Walsall fans flocking from across the world for Wembley showdown

Seven people have got in contact with the Express & Star to share their stories of making the Johnstone's Paint final on Sunday at 3.30pm.

Walsall fan Tim Wilkes will travel for 68 hours to see the 90 minute match, travelling more than 23,000 miles from Hawke's Bay, New Zealand to Wembley Stadium.

Mr Wilkes who was born and raised in Walsall, has lived in New Zealand since 1998, but has booked a long weekend off work for quite literally a flying visit back to England to see the game.

He will set off alone today, arrive Saturday, watch the final and fly back out the following day, spending a total of just 55 hours in the UK.

Mr Wilkes, 49, may be the fan travelling furthest to see the game and will be spending approximately £1,600 to see his beloved team play in the final.

The insurance broker said: "I blame my uncle Peter for my roots with Walsall. I have been a fan all my life and can't think of supporting anyone else. I will be meeting friends at the match, my Saddlers family."

He added: "When we moved to New Zealand, I told my wife Helen, a Kiwi, that if Walsall ever made it to Wembley I'd be there, and she agreed. She never, ever expected to have to fulfil that promise and nor did I. She's shocked, but agreed it has to be done and I warned her when we won against Tranmere.

"I can't believe I'll be watching my team there live. Best of luck to the lads, but whatever the result it'll be worth the 37,500km round trip."

Bloxwich-born Martin Lawton will be swapping sun, sea and sand for the Saddlers match when he travels back from Cyprus to see his team play in the final.

Despite knowing it would mean missing his wife's birthday Mr Lawton booked his flights and hotel just minutes after the semi-final against Preston North End.

He said: "I booked my flight and accommodation and then broke the news to my wife. I did say when we left the UK in 2008, that if the Saddlers ever made it to Wembley, I would be first on the plane.

"I explained that my wife will have many more birthdays to celebrate, but I may never have another chance to go to Wembley with Walsall. I also pointed out that I was a Saddlers fan long before we got married.

"That didn't help, so instead of a box of birthday chocolates it has cost me a Greek Island hopping trip in May.

"She knows how to make me pay for choosing a match over her birthday but it had to be done."

Mr Lawton will fly in tomorrow and will fly home to his wife of 37 years on Monday., March 23.

Mr Lawton said: "I have waited almost fifty years for this visit, and I listen to every game in Cyprus.

"I will be joined at Wembley by my son and son-in-law along with my old friend Nicos and his Family, who is the author and singer of the now famous Balti Pie Song."

Jason Broadhurst has hidden the bill from his wife after booking a flight from Montreal in Canada.

Originally from Bloxwich, the 40-year-old father-of-two emigrated to Montreal in 2000 and will be meeting his family and friends to watch the game.

He said: "I listened to the 2001 play-off final at the Millennium stadium over the phone while watching text updates online. I swore I wouldn't miss something like that again. It didn't seem real until about the last 10 minutes of the Preston game though, but there was never any doubt that if we made it I would be there.

"I'm hoping to catch up with my big brother Steve and my nephew Sean beforehand and will be sitting with a couple of my oldest friends, so I'm sure it will be a little emotional."

He added: "My partner Kerri, hasn't actually seen the bill and it's probably best that way, but Walsall at Wembley, I never thought that would happen in my lifetime. Imagine if I said I'd go next time and it took us another 127 years."

Mr Broadhurst who owns a marketing consultancy business will travel alone and said: "Evan is five and Hannah is eight months. The kids are too young to appreciate it, but I'll bring my son next time."

He started going to Walsall matches in the early 1980s and said: "I was a regular until I left the country and I did a stint as a steward for a couple of years in the early 90s. Now I tune into Saddlers Player and Twitter on Saturday mornings to follow the games.

"I was born in Walsall and raised in Walsall. It's my town and my team. I just hope it's a good day. I'd love us to at least score and raise the roof. It's a good club that deserves more support than it gets. It would be great for this occasion to be the catalyst for renewed enthusiasm for the team from the people of Walsall."

Allan Jensen has never lived in the UK, but the football fan from Denmark has followed Walsall as one of his English teams for as long as he can remember and will finally get to see them play live.

Mr Jensen is from a town called Horsens in Jutland and will travel to Wembley with four other friends, having booked their flights and accommodation in November 2014.

