THE DASH

Printed in the National League South game v Braintree Town Saturday 29^th April 2023. The last game of the season. We drew 1-1 in front of 1,163

Hundreds of us stood outside a packed crematorium listening to the speeches when the vicar read out a poem. ‘The Dash’ by Linda Ellis tells us not to focus on the birth and death date – but the dash in between which marks out your life.

The vicar confessed he didn’t usually read it, but it seemed very appropriate for the person we were saying our goodbyes too, because Ian Dean certainly filled out that dash inbetween.

I got to know Ian when we was coaching my eldest. He said he wanted to set up a football team with children from the local estates and Wellesley FC was born. Going from 5 a sides to 11 a side on full sized pitches took some getting used to for the youngsters but they went from losing 15-1 in their first game to winning the league 3 seasons later.

A miracle? Not really – hard work, top coaching and fun was a game changer for so many. With home matches at Brightons Lancing training ground and the Albion in the Community minibus taking them to training and matches, meant that there were no barriers to playing.

Ian and the other coaches never gave up on anyone, providing boots, extra sessions and an arm round a shoulder when it was needed. I loved watching on a Sunday morning seeing the team grow and compete – and finally win the league against our nemesis Crawley Down! Memories I will cherish forever.

I was thinking of this poem walking around Weymouth, a lovely seaside town that I first visited one sunny weekend in 2014 with my family and my Slough family, in the knowledge that this wasn't an FA Cup jolly but a bread and butter Southern Premier league game. Slough had finally arrived back in the Big Time (well, relatively speaking) and were playing Weymouth for the first time ever. Where locals knew that they had a football team and knew where the ground was. As Weymouth beach quickly filled with kiss-me-quick Slough Town hats everyone seemed to be nodding their heads in disbelief after season after season of play-off defeats. Did we finally get promoted or had Tom the Herschel landlord given us one to many free shots?

Fast forward nine years and here we were again with Slough’s league status more of less secured, but with Weymouth's stay in the division hanging by a thread. This season has been a hell or a ride and not a very comfortable one at times, but the Slough support hasn’t wavered or criticised but actually increased in intensity and certainly in surrealness.

If the Prime Minister is serious about wanting to improve everyone's maths skills – short of actually properly funding education - then get them a football spreadsheet from a team facing the drop and let them work out all the permutations. If you’re in a relegation battle, believe me, you will need all those numerical skills and a bucketful of headache pills.

This season was probably the first one ever that I’d visited every ground in our league before a ball was kicked. So hoping for a few new grounds, attention turns to whose coming up and whose coming down. We’ve replaced Ebbsfleet with Maidstone and it’s some way out west trips to Weston-super-Mud and Torquay, while Yeovil are back as opponents. They were in the Championship in 2013 so its a hell of a fall from grace. I’ve never been back since that FA Cup second round defeat all those years ago and never really forgiven them for the way their fans behaved (grown men spitting at 15 years old etc.). Hungerford are gone and you do worry about them, with their charasmatic chairman also leaving. Chesham or Bracknell in the play offs please rather than Truro ‘bloody miles away’ City.

Coming from a town that is the butt of so many friendly-bomb jokes I don’t like to criticise other places, but I won’t miss visiting Concord Rangers. I was there on a cold Tuesday in March, when our away support seemed to make up half the paltry crowd. How there are two senior football clubs on the Island is beyond me. I arrived an hour before the game and there were 2 other people in the clubhouse. No Stewards, flags, songs….. just don’t let Canvey Island replace them! I would prefer Enfield Town, massive opponents years back, lost their ground and became the first supporters owned football club in England. It would be good to see them do well.

It’s welcome back to Bishops Stortford whose programme notes years back coined the phrase ‘misery of Slough fans’. While we are now a lot more cheerful behind the goal, they might well be shoved in the Conference North again. With play off games to come we wont know all our opponents for a couple of weeks.

And finally, can I say a massive thank you to everyone behind the Slough Town scenes who put so much work into the club, so much of it unseen. You are the dashes and without you’re work, our club wouldn’t be thriving. And thank you to the Ian Deans of this world, we need more people like Ian, who showed what a massive difference just one person can make. See you all next season.

THE DASH

I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on the tombstone
from the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth
and spoke the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that they spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved them
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own --
the cars...the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.
Are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what's true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
and show appreciation more,
and love the people in our lives
like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
and more often wear a smile,
remembering this special dash
might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
with your life's actions to rehash,
would you be proud of the things they say
about how you spent YOUR dash?