CHAMPION HILL STREET BLUES

Printed in the National League South match v Dulwich Hamlet in Monday 27^th August 2018 We lost 2-1 in front of 1010

It's good to back in the same league as our old friends Dulwich Hamlet. I love their evocative old name. Is there any other senior football team called Hamlet? And what about the kit. Who else dare play in pink and blue? I remember coach trips in my earlier Slough supporting days to their cavernous and crumbling old stadium where crowds of 200 rattled round in a ground built for thousands. Opened in 1931 it staged numerous Amateur Internationals and the Amateur Cup Final between Kingstonian and Stockton in 1932-33 that attracted a record crowd of 20,744.

In 1991, it was demolished as part of Sainsbury‘s redevelopment and the club moved opposite to a new home.

The last time Slough played at their new ground we outnumbered the home supporters, but thanks to a monumental effort behind the scenes, Dulwich were easily the best supported team in the Isthmian League. Then last March they were locked out of their ground, caught in the middle of a battle between an American property developer and Southwark Council. The developers - owned by a billion-pound New York hedge fund - bought the club in 2014 and promised to build a new ground if they got permission for new houses. With 20,000 families on the council housing waiting list Southwark quite rightly said that not enough of these houses were affordable. The developers retaliated by presenting the 125-year-old club with a rent bill of £121,000 and trademarked the club’s name saying they would have to pay to use it! They also rejected a £10 million bid from Rio Ferdinand’s social housing company Legacy.

Using the same savvy that has driven attendances, the club enlisted the support of many. From the Mayor of London to speeches in the Houses of Parliament to 1,200 people marching from East Dulwich to the padlocked gates of Champion Hill in protest.

So after 111 years in the Isthmian League promotion last season to the National League South was bittersweet, with Dulwich currently playing 'home' games at old rivals Totting and Mitcham's ground.

I chatted to Ben Sibley and Hugo Greenhalgh

How long have you been supporting Dulwich and have you got a role at the club?

Forward the Hamlet (FTH) 'Since 2014. I don't have an official role at the club but do host Dulwich Hamlet-focused podcast by the name of Forward The Hamlet with a pal, Hugo Greenhalgh.'

How's life in the National League South? How do you think you will do this season?

FTH 'Life in the National League South is as expected... tough. We are yet to be totally outclassed in a game but (at time of writing - Tuesday 21st August) have taken just 4 points from a possible 15. We have the quality to dominate games but we're not clinical enough up front, and we're making too many defensive mistakes at the other end. Teams are so much more streetwise at this level - their game management is on another level compared to the Isthmian Premier Division. I reckon as soon as our defence settles, we'll start picking up more points. If we can manage that, I think we'll be good for a mid-table finish. I'd be delighted with 14th or higher.'

What's the latest with the ground? 
FTH 'I'm not privy to conversations that may well be going on behind the scenes but as it stands we are still locked out of Champion Hill, with no real hope of returning soon. Owners of the stadium, US-based property developers Meadow Residential, continue to refuse to engage with Southwark council. The council made an offer to buy the site back in March - Meadow didn't even acknowledge it. Sports Minister Tracey Crouch told the House of Commons she is willing to find and appoint an independent mediator if negotiations between Meadow and the council fail but as yet, we've not seen this come to fruition.'

Is playing at Tooting affecting your crowds? 
FTH 'Yes - I would say our attendances are on average 40% lower.'

Just in the National League South yourselves, Truro and Gloucester are ground-sharing. Slough, Wealdstone, Chelmsford and Dartford were homeless for years, while Torquay have an uncertain future. What more needs to be done to protect football grounds and have them recognised as assets of community value?

FTH 'It needs to start from the top and the FA have been all too quiet on our situation, and on many others like us. It's frustrating that our current predicament is hardly a new one. The FA ought to be taking a more proactive approach to its member clubs and should be the first port of call when relationships break down with landowners. Perhaps a portion of the proposed £600m sale of Wembley Stadium could be allocated to help solve such disputes. Champion Hill was actually listed as an "Asset of Community Value" by Southwark Council in 2013 and of course this has proven to count for very little. Working with local government to ensure these statuses are more than just tokenistic is essential.'

