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Blog: Living the Wembley dream
Blog: Living the Wembley dream

Ever wondered what it’s like living the dream of going to Wembley? Here’s how it went for this Bromley fan.

Timeline of a Bromley fans day:

4.30am The alarm goes off, but in all honesty I have been awake for a while waiting for it, I’d been awake on and off from 3am worried about missing it going off.

5.15am Walk down to Hayes Lane, on arrival there are fifty or so fans already waiting outside the ground for the coaches.

6.15am The coaches leave for Gateshead.

10.30am We stop off at Grantham North for breakfast, chat among the fans is of what might happen today, when someone starts listing the five players who would take penalties, I try to switch off not even wanting to think of the possibility.

12.45pm We arrive at The International Athletics Arena, home to Gateshead FC. We get a nice welcome from the club employees outside the ground and make our way to the Schooner Pub on the south bank of the Tyne.

2.00pm A pint and a half later (I’m too nervous to finish the second one) and plenty of football chat, it’s back up the hill to the stadium and the long walk around to the away stand. Once inside, I take a moment to look at the 11,000 seater arena and think about Brendan Foster and all the other famous sports people who have competed here.

2.30pm Bromley fans are filing into the away stand, a pasty and a coffee sets me up for the afternoon and I catch up with people I have known for years following The Ravens. Everyone wears the same expression, nervous excitement is the emotion of the day.

2.55pm News breaks that the kick off will be delayed by ten minutes as there are so many people still queuing outside the ground. No one can ever remember this happening at a Bromley game before! In the end 2,242 people are in attendance with 244 from Bromley.

3.10pm The teams come out to a huge reception and the game finally kicks off.

3.15pm Despite having taken time to settle Bromley grab the lead when Brandon Hanlan holds off the home defence and the ball is bundle into the net via a Gateshead defender. The away section goes crazy. 1-0 on the day 4-2 on aggregate to Bromley.

3.55pm Half time, still 1-0. Bromley playing some goods stuff and defending well.

4.35pm All of a sudden everything is thrown into the balance again, Barrow scores a fantastic 30 yard pile driver giving David Gregory no chance. 1-1, 4-3 to Bromley on agg.

4.40pm Nerves are frayed in the away end, Gateshead are piling on the pressure to take the tie into extra time, Bromley are defending for their lives.

4.50pm Louis Dennis take the ball up to the Gateshead area and heads for the corner flag, he and Brandon Hanlan have run their hearts out chasing scraps in the second half.

4.55pm Full Time! Bromley have done it. We have made it to Wembley Stadium for the first time in 69 years. The celebrations are only just beginning in the away stand, virtually everyone is in tears and exchanging hugs. It’s an honour to be here and share this with people I know, in some cases for decades, and lived through the best and darkest of times at Bromley FC.

5.00pm The players, the management and the owners come over to the fans and the classic que sera sera song is belted out, we are going to Wembley.

5.20pm We slowly file out of the stadium, KSN’s two Bromley reporters Machel and myself take a quick photo and put it up on the twitter feed. Thankfully Jason is reporting today as both of us were in no state to make notes during the match!

5.30pm I get back on the coach and call my wife. She tells my son we are in the final and he is jumping up and down at home. Once again the emotion of it all gets to me. The chat on the way home is about tickets, the opponents Brackley Town and how to make sure the real fans of the club get to sit together at the game. Some fans are still talking about the play offs, but for me the Trophy is more than enough for me this season. We have 55 points, we are safe, it’s all good.

9.00pm We stop at Peterborough services, myself and my good mate Antonio celebrate with a burrito!

11.50pm We are back at Hayes Lane, one more rendition of que sera sera rings out as I start to walk home.

12.15am I’m home, happy, exhausted, but my head is far too full of the days events to sleep for at least an hour. I scroll through Twitter to see everyone else is feeling the same.

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