FOOTBALL AND FRIENDSHIP

Printed in the National League South game v Aveley on Saturday 9th September 2023  We won 2-0 in front of 615

A book about a couple of goalkeepers who competed for the no 1 jersey at Brighton and Hove Albion fifty years ago wouldn't usually be on my reading bucket list. So many football books are one dimensional but Spencer Vignes manages to weave social history into the stories he tells, bringing to life not just the people he's writing about but the era they grew up in.

One of those goalkeepers is Eric Gill, who maintains a place in the Brighton history books for not missing a game for five years, making 247 consecutive appearances for the club between 1953 and 1958. This was some feat especially as Eric points out : ‘in the 1950s the footballers were heavier. The goalmouths were muddier. The challenges from centre forwards were heftier. You try fielding cannonballs with your bare hands or string gloves while standing ankle deep in muck waiting to be assaulted.’

The other goalkeeper is Dave Hollins. Signed from non-league Merrow based just outside of Guildford in 1965, Hollins arrived at the Albion as a teenage apprentice. He cleaned the boots of first team players and swept the terraces of the Goldstone. But to become Albion number one in the not-too-distant future he would have to displace Gill who was in the middle of his history-making run. Hollins eventually got his chance at the age of 20 when Gill was taken ill before an away game at Coventry City in March 1958.

They recall how they dodged Hitler's bombs before pitting their wits against some of sport's most iconic names: a list that includes Stanley Matthews, Pele and George Best not to mention their shared nemesis, Brian Clough - who Hollins once took out with a punch after having had enough of his shithousery!

What is refreshing is that this isn’t a rose tinted view of the past but highlights how players were virtually slaves to their clubs, had little say when they were transferred, had to hope National Service didn’t injury them for life. Goalkeepers would get battered on the pitch, there was no player welfare and not much medical help beyond a bucket and sponge.

There’s plenty to complain about in the modern game and hark back to the good old days; and while the top clubs are busy trying to eliminate all competition it used to be nigh on impossible to get promoted to what was then Division Two with just one promotion space apiece from Division Three North and South. Finally after missing out a number of times, the Brighton manager wrote in the programme ‘that tonight is the night for the Albion Roar.’ 57 years after after being formed in a local pub, Brighton had been promoted for the first time ever with Eric in goal, while Dave as the reserve goalkeeper looked on.

However, promotion to Division One was a piece of cake compared to the closed shop of the football league. Dave ended his career at Guildford City and you wonder what might have it been for clubs like them who were continually applying unsuccessfully until they slid down the leagues, went bust, lost their ground and are now reformed at a soulless athletics stadium playing in front of less than 100 people a week.

I think football, like most things in this world, has progressed and got better,’ says Eric. ‘I reckon the teams of today could beat the teams of yesterday. The way footballers are looked after, the way they eat, the way they train, it's all improved. They are no longer slaves like we were. They no longer play ankle deep in mud and puddles but get to stroke the ball around so it gets to go exactly where they want it to go. The goalkeepers get more protection.’

However Dave talks about how football is slow to change when needed - like crowd safety and dementia in footballers ‘Football is quick to move when there’s a European Super League to discuss or sponsorship deals to be struck or any kind of money to be made,’ he says. ‘When it comes to more serious matters, such as the well-being of the fans, its almost nowhere to be seen…You had all these events and more year after year and nothing was done. Until, that is, after Hillsborough, when stadiums became all-seater. Ever since then it has become more and more expensive to go and watch football. Something that was done in the name of safety became, to all intents and purposes, a money-making exercise. The ordinary bloke in the street cant afford to go anymore. What was a working class sport has become a middle class sport. The modern game has lost its human touch.’

And don't get them started on VAR…’Football is all about movement. If you're stopping that movement on a regular basis to try to establish something so borderline that it’s still dividing opinion after umpteen replays, then football stops being football as we know it. It’s certainty not entertainment.’

Dave had all the attributes to become a football coach mentoring many professionals when playing at clubs but also in his spare time including one of Sloughs former goal keepers Trevor Porter. Trevor used to deliver papers to Dave parents and one day his dad went round and asked if their son could give him a few tips. ‘That turned into us meeting every Sunday at 10am for practice sessions. Trevor said : ‘I couldn't believe it - I was one of the few goal keepers at the time, even among professionals, who had a coach. That lasted from when I was 13 through to when I signed apprenticeship forms at Fulham as a 15 year old, right the way until I tuned pro at Brentford at 17. Dave had a huge influence on me and still does to this day. And Ive got to tell you this, he never took a penny off me or my dad for all the time he gave. Just think about that - a top class Welsh international goalkeeper giving me the time of day. I’ve got so much in my life to thank him for.’

Their unique friendship started as a rivalry. Seventy years later they remain the best of friends, having lived long, eventful lives bookended by the horrors of World War Two and the Covid-19 pandemic.

