Back from Tonbridge Angels 1 Sutton United 1. Two Addicks connections. Gary Borrowdale at centre back for Angels and, perhaps more interestingly, a certain Jamie Stuart captain and central defender for Sutton. I resisted the temptation to give Stuart too much grief about drugs consumption. I kept it to a minimum really - about five or six barbs when he was in earshot.
Aldershot 1 Macclesfield 0. Game won with a great strike from 25 yards that went in off the bar right in the corner. Shots had most of the possession without looking very dangerous and Macclesfield came close to an equaliser when they hit the bar in the 90th minute. Crowd of 1,752 including 42 travelling Macclesfield fans. Nice friendly crowd. Aldershot now back to 0 points having started the season on minus 10 points due to having gone into administration. Would be 6th or 7th if not for that. This season is about survival and then look to push on next season.
The serious business of being a Casuals fan... the supporter who insisted on paying £20 to watch them and the impact former Hammer Gale has on the non-league outift
By IVAN SPECK
As the second goal struck the back of the Redhill net, a window opened in the Walton Casuals bar. ‘Who got it?’ asked Jacko, the Casuals general manager, before announcing the goalscorer to the crowd of 121. Well, 122 if you count the bloke standing on a stepladder looking over a fence at one corner of the well-appointed Waterside Stadium ground. If you didn’t know the ground was there or you weren’t walking your dog, you wouldn’t stumble upon it, yet here were 121 loyal followers of lower-league football paying their £8 entry fee. Actually, four fans were admitted for free because they showed their Fulham season-ticket passes, while another Fulham devotee insisted on paying. One fan handed over a £20 note and didn’t take the change. ‘It’s Non-League Day,’ he told turnstyle operator David Johnson.
Johnson, like everyone else at Casuals - from Maureen, the boardroom tea lady, to Darren, who runs the bar, to club president Graham, to Jacko, who also cuts the grass - doesn’t take a penny from the club. Neither does former West Ham defender and now television pundit Tony Gale who has been involved with Casuals for 10 years, the last two as chairman. He watched Casuals’ 3-2 win leaning against the railings that surround the pitch with his former Fulham team-mate Les Strong. Gale uses his contacts in the professional game to raise money to keep the Ryman League South club going. It costs £80,000 a year - or two days’ wages for Gareth Bale at Real Madrid. ‘When we have a home game, we have to pay the referees, the linesmen (around £200), put the lights on if it’s a floodlit game, then we’ve got gas, electric and water bills to pay and the maintenance of the pitch,’ said Gale. ‘You’re probably only clearing a couple of hundred quid a game, which is not a lot. The players get travelling expenses to training and matches. You rely on your bar but that only opens on matchdays.
‘I’ve got contacts and friends to give us sponsorship and a little bit of backing. Then we have fundraising evenings with ex-pros coming down to do their talks. ‘We stand alone. We can maybe access Football Foundation money every now and then and the FA do what they can, but considering the money that is awash in the Premier League, it’s a shame that more doesn’t filter down to these levels.’ The pitch has undulations more suited to nearby Kempton Park racecourse, while the players’ tunnel resembles a glorified beach changing cabinet — long enough only to cover half the team and even then their socks and ankles are still visible. With a junior section of 350 young players, Gale hopes some will eventually progress to the first team to give it more of a community feel. Impressive new manager Mark Hams lives nearby, while captain Liam Collins has returned to the club where he started his semi- professional career.
Collins said: ‘There’s no comparison between me and the Premier League players, but I can imagine what is the same is that if you lose it still ruins your weekend. No matter what level you play at, it is all about winning. What is nice is we’re still playing for people who put their heart and soul into it, and treat it as if it was their own Premier League club. The club wouldn’t be at this standard if it wasn’t for them.’
For one day only in January, a Casuals match will be on television. Well, on the telly in the bar anyway, when their away match at Guernsey is beamed live as part of the deal by which Guernsey were accepted into the Ryman League. Non-League they may be, but it still matters.
A good spot there, Mog: great story. Back around 1990 I developed an obsession with non-league - I spent most of my evenings and Saturday afternoons when Charlton weren't playing watching games on grounds that were new to me. I have to admit it - I was a notebook-wielding ground-hopper.
Malcolm Allison waving his fedora at Fisher Athletic; a numbingly dull 0-0 draw in the Croydon 'Arena'; the rusting stands at Dulwich Hamlet; two men and a dog in the East London Stadium - I woz there. One wet afternoon on a windswept playing field in Eltham, I wasn't quite sure which game I was watching: two teams in the London Spartan League, I thought. There were no signs, no indication, and nobody knew. There wasn't any action either, so I turned around and watched the Millwall Lionesses on an adjacent pitch. It was then that I realised my obsession had gone too far.
