A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Printed in the FA Cup 4th Qualifying round replay v Ebbsfleet United Tuesday 17th October 2023  We won 2-0 in front of 779. Into the first round proper we go! 

Every two days, a pub closes. Does it matter? As I sat in The Rose before the Ebbsfleet FA Cup game, worrying about the finances of our community pub, I’d say it does. The Rose is a proper backstreet boozer full of fleet fans including the landlord donning their colours behind the bar, with a warm welcome despite our Slough colours. Infact he remembered us from last time when we sipped cocktails on the cheap. The game might be segregated but this pub wasn’t. We got chatting to one Ebbsfleet fan who asked us to join him for a beer. All ages, dogs, babies, and older gentleman who also have no teeth. Apparently there were chickens, a hamster and other animals in the garden but I never got past the toy room which looked liked Big Ted had just had a punch up. It’s never going to win any awards, but the melting pot of people is what warms my community cockles and brings people together.

With Dartford just a few miles down the road you notice a real contrast in wealth. The small, shut ticket office said it all. Infact Northfleet seems to be the poorer cousin to Gravesend were we once sipped beer in the Three Daws a 15 century pub on the banks of the River Thames, enjoying lessons in drinking at an angle and tales of having to wear wellies in the beer cellar when it rains. We missed the ‘Grim Gravesend’ talk but we heard about ghosts and underground tunnels used by smugglers and for people escaping the press gangs, who regularly raided to force men to join the navy.

I understand the reasons but I’m still disappointed Gravesend and Northfleet was ditched in favour of Ebbsfleet United. The old name invoked grainy images from some 1950’s TV footage, all football rattles and men in flat caps smoking fags. They’ve had some famous players as well, Roy Hodgson and Jimmy Bullard pulling on the red shirt. I even managed to see them when they were Gravesend; no not in the 1950s but in 2005 when they narrowly beat us in the FA Trophy 5th Round. As for the pub where we had pre match pints, that’s now a cafe.

The name change decision was thanks to the regeneration of the Thames Gateway with the station becoming ‘an international travel hub for the Eurotunnel and a new garden city called Ebbsfleet.’

Their ground still holds onto its oldie-worldie charm, despite the fact its now called the Kerplunk stadium or some other such sponsorship nonsense.

To say the club have had an eventful few years is an understatement.

In 2007, My Football Club announced a £700,000 takeover in exchange for its members having an equal share in the club. It was the dawning of a new internet era on how to run football clubs. Or maybe not. Members were promised a vote on transfers, player selection and other major decisions. Just two and half years later from a peak of 32,000 just 3,500 were still members and one of their founders admitted that “we failed to give the feeling of ownership and closeness to the club they had hoped for. Perhaps the idea of being part of the takeover and making decisions was more exciting than the reality.” The following season the club were relegated from the Conference and they’ve yo-yo’d between the divisions ever since. They’ve nearly gone out of business and in 2013 members voted in favour of handing two-thirds of MyFC's shares to the the clubs supporters' trust and the final third to one of the club's major shareholders.

After exiting Ebbsfeet MyFC voted to support Slough. This was mainly sponsorship of our filming equipment and our away kit rather than what onions we used in our burgers. The idea has now faded away without really doing what it set out to achieve. If their idea on how to run a football club was ever really possible.

As if covid wasn’t bad enough for football clubs Ebbsfleet were relegated from the National League by just 0.002 points after the league was determined on a points per game basis. This was despite being out of the relegation zone and in the top 3 form sides when the competition ended.

Their new owners wrote off quarter of a million pound debt but gained the National League South title at a canter. And when we played them in the league last season, it couldn’t have been at a worse time. Jon and Neil had finally left Slough after managing for nearly a decade along with quite a few players; our crowds were plummeting, and Scott Davies had the near impossible task of keeping us in the league. But what a difference this time round with 200 Slough supporters behind the goal. If only someone knew who could fix drum skins and build us a roof on the away terrace, we could have made some proper noise.

In the end a breathtaking 2-2 draw, somehow felt like a defeat and we have to do it all again tonight.

In Slough, Pubs like The Roses have nearly all closed – infact its official: Slough is the worst place to party in the UK (with Brighton being the best). I don’t think we will make a song about that, but what it does create is an opportunity for the football club. If it can ever wrestle control from the council and be allowed to run Arbour Park properly, it can become the community hub everyone can get behind. They might even let us have a few chickens.