I think it's ok...

Well, this is it. Took me a while but i think it's ok. The only part i'm not 100% set on at the moment is the colours. They seem to blend well together but i'm not sure if the writing sets perfectly to the background. For now though, it'll do and i'm happy with it.

In the build up, i'd like to get a few shirts printed up or even embroidered. I'd also like to get something made that we can take to every ground. For example, a teddy with a 'to the 92' shirt on. Any idea's are welcome..

Finished.. in more ways than one...

Ok, further to my post of yesterday about creating a new logo for my tour of the grounds site, i have now finished it. I'll post it tomorrow to see what everyone thinks.

At least 14 daylight hours...?

As mentioned in an earlier blog, one thing i'm determined to see on this tour is the home of the worlds oldest football team, Sheffield FC. Since then, i've been making a list of bits and pieces to see and get pictures of, at or near, each of the 92 grounds. Other bits i'm looking forward to seeing include the statue at West Ham of the World Cup winning trio from 1966, the Best, Law and Charlton statue outside Old Trafford and the Ayresome Park gates at Middlesbrough.

There's lots of other points of interest that i've already seen, but am looking forward to visiting again. The Hillsborough Memorials at Sheffield Wednesday and Liverpool are very moving, the Shankley statue and You'll never walk alone gates outside Anfield and the Bobby Moore statue and White Horse bridge at Wembley are all fantastic tributes and talking points..I've also got the Brian Clough statue in Nottingham town centre and the Duncan Edwards statue in Dudley down on my list. I was surprised that the statue of Clough wasn't outside the ground but it's close enough to fit a visit in before moving on to the next of the 92.

There's a surprising amount of things to see on this trip. i'm beginning to wonder if 12 days is going to be enough. 8 grounds and 220 miles a day on average and if you add to that 7 or 8 items of interest (more on some days) we might be hoping for a few more daylight hours..

Creating..

Tonight see's Manchester United take on Barcelona in the Champions League Final. My prediction is for United to win 2-1. It has the potential to be the best Final ever, but games like this very rarely live up to their billing.

On a seperate note, i've almost finished the new logo for my website. Although the green 92 football symbolises becoming a member of the 92 club, i felt i should create my own as the tour i'm doing will only involve a couple of games and not one at each and every ground.

I'll post it on here when i'm done..

Big day..

Having only really started to come down from the jubilation of yesterday, it's difficult to relate to the pictures i've witnessed on tv today. Millwall coming from a goal down to lead 2-1, only to eventually lose 3-2 to Scunthorpe in the League 1 Play off final, you had to feel for them. Being a Gillingham fan, there's an obvious rivalry between the two clubs, but that can resume next season. For now, it's just a case of knowing how they're feeling, having been in the same boat in 1999.

Watching Newcastle suffer the agony of relegation to the Championship this afternoon made for interesting viewing too. I like seeing big teams relegated, if for no other reason than to see a few different and new teams in the Premier League. For too many years now, it's been the same teams yo-yo'ing up and down. Sunderland and West Brom for example. It's just nice to see a change.
That said, i'm sure Newcastle will bounce back next year. They're a huge side with an incredibly loyal following of fans. That alone could be enough to drag them back to the big time.

Never in doubt... ish..

You know, people have text me since the game with all sorts of remarks and messages of congratulations etc, but a few people have said "why did they leave it so long before scoring?"..

For those that don't know, Gillingham won the play off final 1-0 with a goal in the 90th minute to gain promotion to League One, just a season after being relegated.
On refelction of these comments, is there actually any better time to score? True, they could have scored in the first minute and made our lives a whole lot easier for the 90 minutes that followed, but i wouldn't have changed it for the world.

When we arrived home we downloaded all our photo's from the day. The shot above has to be the favourite despite the fact that i've now thoroughly abused the panoramic image maker feature in windows live gallery...

It was a great way to win and having been to 3 Gills play off finals now, i'm beginning to think, it's the only way to win. 3 finals, 3 last minute goals. League One here we come!

Today's the day..

