As I recall, a ticket was put in my hands and it felt like gold. I think I paid £10 for it. Here was my club, Cambridge United, in the division 4 play-off semi-finals after a surreal season.
Up until March, we were 16th, at best, but then came the catch-up exercise, after a little jolly to the FA Cup quarter-finals, and a narrow loss to Crystal Palace (and we all know what they did to Liverpool in the semis).
It was unheard of for a lowly division 4 side to have that kind of Cup run and we were massively behind on games. A few wins and draws, but nothing special had taken us into this tie with Maidstone, and after they scored an injury time equaliser at the Abbey, it looked game over.
So with ticket in hand, we sat having a few beers in Dartford, and made our way into a little shed, which held 1000 fans and was packed with U's supporters. A tight game followed, chances evenly shared, so on to extra time.
And then it happened.
Quick-fire goals from John 'Shaggy' Taylor and Dion Dublin in the second period of extra time, and three quarters of the stadium were ecstatic.
Game over, Wembley sorted, the drive home went through the tunnel, and it was here that I saw the most amazing thing, and it will stay with me forever.
Traffic came to a standstill, and one by one, doors opened, and pretty soon, there were people in Amber and Black getting out. Then a bloke in a Capri, jumped on his roof and started belting out Anti-Boro songs, and it made one hell of a noise down there, but then everyone joined in and pretty soon the tunnel was one mad party.
I remember we were eventually made to move on, and move on we did, briefly.
Wembley was won by Dion, and the next year we won the Division 3 title and became the first team from the lower divisions to reach two consecutive FA Cup quarter finals, losing 2-1 at Highbury to a late Tony Adams header. Then the year after, losing play-off semi-finalists for the first ever Premier league.
Sadly, it didn't last, but the memories do.
Memory added on August 22, 2012
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