WEMBLEY WINNERS: We're getting back to normality now, says Fleet secretary

FA TROPHY winners Ebbsfleet United have celebrated their achievement with a victory parade in an open-top bus through their home town.

The Fleet beat Torquay 1-0 at Wembley on Saturday, watched by 25,000 fans from the Kent town.

Players and officials from the club displayed the trophy on board a red double-decker bus.

The parade left the Stonebridge Road ground at about 18:45 last night and worked its way into Gravesend town centre.

It is the first Kent club to win the FA Trophy and was the second side from the county to appear in the FA Trophy final - Dartford were runners-up in 1974.

Club secretary Roly Edwards, speaking to BBC Radio Kent, said: "It's been massive. All of the local clubs have contacted us and wished us well, all looking for pre-season friendlies and wanting us to bring the trophy along.

"But we're getting back to normality now, to be honest.

"We 're looking at players that will be here next season and those that won't be, and getting our heads down for the next Wembley visit."

Ebbsfleet United was known at Gravesend & Northfleet until last year when it was named after a planned new town that is yet to be built.

The club is owned equally by 20,000 fans who each paid a stake of £35 to the website MyFootballClub in a takeover last November.

Tom Brooks, from MyFootballClub, said: "It's been an amazing few weeks but everybody is still realistic about the hard work to be done.

"This club wants league football so that's what we're aiming for next season."

The team were presented with a Taking Pride in Gravesham civic award at the borough council's annual meeting in Gravesend Civic Centre on Tuesday.

Article courtesy of BBC Radio Kent – www.bbc.co.uk/kent

One new Fleet fan took a photograph, using his mobile, of some of the 25,000 Fleet fans that turned Wembley Stadium into a sea of red and white last Saturday.



He posted this photgraphs on the club's fans' forum at www.fansfocus.com