Gills skipper Barry Fuller fulfils his boyhood dream of captaining a winning side at Wembley
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Barry Fuller gets the
celebrations under way by lifting the League 2 play-off
Trophy
Picture: Matthew Walker
by Matthew Panting
Barry Fuller admitted he was
playing out a childhood dream after lifting the trophy at
Wembley.
The Gillingham captain was proud to
lead his team to victory and admitted his afternoon had been capped
off after he made the long walk up the steps to receive the League
2 play-off trophy.
"It was an honour and a privilege,"
admitted Fuller, who was in the crowd when Gills won the Division 2
play-off final in 2000. "It’s every boy’s dream to play at Wembley,
be on the winning side and be captain.
"I’m honoured that the manager gave
me that opportunity when he gave me the armband.
"I didn’t really think about it
until Thursday when we had a look around Wembley. I saw the steps
and thought that could be me collecting the trophy.
"I thought I might struggle to get
to sleep but I tried not to think about it too much and slept quite
well the night before.
"It’s a young squad but none of the
boys got nervous and that showed."
Fuller admitted it was the fear of
losing and being unable to collect the trophy that was driving him
on.
"I’m lucky enough that I haven’t
come away as a loser," he said. "It hurts any footballer to lose
but to lose a game like that at the national stadium will hurt.
"We always believed that goal was
going to come. We always said that if we kept a clean sheet we’d
win, we just had to keep going to that final whistle. We got the
goal and we’re back where we belong.
"It’s brilliant here – if we could
turn it into our home ground we’d be okay. You have to come here
and do your best, and maybe we showed that we wanted it just that
little bit more."
Don't miss the 16-page
Wembley souvenir special supplement in Monday's Medway
Messenger
Monday, May 25 2009
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