Despite my protestations and affectations to the contrary, I do still love Newcastle United. Last Sunday’s 1-0 win over Norwich City, coming as it did after 4 games without a victory, was richly and riotously celebrated, even if rejoicing would be too strong a word for the emotion engendered by this contest. Frankly boredom was the predominant feeling as the second half dragged on; having seen Canaries keeper Ruddy make 3 blinding saves in the first half to keep the score respectable, after the break I began to wonder what on earth I could possibly write about.
In search of inspiration, I headed to Blue Flames on the Tuesday following to watch Newcastle Reserves play Chelsea’s second team; as Nile Ranger had been selected, the game was presumably taking place there rather than at SJP to satisfy one of the dozens of bail conditions surrounding his current legal complexities. Boasting £18m striker Romelu Lukaku up top, it was no surprise the team in blue eased past the dispirited and demotivated collection of imminent free transfers in black and white to win 4-2. Quite where Newcastle United’s shadow squad goes from here, bearing in mind Llambias has announced the club will have a smaller squad of players next season than the current one, is a moot point. Suffice to say, these young men have the weight of failure on their shoulders; if current history repeats itself, few of them will find clubs in the Football League to carve out a career.
One former Newcastle United reserve is Frank Wiafe Danquah; born in Amsterdam, he was a product of the Ajax youth set up and signed for Newcastle in 2006, around the same time as another Dutch youngster by the name of Krul. Unlike the brilliant Tim, Danquah’s career stalled. Following the expiry of his contract in 2010 he left SJP, firstly heading to Ferencvaros in Hungary, then to Beveren in the Belgian second division and thence on trial to Gateshead. When no deal was forthcoming at the International Stadium, he signed for the second ranked side on Tyneside, Newcastle Benfield. Currently, he’s not getting his game.
While I’ve been attending games at SJP since a 2-2 draw with Leicester City on New Year’s Day 1993, I’ve not as yet managed to see any silverware being won, other than 2007’s Inter Toto Cup of course. However, as a devotee of Benfield, who are my Northern League side, I’ve cheered them on to 3 League Cups in 2006, 2009 and 2011, as well as the League Title, won in the last game of the season away at Penrith, when Steven Young’s 86th minute winner put the Walkergate Brazilians top of the table for the first time that season. It was a tremendous night; the squad were united, committed and playing out of their skins; it was a richly deserved title. Heady, happy days and, having seen them tumble out of the League Cup at home to North Shields last Wednesday, a million miles away from the current situation at Sam Smith’s Park,
The loss to The Robins was the 11th reverse on home soil this season, 9 of which have been in the League; with Spennymoor and Whitley Bay ominously still to visit. There have been 3 managers in charge; Paul Baker ended his second spell as boss last September, allowing long-serving, loyal midfielder and scorer of the goal that won Benfield their first Northern League Cup in 2006 over Nissan, Alusene Bangura to take charge; sadly he decided to leave on Saturday 10th March after a 2-1 defeat to Billingham Synthonia. His replacement, until the end of the season, is former Spennymoor assistant Perry Briggs, who has overseen 3 successive losses so far, the last of which was 3-1 at Ryhope on the Tuesday Chelsea Reserves were winning at Blue Flames. Currently, Benfield are 12th in Division 1; while they are 13 points clear of relegation, they have lost their last 5 games and have nothing other than a Northumberland Senior Cup semi-final away to Team Northumbria on Monday April 2nd to look forward to.
While the current situation is neither particularly bleak nor grim, it does tell of a club who have stagnated; their great side of 3 years ago has either got older or moved on, with the replacements not up to the previous standards. This is disappointing from a spectator’s point of view, but it is not the real reason for writing about Benfield; the purpose of this blog is an altogether more serious one. Sadly, yet again, the spectre of racist abuse and the rotten core of institutional bigotry and inaction that blights the game at all levels, simply have to be addressed. It is a story whereby none of the North Yorkshire Football Association, Guisborough Town FC or the Northern League can emerge from with any credit whatsoever.
I’ve followed Benfield since their elevation to the Northern League in 2003, though my involvement with Percy Main (and Newcastle United if I’m totally honest) limits my chances of seeing the Lions that often these days. Indeed, in 2011/2012, I’ve only managed to see them 5 times, 4 of which have been at home. Certainly the most crucial of these encounters was not the scintillating 1-1 draw at Hillheads on Boxing Day in front of a magnificent 523 fans, it was the 3-2 home reverse to Guisborough Town on Bank Holiday Monday 2nd January.
On paper, a loss in front of your own fans to a newly promoted side who are struggling at the foot of the table is always disappointing, but having given a soft goal away and then seen keeper Andrew Grainger sent off, it was always going to be a struggle to get anything out of the game. Despite a second half rally, so it proved. However, the result pales in to insignificance when an incident involving Benfield’s young right winger Jordan Lartey is examined.
Midway through the first period, with Guisborough leading 2-0, a visiting player went down injured, then rolled off the pitch. As he was outside the field of play, Benfield continued attacking, winning a corner. As the corner was about to be delivered, a Guisborough player unleashed a vile volley of racist invective in the direction of young Jordan, who thankfully didn’t hear it at the time. Amazingly, despite being stood 10 yards from the incident, the referee claimed not to have heard anything either. The abuse was caught on camera by a Sky TV news crew who were filming the game for their Tyne & Wear website, which includes regular bulletins on North East non-league football (two cheers for Rupert Murdoch) and the existence of this footage is the kernel of the subsequent disgraceful inaction by the football authorities.
