Diss Town will welcome back the 1994 FA Vase Wembley legends to celebrate 30 seasons since their triumph
As Diss Town prepare to host Sheringham in the Isuzu FA Vase tomorrow (3pm), the club will get the chance to remember their rich history in the competition by celebrating the 30th anniversary of their win at the old Wembley.
Legends from the 1994 squad will be in attendance at Brewers Green Lane tomorrow to talk to fans about their unforgettable experiences, which will be the perfect pre-curser as the present day squad set their sights to go four games unbeaten in all competitions.
While this season marks 30 years since the 2-1 victory against Taunton Town, Diss has not forgotten about the day when more than 13,000 Tangerines dared to dream.
One of the men who turned those dreams into a reality was Tom Casey.
The centre-back, who was 23-years-old at the time, said:“ The experience was just mental. We’d all only really played local football so none of us had got to that level before. I remember calling instructions to the players near me and they couldn’t hear me. The noise was deafening, it was ridiculous.
“For me it was quite a nervous time because I broke my nose in the first leg of the semi-final and I ended up in hospital. I had scored the first goal, but actually missed the end of that game when our goalkeeper came to punch the ball but caught my face instead.
“I’m not sure how much sleep people had. The weird bit was when we were on the coach. We had people on bikes ushering us through red lights and jumping queues of traffic. We got to feel how the other world lived for 40 minutes.”
Casey recalled how the Diss side were dropped right outside the dressing rooms and all he could hear was the sound of studs hitting the concrete path and bouncing calls echoing in the large, over-arching tunnel above him and his team-mates.
“It was a big disappointment that we conceded in the first-half and it created a pretty demoralised dressing room. Due to my lack of game time I was substituted on the 73rd minute, so I was sitting on the bench when the goals happened.
“When Gibbo (Paul Gibbs) stepped up to score the penalty it was a huge weight off of our shoulders. Apart from running on the field at the end, I can’t really remember too much of it. There were so many emotions.
“When the full-time whistle went, we all piled on the pitch at the end and I still have a photo of it in my office today.”
Garth Good’s side will hope to also capture the imagination of the town with a fresh and timely run in this year’s competition as they look to book their name in the first round proper.
They head into their second round qualifying tie with Sheringham after three games unbeaten in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North.
On Saturday, they hammered Wivenhoe Town 5-1 away from home to collect their fifth victory of the campaign.
Kyle Baker opened the scoring before James Wilson netted his first goal for the club on only his second appearance.
A manic first-half was rounded off when Daniel Hogston put Diss three to good, just before Wivenhoe pulled a goal back before half-time.
Luke Middleton and Tiago Pascoal put the game beyond any doubt in the second-half.
Baker netted in back-to-back games for the Tangerines, when on Tuesday night he netted a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw at home to Dussindale & Hellesdon Rovers.
