Wembley Stadium first opened in 1923 and it took until the year 2000 for Kent football to record a win under the Twin Towers when Deal Town won the FA Vase Final against Chippenham Town.
A little over three weeks later, and Kent was celebrating again when Gillingham beat Wigan Athletic in the Play Off Final to win promotion to the Championship for the only time in the club’s history.
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of arguably the most historic three weeks in the Counties football history, KSN’s chief football writer Mike Green has been talking to those involved and tomorrow (May 6th – the 20th anniversary of Deal’s win) we invite you on a daily basis to join us for “Twenty-two Days in May”…
Over the course of the next three weeks, Mike will be talking to players involved from both clubs remembering the highs and lows of the respective seasons and beyond…
From the Gillingham camp, we’ve been talking to scorers Andy Thomson and Steve Butler as well as Bob Taylor (who despite leaving for Manchester City was still the club’s top scorer that season), Vince Bartram, Guy Butters, Barry Ashby, Carl Asaba and “Mr Gillingham” himself – Andy Hessenthaler.
Meanwhile, Mike, who covered a number of Deal’s Vase games in their triumphant run to Wembley for BBC Radio Kent, has been reminiscing with Steve Best, Marc Seager, Steve Marshall, Phil Turner, Steve Lovell, Phil Miles (who despite leaving the club before Wembley played a massive part in the early stages of the run), and there’s also some memories from the Commentary Box!
We’ve also got an exclusive interview with scorer Roly Graham who has given Mike his first interview about the day in almost a decade…
And so tomorrow on the 20th anniversary of Roly’s historic strike, we start the series with the man whose name will forever be in the history books of Kent football as the first skipper from the county to lift a major trophy under the Two Towers – our “Twenty-two day in May” begins with the Deal Town skipper as Greenie turns the focus on TERRY MARTIN.