The Battle for Champion Hill perfectly sums up the crazy way our society is run. When Mayor Khan came to a Dulwich game he met 99 year old Bill Kirby, a former anti-aircraft gunner who defended London during the Battle of Britain and who has been watching the Hamlet for 90 years! Khan said "You can see three or four generations here in the crowd, different races, different classes. There are so few places left in London that have that. It’s just corporate greed. Come here, buy a club, kick them out, build luxury flats. It’s going on across our country. But this time, the club, the council and the community have all stood together. It sounds like a romantic story, but it’s also the story of our city. I think Meadow will find they have made a big mistake."

It could be a long season for the club fighting on two fronts. Slough Town know from bitter experience how being homeless can seriously damage your health, so let's hope Dulwich can stay in the National League and with their friends in high places and people power defeat the developers and head back home. Infact let's hope society starts recognising the benefit football clubs bring to communities and give them much greater protection against property vultures and shareholders just out to make a fast buck.

* You can listen to the Forward the Hamlet podcasts here

LANCING BOIL THE HEATH

Printed in the National League South game v Dulwich Hamlet on Monday 27th August 2018  We lost 2-1 in front of 2010

Their enthusiasm reminded me of when I was their age. Waiting at the tunnel to get players to sign my autograph book, shouting out their names in the hope of recognition, legging it for the ball after a wayward shot – and of course queuing at the legendary Wexham Park sweet shop.

Fast forward 40 years and I'm taking seven boys to the Hanbury Stadium, the grandiose sounding venue of Haywards Heath who were entertaining near neighbours Lancing. 

 

Bored of watering my allotments, I'd been asking for rain for months and so on the first day of our annual camping holiday the end of the heatwave was celebrated with torrential rain and hurricane winds. The weather had improved on the Saturday but Haywards Heath playing in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary round just 15 minutes away was too good an opportunity to miss. Like the drunk bloke at the bar, I repeated to any campers that would listen – Yes, the FA Cup really starts in August.

Heath had a brilliant 2017/18 season, winning promotion as champions of the Southern Combination, righting a wrong from the previous season when they had been denied promotion after suffering a nine point deduction. Their heinous crime? Mistakenly playing someone 3 times who not paid a £10 fine with a former club! Now they are in the newly formed Bostik South East Division. Just six years ago they were playing in Division 3 of the Country League, so far down the pyramid you can't enter the FA Cup.

They moved to Hanbury in 1952 and the ground is pretty basic apart from a very impressive grandstand that dominates. There used to be covered terracing along one side of the pitch, but this was later removed – now you can park your car pitch side.

 

I paid my £8 but all the seven boys were free. If you ever want a simple marketing tool on how to attract children to lower league football then this is it. Everyone loves a bargain and the club soon got their money back on the burger, chips and drinks the kids devoured.

Heaths manager Shaun Saunders is the father of Connor Saunders, a promising footballer who was killed with one punch a few years back. The Foundation set up in his name have been tireless in their message in schools that one punch can kill – as well as donating defibrillators, encouraging organ donations and providing football coaching for children with learning disabilities. The effectiveness of their work could be seen by all the Brighton boys I had bought along knowing about the one punch campaign.

The FA Cup starts so early that it was the first competitive match for Haywards Heath whereas Lancing, playing in the Southern Combination, already had two league games under their bootstraps. We had just taken our positions when Lancing took the lead inside the first 90 seconds from a penalty. We were hoping for a goalfest but instead it was a very scrappy first half with Heath looking off the pace. The second half saw the home side dominate without making many clear cut chances. With Heath showing more urgency late on, Lancing hit on the counter, with Jack Langford sent clear in stoppage time to score and confirm a trip to Greenwich Borough. The Lancing players and management were jubilant. They are now just 13 wins away from the final!

The FA Cup matters at this level, as one Heath fan kept shouting in frustration 'This is the FA Cup for Christ Sake'. Still this season the losers now get £750 while the winners receive £2,250 – as well as half the gate receipts of the 106 paying guests. I'm not sure if this includes kids.

What I loved about the day was how the boys totally bought into it. High fiving and learning the names of the players so they could shout encouragement, chatting to the subs, and being amazed at how the players spoke to the ref - language they pointed out, which would see them sent off in their junior league games. One of them even asked hopefully for the keepers gloves at the end.

While Premier League clubs have so much TV money they could afford to let people in free, its lower league clubs who have cornered this market. Be rude not to take them up on their generous offer.

