Despite my team Newcastle Benfield going out of the FA Cup
at the end of August (4-2 away to Guisborough Town in the Preliminary Round
since you asked), I’ve been impressed by the BBC’s coverage of the tournament
thus far. The live Friday night games on free to air TV are a great way to
increase the profile of the early stages of the competition proper and the
innovation of having cameras at each one of the Sunday games, cutting across to
each one at moments of high tension or drama, doesn’t feel clumsy. If anything,
speaking as a neutral of course, it adds to the sense of occasion and makes for
an exciting afternoon’s viewing. Of course, now we’ve got the “big boys” in
from round 3, the media will no doubt revert to type and start salivating at
the prospect of Arsenal’s youth team against Sunderland reserves. However, in
some ways, this might be preferable to the current obsession of the
corporation’s pundits with Salford City, as the quality of analysis has been
far less impressive than the visual images of football itself.
As a child, I first became aware of the phenomenon of giant
killing when Ronnie Radford wrote his name in the eternal pantheon of FA Cup
legends, breaking a 7 year old’s heart. To be fair, it’s not a goal I enjoy
watching, which is a bit of a shame as it is shown about 500 times a season;
the minute I hear Motson utter those fateful words and Tudor’s gone down for Newcastle, the nightmares of a 44 years
ago come flooding back. However Blyth Spartans, who can justifiably claim to be
the most famous non-league club in the country, provide happier memories of
David slaying Goliath; Stoke in 77/78, Bournemouth in 08/09 and last season
Hartlepool , then being 2-0 up at the break against Birmingham City in round 3.
Admittedly they lost that one, but they’d had a hell of a run for their money.
The frosty Friday night victory away Hartlepool in round 2 was compelling
television; though my regional bias made me more than a little sorry for that
great club from Victoria Park.
This season, the creditable exploits of Home Counties
parvenus Eastleigh and Whitehawk notwithstanding, the seemingly compulsory
patronising hyperbole for the diddy men of the competition has had a pronounced
Mancunian flavour to it. For many years I’ve been a devoted reader of United We Stand, whose cynical, sardonic
view of football is imbued with some of the bleakest, most cruel humour
imaginable. But it also contains some damn fine writing; I remember a piece
years back, talking about the simple pleasures of watching Trafford Borough or
Abbey Hey, in fact anyone other than Maine Road (for obvious reasons), when the
Reds didn’t have a Saturday game. I’ve written many such pieces myself in The Popular Side and other publications,
extolling the virtues of Benfield, Whitley Bay and dear old Percy Main
Amateurs. However, similar to how the emergence of both North Shields
and South Shields, on opposite sides of the Tyne, has changed the
demographic and atmosphere in the Northern League, by providing refuges for
those sickened by events at both Newcastle United and Sunderland (though it
must be recognised followers of the two Shields clubs have wildly divergent
interpretations of what it means to be “against modern football”), UWS would have a very different story to
tell if one factors the existence of both FC United of Manchester and the
reconfigured Salford City into the equation. Suffice to say, I was mightily
relieved that Hartlepool rescued a draw from their game away to Salford and then beat them in the replay.
Before I go any further, I have to reiterate that I am an
outsider here and that my opinions of the current poster children of Mancunian
football have been formed at a geographical and emotional distance, though my
profound love of and involvement with non-league football for a quarter of a
century means that I am very sympathetic to both clubs. The events surrounding
the formation of FCUM and their subsequent journey through the leagues and the
opening of their stunning Broadhurst Park ground have been well documented. I
don’t think it would be unfair to say that their progress has been nothing
short of miraculous, for a club founded entirely on fan ownership and, prior to
the current season perhaps, a democratic organisation with a seemingly
unbreakable moral code, enshrined in the 7 guiding, core principles -:
- The
Board will be democratically elected by its members
- Decisions
taken by the membership will be decided on a one member, one vote basis
- The
club will develop strong links with the local community and strive to be
accessible to all, discriminating against none
- The
club will endeavour to make admission prices as affordable as possible, to
as wide a constituency as possible
- The
club will encourage young, local participation—playing and
supporting—whenever possible
- The
Board will strive wherever possible to avoid outright commercialism
- The
club will remain a non-profit organisation
As someone who is a firm believer in fan ownership of
football clubs, I salute their progress, though the cynic (or perhaps realist)
in me instinctively feels that they have progressed as far up the pyramid as is
possible for a club founded on such an idealistic basis. Being brutally frank,
the amount of money required by a professional club in the modern game is
probably beyond the reach of one that raises all its funds by ethical means.
Sure Blue Monday was the best-selling
12 inch of all time, but Factory Records still went bust.
Regardless of whether future promotion would be a reality,
FCUM started 2015/2016, to all intents and purposes, on a high, as their first
season in their proper home would be marked by their debut campaign in the
Conference North, or whatever it’s calling itself these days. The club had
already left its stamp on the FA Cup, with a notable win over Rochdale in the
2010/2011 competition, before gaining headlines for slightly less positive
reasons this time around. In the final
qualifying round, a 3-1 victory away to Sporting Khalsa (a fascinating club and
one who deserve to have their story more widely told) was marred by a pre-game
bout of fisticuffs, with giddy locals no doubt expecting the grandchildren of
Doc’s Red Army to have descended en masse. However, the real problems occurred when the
euphoria of a home draw against Chesterfield in Round 1 proper slowly dispersed
when the ugly reality of having to cede control over both admission prices and
kick off time dawned on FCUM’s support.
