can't help us. Ah well. It's frustrating but there's no way we can change the plan so that each club is visited in office hours. If we did then it take at least 2 weeks.

Millwall respond positively

Millwall phoned me at lunch time to say that they'll be delighted to help. We can go on the pitch and do our skiiiiiiills and have a look around the ground too. I've been to Millwall's ground before and it's a good setting for us!!

First Club Donation!

Wolverhampton Wanderers have been wonderful! Even after a phone call in which my phone died (not ideal!) they still wanted to talk to me. We're going to be at their club at 1:30am in the morning and they have said that we're going to be allowed in to wear a shirt and do our kick-ups. They are ALSO donating a shirt to us to do with as we want. We're still not decided about we'll do with the shirts that are being donated. They sounded very enthusiastic about the project.

More responses...

Stoke City responded with the classic "unfortunately we cannot help you". All of which I was expecting from most clubs anyway. Other people thought "oh yeah clubs will donate you shirts" - but it doesn't work like that, hence why we've gone for individual sponsorship rather than relying on clubs donating shirts etc.

Wolves phoned me up this morning. We're going to them at about 1:30am so when they phoned me I expected them to say "good luck, but we can't help", but in fact they said that they have security on duty 24/7 so they're more than willing to help. They shall leave a shirt out for us to borrow and let us do our tricks in front of the main sign. So good on you Wolves!!!

We now have 12 people sponsored £10 each, so we're 1/10th of the way there. It is definately possible.

4 more clubs respond!

Got 2 more letters through door today and they're both from Premier League clubs. Sunderland and West Ham United both responded informing me that theyre passing the letter onto someone who deals with the enquiry more accurately. The letter to me wasn't needed to tell me that but it's very nice of them. Darlington (in their lush new stadium) phoned me up and said they would have had us on the pitch in shirts doing our kick-ups but they can't accomodate us as we're scheduled there at 9:30pm. Big shame we can't change the route THAT much. Rushden & Diamonds also phoned to ask for more info about the charity etc. It seems that the majority of letters got there today/yesterday. I expect next week to a busy week of liasing with clubs and sponsors. We've reached the £100 mark already (and that excludes the tax return!). So keep sponsoring us people! We need to reach £1,160 BEFORE we leave.