These articles are published in the Slough Town FC programme. The Rebels play in the National League South in a swanky new ground. I’ve been supporting Slough since the beginning of time despite now living in Brighton.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

FROM WITHDEAN TO WEMBLEY

Printed in the National League South game v Welling United on Saturday 13th April 2019 We won 1-0 in front of 801

It started in front of 106 people at Haywards Heath and nearly nine months later, who'd have thought I would still be going to FA Cup games; swapping Wembley over Hungerford Town's Bulpit Lane. Brighton were in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, a competition I'd been watching since August. As soon as the final ends, it feels like the extra preliminary round begins again. The Albion had drawn the short straw playing Man City – although they got so much luck beating Millwall in the previous round, perhaps that was fair.
If I’m honest I didn't think I’d enjoy it as much as I did, or be as disappointed with the defeat at the end. 'From Withdean to Wembley' sang the Brighton fans but the bigger picture was that just over 20 years ago they were homeless and close to tumbling out the football league. 

As thousands piled onto trains, there was a real sense of occasion. I've also changed my mind about it being wrong to have semi-finals at Wembley. For clubs like Brighton, Watford and Wolves the chance to play at the national stadium is one the supporters relish. Does it diminish the competition or the final? Not as much as the top six having so much financial clout that they are there so often it becomes stale.
It was fantastic walking up Wembley Way although in other counties it would be a boulevard to be proud of. This being England, it's becoming high rise hell, hemmed in on all sides with cranes jostling for position and people trying to flog half and half scarves. 
 
Man City are the football equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters, but its what's happening in the lower leagues, highlighted by Kieran Maquire's excellent Price of Football detective work that's so worrying. Tranmere Rovers lost £45,000 a week in The National League last season when they were promoted via the play-offs. Colchester United lost £65,000 a week in 2017/18 as total losses over the years increased to nearly £27 million. Fleetwood Town lost £90,000 a week while Stadium MK Group Ltd, lost over £100,000 a week – not that anyone would shed a tear if the Franchise went out of business. 
 
Infact the last time I was at Wembley, I saw Rochdale lose to Stockport County in the Division Two play-off finals. Stockport were being bank-rolled at the time which rankled Dale fans who felt their club was being penalised for being prudent. They weren't wrong and it wasn't long after, that Stockports financial bubble burst and they now find themselves playing in the National League North.

Supporters don't help, with impossible demands that help bankrupt the clubs they love, but the football authorities need to seriously get a grip and create a level playing field where sporting achievement not financial muscle is the winner. Alternatively, one journalist has come up with a cunning plan – a trophy for clubs finishing seventh in the Premier League! Johnny Nicholson writing for Football 365 said 'Seventh is the very best 14 clubs can hope to achieve at the start of every season, so the team who resides there at the end should be awarded some sort of trophy for that success. The top six are now protected, not by a glass ceiling, but by a reinforced steel door that would take many hundreds of millions of pounds per season for many seasons to blow open. Without some sort of best-of-the-rest award, the majority of the league now has nothing to play for, nothing to achieve apart from survival; not living, just existing, nothing but existing. ...We might come to the conclusion that the whole thing is a pointless charade, not worthy of our money and time. And we might realise that the Premier League isn’t even about football, it is just about the money. So shut up and give us a Seventh Trophy, yes it would symbolise the dysfunction at the heart of your whole business, but for a while it might take our minds off pulling the whole shameless edifice down and building something that works for the many, not the few.'   

I'm sure Wembley can find a slot to make this happen. But now my Wembley whistle has been truly whetted I want to see Slough play there. I missed out when we lost to a last minute Walton and Hersham goal in front of 41,000 in 1973. Seeing as we are unlikely to reach an FA Cup semi final anytime soon, how about having a real go of the FA Trophy? 'From Windsor to Wembley with Beaconsfield inbetween', is a catchy little number.




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