THE TORQUAY TUMBLE

Printed in the National South League game v Torquay United on Saturday 18^th August 2018.We drew 0-0 in front of 1244

When the dust finally settled and the league allocations set, I excitedly scanned the fixtures for possible weekend trips away with the family. These trips always involve proclaiming in a surprised tone – well what's the chances of booking a B&B in Weymouth the same weekend Slough are playing them! So thanks a lot league computer for putting two of these seaside away fixtures in January. 
One game that caught the eye was Torquay United. While Slough are riding the crest of a wave, the same can't be said of our opponents who were relegated last season to the National League South. Just six years ago they were playing in the Division Two play-offs.

I spoke to Dominic Roman whose been supporting the club for 30 years and is editor of independent blog Torquay Talk

Can you describe the last decade being a Torquay fan. From dropping out the football league to playing regional football? 

Dominic '10 years ago we were an upwardly mobile Conference club, with a promotion chasing squad, a brilliant young manager and a local board who knew and respected the local community. We got promoted to the Football League and had two brilliant play-off campaigns, and everybody was very proud. So to find ourselves down in the National League South (NLS) now is horrible really and we still believe we are a football league club, with a league ground and league support.

Around 2012 things started going awry as bad decisions were made behind the scenes (and kept being made) and even though we had a lottery winner (Thea Bristow) who put significant money into the club, she soon realised that it was moneypit that would suck the life out of her and it took a local consortium to save us in 2015. The consortium soon realised they were well out of their depth and the team worked on a meagre budget, only narrowly avoiding relegation in 2016. The consortium borrowed money from Clarke Osborne that summer and eventually he took over the club as other bidders either dropped out or couldn't raise the necessary funds. Since his arrival Clarke has promised numerous things to fans but generally kept his distance and failed in footballing matters as the club eventually got relegated. He has backed the youth system and kept us full time, but when we needed the club to step up it didn't happen.
The NLS is a complete unknown to most of us but after all the mess and what's happened, over 2,000 still turned up for our first home league game on a Tuesday, which is amazing! It been an awful rollercoaster ride, and things have just kept getting worse and worse - leaving us where we are now. To put simply what could go wrong has gone wrong!'

How optimistic are you for the future?

Dominic 'At the moment I'm not overly optimistic to be honest although I think we'll be contenders in the NLS. Overall the club has good people working at it, but lacks leadership from an owner who never attends games and a general manager who is not up to the job. Longer term the owner will continue to push for the stadium and he'll be around for a while trying to make this happen, but if the plans fail then there's a good chance he'll soon lose interest and at that point we'll need someone else to step in. The supporters trust are trying very hard to increase numbers and make better inroads with the club, but generally Clarke Osborne is keeping them at arms length whilst putting out statements here or there to try and appease the fans. I don't particularly fear for our immediately future at least, but things can change very quickly and I really hope to see Torquay turning back into a club the local community can be proud of.' 

What do you think of plans for the new ground given your chairmans previous record at other clubs?

Dominic 'Clarke Osborne's CV is chequered to say the least in delivering projects and anybody who really believes he'll deliver this new stadium without any trouble is kidding themselves. The local Mayor seems to have bought into the idea Clarke is selling him and would clearly love to see this multi-purpose stadium benefit Torbay which is fair enough. However, local councillors and fans are not buying into it, and I'd say it's pie-in-the-sky - a pipe dream that is unlikely to happen. The cost of it is apparently 40 million and the capacity will be ten thousand. Ridiculous figures - even when we were in League One our crowd average was only around 3,000 and at the moment we'll struggle to get over 1500 for most games. He will keep pushing for it and I hope the Torbay top brass will not roll over for him, and of course keep the ownership of Plainmoor out of his hands. That's the main fear, Plainmoor is sold off, we are shipped to another ground whilst the new ground is built - only to suffer difficulties and struggle to survive. Or alternatively we get a big new ground with big overheads and still only have 1500 through the gates.' 

What can Slough fans expect when they come to Torquay? Any places you can recommend? What's the ground like? How much to get in?

