Route: Wembley Way – FA Cup Final 2014
Area: North London
Date of walk: 17th May 2014
Who: Andrew Gilly James David Rob and Barry
Weather: Sunshine all day
Not a walk really but a journey for sure, and one that’s worth recording here, as today was one of the most glorious days in the history of my home town team Hull City AFC. For the first time ever the club had made it to the final of the F A Cup and were drawn against mighty Arsenal. We were the underdogs so win or lose it would be a great day
After checking we had the tickets with us – for the 100th time that morning – we set off from home and met up with David’s brother Barry in London. Barry had flown from America just for this game, partly my fault as I’d told him it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but then he didn’t need much persuasion
A superb lunch at Moro got us in the mood and we took the tube to Wembley, losing Gilly on the way. After a joyful reunion (was she pleased to see me or the tickets I was carrying’) we walked along Wembley Way mingling with thousands of happy and excited fans and saying hello to a few familiar faces from home
I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story, save to say that the events which followed made today one of the most wonderful footballing days I’ve ever experienced
The magic tickets
Our team today: Rob left wing, Andrew inside left (as it used to be called), Gilly centre forward, James inside right and David right wing
A glorious morning as we cross the Humber Bridge
Sir Steve - and my old scarf, now about 50 years old and which is taken out of mothballs on special occasions such as this
We arrive at Moro in London hoping that our 6th man Barry will be there to make up our full team
Yes he is - and looking fresh as a daisy after a 14 hour flight
On the way from Moro to Wembley we enjoy some friendly banter with rival fans
Here we go……to the dream
Wembley Way, the feeble excuse that exists for calling this one of Andrew’s Walks
Barry and Rob in replicas of Hull’s unique phone boxes
In the next booth I spot an old friend Darren (at the back). Darren now lives in New Zealand and has flown over for the game. It was great to see you again after all this time Darren, even though we didn’t have time for a proper catch up - maybe see you in Europe next year?!
Will our dreams come true today?
The Sir Bobby Moore statue
Time to go to our seats
The atmosphere before the game is electric and the noise deafening
Our heroes emerge from the tunnel
Hull royalty is introduced to real royalty and then the game kicks off
It’s 2-2 at full time and we go into extra time
In the end Arsenal are just too good for us and win 3-2 but our boys have done us proud
Losing is awful but not quite so bad when the team has played so well and gone down in history as the first Hull City side ever to make it to the final
It’s been a pleasure - thank you for having us, maybe see you again next year?
The souvenirs remind us that it wasn’t all a dream. We’ll be able to get them out of the attic in years to come and say to our grandchildren ‘We were there’
Next day we watch the recording of the game and in the build up there’s some old footage of son James and me (and the old scarf) at the closing ceremony of Boothferry Park, City’s old ground, which was being demolished to make way for a housing development. Little did we know then that in a couple of years’ time our team would be in The F A Cup final - you can demolish bricks and mortar but you can’t demolish dreams