Ok, it's early, but i'm already nervous. We're off to get the train in about 2 hours time and i've already been awake thinking about it for the last couple.. I dont get to see as many Gills games as i'd like but that makes me no less nervous than any season ticket holder. I honestly believe we'll win, but i'm still nervous...

5 hours and 45 minutes til kick off.. 7 hours and 30 minutes until we know...

I've started on the nails already.

Learning to tweet..

I've recently signed up for an account on twitter. I figure that although i'll be able to write a blog on here and my website in the evenings after each day of the tour, having twitter will allow me to let people follow my progress as the days progress.

The addresses for my website, donation page and twitter page are below..

Website: http://www.tothe92.co.uk/
Donation Page: http://www.justgiving.com/tothe92
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tothe92

Tickets left?

The last update on the Gillingham website was on Monday announcing that there are still tickets remaining from our initial allocation of 38,000. We'd officially sold 33,000 by Sunday so i expect we'll have completely sold out by the day of the game.
When we were at the ground my Dad and I stood talking to a security guard who was pretty confident that we'd take the most fans any club side had ever taken to the new Wembley. As much as i agree, it would appear that if we were to set a new record it wouldn't last very long. Millwall are playing the following day against Scunthorpe and have already been allocated 49,000 tickets having sold they're initial 37,500 allocation.

Pretty impressive ticket sales really for two sides that aren't overly well supported. Millwall's average attendance this season is 8,940 which is only a 44% fill of their ground on an average match day. Gillingham are very similar with an average attendance of just 5,307, which translates to a 46% fill of Priestfield on any normal day.

A good performance on Saturday could hopefully attract more fans to watch the Gills on a regular basis. I for one, became a regular enthusiast after the Man City final in 1999. I guess I just enjoy punishment...

2 days and counting! . . .

Good seats?? ..

Well, Saturday came and went pretty quickly. We were down in Gillingham at 11am and in the ground queueing soon after. Tickets didn't go on general sale until 3pm so we knew we were in for a long wait but with approximately 500 people infront of us already, the decision to go early seemed justified.

The picture above was taken at around 2pm looking across the Gordon Road stand where they were housing the ticket line. Each block was seen to row by row in order. I estimate about 2500 were in the stand at the time of this photo so how many tickets were left for todays sale period is anyone's guess.

Having queued for over 3 and a half hours, we reached the front. We'd been warned in advance that we wouldn't be able to choose seats, just the price block we wanted to sit in. However, it wasn't quite as strict as that. We said which price band we wanted and after refusing the first set of tickets, the sales clerk helpfully wandered off and got a selection of which we picked what we considered to be the best of the bunch. We're going to be sitting 4-5 rows above the scoreboard, directly behind the goal. Saturday simply can't come quick enough now!

Being stuck in the queue for as long as we were wasn't actually as bad as it sounds. There were training matches going on and first team players out signing autographs and having photo's taken. Also, i had the chance to take a selection of photo's around the ground to test out the panoramic photo maker that's made to look simple by the 7 year old on the microsoft advert. I was thoroughly shocked to find out just how easy it is. I took 5 photo's of 3 stands, highlighted all of them in windows live gallery and clicked 'make'. About 20 seconds later it came back with a stunning panoramic image of all 5 photo's stitched together. I'm sure this technique will come in handy in September and for now at least, i dont feel like the 7 year old is technically superior to me...

Writing ahead...

It's taken me a few weeks to put it together but i've now got the letters ready to send off to the 92 football teams we intend to visit in September. Well, all bar one! Torquay play Cambridge in the Blue Sq Premier play off final on Sunday to decide the final ground i'll have to get to.

I'm not sure which one i'd prefer. Our tour takes us close to Torquay when we go to Plymouth and close to Cambridge as we go to Colchester. Any advice on which ones easier?

Gillingham have announced a play off final ticket hotline to prevent people from having to go down to the ground. I think i'll go anyway. I'd much prefer to have the ticket in my hand than to hope it arrives after paying a £6 admin fee for the priveledge...

New addition to the list..

