MATTHEW Biddle ran across the pitch at Wembley Stadium and up the famous 39 steps to the trophy ledge, where the FA Cup always stood ready for presentation to the champion on Cup Final day. It was a lifelong dream come true.

Then he hurried back across the pitch to his van outside the stadium, grabbed his toolbox, walked back up the steps and began dismantling the wooden ledge.

Matthew, 35, and his colleague were here to preserve a little bit of British football history.

"We were just in time," he says. "The bulldozers were pulling up outside ready to pull down the stadium. It took us all day to take away the wooden ledge. It meant walking across the Wembley pitch and up and down those famous steps about 60 times."

They took home a little pile of old planks in American white oak marked with hundreds of screw holes.

Four months' worth of labour later, the two craftsmen had turned them into an exquisite bureau made with traditional skills, complete with a hidden compartment.

Matthew, who lives in Chesham, specialises in hand crafted bespoke furniture. A client had bought the trophy ledge at auction in September 2002 and asked Matthew to retrieve the wood and design a piece of furniture for his home in the Chalfonts.

Matthew said: "We brought back the ledge, the capping from the hand rails and the fascia from the front. The problem was that because of the screw holes, the lengths of usable wood were quite small.

"From several designs the client chose a fall-front bureau with writing chair in the arts and crafts style.

"Every piece of wood was carefully marked on sitebefore dismantling, so we know where every part of the bureau and chair came from. The actual spot where the FA cup sat is at the centre of the front flap of the bureau.

"It was more than four months' worth of work where I knew I had no margin for error. It was like having a penalty shoot-out every day!"

The bureau is a true piece of craftsmanship, with more than 100 handcut dovetails and 50 mortice and tenon joints. There's even a secret compartment. Matthew recalls: "I didn't tell the client where the secret compartment was for a fortnight, to see if they could find it. They couldn't."

The colour of the leather seat and back of the chair is also authentic Wembley blue. "When dismantling the wood, we found a brick painted the original colour from when the stadium was built. We were then able to find leather to match.

"The client is a football fanatic. He's an Arsenal fan and I'm a Chelsea fan, so there's friendly banter constantly while I'm working for him."

Now Matthew's client has the bureau in his hallway. And Matthew is left with unforgettable memories of the day he spent on the pitch and the 39 steps at the long lamented Wembley Stadium.