nlp says...
A constant battle for recognition
My mates just don’t buy it, and it drives me mad! We’ll be sitting there, discussing all things football when I dare to throw in my regular plug for the game at Non-League level.
“You won’t believe the strength of the National League these days,” I say.
“What’s that then, the old Vauxhall Conference?” one will chirp back.
“It’s the National League now, with north and south feeders, and you’ve got some serious teams in those too. Take National League North; Stockport, FC Halifax, Darlington, those lads from Salford…”
By now I can already detect eyes drifting, and before long, we’re back trying to determine whether John Terry should have retired last season or if Chelsea were right to hand him a one-year contract extension. Don’t get me wrong, I would be lying if I said I didn’t follow Premier League football, but so many fans like this have little or no appreciation for the quality and the levels of passion that lie beneath in the lower leagues.
So it was last Saturday, driving into NLP towers for another 12 hours of matchday merriment, that I found myself listening to Danny Baker on BBC 5 Live. With no Premier League football and in celebration of ‘Non-League Day’, one of Baker’s guests was the excellent Nigel Tassell, author of The Bottom Corner – A Season with the Dreamers of Non-League football. But rather than be engaged by Tassell’s faultless knowledge, I was left frustrated by Baker’s – at-times – patronising questioning.
I appreciate there has to be some level of ‘manufactured ignorance’ here. After all, Baker was in the chair to set up Tassell with the opportunity to deliver his piece. But Baker knows enough about football, or at least he tells us he does, to recognise that the Non-League game isn’t all mud and nettles – which is where he seemed to want the conversation to go.
Fair play to 5 Live, and Danny Baker, for putting Tassell on the show. And if last weekend’s Non-League Day pulled at least one Premier League punter off the couch and to a game, while helping them to realise that it’s a serious business with serious people, then it’s job done!