Huddersfield Town will be at Wembley today for the FA Cup Final - in the shape of super fan Anne Firth.
She is one of 64 football fans will form an ‘FA Cup Fans choir’ and sing Abide With Me prior to this season’s final at Wembley Stadium.
The lucky supporters are the winners of a Songs of Praise competition with each fan representing one of the 64 teams who it to the third round of this year’s competition.
The choir will be mixed and also include a wide spectrum of ages with the youngest participant in their early twenties while the most senior has celebrated their 100th birthday.
The choir will join with The Band of The Brigade of Gurkhas in front of 90,000 people for the iconic football hymn tomorrow.
Songs of Praise, who teamed up with BBC Sport as part of their FA Cup programming, asked for people to submit stories that reflect their personal memories and passion of the cup from every level of the game.
The winning tales - selected by a panel of judges from the worlds of football, music and journalism – are a combination of amusing and moving stories which capture the spirit of the FA Cup and have a strong thread of family, community and tradition throughout.
Anne, of Mirfield. sings in a church choir most weeks.
The 53-year-old has been a Town fan since childhood, even though her family weren’t football fans.
She was at Wembley today to take in the surroundings and said: “I’m still in the church choir at St Andrews’ Church in Batley and I’m a season card holder at Huddersfield Town. I also learned to appreciate my Dad’s love of rugby and I have a season ticket at Batley Bulldogs.”
Over 1,300 people applied to take part in the unique experience to sing ‘Abide With Me’ which, since it was first sung at the FA Cup Final in 1927, has become a constant fixture. In recent years, a celebrity solo singer has performed the song and this year the fans choir will join them on the football pitch.
They will be led by international music producer and Songs of Praise conductor Steve Thompson, who is also a life-long fan of the FA Cup.