On the road from Chesterfield to Sheffield United, we'll be passing the Bright Finance Stadium. Still known to many as the Coach and Horses ground, it plays home to Sheffield FC. Recognised as the World's oldest football club, Sheffield FC were formed in 1857 and as we're passing through on our tour it's definately an extra that we'll have to go and see.

Gillingham have announced play off final ticket details. General sale starts Saturday 16th at 3pm. I'll be there in the queue. We've been allocated 38,000 seats whereas Shrewsbury only have 21,000.

Over land and sea...

Well, to Wembley anyway! The Gills beat Rochdale on Sunday 2-1 in the 2nd leg of the play off semi finals to play Shrewsbury in the final. I've visited the new Wembley once before to see England beaten by Germany. But, on that occasion, despite the stadium being sold out there was hardly any atmosphere. On Saturday May 23rd there will be an atmosphere. The stadium could only be half full but the noise will still be out of this world.
Play off finals mean so much to teams and fans alike. Hearts on the sleeves time.

The big one

Forget Barcelona v Chelsea and Man United v Arsenal, last night was the big one. Rochdale against the mighty Gillingham. 1st leg of the play off semi finals. I'd decided before the game that a draw would have to be considered a good result. Obviously a score draw is better than a 0-0 but we'd take a draw. A draw we got. 0-0 and all to play for in the second leg on Sunday.

90 minutes from Wembley now.

Living with a sulk

Last night was Chelsea v Barcelona in the Champions League semi final 2nd leg. Terri, my partner, is a huge Chelsea fan and throughout the entire 90 minutes she'd been sitting there telling me how much she was looking forward to seeing Chelsea get revenge over Man United in the final. In the 92nd minute Barcelona scored and knocked Chelsea out.
Quite a mood change in our front room after that. Terri just sat in silence, completely shell shocked by the goal and i think she realised at that moment she's now a fully fledged football fan.

Of course, she blames me for this.

Surviving at Stoke

Sunday May 9th 2004

So it all came down to this. An entire season being judged as a success or failure rested on what happened in the 90 minutes at Stoke and how Walsall fared against Rotherham.

We were 2 points clear of Walsall in the relegation places with a 2 goal better goal difference. The nerves before the game were simply unbearable. It was probably the quietest i've ever heard Gills fans for the full 90 minutes.

The game itself was a bit of a non event. Stoke were a good team and we knew holding them out was our main objective. There were a few chances but the game finished 0-0 meaning it all came down to how Walsall were doing. We'd heard many different scores and rumours from the game throughout but the last we heard was that Walsall were ahead 3-2. Someone from the top of the stand behind us let out an almighty sigh. We all thought Walsall had scored again and chinese whispers from the top of the stand reached us to say they had. The mood changed again. There wasn't a lot of excitement anyway but for those few seconds when we thought we were going down, my Dad and I just looked at each other with the knowing look and wondered just how long this drive home was going to be...

A guy sitting 2 rows behind us then started the loudest cheer i've ever heard from one man and we knew that either Rotherham had scored again or the rumour from the back of the stadium was rubbish and Walsall were still only 3-2 up. They hadn't scored again. 3-2 was confirmed as the final score and the celebrations began. We'd stayed up on goal difference on the final day. Very, very emotional scenes with fans crying and smiling at the same time.

The long road home didn't seem so long after that..

All roads lead to Wembley....... hopefully.

On Thursday, Gillingham play away to Rochdale in the League 2 play off semi final 1st leg. We won at Rochdale on Saturday, the final game of the season. Hopefully it's a good omen. When it comes to play off semi's, we generally have a good record. Fingers crossed we keep that up and book a return to Wembley on Saturday May 23rd.

Over the weekend, i sat down with my Dad and looked at the route round the league grounds. We're quite confident now that we have the best route although on some of the days we'll need nature to do us a favour and things to go our way. The tour will now officially take 12 days.

We booked up the hotels on Friday so there's no backing out now. We have to go a certain way and hope that nothing goes overly wrong. We've got contingency plans for most days but if we're going to get to see all the grounds in the day time it could still end up being a push.