Apology to Wigan...

We have just received an email from Wigan Football Club and we feel that we should apologise to the Club and the Town. 

The Giant Killing Adventure apologises for calling Wigan a ‘Rugby League Town’ as this is based on anecdotal evidence from growing up nearby in Chorley and speaking to the friends I know from Wigan. They have told me that Wigan is a Rugby League Town but this is just their opinion and it was wrong of me to write that as 'fact.'

It was not my intention to offend any supporter or the Club in anyway and I am sorry if I did.

The email was off Stewart Frodsham who is the Web Master and Media Support for the Club.  I want to thank him for replying as we appreciate any feedback and support.

Blog guest Tim Webster is still waiting for our tickets to come through and we are still excited about the prospect of this game – it is 15 sleeps away.   

FA Cup Semi Final

It is the Semi Final of the FA Cup 2013/14 and we have travelled 1567 miles and spent £370 on tickets to get to this point.  It has been an epic journey that has travelled as far north as Workington; spent a lot of time in the midlands with Stourbridge and moved as far south as London for the Arsenal game at the Emirates.

 

Now we are travelling a further 10.6 miles to....

 

Wembley Stadium

 

I have written to all the clubs during the Giant Killing Adventure and received help from many of the lower league teams.  Marine FC were the first to mention us on their Website and this favour was repeated by Curzon Ashton, Workington, Stourbridge and Biggleswade.  Since then, from Stevenage onwards no club apart from Arsenal has replied back to us (Arsenal’s reply was a generic response about ticket availability).  We have covered 8 months of football, 12 Rounds, and 14 games to get this far. So let’s talk about tickets for the semi-final.  Without being a gold or platinum member of Arsenal it wasn’t possible to buy a ticket (even though I am a member which cost me £36). Wigan only has availability for away season ticket holders and neither club has helped our journey - even though we were part of the initial 78 fans that turned up on the rainy windy Saturday afternoon back on 17 August 2013 for the extra-preliminary round.         

However, there is no doom and gloom because previous blog guest Tim Webster (Curzon V Lancaster; Stevenage V Stourbridge: Doncaster V Stevenage and Stevenage V Everton) has come up trumps.  His company has offered free tickets to its workers and he has got hold of some to keep the Giant Killing Adventure going strong.   It’s an ironic state that we have had to be saved by corporate tickets after coming all this way – but I suppose that is the nature of the FA Cup.

We already know about Arsenal, so let’s talk about Wigan.  If you read blog post number 1 back on 13 August 2013 we explained how Wigan Athletic (the latics) are the current holders of the FA Cup after their 1-0 Victory over Manchester City last May 2013.  We talked about Wigan as a town, so let’s talk about Wigan football. The Club was established in 1932 following the demise of Wigan Borough.  They played their fixtures at Springfield Park and they spent most of their early years in the Cheshire League.  It wasn’t until 1978 that they were elected into the football league and they moved to the DW stadium in 1999.  As mentioned in my first report, Wigan is a Rugby League Town and the Latics share the stadium with the highly successful Wigan Warriers.

It was a great achievement for Wigan to win the FA Cup last season as they have limited resources and a limited fan base.  Many people in the area are Rugby league fans and football supporters around the vacinity of Wigan tend to follow the big traditional teams within a twenty mile area of Wigan such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Manchester City.

It is great for the Giant Killing adventure that Wigan has joined our party.  We specifically started our journey as close to Wigan as possible because they are the current holders of the trophy.  It would be fantastic for them to lift it again, but they will face tough competition in the semi-final against top four Premiership side Arsenal.

Despite their FA Cup victory Wigan were relegated last season to the highly competitive Championship.  They have hit a good spell of form having won 7 out of their last 10 games and beating Manchester City again, away from home in the 6^th Round Proper. They are currently in 5^th place with 62 points from 37 games.    

Arsenal however, are in another league.  The Premiership is the top flight of English football and they are in 4^th place with 63 points from 31 games.  They started well this season but have hit a run of sticky form having only won 4 of their last 10 games (during this period they have suffered heavy defeats to Liverpool 1-5 and Chelsea 0-6).  Arsenal will still be strong favorites to lift the FA Cup but it won’t be easy as they are struggling and up against an in-form Wigan.

The Giant Killing Adventure is heading back to the nation’s capital and it cannot wait.  The last trip to London was brilliant and we’ve never been to the new Wembley Stadium.  Roll on 12^th April…        

 

 

 

Excellent geeky stats time...

