BANNED WORDS AND RED CARPETS

 

Printed in the National League South game v Truro City Saturday 2nd November 2024 We drew 1-1 in front of 866

I recently went to support a young lad I know who was in court for saying some words on twitter. Words that just a few months earlier had banned by the FA. So when he tweeted after Brighton v Chelsea to his 50 followers with the hashtag #rentboys it set in motion a drawn out court case by the Football Association.

Like all our public services, the courts have been starved off resources so it took 14 months. In the meantime he was banned from watching Brighton, which he had done home and away with his dad for years and missed their European tour.

In the end it boiled down to this – did he know what it meant? He had argued from the very beginning he didn’t – and neither did any of his friends, my eldest who used to join him at away games, being one of them. He just copied what we heard on the terraces. The solicitor from the Football Supporters Association asked the judges if they had teenage children and did they know what all the phrases they used meant? After a short deliberation the case was thrown out. I didn’t even know the origins of the chant until afterwards in the pub when some older Brighton supporters gave us the background. So just what did the court case achieve? The solicitors had argued all along it should have been dropped and he should be sent on some awareness course like you get with speeding. Even the Brighton football police said they didn’t want to bring charges.

And if you look at the cesspit that is twitter, listen to the rhetoric of some politicians, read the tabloid press….well there’s some double standards going on here. And if it wasn’t for how useful it is for football I would delete the app from my phone.

What is and isn’t acceptable is a minefield. At a recent home game one of the young lads behind the goal asked me what words were illegal to sing. I assumed he meant swear words so I told him that there was one in particularly where you would get the wrath of Clubshop Sue and others if you said it. And in anycase shouldn’t we just behind the team and cheer them on? Yes, the opposition might wind us up, the referee might make – in our eyes - a bad decision but surely its better to support rather than jeer? Just read the programme notes or listen to aftermatch commentary from our players that our support helps spur them on. And if we want to attract new supporters with young families I’m sure they would rather their children bang a bin or play an instrument rather then hear bad language.

And I'm so bored of talking about stewards who far too often create the problems they are meant to stop. When without fail, opposition supporters praise our support, our behaviour, our numbers and that we are no trouble – and in places like Eastbourne and Aveley we now have beers with their head stewards! Football, as Clubshop Sue points out, should be fun. ‘Best fans to come to Woodside. Brang numbers, noise and no aggro which we love. Can’t wait for the reverse fixture.’

Maybe we should just bring the Slough Town wheelie bin to away games so the stewards can stop moaning?

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It seems a hell of a lot has happened since the last time we were at home. At just 36 Scott Davies managed his 100th game. Scott sets the tone for the club just like a head does at a school. He’s fair and often praises the opposition. He also says that in his 11 years in the National League South this is the toughest its ever been. We’ve got a small 16 player squad and sometimes there’s decisions like Matt Lench being released that we aren’t going to like. We were unlucky at Woking – especially not getting food poisoning - but getting a draw away to full time Maidstone is a decent return. Nearly coming back from 4-1 down against Worthing...it was the sort of attack minded front foot football we have come to expect and which I love and which many of the Worthing fans did too (not sure if they would have been as complimentary if we had equalised!).

So bearing in mind how the tough the league is, you’ve got to salute what Truro did last season staying up...playing 100 games in 12 days hundreds of miles away from Cornwall. With a new ground and decent support, they are showing just what they are about.

Lower league football is flourishing. So let’s not just become a carbon copy of what many people have stepped away from. Infact I think Slough Town have developed a blueprint of how we treat everyone. Getting the basics right with cheap deals to get people in, decent food and friendly stewarding, clean toilets and welcoming away fans like you would your mum and dad. In a world where everyone wants to shake a fist or blame someone else it’s refreshing and makes me proud to say that Slough Town are happy to roll out the red carpet to everyone. Just not on the Arbour Park pitch.