The FA Cup competition rules stipulate the minimum entry fee
for First Round ties is a tenner; FCUM charge £9 for home games and once they
found they couldn’t do that, they decided to give everyone attending a £1
voucher, redeemable against the entry price to another home game, or in the
catering outlets. To me, this seemed a totally reasonable, pragmatic response,
though some FCUM zealots see compromise as collaboration. When BT Sport
announced they wanted to move the tie to a Monday night for live transmission,
FCUM furiously resisted, but those self-same competition rules that stipulate
entrance prices also dictate when games can be played. In short, if FCUM didn’t
agree, they would have to forfeit the tie. Around the same time Morpeth Town of
the Northern League drew 1874 Northwich at home in the FA Vase. The game was
rained off on the Saturday and, because the clubs had failed to negotiate what
would happen in this eventuality, the rescheduled game was slated by the FA for
the Wednesday following. Northwich claimed they couldn’t raise a team to travel
so far midweek and conceded, making valid points about the idiocy of having
midweek rearranged games and replays. I agree with them 100%; these games
should always be Saturdays, but the cup they signed up for had a set of rules
their participation gave tacit approval to. The same is true of FCUM and the FA
Cup.
When the game took place, aside from Chesterfield easing to
a 4-1 win, the big story was to do with fan boycotts and banner protests in the
ground. I don’t know the ins and outs of FCUM’s supporter politics though it
seems, to this veteran of UK ultra-left politics from the late 70s to the
present day at any rate, that debate is founded on the same kind of
internecine, captious ideological nit-picking that Maoist groups engaged when
debating whether Albania under Enver Hoxha was more of a Socialist paradise
than the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea. To me, it seems clear; either
live in the real world or stagnate and ultimately die. The founding principles
of FCUM’s constitution are utterly irreproachable, but they lack the pragmatism
required to utilise the energy and momentum the club has sparked. Perhaps this
minor civil war, that played out so viciously on-line, has hampered the club’s progress,
as they lie just outside of the relegation zone after a run of 6 games without
a win following the Chesterfield exit. However, things may be looking up again,
following a 2-1 win away to Stockport County. At Edgerley Park. The same
Stockport County who beat Man City at Maine Road in 1998. The same Stockport
County, formed in 1883, who went bust.
In defence of FCUM though; at least the club listens to its
support and considers their views. The benign despotism of the Class of 92’s
ownership of Salford City and their plans for the future seem somewhat less of
a matter for negotiation, or so it appears. I would welcome with open arms anyone who
sought to exchange the professional game for the amateur one, as more and more
are doing. However, I would counsel the non-league neophyte to understand that
you are not just exchanging one club for another, but one version of the game
as a whole for a far more rewarding model. Unfortunately, some people just
don’t seem to get that point and, similar to texting in church or breaking wind
in front of the in-laws, show themselves up. The less said about chair Karen
Baird’s twitter meltdown the better I feel. Personally, I wouldn’t for one
second decry Butt, Giggs, Scholes or the Neville Siblings for seeking to put
something back into the game that has made them unimaginably rich
(comparatively) young men. I would say I have less faith in the co-owner Peter
Lim, now effectively also the Nevilles’ employer at Valencia, sharing such
lofty ideals. Where I am at variance with the Class of 92 is with their stated
ambition of turning Salford City into a league club in 15 years. Is that really
a sensible ambition? Is it acceptable that 75 years of history can be swept
away because of this “project?”
Did all those who supported, nurtured, maintained and
developed Salford City from their foundation in 1940 until the takeover in 2014
really do so in the hope of a local derby with Bury? Of course not; they chose
to follow a community, grassroots club where they were on speaking terms with
the players and the committee. Of course they could have gone to City, United,
Bury, Stockport, Stalybridge, Altrincham or whoever if they’d wanted to see the
professional game, but they didn’t. They stayed watching their club; Salford
City. Of course, as was shown by the BBC documentary about the club, not to
mention the gushing, uncritical praise that flowed like an unguent tide during
the cup games against Notts County and Hartlepool, there is no room for an
interpretation seeking to challenge the accepted narrative that every club
wants to be in the big time. Salford’s fanbase may have exploded exponentially,
but that is no guarantee of success. What if the current owners get bored or
seek to extricate themselves from their investment, in either a financial or
emotional sense? Recent history is littered with the husks of dead clubs, from
Colne Dynamos to Celtic Nation, which were once seemingly bound for a double
quick leap up the non-league pyramid, but foundered after their moneyed owners
lost faith.
Clint Eastwood was right; a man’s got to know his
limitations. Perhaps that’s something for South Shields fans to ponder as they
queue for entry to their Boxing Day home clash against Hebburn Town; the first
ever all-ticket game in the Northern League Second Division.
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