I didn’t have time to add the excellent geeky stats on my last blog report so I will add them today…

In update news:

Tickets for the Semi Final Arsenal V Wigan are going to be difficult to obtain. Even though I became an Arsenal red member (costing £36) in order to buy my 6^th Round Proper ticket at the Emirates it does not give me any ‘power’ to buy a semi-final ticket. Arsenal has been allocated 42,000 tickets and they are only available to platinum and gold members. Wigan has 22,000 tickets and they go on sale to season ticket holders first (that have been to away matches). This coming Wednesday the tickets go on sale to the general public from 9am to 5pm but priority will be given to those queuing at the Club shop –this means that I might sneak in a ticket on the internet at some point – we’ll have to see.

The other day I received this package through the post.

Inside were some Arsenal goodies and I am most impressed by the scarf and badges. As soon as I became a first and only time Arsenal member they got thrashed 6-0 by Chelsea.

Program for the 4-1 victory over Everton.

Ticket price £37 each (plus £36 membership).

Attendance: 59,719 - quite a big jump from my first game of 71 people back in August 2013.

Excellent Geeky Stats time:-

RIP Stadiums and teams from the Giant Killing Adventure – 23^rd March 2014
 

RIP Team	RIP Stadium
St Helens Town	Brocstedes Park
Ashton Athletic	Brocstedes Park
Marine FC	Arriva Stadium
Lancaster City FC	Giant Axe Stadium
Curzon Ashton	Tameside Stadium
Workington AFC	Borough Park
Biggleswade Town FC	The Carlsberg Stadium
Stourbridge FC	The War Memorial Ground
Doncaster Rovers	Keepmoat Stadium
Stevenage	The Lamex Stadium
Swansea City	The Liberty Stadium
Everton FC	Goodison Park

The Giant Killing Adventure number of fans – 23^rd March 2014

Team	Stadium	Round	Fans
Arsenal	Emirates Stadium	6th Round Proper	59,719
Everton FC	Goodison Park	5th Round Proper	31,498
Stevenage FC	Lamex Stadium	4rd Round Proper	6913
Doncaster Rovers	Keepmoat Stadium	3rd Round Proper	3899
Stevenage FC	Lamex Stadium	2nd Round Proper	2160
Stourbridge FC	War Memorial Athletic Ground	1st Round Proper	1603
Stourbridge FC	War Memorial Athletic Ground	3rd Qualifying	633
Workington AFC	Borough Park	4th Qualifying	519
Curzon Ashton	Tameside Stadium	2nd Qualifying	302
Lancaster City FC	Giant Axe	2nd Qualifying	249
Marine FC	Arriva Stadium	1st Qualifying	223
Curzon Ashton	Tameside Stadium	Preliminary	101
St Helens Town	Brocstedes Park	Extra Preliminary	71
Ashton Athletic	Brocstedes Park	Extra Preliminary	58

The Giant Killing Adventure League table for FA prize money – 23^rd March 2014

Team	Prize money/Round	Total Winnings
Arsenal	£360,000 6th Round Proper	£360,000
Everton FC	£90,000 4th Round Proper £180,000 5th Round Proper	£270,000
Stevenage FC	£27,000 2nd Round Proper £67,500 3rd Round Proper	£94,500
Stourbridge FC	£7,500 3rd Qualifying Round £12,500 4th Qualifying Round £18,000 1st Round Proper	£38,000
Curzon Ashton	£1,925 Preliminary Round £3,000 1St Qualifying Round £4,500 2nd Qualifying Round	£9,925
Ashton Athletic	£1,500 Extra Preliminary Round	£1,500

Extra Preliminary Round £277,500 was paid in prize money (185 winners).

Preliminary Round £308,000 was paid out (160 winners).
1^stQualifying Round £348,000 was paid out (116 winners).
2nd Qualifying Round £360,000 was paid out (80 winners).
3^rdQualifying Round £300,000 was paid out (40 winners).
4^thQualifying Round £400,000 was paid out (32 winners).
1st Round Proper £720,000 was paid out (40 winners).
2^ndRound Proper £540,000 was paid out (20 winners).
3^rdRound Proper £2,160,000 was paid out (32 winners).
4^thRound Proper £1,440,000 was paid out (16 winners).
5^thRound Proper £1,440,000 was paid out (8 winners).
6^thRound Proper £1,440,000 was paid out (4 winners).
Total Prize money so far equals £9,733,500

The Giant Killing Adventure Program Price league table (cheapest first) – 23^rd March 2014

Team	Program Cost
Lancaster City FC 01st October	£1.50
Curzon Ashton 31st August, 28th September	£1.60
St Helens Town 17th August	£2.00
Marine FC 14th September	£2.00
Stourbridge FC 12th October	£2.00
Doncaster Rovers 4th January	£2.00
Workington AFC 26th October	£2.50
Stourbridge FC 9th November	£2.50
Stevenage FC 7th December 25th January	£3.00
Everton FC 15 February	£3.00
Arsenal 8th March	£3.00