Dominic: 'Crikey now you're asking! Torquay has seen better days really and desperately needs investment/regeneration especially around the High Street area, but the seafront and the harbour are still lovely places to walk round and grab a bite to eat - and you have a number of nice beaches dotted around the area. There's quite a few tourist attractions. The model village in Babbacombe is excellent, so is Paignton Zoo which is only a few miles from Torquay. Plainmoor is a pretty good ground I think! Bristow's Bench is the main stand and was developed only 6 years ago - and I think you'll be seated at the end of that. Its not the noisiest ground as sound tends to get lost, and the capacity is around 6,000, so a lot of empty spaces these days. There is a bar at the ground 'Boots and Laces' which is welcoming to away fans (within reason), and also a few pubs fairly nearby in St Marychurch and Babbacombe area. I'm not sure of the price, around £15-20 I think but as a season ticket holder I don't look!' 

Are there any towns/grounds you are looking forward to visiting?

Dominic 'I was looking forward to days out in Oxford, Western Super Mare and Bath, but they have all been scheduled as Tuesday nights so any visits will be for the game only. Apart from that Truro was an option but now they play here! Gloucester for the bank holiday will be a popular one, though I believe even they play in Evesham! The Yellow Army will bring supporters wherever we play, and we have a decent following around London so plenty for them to get stuck into this season.' 
Cheers Dominic and best of luck for the rest of the season.

THE FLEET LEFT HIGH AND DRY

Printed in the National League South game v Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday 14^th August 2018. We won 2-1 in front of 651 happy people (well apart from the 4 WSM fans)

It not a good sign when you have to crowdfund to help pay for your travel costs to games, but that's the situation Fleet Town find themselves in through no fault of their own. The FA suddenly switched the league they were meant to play in at the last minute from Isthmian to Southern League West Division – tripling their travel costs in an instant. 
As Fleet pointed out “We were provisionally allocated to the Isthmian League which is centred around Middlesex. We recruited a management team, players and sponsors within the M25. The FA told us 18 hours before finalising the league structure that we had been moved to the Southern League which plays most of its games centred around Bristol with some even in Devon. This will triple our travel costs not to mention travel time. Our management team and all of the players have resigned and some of our sponsors withdrew including our major ground sponsor. We are told if we resign from the league we will face a 2 division drop and a fine of between £9,500 and £76,000. Being a ‘not for profit’ club run by a handful of unpaid volunteers we can’t afford to do that either.”
The switch was caused by the demise of Shaw Lane from Barnsley who had powered up the pyramid in the blink of an eye thanks to their chairman's deep pockets. Blaming everyone from the local council to Barnsley FC who objected to them changing their name to AFC Barnsley, the fact is that the club didn't attract the support it needed, both financially and through the gates. When he couldn't find anyone to take over he pulled the plug, leaving a number of clubs like Fleet high and dry. To add to Fleets woes their latest manager lasted less than a month, leaving before their season even began. The FA's vision is that by the 2020-21 season there will be a symmetrical Pyramid in place. I'm all for this, which rather ironically was done in part to decrease travelling times. As Head of the National League System Laurence Jones pointed out 'There are 1,641 clubs in the National League System and we’ve had 34 appeals from clubs. That’s 34 more than we’d want but we have to put that in context.' Slough really clocked up the miles last season in the Southern Premier with trips from Somerset to Norfolk and I get that there will always going to anomalies. But this is no way to treat Fleet. Would it really been the end of the world to have the Southern League West Division a team short rather than force a club formed in 1890 into financial ruin?  
I've nothing against cubs being ambitious and moving forward but too many dreams are built on sand. Slough's slow climb back up the pyramid has been painful at times, but if you look back those small steps forward and odd stumble back, its been essential to our sustainable growth. Not once will you have heard our chairman boast at the bar of his 10 year plan to have Slough challenging Arsenal for the Premier League title (yeah I know we probably got as much chance of winning the Premier League as Arsenal). In fact you are more likely to find him behind the bar serving drinks, sweeping the floor or putting up gazebos. 
One of our lowest points as a football club was losing to Fleet Town in the last game of the 2007/8 season. The defeat left us second from bottom which should have seen us relegated for the second season running; this time to the Dog and Duck Doughnut Division and playing in the FA Vase for the first time ever. Yet as the Fleet players huddled in the middle to celebrate a play off place, it was the Slough players who were cheered off by at least 200 Rebels in attendance, fifteen of them who had walked 26 sponsored miles to get there. However, because of another badly run club Halifax Town going bust we were given a reprieve. That defeat was just over 10 years ago and the beginning of the reign of Sir Steve of Easterbrook. The rest as they say is history.  
We seriously need more checks and balances on lower league finances so the Billericay Dickies can't splash the cash and put clubs in jeopardy. Not only does this create a financial space-race as other clubs try and keep up, but when it inevitably goes belly up and the chairman walks out the turnstile after a hissy fit, it's the supporters that have to pick up the pieces. And for those caught in the cross-fire? I suppose it's asking a bit too much of the FA to have been a bit more fleet of foot and not punish clubs who have done nothing wrong and try and live within their means. Let's hope Fleet Town survive the season.