Around that time I had a week's Easter holiday with my mate Steve, walking up the North-East coast. We booked into a pub in Sunderland for B&B, and the guvnor asked us what time we wanted breakfast. We had planned to cop a morning kick-off the next day at Horden, and were working out the bus times when the guvnor interjected: "You can borrow my car if you like." And he meant it.
Drinking and driving don't mix, so we got the bus to Horden Colliery Welfare v Peterlee New Town, in the Northern League. As soon as we passed through the turnstile a kid of about six ran up and offered us raffle tickets. I gave him a quid and he began reeling off the tickets from a huge roll, like measuring yards of cloth by the length of your arm. The tickets had cost 2p each, and the kid presented me with a vast globe of paper, which I stuffed into my shoulder bag.
The ground was nicely ramshackle: half of the corrugated iron roof of the stand was missing because it had blown off in a gale the previous week. At half-time in the clubhouse a friendly local asked about our holiday and opined: "The beer's good up here, isn't it?" Steve and I damn nearly choked on our bottles of Newky Brown because we are real-ale bores and in those days the whole of the North-East was an ocean of fizz. Through the window we glimpsed the six-year-old kid running round the pitch with the winning raffle numbers chalked on a bit of blackboard. We twigged he was going fast so that no-one could read the numbers and the prizes - a leg of lamb, a bottle of wine, a mixed grill - would go unclaimed for another week.
Horden won 2-1. On the Easter Monday we watched Seaham Red Star v Cleator Moor in the Northern Counties East League. The ground was fantastic, wedged between terraced streets of red-brick houses and the pit-head winding gear of the Durham coalfield. This was 1989, and like something out of the Thirties. Where have those lovely old grounds gone?
Thamesmead Town 1 Wingate & Finchley 2. Deserved win for Wingate, next up a home game for Thamesmead against Dulwich Hamlet on Wednesday night.
If you were getting annoyed by a guy doing commentary Badger then that was me! As you say, deserved win for Wingate even with 10 men! Commentated on 3 Mead games this season and it looks like it's going to be a real struggle for them to stay up. The boss was livid and said 4 or 5 of them will be looking for new clubs this week!
Thamesmead Town 1 Wingate & Finchley 2. Deserved win for Wingate, next up a home game for Thamesmead against Dulwich Hamlet on Wednesday night.
If you were getting annoyed by a guy doing commentary Badger then that was me! As you say, deserved win for Wingate even with 10 men! Commentated on 3 Mead games this season and it looks like it's going to be a real struggle for them to stay up. The boss was livid and said 4 or 5 of them will be looking for new clubs this week!
Thamesmead Town 1 Wingate & Finchley 2. Deserved win for Wingate, next up a home game for Thamesmead against Dulwich Hamlet on Wednesday night.
If you were getting annoyed by a guy doing commentary Badger then that was me! As you say, deserved win for Wingate even with 10 men! Commentated on 3 Mead games this season and it looks like it's going to be a real struggle for them to stay up. The boss was livid and said 4 or 5 of them will be looking for new clubs this week!
Saw Biggleswade Town lose to Hungerford Town 1-0 and on Sunday I'm off to Wingate & Finchley to see the Waders in the F.A cup. From Watford to Wingate !
Agreed - I go to as many Tonbridge Angels games as I can. Once you get into it, it's fantastic. It's a rare thing for Charlton and the Angels to win on the same day but when it does happen, it's magnificent. I love the rawness of the occasion and watching players who, though playing in the lower echelons of the game, are still miles better than I ever was.
Agreed - I go to as many Tonbridge Angels games as I can. Once you get into it, it's fantastic. It's a rare thing for Charlton and the Angels to win on the same day but when it does happen, it's magnificent. I love the rawness of the occasion and watching players who, though playing in the lower echelons of the game, are still miles better than I ever was.
I was in Tonbridge on Saturday - didn't go to the game but hope to see the Angels one day. My pal was reminiscing about the FA Cup first round game he saw at the old ground in 1972 when Charlton won 5-0 (Peacock 2, Flanagan, Horsfield, o.g.; attendance 7,770). What's their new ground like?
Agreed - I go to as many Tonbridge Angels games as I can. Once you get into it, it's fantastic. It's a rare thing for Charlton and the Angels to win on the same day but when it does happen, it's magnificent. I love the rawness of the occasion and watching players who, though playing in the lower echelons of the game, are still miles better than I ever was.
I was in Tonbridge on Saturday - didn't go to the game but hope to see the Angels one day. My pal was reminiscing about the FA Cup first round game he saw at the old ground in 1972 when Charlton won 5-0 (Peacock 2, Flanagan, Horsfield, o.g.; attendance 7,770). What's their new ground like?