The Giant Killing Adventure Goal Scorers – 23^rd March 2014

Matt Warburton 3 (Curzon Ashton)

Ryan Rowe 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Luke Benbow 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Steven Naismith 3 (Everton FC)
Chris McDonagh 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Simon Lakeland 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Adam Gilchrist 2 (Ashton Athletic)
Jamie Oliver 2 (Stourbridge FC)
Will Richards 2 (Stourbridge FC)
Francois Zoko 2 (Stevenage FC)
Olivier Giroud   2 (Arsenal)
Mesut Ozil      1 (Arsenal)
Mikel Arteta       1 (Arsenal)
Romelu Lukaku 1 (Everton FC)
Leighton Baines 1 (Everton FC)
Lacina Traore 1 (Everton FC)
John Heitinga 1 (Everton FC)
Magaye Gueye 1 (Everton FC)
Jonathan de Guzman 1 (Swansea City)
Peter Hartley 1 (Stevenage FC)
Darius Charles 1 (Stevenage FC)
Harry Forrester 1 (Doncaster Rovers)
Liam Wakefield 1 (Doncaster Rovers)
Lucas Atkins 1 (Stevenage FC)
Luke Freeman 1 (Stevenage FC)
Filipe Morais 1 (Stevenage FC)
Phil McLuckie 1 (Workington AFC)
Chris Rowney 1 (Curzon Ashton)
Ryan Brooke 1 (Curzon Ashton)
Will Jones 1 (Marine FC)
Sam Barnes 1 (Marine FC)
Neil Weaver 1 (St Helens Town)
Greg Harrison 1 (St Helens Town)
Nathan Ward 1 (Ashton Athletic)
Mark Jackson 1 (Lancaster City FC)
Evan Key 1 (Biggleswade Town FC)
Neil Marshall 1 OG (Lancaster City FC)

The Giant Killing Adventure League table – 23^rd March 2014

Team	Won	Drawn	Goals For	Goals Against	GD	Points
Curzon Ashton	3	1	10	6	4	10
Stourbridge FC	3	0	10	6	4	9
Everton FC	2	0	7	5	2	6
Stevenage FC	2	0	7	6	1	6
Ashton Athletic	1	1	3	6	-3	4
Arsenal	1	0	4	1	3	3
St Helens Town	0	1	2	3	-1	1
Lancaster City FC	0	1	1	2	-1	1
Doncaster Rovers	0	0	2	3	-1	0
Marine FC	0	0	2	4	-2	0
Swansea City	0	0	1	3	-2	0
Workington AFC	0	0	1	3	-2	0
Biggleswade Town FC	0	0	1	4	-3	0

This means that Curzon Ashton have been crowned champions of the inaugural Giant Killing Adventure League table. Arsenal can only make it to a possible 9 points and Wigan a possible 6. Curzon’s 0-0 home draw against Lancaster City FC has given them the edge with 1 extra point. Congratulations to Curzon and it was great to follow them through 5 games until their defeat against second place Stourbridge.

So far the Giant Killing Adventure has reported on 1,260 minutes of football, £370 on the turnstiles, 107,948 fans, 52 goals, 4 pints of bitter (£9.90), 1 pint of Guinness (£3.10), 1 pint of cider (£3), 3 70p cups of tea, 15 £1 cups of tea, 2£7 meal deals, 1 £1.10 cup of tea (large), 2 £1.50 mochas, 2 70p cans of coke, 2 £3.50 cheeseburgers, 2 £1.80 chips’n’curry sauce, 2 £1.20 chips, 1 £1 chips, 1 £1.80 chips and gravy, 1 £3 Bacon roll, 2 £1.60 pies, 2£1.50 pies, 3 £1.50 handmade Balti eggs, 1 pork, stilton with apple and ginger chutney pie, 1 ham and pease pudding stottie, 2 £16.50 Lobsters, 4 2-4-1 cocktails, 1 weekend in London, 1 hectic tube journey, 1 Lebanese meal, various Gin and tonics, 2 bottles of red wine, 1 City Break, 1 Sandy picnic battle, 1 Zoe food mountain, 5 website promises (Marine, Curzon, Stourbridge, Workington and Biggleswade), various Twitter retweets (too many to keep track of from clubs, fans and supporters clubs), 3 lower-league-victories, 1 relationship breakdown and the journey has travelled 1567 miles from the FA Cup’s current home in Wigan.

Join me again to find out about Wigan and to see if we can get a ticket. We’ve been doing this for 13 Rounds and 8 months so they should let us play...

Don’t forget our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegiantkillingadventure