Former Premier League and England striker Peter Crouch was in the unusual position of being a mascot this weekend as he walked out onto the pitch with non-league Farnham Town.
The 44-year-old was handed the forfeit for finishing bottom of the Fantasy Football League on his podcast. He was given the full mascot experience as Farnham took on Sholing on Saturday afternoon.
On ahead of the game, co-presenter Chris Stark said: “The forfeit is is that you’re going to be a mascot for the day. It’s just brilliant on so many levels, and Farnham Town have agreed to get right behind this. Also, it’s quite a big crowd, I was amazed that a team of this level were willing to let us do this.”
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Crouch responded with: “So are you telling me that I’m going to have to run out with the players, holding the player’s hand?”
Fellow presenter Steve Sidwell said: “This is a proper matchday experience, so for one, you’re going to have to be wearing the kit, full kit as well, you’ve got to get there before kick-off and get signatures of the players because that’s what mascots do, then you’re going to get a bit of pre-match lunch with the other mascots, and then have a little bit of a kick around on the pitch with these mascots and then you’re going to walk out with one of the players, what a day that is going to be.”
Crouch added: “My only issue is that I’m six foot seven and I imagine the kids are around four foot, four and a half foot."
During the game, Farnham Town’s official X (formerly Twitter) account shared images of Crouch walking out with the team and sharing pictures with his fellow mascots. Crouch himself also shared a video of him walking out with the team, along with the caption: “Having the best day at Farnham Town today as mascot.”
The game ended in a 2-2 draw, with the day also seeing Farnham record a new record attendance of 2,134. A part of that could possibly be attributed to the new mascot.
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