Defenders Anthony Gerrard and Tom Parkes were at St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School last Friday afternoon to meet some of the children who came to the weekend home game against Stevenage as part of our Cumberland Community Ticket Scheme.
The youngsters nicked possession with some excellent questions about training schedules and match day routines and kept the central defensive duo pegged back as they were quizzed about the best games they’d played in, and silverware they’d won.
“That isn’t fair,” Gerrard joked. “I’ve been to two massive finals at Wembley, but I’ve lost them both! People say it’s a dream to get to play there, which it is, but the outcome was a nightmare on both occasions. I really don’t like that question at all.”
“I must be better than Anthony because I won the final that I was in,” Tom said. “Nobody remembers the losers, so people won’t even know Anthony has been there, so that’s one thing I’ve got on him at least.”
The children were captivated by what was a very entertaining half hour with their heroes, with all of them excited about the seeing the players on the pitch – even though discussion about what the team might be was strictly off the agenda.
The last duty of United’s visitors was to confirm that, in their opinion, they are by far and away the best players in the squad.
“If there was eleven of us we’d keep the clean sheets and score all the goals every week,” Gerrard insisted. “There isn’t, so we’ll just have to do as much as we can to help the other lads along the way!”
Thank you to the staff at St Cuthbert’s for inviting us along and we hope you enjoyed your afternoon with us on Saturday.