Not new because I think they moved there in 1980 (old ground is near the station and now has a big Sainsbury's car park on it) but the Longmead does the job. There is a stand behind each goal where a hardcore of about 75/100 can make some decent noise when it gets going. Typical attendance anywhere between 450 and 700. I usually stand next to the home dug out as I like hearing what the manager and coach has to say. I feel sorry for the officials who take some dreadful stick. It often gets quite heated and some clubs (Dover springs to mind) have a few 'undesirables' following them. Having said that, some other Kentish clubs think that Tonbridge have an unpleasant following though I've never encountered anything out of the ordinary.
Two clubs to watch: Dartford who I predict will be a league side within the next few years and Maidstone United who have just moved to a new ground and have a bit of money behind them but have fallen quite far in the last couple of years.
Saw Bromley lose 2-1 at Eastleigh. Stuart Fleetwood played for Eastleigh and scored a blinding second for them, Bradley Goldberg pulled one back for Bromley just after HT and despite a spirited 2nd half which saw a golden chance missed on about 86 mins, Bromley couldn't quite complete a two-goal comeback.
Mattaddick - 1980 is "new" to me, I'm afraid! Although I usually stand behind the goal, I can well understand the attraction of being behind the dug-out and earwigging what the manager and coaches are saying. For a change, I did this for the first half of our pre-season friendly at AFC Wombles and found it fascinating, was struck by how economical Chrissy Powell was with his instructions: very occasionally he'd stand up and hold his arm out, as though hailing a cab. What it meant, or even whether the players noticed, I don't know - but I did see a young boy sitting next to him on the bench (his son?) wearing a Bayern Munich shirt!
Yes, Dartford and Maidstone - I went to both of our U-21 friendlies there in July. I was very impressed by the Dartford lad who in the first half pinged four or five corners from the left that were fast, accurate and dangerous - I thought of Danny Green, ruefully! Our keeper, Dillon Phillips, played a blinder. I liked their ground, too: a light and airy clubhouse in Scandinavian style with timber cladding and a balcony at the back. And those funny footballers' quotes on the walls: "I couldn't get on with the lifestyle when I played in Italy - it was like being in a foreign country". Ian Rush.
Thanks - I'll be in touch if I come down for the Angels!
Thamesmead Town 1 Wingate & Finchley 2. Deserved win for Wingate, next up a home game for Thamesmead against Dulwich Hamlet on Wednesday night.
If you were getting annoyed by a guy doing commentary Badger then that was me! As you say, deserved win for Wingate even with 10 men! Commentated on 3 Mead games this season and it looks like it's going to be a real struggle for them to stay up. The boss was livid and said 4 or 5 of them will be looking for new clubs this week!
Comments
Deserved win for Wingate, next up a home game for Thamesmead against Dulwich Hamlet on Wednesday night.
The serious business of being a Casuals fan... the supporter who insisted on paying £20 to watch them and the impact former Hammer Gale has on the non-league outift
By IVAN SPECK
As the second goal struck the back of the Redhill net, a window opened in the Walton Casuals bar. ‘Who got it?’ asked Jacko, the Casuals general manager, before announcing the goalscorer to the crowd of 121. Well, 122 if you count the bloke standing on a stepladder looking over a fence at one corner of the well-appointed Waterside Stadium ground.
If you didn’t know the ground was there or you weren’t walking your dog, you wouldn’t stumble upon it, yet here were 121 loyal followers of lower-league football paying their £8 entry fee. Actually, four fans were admitted for free because they showed their Fulham season-ticket passes, while another Fulham devotee insisted on paying.
One fan handed over a £20 note and didn’t take the change. ‘It’s Non-League Day,’ he told turnstyle operator David Johnson.
Johnson, like everyone else at Casuals - from Maureen, the boardroom tea lady, to Darren, who runs the bar, to club president Graham, to Jacko, who also cuts the grass - doesn’t take a penny from the club.
Neither does former West Ham defender and now television pundit Tony Gale who has been involved with Casuals for 10 years, the last two as chairman. He watched Casuals’ 3-2 win leaning against the railings that surround the pitch with his former Fulham team-mate Les Strong.
Gale uses his contacts in the professional game to raise money to keep the Ryman League South club going. It costs £80,000 a year - or two days’ wages for Gareth Bale at Real Madrid.
‘When we have a home game, we have to pay the referees, the linesmen (around £200), put the lights on if it’s a floodlit game, then we’ve got gas, electric and water bills to pay and the maintenance of the pitch,’ said Gale. ‘You’re probably only clearing a couple of hundred quid a game, which is not a lot. The players get travelling expenses to training and matches. You rely on your bar but that only opens on matchdays.
