That was the year that was

That led to a week of will it and won’t it as we waited with baited breath to see whether our cup tie with Liverpool would be on. The message board was full of amateur weather experts, none of whom had much idea, where is John Kettley when you want him?

As we know it was off, then on, and then we won it and we eventually were drawn against Blackburn a couple of rounds later. We went out (say it quietly, some of them might be reading) but we did ourselves proud that night and it was no surprise to see Micah Hyde's goal in the replay picking up a whole load of goal of the season awards in May. He won that particular award on Clarets Mad whilst Gary Cahill took the Player of the Season award, by the narrowest of margins from John McGreal.

We ended last season in 13th place in the league and that was a remarkable achievement given we sold Robbie Blake and Richard Chaplow in January. If that was good, then it’s got better and as we prepare for the last game of the year we are as high as 7th and were in 5th place earlier in the week.

The end of the FA Cup run - but they did us proud

It’s been a good year and that’s definitely been reflected with Clarets Mad. The site has gone from strength to strength and this is my opportunity to thank Richard and John for their regular columns, Alan and more recently Andy for their youth reports and also all of the guest match reporters from earlier in the season. That will be starting up again very soon.

The site has reported from all the first team games during the year and many of the reserve and youth games including that incredible penalty shoot out at Oldham that almost led to us missing kick off at the first team game in the afternoon.

It’s not just about us though, it’s about everyone who visits Clarets Mad and everyone, well almost everyone, who contributes so much and so well on our message board. That’s become one brilliant Clarets community and it has been involved in so much this year.

Already the Trust has benefited to the tune of £500 from the Fantasy Mad game and from the sale of Clarets Mad shirts. And there is more to come in terms of the site buying shares for the Trust with money raised via auctions and the Run to the Turf. The auctions have already raised £1,740 whilst with money still to come in there is already over £650 from the run.

There are more auctions to come in 2006 but those two fundraisers are going to bring in enough from this year for us to buy at least twelve shares for the Trust and in total it will be about £3,000 raised in the year.

That equals the money we raised in 2004 for the club’s 500 Mile campaign and the special shirts were finally worn by the team in the home game against Brighton last April. Ben Golby and Paul Warburton added almost another £2,000 to that total when they walked from Lancaster and they collected their shirts that day. There will be more on our three shirts very soon.

Custard World can definitely be described as a match day experience

The message board is changing all the time. As well as Guess the Gate, which is in its third season, and Fantasy Mad, we now have both horse racing and football naps tables and an interactive FA Cup whilst on match days is there really anything to compare with Custard World ^TM?

We’ve been winning awards for our players again recently, and in January Ade Akinbiyi will pick up his Fans’ Player of the Month award. It will come as no surprise to hear that, as was the case in each of the last two years, the supporter chosen to present the award is a regular on the message board.

Recently we also had a drive to ensure some former Clarets won places in the all time Northern Ireland team. We succeeded with Jimmy McIlroy, Billy Hamilton and Willie Irvine all winning places. It was just a pity we couldn't have added Alex Elder.

There are more and more people getting involved now with both the site and the message board. It has been a superb year and to top it all we took to the Turf again last May when we had four teams playing in two games with Football on the Turf, something that we intend to be doing again next year. What an experience it was for those who took part and what a goal celebration from Lutonclaret.

I would like to say thanks to all of you for making taking this site even further than I could have hoped, and I'd also like to take this opportunity to say thanks to everyone at the club who have helped us this year. And finally, as we move into the last day of the year, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2006.

In Pictures

This was the start of the year