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Cheltenham Town set to celebrate that 1998 FA Trophy win at Wembley

All Areas > Sport > Football

Author: Roger Jackson, Posted: Thursday, 29th June 2017, 09:00

Jason Eaton Jason Eaton

Cheltenham Town Football Club are putting plans in place to mark one of the great days in their proud history.

So says new fan elected director Murry Toms, who will be in the vanguard of any celebrations to highlight that great day at Wembley in May 1998 when the club won the FA Trophy with a 1-0 win over Southport.

“That was a special day,” said Murry, “and when you look back at that it shows just how far the club has come. It was an incredible achievement and something that we’re all very proud of.”

A year after that Trophy success, Cheltenham won promotion to the Football League for the first time in their history and in the years that followed they reached play-off finals at both the Millennium Stadium and Wembley, gained promotion to League One and took on some of the biggest clubs in the land in the FA Cup.

Steve Cotterill’s 1998 Trophy-winning team can still be recited by many of the club’s fans of a certain vintage as if it were yesterday.

Steve Book was in goal behind a back four of Michael Duff, Mark Freeman, ‘captain marvel’ Chris Banks and Jamie Victory. In front of them was a midfield four of Keith Knight, Lee Howells, Bob Bloomer and Clive Walker, with goalscoring hero Jason Eaton joined up front by Dale Watkins.

Jimmy Smith, Russell Milton and Darren Wright were on the bench and the first two were to have a big impact when getting their chance in the closing stages. It was Smith’s trickery that earned the free-kick that Milton sent over for Eaton to head home 11 minutes from time.

“It’s important that we celebrate that match,” said Murry. “I’m sure we’ll invite all the players back to the club and I’m sure the Robins Trust will want to do something as well.

“That was the day when the town fell in love with the club. Before that we had just pottered about in the Conference but that Wembley win generated a real warmth towards the club.

“It’s something we need to get back.

“As a club, we need to look forward to the next 20 years but days like that one at Wembley will never be forgotten.”

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Jimmy Smith

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