‘I’ve got contacts and friends to give us sponsorship and a little bit of backing. Then we have fundraising evenings with ex-pros coming down to do their talks.
‘We stand alone. We can maybe access Football Foundation money every now and then and the FA do what they can, but considering the money that is awash in the Premier League, it’s a shame that more doesn’t filter down to these levels.’
The pitch has undulations more suited to nearby Kempton Park racecourse, while the players’ tunnel resembles a glorified beach changing cabinet — long enough only to cover half the team and even then their socks and ankles are still visible.
With a junior section of 350 young players, Gale hopes some will eventually progress to the first team to give it more of a community feel. Impressive new manager Mark Hams lives nearby, while captain Liam Collins has returned to the club where he started his semi- professional career.
Collins said: ‘There’s no comparison between me and the Premier League players, but I can imagine what is the same is that if you lose it still ruins your weekend. No matter what level you play at, it is all about winning. What is nice is we’re still playing for people who put their heart and soul into it, and treat it as if it was their own Premier League club. The club wouldn’t be at this standard if it wasn’t for them.’
For one day only in January, a Casuals match will be on television.
Well, on the telly in the bar anyway, when their away match at Guernsey is beamed live as part of the deal by which Guernsey were accepted into the Ryman League.
Non-League they may be, but it still matters.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2415584/Non-league-day-The-business-Casuals-fan-Tony-Gales-impact.html#ixzz2eNyb79TR
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Malcolm Allison waving his fedora at Fisher Athletic; a numbingly dull 0-0 draw in the Croydon 'Arena'; the rusting stands at Dulwich Hamlet; two men and a dog in the East London Stadium - I woz there. One wet afternoon on a windswept playing field in Eltham, I wasn't quite sure which game I was watching: two teams in the London Spartan League, I thought. There were no signs, no indication, and nobody knew. There wasn't any action either, so I turned around and watched the Millwall Lionesses on an adjacent pitch. It was then that I realised my obsession had gone too far.
Around that time I had a week's Easter holiday with my mate Steve, walking up the North-East coast. We booked into a pub in Sunderland for B&B, and the guvnor asked us what time we wanted breakfast. We had planned to cop a morning kick-off the next day at Horden, and were working out the bus times when the guvnor interjected: "You can borrow my car if you like." And he meant it.
Drinking and driving don't mix, so we got the bus to Horden Colliery Welfare v Peterlee New Town, in the Northern League. As soon as we passed through the turnstile a kid of about six ran up and offered us raffle tickets. I gave him a quid and he began reeling off the tickets from a huge roll, like measuring yards of cloth by the length of your arm. The tickets had cost 2p each, and the kid presented me with a vast globe of paper, which I stuffed into my shoulder bag.
The ground was nicely ramshackle: half of the corrugated iron roof of the stand was missing because it had blown off in a gale the previous week. At half-time in the clubhouse a friendly local asked about our holiday and opined: "The beer's good up here, isn't it?" Steve and I damn nearly choked on our bottles of Newky Brown because we are real-ale bores and in those days the whole of the North-East was an ocean of fizz. Through the window we glimpsed the six-year-old kid running round the pitch with the winning raffle numbers chalked on a bit of blackboard. We twigged he was going fast so that no-one could read the numbers and the prizes - a leg of lamb, a bottle of wine, a mixed grill - would go unclaimed for another week.
Horden won 2-1. On the Easter Monday we watched Seaham Red Star v Cleator Moor in the Northern Counties East League. The ground was fantastic, wedged between terraced streets of red-brick houses and the pit-head winding gear of the Durham coalfield. This was 1989, and like something out of the Thirties. Where have those lovely old grounds gone?
Highlights here if anyone is interested..
http://www.footballexclusives.co.uk/apps/videos/videos/show/18180288-thamesmead-town-1-2-wingate-finchley-match-highlights-ryman-premier-league-
Some kids set part of the waste behind the ground on fire. Game just went on as normal as you can see! Felt like I was at Selhurst Park again!
Yes i did you didn't read it properly,
Yes, Dartford and Maidstone - I went to both of our U-21 friendlies there in July. I was very impressed by the Dartford lad who in the first half pinged four or five corners from the left that were fast, accurate and dangerous - I thought of Danny Green, ruefully! Our keeper, Dillon Phillips, played a blinder. I liked their ground, too: a light and airy clubhouse in Scandinavian style with timber cladding and a balcony at the back. And those funny footballers' quotes on the walls: "I couldn't get on with the lifestyle when I played in Italy - it was like being in a foreign country". Ian Rush.
Thanks - I'll be in touch if I come down for the Angels!
Thamesmead will struggle to stay up on performances like that, they gifted Wingate 2 goals so no surprise the manager was livid.
Btw Commentary was fine.