The former American computer giant, whose name was once emblazoned on the shirts of Oxford United, beat off stiff opposition throughout, culminating in a titanic battle in the Final against Newcastle Brown Ale. Yet when Big Ben rang out to signal the end of our colossal vote-off (and the arrival of 2013), it was Wang who had undoubtedly gained the upper hand.
During the week-long Final itself we received a whopping 379 votes, and though the split was around 45%-55% in favour of Wang for most of the time, a last-day surge changed that share to 37%-63% by close of play.
It was the cherry on the cake of a fine campaign played out by fans of Wang and, to a considerable extent, Oxford United. Receiving a bye to the Second Round, they proceeded to bulldoze their way past Rank Xerox (70%-30%) and NEC (63%-37%) before encountering their toughest contest in Round Four against Crown Paints which they duly won by 56% to 44%.
After that, it was plain sailing all the way to the Final with wins over Carlsberg (Wimbledon) in the Quarter Finals (69%-31%) and Guinness in the Semi Finals (71%-29%). As an early fancied entrant, Wang showed their promise throughout and rarely looked a doubt to be our eventual champions.
Over seven weeks, we received 8,426 votes - an enormous amount and one that we're truly staggered by. For that, we'd like to send a huge thank you to all of you that took part in the voting at one time or another as we clearly had no idea that so many of you would be keen to take part. Obviously the title of Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever is one that many of you wanted to see bestowed upon your own team!
Before we draw a close to this momentous event, we'd finally like to send our warm and sincere thanks to John Devlin, a man who knows more about football shirt design than many of us would ever dream of. As the designer and creative genius behind the True Colours project, we were naturally honoured when John allowed us to illuminate our vote-offs by using his beautiful illustrations. Without his help and support, our competition would surely not have been so popular.
And with that, we say congratulations once again to Wang for becoming The Football Attic's Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever. An outstanding winner and a great champion.
