Ebbsfleet United 1-0 Torquay: My Day At Wembley Stadium

Unbelievable. That's the only word I can use to describe Wembley Stadium. The match wasn't too bad either. Ebbsfleet United are famous for being owned by the internet site, MyFootballClub.co.uk. Everyone believed it would end in failure, but we set out to prove them wrong.

My journey began at home. A wake-up call of 7:30 a.m., although I didn't actually get out of the bed until 7:45 a.m. A shower, a quick read of the paper and a check that I had everything in my rucksack, and I was ready to go.

I was picked up at 8:45 a.m. by my brother John. We then arrived at his house waiting to be picked up by his mother-in-law, who would take us to Ebbsfleet International. While we were waiting, John took it upon himself to batter me 3-1 on FIFA 2008. He then decided to hammer me on Fight Night: Round 3. That's brotherly love for you.

Finally, at about 10:50 a.m., the coach journey began. I spent most of it either talking about football (as you do) or listening to some great songs on my iPod. The time flew by, and at 12:20 p.m., we arrived at Wembley Stadium. I then proceeded to think of many expletives in my head to describe Wembley Stadium.

I had been to Old Trafford, I had been to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, but this was beyond anything else. Still amazed, I nearly got squashed by a coach (not one of my finest moments). I was amazed by the amount of people that had turned up.

Just remember, this is an F.A. Trophy Final between two sides who are in the fifth division in England. Some clubs are lucky to have 10,000 fans, but amazingly, over 40,000 people attended this game.

What's even more amazing is the fact that Torquay are considered a much larger club than Ebbsfleet. Only a couple of years ago, Torquay were relegated from the Football League.

Ebbsfleet only got promoted back to the conference a few years ago. Torquay have an incredibly large fan base, but still, it's believed that 35,000 of the 40,000 or so that attended were Ebbsfleet fans.

I can definitely believe that. Almost every seat allocated to Ebbsfleet United was taken. Torquay couldn't even fill the bottom tier. There were about 3,000 seats empty that were visible in the bottom tier.

So, onto the match. Torquay were strong in the opening few minutes, and looked likely to take the lead, but after 10 minutes, the game settled and Ebbsfleet took control.

The game was tight with few chances until Ebbsfleet made a break for goal. Chris McPhee, a former Torquay player, had a penalty on 40 minutes, but it was brilliantly saved by Torquay goalkeeper Martin Rice.

McPhee did put Ebbsfleet in the lead just before halftime when some awful defending let fan favourite John Akinde square the ball for McPhee to score from even closer range.

The rest of the game was merely about holding on for the victory, which the Fleet did with ease. In the end, the game descended into a big party for the Ebbsfleet fans. We even did a Mexican wave, but the Torquay fans refused to join in, which got quite a loud boo.

At around 4:20 p.m., the final whistle blew, and fans could celebrate their first piece of silverware for some years. We had a short trip home from Wembley, and by 7:30 p.m., I was back in the comfort of my living room.

A lot of walking throughout the day had taken it's toll, and I fell asleep very early. I'll never forget my first day at Wembley, and I can say now that I'll be attending many more Ebbsfleet games in the future.

Thanks for reading.