Yesterday was certainly a great and very proud day for the town. I don't think I've ever seen Lowie so busy at 8am in the morning and about 10:30pm at night.
There was a HUGE queue at the train station, where me, my mates and about 400+ others were waiting for a National Express train (on which there is a no alchohol rule by the way ) to collect us and take us straight through to London, even though there were slight delays at Norwich and Cambridge, the driver having to change ends and some signalling problems as well. Nothing disruptive there and back really though. Leaving at 09:10 (yes, I got the times wrong), we arrived in London 3 hours later.Those trains are certainly a lot more comfortable than the usual crap, plus there was air-conditioning too - boy did we need that!! We knew it was going to be absolutely stifling in London, well, it really was on the tube - thank God the journey from Liverpool St to Wembley Park Station was over in a good time. Didn't seem like a 40 minute journey to us...
The first thing we did on arriving at WPS, was to find a good pub and we did. It's called The Torch and is a good ten minute walk from the stadium. In that heat, most of us were very grateful to get a nice cold pint down our necks - or two
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The new Wembley certainly is a great piece of construction and worth the wait in my opinion. I don't feel that words can describe it adequately enough, I just think it's fantastic. I like to think that all of us 15,000 or so Lowestoft fans really done it some great justice, as did the 3 - 4,000+ Kirkham & Wesham fans did in the opposite end of the stadium. It was just so nice to be in the shade, so it wasn't absolutely sweltering and we didn't have the sun in our eyes
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. Got a good view of the game too. All LTFC fans had to go through Entrance J and all our seats were in Row 12, Block 134.
To be honest, we definitely got beaten by the better side who were able to pass the ball better and get some good crosses in from the wings - a supply line that I feel we had to stop if we were to win the game. Our end went bonkers when we scored, albeit through an own goal by one of K & W's defenders, in the 11th minute
. The trouble is, we just couldn't captialise on it and as the first half went on so the opposition came into the game more. They very nearly equalised when they had an effort that hit the bar, came off our keeper and hit the bar again with Andy Reynolds, who didn't look 100% fit, able to gather the ball second time around. Then there was also the moment when one of our midfielders, Darren Cockrill, very cheaply gave the ball away which almost gave them a great opportunity to score.
Second half came around and, while we had a good twenty minute spell (but without managing to really threaten their goal), K & W proved themselves to be worthy winners. They had one simple tap-in, which was cleared off the line and it did make think "Is this going to be our day?" And in one of the most cruellest ways possible it wasn't. K & W got their deserved equaliser in the 84th minute when one of their subs, a youngster, who was with Blackburn Rovers' academy, by the name of Matt Walwyn. We were left desperately clinging on to going into extra-time until, painfully, the 94th bloody minute when K & W sprung the offside trap (well I thought, as did one or two others around me, that it WAS offside) and slid the ball across to Walwyn who converted easily, winning the Vase for them
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. To be fair, we did come a bit close with a header right at the very end which, possibly on another day, might just have bounced into the corner. But it didn't, it was practically the very last bit of action and the K & W fans were going ballistic as the ref (Mr D'Urso, who has probably found his level) blew for full-time.
Our players looked a bit inconsolable as they had given so much effort, they really did do us LTFC supporters proud. So much effort, they just didn't have enough ability on the day to win it. It must've also been a serious case of Betty Swollocks for all the lads on the pitch as those very hot conditions was probably a big factor in the substitutions that the managers had to make. People must remember that not only are they human, they are amateurs and not professionals. Then of course there was also all the local hype in the last month or two and the pressure they must've felt, playing in front of about 15,000 Lowstuff fans...
Congratulations to Kirkham & Wesham and all their fans, what a way to celebrate your first season of entering the competition!
But a big-up to the Trawler Boys as well - they have really done the town proud and can hopefully use the runners-up money of about £30,000 effectively. It's a lot of money to a Ridgeon's League club.
WELL DONE LADS - YOU STILL DID US VERY PROUD!!!