Umbro’s Christmas Giveaway
You might be feeling a little cheesed off at having to still be in work this week, but here at Umbro we’re trying to make the effort to cheer you up a little bit. We’ve gathered together all the lovely pieces of special Umbro gear around the office, and we’re giving it all away between today and Wednesday. The items that are currently stored in Umbro’s special chimney which you can see above are:
An England away shirt signed by John Terry
An England away shirt signed by Phil Jagielka
2 pairs of Umbro Speciali boots signed by Michael Owen
A Sunderland shirt signed by the whole team
A Nottingham Forest shirt signed by the whole team
A Hull City shirt signed by Geovanni
2 pairs of Umbro Speciali boots signed by Pepe
A pair of goalkeeper gloves signed by Joe Hart
All you have to do to be in with a chance of grabbing some of this gear is send us your best answer to our daily question, and tell us which prize you’d like to receive – we’ll be giving away two items every day.
Today, our question is inspired by the fact that it’s 4 days until Christmas – we want to know your best football related stories that involve the number 4. Want to tell us about the time you scored 4 goals in a match? Or the time that it took you 4 days to travel to an away match on the other side of the world? Who’s the best number 4 you’ve seen this season? Or what’s the best £4million that’s been spent on a player? We want you to get inventive in the way you tell us your stories, and the best ones will get to pick a prize from our selection. So get thinking, and get posting if you want to be in with a chance of winning…
Terms and conditions for the competition are available to read here.
On 21 Dec 2009, at 10:37 am Daniel wrote:
Whilst playing regularly for a northern University football team during 3 glorious years, there was always a battle between me (Centre-half) and a Liverpudlian Stevie G wannabe for the number 4 shirt (my lucky number). This went on for the best part of 3 seasons with duties being shared, sometimes on good terms and sometimes not. On the final game that we would ever play for Uni there was needless to say a tug-o-war for it with us both wanting to go out blazing. Now our manager/coach had never been the most vocal of guys but 3 years of changing room bickeringmust have got him down. He subsequently grabbed the shirt of both of us, locked himself in the toilet, relieved himself and then proceeded to ‘clean himself up’ with the shirt. We both happily settled for squad numbers….
On 21 Dec 2009, at 10:57 am David Hall wrote:
I would like to tell you about the first meeting between Exeter City and Morecambe.
Saturday 15th November 2003.
Set off at around 4am (see what I did there) to go down to the real St James’ awful trip. You leave civilisation then carry on for another few hours.
Getting there I remember gasping at the £13 admission (£13 for conference football, having a laugh!)
I did a quick head count. 87 Morecambe fans travelled down for this memorable occasion, the first meeting of footballs mega powers.
4 minutes: Alex Jeannin GOAL!
12 minutes: Sean Devine GOAL!
16 minutes: Sean Devine GOAL!
Not even settled down and 3-0 down Luckily for us we only conceded one more, Gareth Sheldon on 54 minutes for the record.
So the first meeting of these power houses of football was incredibly one sided. But got to stop at Mustafa’s of Wallsall to get a nice keebab on way home.
On 21 Dec 2009, at 11:09 am Mark Murray wrote:
Quite simply it was the moment my boy scored his first little league goal!
It took many games, but was most certainly in the 4th minute.
The look on his face was priceless, as will be his second look at picking up an England shirt signed by England’s captain and boots signed by potentially the greatest goal scorer of all time.
Happy Christmas!!
On 21 Dec 2009, at 11:11 am Glenn Thomas wrote:
This one is about three 4′s. It was 200-4. February the 4th. The third 4 though is one I’ll remember for the wrong reasons.
It was at White Hart Lane. An FA Cup tie with Man City. Great atmosphere made even better with Spurs going 3-0 up (Can still picture Zieges Free Kick)
Was getting a beer at half time and was told Barton had been sent off after the HT whistle. My mate said “It can’t get any better than this”
He was right it didn’t – We fell apart in the second half and Man City equalised.
With a couple of minutes to go I remember saying to my mate he should text his dad to say we won’t be at the train station until late now…
I didn’t finish saying “because of Extra Time” beacuse Maken scored the 4th goal and left home supporters in shock of what they had just seen. A depressing journey home, though we wasn;t late being picked up! ha!
Glenn
(ps, the Michael Owen boots please!!!)
On 21 Dec 2009, at 11:14 am Claire Levers wrote:
My favourite moment, has to be beating Southampton 4 1 in 2005
… (Yes I am a Pompey fan) … But one of the best things was the 3 points that we got from it, because we were struggling (again) that year, it was our 2nd season in the Premier league since we got promoted 
The goals came from a penalty from Yakubu in the 4th minute
, Arjan De Zeeuw 17th minute, then Southampton scored, before we got our third anf fourth from LuaLua in the 22nd and 27th minute… Much love to the Pompeyboys Past and Present!! <3 x PUP PPU x
On 21 Dec 2009, at 11:36 am Matt Salmon wrote:
The best number 4 story I can think of is: At the end of the season a couple of years ago, we had organised a tour for our team to Australia for 3 weeks in July. We had paid just over £2000 each for the trip. When we arrived at the airport our coach told us that he had got the date of the flight wrong and we should have gone 2 days earlier and the airline said we would have to pay another £600 each to fly out on the next available flight. But because there 16 players and 3 coaches in our group and we were under 16 we all had to travel together the next available flight with 19 seats available was 2 weeks later. We finally arrived in Australia 2 weeks later but the down side was we had to fly home on the arranged day so we had spent £2500 for a 4 day tour in Australia where we only played 1 game so it was like playing the furthest possible away game anyone has ever played in the world!
