Over the years I spent on the membership, I used to be at all times very eager to ask older Stoke favourites in to observe coaching on a Thursday, after which have lunch with the gamers.
The week earlier than our win over West Ham within the quarter-finals that despatched us to Wembley, I’d requested Gordon Banks, a Stoke legend and a World Cup winner, who had received at Wembley with the membership within the 1972 League Cup ultimate, if he could be ready to do a speech.
He was delighted to be requested and gave a rousing speech about how great it could be for all of the gamers in the event that they made it to Wembley, as a result of he knew a whole lot of them had by no means performed there earlier than.
Stoke had solely made it again to Wembley twice since 1972, for the Football League Trophy in 1992 and 2000, and Gordon additionally spoke about what it could imply for all our followers, younger and outdated, to expertise a visit right down to the house of soccer.
He was proper. We bought out our allocation for Wembley, with queues stretching for miles and I’ve to say it was such an awesome feeling to see so many glad faces across the metropolis, with everybody shopping for into such an enormous event.
It was the identical on the day too. I do not suppose anybody who was at Wembley for our semi-final win over Bolton will ever neglect the great din our supporters created from begin to end, they usually performed an enormous half in our win.
I’d handled the week of the sport as a traditional week, except Wednesday which was our traditional time without work.
That Wednesday, the lads met at Stoke practice station within the morning and we travelled right down to Euston, the place all of us jumped on a first-team coach and set off for Wembley Stadium.
We managed to not solely get the bus into the stadium, but in addition get a fast stroll on to the pitch – I needed to do it as a result of most of our lads had by no means even been to the bottom, not to mention performed there.
I felt it was an essential concern that wanted addressing and I’m certain the gamers benefitted from it. We rounded off the day by going to an area Italian restaurant and had dinner and a glass of wine, then got here dwelling.
I felt like we have been prepared for the semi-final, and issues went our manner on the large day too.
