A Cunning look back of 30 days which have changed
my life over the past 30 years
Day 6: 20th February 2000:
A trip along the Kings’ Road
Evening all,
As part of the same season with Gillingham, it was a memorable run we
had in the FA cup that season. Although it was a difficult start we had against
the likes of Cheltenham Town, Walsall and the now defunct Darlington, we then came
to face to some big premier leagues sides.
Both Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday were in the lower half of the
Premier League table at the time. Both games were played at Priestfield and on
both occasions the Gills blew them away to the delight of the home fans. The
Sheffield Wednesday game was also featured on the BBC programme ‘Match of the
Day’ which as a gills fan it was really historic to watch seeing your team play
on television.
The draw for the quarter finals came up and we got Chelsea away at
Stamford Bridge. The date set was the 20th February, which for me
was kind of a family outing in more ways than one.
My granddad was a massive Chelsea fan, i remember on a number of visits
to seeing him and my grandma in Seal – just on the outskirts of Sevenoaks – he would
talk about the good old days of Chelsea. He did also promise me one day that he
would take me to see Chelsea play at home at the bridge. Sadly though in 1997,
he suffered a heart attack whilst living with my auntie in Ashford just before
his birthday. And i never got the opportunity to go to a game with him.
So it felt kindly weird whilst on the coach on the way upto the bridge
that i felt a presence next to me on the coach. There wasn’t a person sitting
next to me on the coach and i have never thought about or never spoken to
someone about spirits from the other world. But it did feel that someone was
sitting next to me on the way upto the game.
What made it even weirder was that the space where i was sitting in the
Chelsea west stand, the space next to it was not used during the whole game but
as with the coach it did feel that someone was sitting in the seat. I them immediately
felt that it could be the spirit of my granddad watching the game with me.
Looking back it did feel weird but if it was true then he definitely kept his
promise to watch a game at the bridge with me.
And if did watch the game with me he would be jumping for joy every time
Chelsea score a goal, all five of them.
Tor Andre Flo getting in on the act during the game.
We were totally played off the park, although we did hold them to 1-0
lead at half time, i think we were there to enjoy the day in the sun and to see
some quality players play the game of football. In fair reflection it would
have been nice to score but we didn’t.
After the game, the players came over to the fans for a decent send off
back to Kent; I went home hopeful that we can continue this memorable season.
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