ARCH MARCH IS MUSIC TO THE EARS OF BOSS SPINKS
IT’S BEEN a busy week for Dan Spinks and his Romford side.
As well as the small matter of Friday night’s delayed Essex Senior League play-off semi-final against Barking, which they won to progress to Monday’s final against Sporting Bengal, there has been plenty of Wembley admin.
Polls in their WhatsApp group have been run on what music they are going to walk out to as well as what drinks and food do they want in the changing room.
“Even going back as far as, do we want names on the back of the shirt straight or curved? I’d never thought about anything like that,” Spinks laughs. “You’ve got players, ‘Straight looks more professional’, others saying, ‘No, curved!’ You put a question on there and it goes on for three hours. “It’s new to everybody but that’s why it’s all good. Loads of little things come together to make the day and the chairman and secretary are doing most of the work behind the scenes on videos for the big screen, songs we want to walk out to, names of player mascots, authority from their parents – it’s a whole new thing. “Come May 12 I think I will be in bed for the day.”
They will have a look around the stadium on Friday before staying over in a hotel ready for Saturday.
Spinks wants his players to enjoy every minute of the build-up after a life-changing run to the final two.
“I was assistant last year and we got to the last 32 where we lost to Jersey,” Spinks says. “But we enjoyed the run so much that when I started out this year, I was looking forward to the FA Vase. “I wasn’t saying, ‘We can get to Wembley’. Whoever thinks that? There are 600 teams that start. But I felt we would be decent in our league and our league would be competitive across the board. “It’s all on the day too. Lincoln were a very good side, North Greenford were, Mildenhall – we played them early on – have won their league. But, in the Vase, we’ve deserved to win every game. My guys have been absolutely excellent.
“I’m not saying we set out to win it, nowhere near it. But because of last year, the enjoyment, we went away to Jersey, which was a little bit of travel that we got a buzz out of, I just felt it around the boys that we knew what this competition meant and what it could bring.”
Spinks, inset, points out how deep this occasion runs for so many connected to Romford – fans, volunteers, families of players and staff.
“At the quarter-finals, we were doing well in the league and I said to the boys, ‘Anyone who has ever won a league – and it doesn’t happen often – will find they are still friends with the group they won it with’. “You will still have a WhatsApp group from winning the league four or five years later. “I said, ‘Get to Wembley and this group will know each other forever. This group will stay in touch forever because of this day. You will be part of the history of Romford Football Club’.
“We’re all proud of that achievement. But it’s a game of football we do want to go out and win on the day.”