This really is a gem of a football book.

‘Eric and Dave’ by Spencer Vignes Pitch Publishing 2022

COMMUNITY SINGING 1920S STYLE

Printed in the National League South game v Tonbridge Angels. We lost 5-2 in front of 637.

"There was a small but happy band of supporters in the Slough stand on Saturday. Fired with the spirit of the New Year and with determination to brighten the lot of their fellow man, they indulged in a little harmony of the common order. They had evidently heard of what had been

done at another football ground, so choose an appropriate day to set what seemed to them no doubt a laudable example. They gave a pleasant selection of tunes grave and gay. Sometimes singing but more frequently whistling due probably to an insecure knowledge of the words and beating time with their feet. Their choice of songs varied with the progress of the game.

When Slough were faring ill, they sang something soulful and dreary and when things went well they broke into a sort of rhapsody. It was an inspiring afternoon.

Slough supporters on their own ground are a quiet, peaceful race and it was good to hear some sustained vocal effort. There is no truth in the statement that the secretary is going to conduct the singing at future matches.”

Alan Smith managed to find this gem from the Slough Express printed January 7th 1927 for a Spartan League game featuring Slough Reserves v Walthamstow Avenue Reserves. Alan is quite literally a walking Slough Town

computer. Ask him any question about the club and he will fire back the answer. Which is ironic as I don’t think he owns a computer. He certainly hasn’t got an email address which is slightly frustrating when I want to ask him something as the programme deadline looms. I once saw him coming out of Slough library, papers in hand where he was no doubt researching the Rebels. If there’s ever a Slough quiz about the club get him on your team!

I like the idea of different songs to reflect what's happening on the pitch. The problem with so many big teams is that all their chants have become the same generic pap, with the odd tweak of a name. It’s like a crap pub covers band.

Surely it’s better to mix it up - so take a bow whoever came up with ‘Just sold my car, to buy Temi Eweka’. Songs should reflect a club's history, you know like ‘Zebra crossing, Thunderbirds, MarsBars and Bins, Biggest Trading Estate, David Brent, These are all Slough Things.’ Torquay felt we were a bit too proud about how big our Trading Estate is while Spreadsheet Stu waved a tape measure in the air angrily. At Oxford we could taunt them with - ‘We’ve got MarsBars, you’ve got Dreaming Spires’ and at Bath we can do the same with Spas. 

We asked the Torquay fans if they’d looked up Uranus as they forgot the lower League protocol of swapping ends, although some said they wished they had after we started up our Jazz ensemble. And it's a toss up who wins The Office v Fawlty Towers, although the latter sums up their previous season. They did come en masse, but the ones I spoke to lived in London or Windsor and apart from two Burberry clad doughnuts were a good bunch even if they feel aggrieved playing at the same league as part timers like us. Nothing but promotion will do and their manager was getting told to go in the first half. It seemed only polite to join in. But it was good to see praise for our club. One commented on their cheery forum; ‘Nice set they have in Slough - very welcoming and friendly. Nice bar and food areas - all fully accessible to away fans. This is the first time I have seen a live band in the bar pre-match with souvlaki being served - unless I’d stumbled into a wedding in a function room!’

We haven’t reached anywhere near the level of noise at home so far this season, not helped by Slough Council removing all the wheelie bins from the ground, no doubt to sell them on eBay as vintage Slough Town instruments to help pay off their eye watering debt. So I bought a blue one and a big club badge to stick on it. Just need an artist now to tart it up and a bungee cord to stop people actually using it as a bin. We can take it to away games so we have our own rather than get into rows with over zealous stewards but I'm sure some will still object. Havant no doubt being one of them. I’m surprised they don’t ask us to take off our arms when we go in. Still it’s good to see their welcoming attitude managing to now sour their relationship with their own fans. Remember - ‘You’re just a small team near Portsmouth.’

As for Slough, we should have been out of sight in the first half but for some fine goalkeeping. We had 16 shots with 9 on target to Torquays 4. They converted 2 of them and went home with all three points with their goalkeeper getting man of the match.

Onto Bank Holiday Monday and even more bizarre than a man sleeping regularly in a tree opposite the Wheatsheaf, was paying just under a tenner to watch Chippenham v Slough live on TV while in Crete. That game didn’t help me to relax tho as we were snuffed out by a professional Chippenham who defended well and know how to win games.

But I’ve got complete faith in what Scott Davies and his team are doing. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that. We are going to hand out some pastings as well as more geographical and historical abuse soon enough.

Pull out that Trumpet Nick for some tub thumping ‘One Slough Beyond.’

Meanwhile I need to find Alan and see who won that game against Walthamstow Avenue Reserves nearly 100 years ago. He probably even has a record of what songs they were singing.