An unexpected trip to Wembley
Groucho Marx once said: “I love surprises as long as I’m ready for them”.
Maybe it’s just a sign of getting old, but these days I tend to find nothing much surprises me, whether I’m ready for it to happen or not. But I have to admit, I was stopped in my tracks a few weeks back when I checked my e-mails one evening and found a very unexpected invitation from Kirkham & Wesham Press Officer Howard Jones waiting for me.
It’s not often that you get an invite to spend a couple of hours to see behind the scenes at Wembley, but that’s exactly what Howard was offering. To set the scene, before every major cup final, the FA set up a media event at Wembley, and gather a few players, management and officials from the competing finalists together for a photo shoot and interviews with members of the national press.
Monday 15th April was designated as one of those days. In the morning, representatives of Torquay United and Ebbsfleet United gathered for a session to publicise the FA Trophy Final, and in the afternoon it was the turn of Lowestoft Town and Kirkham & Wesham for the FA Vase version.
With a heavy programme of games that week, and business commitments affecting availability of those who would normally have been looking to make the trip, Howard had a few spaces available for the Wembley trip and offered me the chance to join the Kirkham & Wesham travelling party.
So, on the Monday morning, a group consisting of me, Howard, photographer Albert Cooper, Kirkham captain Dougie Shaw and striker Matt Walwyn met at the Birley Arms car park next to Kellamergh Park. A people carrier sent up by the FA was waiting, with our driver Adrian ready and waiting to chauffeur us.
We were scheduled to be at Wembley for 2.30pm, and fortunately there were no major hold ups on the way down, and with the satnav tellingus we were three miles away from the stadium, we saw the new arch from several miles away while we were still on the A40, heading towards Hangar Lane and the North Circular Road.
Over the years I’d been to the old Wembley as a spectator many times, especially when I lived in London in the late 1980’s, so I was interested to see how different it looked now. Likewise, Albert Cooper had been there many times in a working capacity, so he was familiar with the old stadium too, but as we came off the North Circular to head into the stadium approaches, the first thing we both noticed was how different the approach was.
Anyone who visited the old Wembley will remember that the final approach involved weaving through some tatty old industrial areas to get into the car park. A lot of those have now been removed, and among the new buildings is a retail park with the likes of Allied Carpets and Pets At Home on there.
Anyway, the route on to the stadium car park was certainly different to what I remember and with the stadium looking different too, when we got out the car I had trouble getting my bearings. Albert pointed out that Wembley Way still looked much the same, and beyond that was the Wembley Conference Centre, so they were still there as pointers to the previous incarnation that we remembered.
The main reception area was next to Wembley Way in fact, so we went in, got our accreditation, and waited in the reception area in which there was plenty of open space, a few seats and very little else other than a glass cabinet containing memorabilia along one wall. We went to have a look and I don’t know quite what I was expecting, but I thought the contents might have been a bit more interesting than they actually were.
The majority of what was on display comprised old trophies, many of them replicas. There was a mini FA Cup and European Cup and as Howard is a speedway fan, he was interested in some speedway trophies on display from the days when Wembley hosted big speedway events, but football wise there wasn’t much to get excited about. A few caps and footballs, and the only reference to the 1966 World Cup I could see was a programme for the final.
You have to remember that this area isn’t open to general public access – we had to pass through security barriers with our passes to get into it – so if that means that more interesting items are on more general display somewhere else then fair enough. Maybe it’s just me, but I expected to see a bit more football related stuff from big games in the past.
Before long we were joined by some people from the FA Press Office and the Lowestoft contingent arrived almost simultaneously. The itinerary was laid out for us. Into the dressing rooms first, the FA Vase would be there and there would be photo opportunities take shots of the players next to the trophy. Then we’d go pitch side with the Trophy, then up to the Royal Box and then in the stand next to it for more photo opportunities and interviews.
The stadium is laid out like most big arenas now, where team coaches drive through a tunnel under the seated areas almost straight up to the dressing room door. No chance of the players coming into contact with punters when they get off the coach. From the coach drop off point, we walked through doors into a hallway. In front of us were two double doors that opened out on to the pitch and one dressing room was either side of the doors.
The dressing rooms themselves were obviously very spacious, and Dougie and Matt wandered off briefly to have a quick look at the showers and bath areas before it was their turn to face the cameras. Then it was out into the foyer, and I must admit I did have a quick pause to think what it would be like to be lining up in a team ready to walk out on the pitch.
Walking out the doors, after a quick look round at the towering stands above, the first thing that struck me was the distance between the front row of seats and the actual pitch. The track in front of the Royal Box is still fairly wide, I’d say a good seven or eight yards, and from there you’ve got a good couple more yards from where the grass begins up to the touchline.
The other thing I noticed was the size of the scoreboards at either end. These days, you see some pretty decent sized screens in grounds, but the ones behind the goal at Wembley are no bigger than the ones that were there before. If anything they are slightly smaller, which I found a bit surprising.
Anyway, as soon as we got out, Dougie couldn’t wait to get a feel for the pitch, so he wandered on to the grass. It didn’t take long for him to be reprimanded by one of the FA entourage, but as he said afterwards, it was an opportunity not to be missed.
“I wanted to stand on the pitch as soon as I could. A couple of faces started looking at me and I realised I was going to get told off, but I wasn’t getting off until someone told me. I wanted to be sure that I could say I was the first ever Kirkham & Wesham player to stand on the Wembley turf and now I can!”
The backdrop of the pitch and seats made for a great picture with the FA Vase, so Dougie and Matt, and their Lowestoft counterparts Gary Williams and Jamie Godbold, spent a fair amount of time pitchside getting their photos taken. Radio reporters from BBC Radio Suffolk and Norwich based Radio Broadland were there, and they conducted some interviews in between the photo sessions.
From the pitch side, we walked up the steps to the Royal Box for a quick look at the view from there, and we all took the chance to sit down for a minute to enjoy the view. Then we moved to the stand at the side of the Royal Box, at which point the Vase trophy was positioned in between both sets of players for a final photo shoot.
The newspaper guys then took the opportunity of interviewing the players, with the Times, Daily Telegraph and the Non League Paper among those represented. Matt commented afterwards that they all seemed a bit shocked that he was only 17, and they spent a bit of time asking him questions about what he was studying and what his career plans were.
We then had a few minutes just to wander generally in the stands, and when Howard said he fancied going to the very back row to see the view from there, a few of us joined him.
Howard and Albert have both visited big American stadiums for baseball and American Football games, and when we reached the back row, both of them commented on something I wouldn’t have thought of. They said that in stadiums they’ve been in, there are television screens suspended from the ceiling near the back row seats, so that those furthest from the pitch can still get some close up views of what’s going on.
Wembley doesn’t have that, and talking to a friend who has been to the Millenium Stadium, he told me there are screens there too. Maybe it’s something that will follow in due course, but it’s a feature that’s missing at the moment.
As we approached our scheduled finish time of 4.45pm, there was time for a quick look at the press box for those of us likely to be occupying it on 11th May, and then it was back down to the reception area to hand the passes back in and say our farewells. The Lowestoft Chairman, who was walking with the aid of a stick, told us that he is due to go in for a hip replacement soon and that the date of the operation might well coincide with the Final itself. Now that is what you call bad timing.
Farewells completed, we walked back to the car where Adrian was waiting to take us back to Lancashire, and we finally arrived back at the Birley Arms at just after 9 pm, after a stop at Stafford services for a snack on the way back. A long day maybe, but one that any football fan would have considered worthwhile.
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