At half time in this game, both the Benfield and Guisborough secretaries were called to the referee’s room to discuss the incident. Word spread that the racist in question would not be getting away with it and that Benfield were pressing to have the book thrown at him. I left the ground that day with the clear belief that a complaint would be made in the strongest terms possible to both the Northern League and the North Yorkshire FA about the incident. For two months, nothing happened, other than the Northern League website carried weekly sweetheart stories about what a wonderful club Guisborough Town are. On March 10th, Jordan’s mam tweeted that the North Yorkshire FA had advised no further action should be taken, despite the incontrovertible video evidence.
The truly appalling thing about this is that, by refusing to deal with a clear case of racist abuse that has been captured on video tape and is in the public domain, the North Yorkshire FA are probably applying their regulations to the letter, in the sense that because the referee did not take any action at the time, there is nothing they can do, or are minded towards doing. However, regardless of their current policies, to allow the repulsive racial abuse of a player by an opponent sends out all the wrong signals and is frankly an absolute outrage.
Benfield are the only club in the Northern League I’ve seen who have black fans and, until last week, a black manager who served his club with distinction for almost 15 years. The only time I’ve heard racist abuse prior to this in a Northern League ground was at Sam Smith’s in December 2004, when a Shildon fan reacted badly during his team’s 4-2 loss with a mouthful of stinking filth in the direction of Alu Bangura. Thankfully, other Shildon fans responded to this Neanderthal’s conduct with disgust and impressed upon the racist idiot the need to shut his mouth, which he did and eventually slunk off out of the ground.
As far as I’m aware, nothing more happened after that incident. While the Shildon fan’s conduct was appalling, at least his peers showed their intolerance of such behaviour. The same level of disgust and direct action was not discernible when former Morpeth Town manager Trevor Benjamin was called “a fucking black cunt” by a Darlington Railway Athletic player in September 2010. The player, who is still with the Brinkburn Road club, was subsequently fined £50 and banned for a paltry 4 games, while Darlington supporters took to the north east non-league message board to complain about the decision’s severity, as the incident hadn’t featured in the referee’s report.
The ignorance and invective directed towards Benjamin made Liverpool’s statement in support of the loathsome Suarez sound like a set of lyrics by Chuck D. However, this message board has recently deleted any comment relating to the Jordan Lartey incident; I’m not claiming the owners or whoever is behind this HTML encoded cretins’ picnic are overtly racist, but their “case closed; debate over” attitude is, in effect, providing tacit institutional support for an appalling decision by the Blue Blazers that run the game at county level.
However, the North Yorkshire FA are not the only ones to come out of this whole sordid affair reeking of hypocrisy, cant and smug indifference; Guisborough Town may claim they have no responsibility to discipline or dismiss a player who has not been convicted of any transgression, but they’ve heard the video tape, many of them were at the game. Pitifully, the reaction of certain Guisborough fans when Benfield supporters voiced their displeasure in no uncertain terms was to say that swearing is as bad as racism and that bad language, of whatever type, is not tolerated at their ground; an attitude that displays the kind of pitiful, sickening, small-minded, ignorant, Daily Mail ideology, containing no understanding whatsoever of the pernicious, evil nature of racism. They should be ashamed of themselves.
And so should the Northern League. Despite the incidents in 2004 and 2010, the Northern League has nothing on its website that states racism is unacceptable in the game. Never to my knowledge has the League sought to engage in any initiative that combats intolerance, preferring instead to focus on profanity and not prejudice. Whether is ignorance, indifference or tacit tolerance of bigotry that allows the League to get away with such inaction, while repeatedly launching campaigns against foul and abusive language, I am not sure. However I do know that no language can be more foul and more abusive than that launched at Alu Bangura, Trevor Benmjamin or Jordan Lartey.
Watching grassroots football north of the Tyne as I do, it is becoming more and more obvious that the changing demographics of the area between Byker and the Coast mean that the preponderance of talented young black and mixed race footballers in the Northern Alliance and Tyneside Amateur League will no doubt eventually be translated in to a similar ethnic mix in the Northern League, perhaps not across all clubs, but certainly around the Newcastle, Gateshead, North and South Tyneside areas. Benfield, Team Northumbria and North Shields all have black and mixed race players on their books; soon West Allotment, Whitley Bay and the clubs south of the Tyne at Dunston, South Shields and Hebburn will no doubt follow. How exactly will the backwoodsmen from monocultural settlements in West Durham and North Yorkshire deal with that? Unless clear, unequivocal statements spelling out that the sort of abuse we’ve discussed here will simply not be accepted, then I shudder to think what some of the less advanced clubs and their supporters will try to get away with.
When will the administrative apologists for prejudice and racism end their sickening approximations of Pontius Pilate and face reality? The north east is changing, football is changing and the Northern League needs to accept and embrace this. Never mind stamping out swearing, surely it is time for them to show racism the red card and not the white flag?
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