FINALLY 'WE'RE ON OUR WAY'

Published in the National South League game v Hampton and Richmond Boroughy Saturday 3^rdAugust 2018. Our first game back in the big time saw us draw 1-1 in front of 866 people.

 

I'd wanted to sing that catchy little ditty 'On our way, on our way, to the National South we're on our way' the whole bloody season but the promotion party was going to the wire. The amber and blue on the Kings Lynn terraces never stopped singing, and as I turned round to ask Deano how long left, Dobbo played a fantastic ball to Manny Williams who cool as a Trilby topped cucumber slotted in the net on 89 minutes. Total pandemonium. I've watched that clip a few times now, as Rebel Radio Ade blows his gasket 'Manny Williams, Manny Williams - 125 years old' and it never fails to lift the spirits. That's what football is all about. A fantastic season had reached its climax as the 600 Slough supporters serenaded the players and management and welcomed the return of Conference football for the first time in something like 125 years. A day forever to be known as Bank Holiday Manny Day.

99 points, 152 goals, the 6-0 FA Cup win at Gainsborough, televised Second Round match, that unbelievable comeback at Merthyr going from 4-0 down to winning 5-4 and an incredible 25 points from 27 in April to get us into third and finally - promotion to National League South. That's one season that's going to be hard to beat.

I don't think I’ve ever been kept in a ground after a Slough Town game as police with dogs stopped the dregs of Kings Lynn from getting to know us better. We even had a police escort out of the town as we hurtled back to our clubhouse to celebrate some more. When we arrived our chairman Steve Easterbrook was serving beers, along with Ade who like so many of our volunteers I can only assume has cloned himself as its humanely impossible for one person to do so much work for the club. Also serving was Chris Ashley who had driven from Kings Lynn past his home town Milton Keynes to celebrate, serve beer then head back home. To me that summed up non league football, and our Unique Selling Point. We have sold more than 400 season tickets – that's more than our average attendance when we were playing at Beaconsfield and there's a real buzz about the club.

It was a special night but I must admit that night in the Herschel after we finally gained promotion to the Southern Premier after endless play off heartaches did pip it for emotion - maybe it was the intimacy of the pub with fans who had been properly put through the mill over the years that made it feel that extra bit special. But this Unique Selling Point is something we need to hang onto if are ever to once again grace the Grand National or whatever its called this season.

What a turn around from the last time I saw us play Hampton. It was the last game of 2006-7 Isthmian Premier season which matched top v bottom. Hampton won the league and we won the wooden spoon, finishing bottom with just 18 points and a goal difference of minus 97 which included some eye watering defeats, like 9-0 to AFC Wimbledon and 8-0 at 'home' to Bromley. Home being Windsor at the time. Worse was to follow in the following seasons. Are we really are the same car crash of a club?

One of those stalwarts that make the club so special won't be with us this season. John Tebbit sadly passed away during the summer. John had been supporting the Rebels since 1937 and was a regular contributor to the programme for an incredible 48 years. John was a fountain of football knowledge and I would always try and chat to him before a game. The club has lost a real gentleman.

Another Rebel no longer with us is Mick Langley. Mick was best mates with Deano and was taken to his first game to the Dolphin Stadium aged 5. I can sort of forgive them for following Man United all over the world before finally returning, like so many, full time to the Rebels. I didn't know Mick well or that he had won a Paralympic gold medal for snooker in 1988 but he always had a big smile for everyone and a handshake before every game.

Last season while being dropped off at Arbour Park, my eldest, used to the less intimate 30,000 crowds at Brighton and Hove Albion, asked if I knew everyone at Slough. Not quite, especially the newer fans but it feels like family. Not the sort you'd want to invite round for Christmas dinner but people you are more than happy to share a pint with, stand on the terraces and sing your heart out together for the Rebels.