An 11-year-old girl had a 'day she will never forget' after she was selected to be a mascot at the FA Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea.
Victoria Connolly, 44, entered her daughter Ruby, 11, into a competition to be a mascot about a month before the game. The two were overcome with excitement when they were contacted to say Ruby was one of 12 winners.
Victoria, from Huyton, told the ECHO : "Someone got in touch with me from a PR agency about two weeks before the final. It was about 9pm and they said she’d been chosen as one of the mascots.
READ MORE: Liverpool supporter could bag £367,100 if Anfield club claim historic quadruple after £100 bet
"I went to wake her up and she couldn’t get back to sleep after that. I was excited, she was really excited".
Ruby is a huge Liverpool fan and her favourite players are Roberto Firmino and Alisson but she is not able to attend many matches. Victoria said: " We don’t go to matches regularly - we can’t afford it. We’ve wanted to go to all of them, but we haven’t been this year."
However, the rarity of such an occasion and the chance to see her beloved Reds win their second trophy of the season made the day extra special for Ruby. She and her mum travelled down south on Friday, May 13 - the day before the big game.
Victoria added: "She was draped in red, we travelled the whole way in our LFC shirts and our scarves. She had to carry her flag the whole way.
"Everyone was made up to see her interested in football, people were chatting to her on the tube - she felt like a celebrity for the whole weekend."
When the two got to Wembley on the Saturday, they were expecting to have general admission seats, with Ruby heading down to perform her mascot duties. However, they were seated in a corporate box, which Victoria described as 'amazing'.
Before the match, the 12 selected mascots, all aged between seven and eleven, were presented with flags and jackets. They also met David James, who played for Liverpool between 1992 and 1999, as well being capped by England 53 times.
Victoria said: " David James gave them a pep talk, got them ready, and told them what to expect when they came out and how loud it would be. He also spoke about his experiences when he played for Liverpool, but I don’t think he mentioned the white suits " (worn by the Reds before the 1996 FA Cup final).
A promotional video released by Emirates shows James telling the children: " You’re not going to be nervous are you? It’s all going to be good fun. Those people watching, they all want to be in your position.”
Though appreciative of the 'pep talk', Ruby wasn't particularly aware of David James' footballing career.
Victoria said: "When she came out, she said to me ‘this man used to be a footballer but he was on Strictly as well’. That’s how she recognised him."
The mascots greeted the players as they arrived at the national stadium. Victoria said: "You could see her on Match of the Day when the teams were getting off the coaches and coming into Wembley. She got a high-five from them, you could see her getting one from Klopp on the TV.”
They also visited both changing rooms before the match, as well as seeing the trophy. However, Ruby's highlight was still to come, as she stood alongside her Liverpool heroes as they walked onto the pitch.
Victoria added: “She said her favourite bit was when she was standing with the flag at the end of tunnel, then they came out with the ball, but the whole pitch was covered with a big band, a choir, the armed forces, massive flags. She said it was just amazing.
"There were 90,000 people in the stadium cheering and roaring. She was on the same side of the tunnel as the Liverpool players, it was just the excitement and the noise, she said she’d never experienced anything like that at all."
"I will never know what it feels like to stand on the pitch at Wembley with all those people around you. It must feel overwhelming."
After the game produced no goals across the 90 minutes and extra-time, Liverpool won the cup with a 6-5 penalty shootout victory. It was their eighth FA Cup win and kept the club in the hunt for an unprecedented quadruple this season.
Ruby and Victoria's box was behind the goal that the penalty shootout took place in, giving them a great view of the moment that Liverpool won the cup for the first time since 2006.
Delighted with the experience and the outcome of the game, Ruby wanted to take her flag and her jacket into school. It was a day, her mum said, that neither of them would ever forget.
