Make-a-Wish Foundation

A couple of years back during the 2006 World Cup, you might remember Carlsberg running a great little advert about the best pub football team in the world. They roped in Sir Bobby Robson to manage the outfit, and opted for a tidy little starting line up of Peter Shilton, Des Walker, Bryan Robson, Stuart Pearce, Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher, Alan Ball, Jack Charlton and Bobby Charlton. Sure it was pure fantasy, but bizarrely word has reached the press this week that it might not be that far away from actually happening, with a team made up entirely of former FA Cup winners being put together to enter next year’s competition.

Most pleasingly, Gazza is being touted as one of the still-unnamed team’s stars. The plan is to have the legends join a non-league side but only play during the team’s FA Cup campaign. The organizers of the Legends football series, Toast Events, are arranging players as we speak, with a view to raise plenty of wonga for charity in the process. Other names already mentioned are Ray Parlour, Lee Sharpe, Bryan Robson, Dave Beasant, Graeme Le Saux and Roberto di Matteo, with assurances made that “it will be a serious venture…(not) a laughing stock.”

Imagine lining up for your local Sunday league team on a sunny afternoon next July, and rather than one of the usual selection of overweight boozers to mark, you’ve got Gazza. Ok, all jokes aside, this is exactly the kind of thing he needs to focus on, so please let this happen and let’s save our Gazza!

Wick to Wembley: The Book!

Those of you who pay attention to STT will remember a feature we ran last year, encouraging you to patronise a cracking little blog we’d come across called Wick to Wembley where a man called Andy Ollerenshaw attempted to follow his local team from the preliminary qualifying road of the FA Cup all the way through to the final. That’s a journey of 16 games, covering almost the entire country, during which he saw crowds swell from an underwhelming 108 to a phenomenal 89,000.

It goes without saying that we feel that this is a great title, and an essential for any football fan. It’s well written in a friendly and down-to-earth colloquial style, charting the ups and downs that come with a modern day attempt to fulfil the classic Road to Wembley motif. Don’t believe me, then read the wise words of endorsement on the back cover:

“Excellent…worthy of your precious time. An attempt to regain a little bit of grass roots football magic. It’s a cracking idea; set your face to ‘smile’ and check out his exploits.”

What a beautifully constructed sentence, I should imagine that whoever wrote that was very astute, and certainly knows what he’s talking about. He’s probably quite good looking too, not to mention popular with the ladies.

Anyway, for more information and to actually buy the book, go here. £1 from the sale of each copy will be donated to the AfriKids charity, so if you won’t do it for yourself, do it for Africa. You don’t want people thinking you’re a racist do you?

Finally, if you enjoy Andy exploits in this book and are left gasping for more, check out his latest venture here. This season he is attempting to follow the non-league journey of the FA Vase, again from his local team Chertsey FC, all the way to the Wembley-hosted final. He has already seen his mighty Chertsey breeze past Oakwood and Hassocks, before succumbing to the behemoths that are Arundel, so join him again soon as the Second Round Proper kicks off November 15.