On 21 Dec 2009, at 12:02 pm Andrew H wrote:
What 4 means to me:-
Holland 1 England 4, Euro 96
Man Utd 1 Liverpool 4, 2009
Sami Hyypia great number 4 for Liverpool, hoping to see more of Alberto Aquilani in the number 4!
On 21 Dec 2009, at 12:38 pm Graeme Richardson wrote:
The worst day of my footballing life to date. 17th April 2006.
Sunderland 1 Newcastle 4.
We were much the better side in the first half, Justin Hoyte opened the scoring and we thought we were onto a good thing, jubilation ensued, however that well known, definately not EX-NEWCASTLE centre half Steven Caldwell managed to gift his Newcastle Utd supporting opponent, Michael Chopra, the ball for him to run on and equalise. 1-1.
Literally a minute after Chopra equalised, newcastle were through again and got a penalty, which a certain, much appreciated on Wearside, Mr. Shearer stepped up and slotted home. 1-2.
Now, I apologise for the lack of commentary on the next 2 goals, but by this point I was so disheartened that watching the match was actually a chore. N’zogbia 1-3. Luque 1-4.
To this day we still hear “4-1, even Chopra scored”.
So, if only for the mental trauma you’ve put me through, recounting this horrible story, I think I should probably get the signed sunderland shirt. I’m off to talk to my psychiatrist now *shudder*.
On 21 Dec 2009, at 12:59 pm Lily wrote:
4 is the age at which my dad took me to my first football match (Bristol City, I’m pretty sure we lost and I just remeber it was very, very cold), an event that has led to a lifetimes passion. Football was and still is the way I communicate with my Dad and I’m so grateful he shared his love of the beautiful game with me at such a young age.
On 21 Dec 2009, at 1:52 pm ken wilkinson wrote:
For me it`s got to be when Hull City finished 4th from bottom in the 2008/2009 Premiership and stayed up for another season.
On 21 Dec 2009, at 3:02 pm Adam Smith wrote:
As De La Soul once said ’3 it’s a magic number’ but for me one faithful afternoon it was 4.
As a goalkeeper some may say it’s a thankless task, and usually there right, however on this day i was receiving greetings and people were asking me questions like I was an informant.
As my local team St.Annes F.C kicked off in a semi final, I had no idea what would happen to me. Ten minutes in to the game, I came out to punch a cross out, and slice it into my own goal. Not a good start.
As we pressed on in the second half our defence got caught out and our lonely centre back brought down a striker in the box. Penalty, which I saved, a leaping dive to the bottom right corner had made up for my earlier error.
Still 1-0 down and with 3 minutes left I was ushered forward for a corner, as it was whipped in from the left hand side I leapt (admittedly like a salmon) and got the equaliser.
The final part of this quartet story is that the game went to penaltys, which no one likes at the best of times, let alone with the roller-coaster game I’d had. I didn’t save a penalty, however they did fire one over the bar, which meant that i had chance to score a penalty, which i expertly did (Jose Luis Chilavert esc)
So in short, an own goal, penalty saved, penalty scored, and a goal scored. Not bad for a goalkeeper. And for those of you who are interested, we lost in the final (2-1)
On 21 Dec 2009, at 5:40 pm Tom wrote:
Thanks to everyone for their entries into the competition today. There have been some really good stories relating to the number 4 from the last decade. We have chosen Matt Salmon’s story about his 4 days in Australia as the winner today. That must have been a really gutting experience so at least now something good will have come from loosing so much of your holiday. Matt, please drop us a mail at blog@umbro.co.uk with your address and choice from the prize selection and we will get something in the post.
We will be launching another competition on the blog at the same time tomorrow morning so be sure to check back for more ways to win.
On 22 Dec 2009, at 10:29 am Umbro Blog – Umbro’s Christmas Giveaway: Day Two wrote:
[...] to everyone who entered our Christmas giveaway yesterday, we really enjoyed reading your responses – and congratulations to Matt Salmon, who we picked [...]
On 22 Dec 2009, at 11:07 am Lee Gardner wrote:
My best story is when playing as number 4 in the carlisle disctrict league as centre half, i managed to score 15 goals from Centre half including 6 freekicks, and even 1 hattrick (although not of freekicks) the following season i scored a paltry 3 goals. So obviously a 1 season wonder
On 22 Dec 2009, at 11:33 am Anonymous wrote:
I want it so give it to me
On 22 Dec 2009, at 4:36 pm Lee Gardner wrote:
Sorry forgot to say id like the pepe signed boots please, if i was so lucky to win of course.
On 22 Dec 2009, at 7:48 pm mike wrote:
Rochdale going 4PTS clear at the Top of Division 2.!
Rochdale winning 4-0 to go 7points clear at the top of Division 2.!
In 4 Days time Rochdale will still be top of Division 2!!!
On 22 Dec 2009, at 7:49 pm mike wrote:
Rochdale going 4PTS clear at the Top of Division 2.!
Rochdale winning 4-0 to go 7points clear at the top of Division 2.!
In 4 Days time Rochdale will still be top of Division 2!!!
John Terry shirt please