"I started my Exeter City journey chasing the Wembley dream. Standing at the St James Road end on a November day in 1973 the scene was set for so much of what was to subsequently unfold. City lost 1-0 in the FA Cup to lowly non-league Alvechurch.

My dad obviously thought that it would be a good thing for me to experience football as it should be following your local side through thin and slightly better, rather than the remote, soulless money-oriented affair portrayed week by week in English football's highest division. He wasn't wrong; but actually achieving the Wembley dream some 34 years later still takes some getting used to. There have been lows, and several cup and league highs (just about the right amount to be able to remember the intricate detail of most of them!), but will Wembley 2007 top them all off? Let's hope so.

One of the truly great things about my experiences of life as an Exeter City supporter is that I have been able to enjoy it, not just with my dad in those early years, but with lifelong and newly acquired friends along every step of the way. Our football club is at the heartbeat of our community and beats in hamlets and outposts right across the world. Exeter City is a true extended family, and a common bond to so many families and friends. I, like you, am proud to be with my family and friends and Exeter City up Wembley way.

Every once in a while an extended family or friendship circle comes together to celebrate a special event. Wembley 2007 will pay host to such an event for the extended Exeter City family. The main focus of attention will, of course, be our players and team management. They are the reason we will all be present, the people we most have to thank, the ones on whom all eyes will be trained, the ones who carry our hopes that a memorable day will become a truly great one. What this special group have given us over these early months of 2007 has already guaranteed that they will now be recalled as having provided some new highs in the lives of Exeter City fans. On behalf of 'the family', of the fabric of the City of Exeter and beyond, we thank them for that. We thank them too for providing us with the reason to come together in such huge numbers to take part in this bit of history at England's home of football.

We've all experienced a number of brand new sensations and demands placed upon us in the weeks running up to Wembley. Whether it be the drama of the Oxford penalty shoot-out, or the need to outsource our ticket sales for the first time ever, it has placed our bodies, skills and emotions into previously uncharted territories. For the staff of the Club this has never more been true. The often unseen real work at times like this is done by the likes of Kelly, Andy, Sally, Mike, Justin, Mark, Paul, Bruce, Richard, Dacre, Jubby, Smiler, Jude, Rose, and the army of volunteers including such wonderful people as The Lee's, Gary, Martin, Mike, Tracey, and The Ellicott's. The beauty of the Exeter City family is that this list of names just goes on and on. On behalf of everyone connected with the Club in any way we thank and salute all the named and the unnamed. You deserve today and what we all hope will follow on from it.

My own personal Exeter City journey has taken me to well over 70 different grounds to watch the Club. Wembley adds one more to the total! Will it be any better than Wrexham, or Walsall, or Wycombe or West Brom? In most senses of course it will, but at its heart it's still following the mighty Exeter City with my family and friends on yet another special day. This is another great stopping point on that journey. Who knows where we will be travelling to next? Please make sure that you come along for the ride!

Thanks to all the good people involved in the Exeter City journey past, at Wembley, and in the future. We salute you! Come on you Reds!

Paul Morrish

Exeter City Commercial Director 
From a programme article in the 2006/07 Wembley Brochure