The prison officer often takes two trips a year to the UK to watch games and also follows Wycombe and West Ham United.

He will spend £300 travelling on the four day trip to see his international favourite. He said: "We waited to see who made it to the JPT final, and if it wasn't Walsall, we would have booked tickets to the QPR-game that same Sunday.

"I can't tell you exactly why I started following these teams, it seems to me that I have always looked out for their performances in the different leagues. As it is one of the teams I follow that made it to Wembley, surely, this would be the perfect time to see them live."

Lifelong Elvis Presley fan Nigel Wiles, 60, was to go on a family trip of a life time to visit the home of the King of rock 'n' roll.

Son Stephen Wiles, 28, a customer service advisor from Essington, carefully sorted a five night trip to Memphis last July, for his dad to visit Graceland.

Planned around fixtures so not to miss a match, the father and son duo didn't count on their team reaching Wembley for the first time in127 years.

Stephen said: "Round after round we kept progressing and we just knew this was the year we would make it. After the game against Preston at Deepdale we knew we had to bite the bullet and rearrange the holiday, whatever the cost."

He added: "I brought the subject up with dad and was relieved when he said he felt guilty about us both missing the chance to go to Wembley and we should rearrange the holiday.

"If I had left it just one day later they wouldn't have been able to change it and gutted wouldn't have been the word. Now dad gets the best of both worlds."

Amazingly, despite rearranging flights to the US, dates and accommodation details the pair have not had to pay extra and have actually saved themselves £20.

Stephen said: "We are now flying from Heathrow on March 23 so we have saved ourselves the cost of connecting flights between Manchester and Heathrow so even with the amendment fees we are about £20 better off.

"Seeing Walsall play at Wembley is a once in a lifetime experience and we would have paid whatever it cost to get our trip to America changed."

Across the pond in Florida is a call centre is decked out in red and white.

Homeserve USA based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have run a week long incentive programme because the Vice President is Walsall born, Rob Judson.

Flying from the US, the former season ticket holder from Walsall Wood, travelled home and away to watch his beloved team until he moved to Miami in 2011 to run the contact centre.

Mr Judson, 31, had no problem convincing his bosses about the decorations and said: "Our UK company are the main sponsors of the team so it definitely has continental backing from the states.

"We decorated the centre in red and white, giving away Walsall shirts and even having human table football to celebrate the saddlers making it to Wembley. It's pretty cool to know a small town in Tennessee will be supporting the mighty reds."

Mr Judson was a season ticket holder for many years and travelled home and away to watch my beloved saddlers and despite living in America, his four year old son, William, is no stranger to the Saddlers having experienced his first game aged just 11 months.

It is a family affair for the fan who will watch the family.

He said: "I started planning my trip home after the first leg. My wife knows some things in life are more important than money and the Saddlers are one of those things."

He added: "It truly is a once in a lifetime occasion, it sends shivers down my spine thinking of 30k saddlers inside Wembley. This is the home of English football, a great honour for the club."

A train, a plane and a mini bus will be the three modes of transport to get seven friends to Wembley on Sunday, after waking up on the day of the final in Germany.

Groom-to-be, Joe Henderson, 30, from Walsall, will be celebrating his last few weeks of freedom in Cologne on the eve of the match.

The stag do was planned last August by the best man Shaun Moore, but once the fans realised their team had reached the final, they made plans to head back to the UK. However it wouldn't be that simple.

Soon to be brother in law, Rob Forrester,35, said: "The original plans were for us to have a weekend in Germany and fly back to Birmingham on March 22.

"It was never an option to miss the final, the wedding is Easter Saturday but 17 others had planned time off and spent a lot of money on the stag trip so we couldn't just cancel the trip or rearrange all of it, so we decided however it had to be done we would get back in time for the match."

There will be 25 lads on the trip and a total of seven, including the groom will be coming back early.

However they couldn't get a flight direct from Cologne back to the UK in time for the match, so after the Saturday night stag celebrations, the lads will have to leave at 7am to travel by train from Cologne to Dusseldorf and then get a flight to Heathrow, where they will get in a mini bus to Wembley.

It has cost them approximately £100 to change their flight details and for the train travel however the lads agreed it will be worth it.

Mr Forrester said: "127 years we have waited for this and it had to be on the weekend we were out of the country. The flight from Dusseldorf was literally the only flight we could get back from the UK."