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1. v Newham 3-2 Southern Counties Cup Final,
1993
Fearful tales of Newham's giant centre forward,
'Amos', proved to be completely correct. After 'Jack' Drew had put us
2-0 up early on, Amos created havoc, scoring twice and forcing two more
players to retire injured. With the roar of 'Glawster', 'Glawster',
ringing in the teams ears, a great move down the right ended with 'Kes'
Rogers appearing out of the top left corner of the video to score the
winner with four minutes left. If you could bottle the complete and
absolute joy of that moment and the next 30 minutes (or was it days?),
you could sell it for a million. Utter, utter delirium. |
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2. v St Albans
2-1 Southern Counties Cup Final, 2003
This game is second only because I fear
time might be playing tricks when recollecting 1993. Having
already been beaten by St Albans in the Witney Cup semi final and having
to make the trip to Clarence Park to play the game, the omens were
maybe against us. But winning the toss to use the 'palatial' home
changing room was the beginning of our change of luck. After a goaless
first half, captain Scott Montgomery gave us the lead eight minutes
after the break, but the soaking up of relentless St Albans
pressure showed this team at their resilient best. A minute into injury
time - Campbell's save, Dean's set up and Twyman's finish brought bedlam
to the Gloucester ranks and the host's consolation with the last kick of
the game took not one bit of gloss off a magnificent day. Glorious,
just glorious. |
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3. v Plymouth 1-0 Jersey Final, 1996
Possibly the best quality game we've every been
involved in. Plymouth's only defeat of the season in their last match,
courtesy of Andrew Noakes' second half strike. A draw would probably
have been a fair result, but the memory is the quality. It was no good,
you didn't want it to finish - even though we were one up. I've never
been as contented on a beach before or since, than at Greve de Lecq that
afternoon - until 'Beast' decided to sneak off and try to climb a 100
foot cliff. Some celebration! If there really is a heaven, I visited it
that day. Utopia.
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4. v Oxford City 2-2 Southern Counties Cup Semi Final,
1991
Four days after returning from an exhausting Jersey
week we found ourselves 2-1 down and on our way out of the Southern
Counties Cup. With 2 minutes left we switched Shayne Bradley from left
midfield to right wing. Sixty seconds later he cut inside and from just
outside the corner of the penalty area, struck an exocet into the the
top far hand corner, provoking our one and only (minor) spectator /substitutes
pitch invasion. Rumour has it they were trying to avoid Lin Harvey
charging down the touchline at the time. Likely story! Exhaustion
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5. v High Wycombe 2-0 Southern Counties Cup Final,
1991
After another last minute equaliser in the replay of
the above game - we eventually qualified for our first Southern Counties
Final. It wasn't spectacular - more a case of an extremely good side
winning well. Will Steadman gave us an early lead, but Colin Russell's
clincher was a great goal, starting with Sammy Harris at full back. The
game completed 2 years of unprecedented success - and well and truly put
us on the Schools' Football map! Justice. |
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6. v Thurrock 2-0 Jersey Final, 1990
Our first visit to the Channel Islands ended with
Gloucester in the first place play off against a Thurrock side who'd won
all five of their group games. Playing with the wind in the first half,
Steve Badham and Craig Williams put us two up at half time with a couple
of spectacular efforts. The second half performance against the gale was
outstanding, Matt Gregg had only one save to make, Internet
correspondent Dave Hickey was brilliant and we celebrated with Pomagne
at the end. I celebrated a little longer a little later on. Disbelief
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7. v Deeside 1-0, 1989
A promising opening to the season really bore fruit
with our first ever victory over a Deeside team with Michael Owen as
their rampaging centre forward - and the only time we ever beat them on
their own ground. The previous season our visit to Queensferry had
resulted in a six goal thrashing, so for goalkeeper Matthew Gregg who
had played in that particular defeat, this was a very sweet moment.
Richard Hayward grabbed the winner midway through the second half, thus
making himself the subject of one of my favourite photographs.
Utter Joy..
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8. v Bishop Auckland 4-0 Jersey Festival Group B,
1999
This game gets a mention because we played so well.
Some of the performance last season from a perfectionist point of view
were outstanding and the second half of this match summed that up. Lee
Worgan, Ryan Hughes (an absolute beauty) and Carl Brown (2) scored the
goals - all in the second period - and there could have been several
more. John Blenkinsopp, the Auckland manager of many years standing and
a man not renowned for either his speeches or his compliments said
afterwards, "You were brilliant today." And he was right. Satisfaction.
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9. v Deeside, 1987
Deeside's
first ever visit to Gloucester. To cut along story short, we were two down
in front of a big crowd within 58 seconds to the quickest and most
professional looking side we had ever come across. Quick calculations
revealed a final score of 122-0 if that scoring rate was maintained, but
we settled down and were level by half time thanks to Jason Merrett and a
Neil Mustoe free kick. With eight minutes remaining, Chris Leek
amazingly put us ahead, but Deeside equalised with four minutes left
to tie up a games which had just about everything. Sales of Grecian 2000
doubled over the next few days and if we had known what the next twelve
years would have in store, we'd have invested heavily in the grey hair
share market.
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10. v Woodley & Earley 0-0 Southern Counties Cup Semi
Final, 1993
An evening kick off on a municipal pitch totally
devoid of grass on the outskirts of Reading. There was one chance for
each team in normal time and no chances for either side during extra
time. You wouldn't want to watch the 'action' on video - unlike the
final (see match No 1) - but this was as tense as they get. Only one
thing mattered - and we achieved it by winning the replay 3-0 at
Kingsholm. That was another memorable night. Relief.
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