James Goodgame is a lifelong Chelsea fan and season ticket holder. His first season supporting Chelsea was in 1984. The era of Kerry Dixon, David Speedie, Pat Nevin, Joe McLoughlin, etc. A great time to be a Chelsea fan. In 1985 Chelsea signed Kevin McAllister from Falkirk, as a 9-year-old these players were his heroes and he obviously knew Crunchie was from Falkirk, little did he know the effect that would have on his life 37 years later!
Chelsea obviously went their way of billionaire owners and Falkirk went on their own separate very different journey. In May 2022 somehow a post from Dave McInally from The Crunchie Initiative popped up on his Twitter feed asking for sponsors for the naming of The Kevin McAllister stand at the Falkirk stadium. He wanted to let Crunchie know he hadn’t been forgotten and ended up sponsoring a letter, this led to meeting Crunchie himself and forming a friendship with someone he still regard as a hero.
This led to him discovering Falkirk FC, coming up to games, and listening to the stories the fans told, both good and bad, Falkirk FC to James represents a real football club, with real fans and a real spirit that can’t be found elsewhere, he regards himself as a Chelsea fan but a piece of him will always be in Falkirk.
It is for that reason James is doing the London Marathon to raise funds for the Falkirk FC Foundation in order to, in some way pay the Falkirk community and supporters for rekindling his faith that real football and real football fans at a club with a real sense of community still exist.
If you would like to support James, you can donate by going on to his just giving page https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/james-goodgame-1?utm_term=J9ZnPxg4e
