Postscript.....

‘Look I understand, Aldershot are back in the Football League. I know you are really pleased. But don’t you think I have suffered enough. Your trips, to goodness knows where, every Saturday. Business meetings in Carlisle on a Friday night. So, no. The ‘Clubcall’ board is not going up on the wall of our house. And no, it will not be erected at the entrance to our drive.’

‘Ok, what about developing a sculpture garden? I could tuck the board away somewhere discreet’, I ventured, knowing what would come next.

‘No.’

It’s funny how confident my wife can be on matters over which she has no knowledge whatsoever. An irresistible determination displayed by someone who has never been to a game of football.

And I wouldn’t say that Rugby was her passion, that is reserved for all things equestrian. But she has been to the odd game over the years. She was born in Leicester, so when the Tigers got to the European Cup Final in Cardiff a few years ago, I used a bit of influence and got tickets for her and Uncle Doug in the VIP block. I guess she knew all along that this was part of my master plan to get the ‘board’ up on the wall.

The loss of our Club in 1992 affected so many people. And when the last few bits and pieces were sold at auction, in the summer of that year, I was far away. With no interest in the sale, just getting on with a new life in Wales.

And isn’t it strange how the aftershock of an event, that took place just 18 days before we kicked off away to Burnley, in our last season in the Football League, can still be felt in our house today.

August 6 1991 was the day that links to the fledgling computer code for the www went world wide. And of course in no time at all eBay was born.

It seemed a bargain at the time. The old Clubcall board was a piece of Aldershot history that needed conserving. Just what I needed to add to my burgeoning collection of Shots memorabilia. Long gone the sadness over the loss of our club. The future was one wrapped up in optimism. Promotion came on top of promotion. Perhaps the return of League status could be achieved.

So without any thought of how I would get the board back to Wales from Aldershot, in my car. And without the courage to let my wife know what I had bought off eBay. The deal was done. The board was mine.

‘Can I have your car on Saturday?’, was never going to be a question answered with a simple, ‘Yes.‘ So I hired a big car and collected the sign before the next ‘home’ game.

To say that my wife was excited by my purchase would be a line that only the Government could utter in such circumstances. Truth and statement being linked only by the fact that the statement was untrue.

‘Put it in the cellar. It is too big. Too ugly. Too…..well just too football’. My wife seemed determined to conserve the sign for future generations by protecting it from the Welsh weather.

And in the cellar it has been for many years.

Aldershot Town FC Blue Square Premier - Champions 2008. ‘So to celebrate what about granting just temporary ‘consent’. For a few months of the year?’

‘No’.