PREECE COLUMN
ENJOY THE EMOTIONS WHILE YOU CAN
Ex-goalkeeper David Preece casts his expert eye over the gripping National League title race
I’ll be honest; I find it difficult to enjoy watching a game of football most of the time. I still love it, of course I do. But the only time I really immerse myself in a game is when I’m watching my friends play on a Saturday or Sunday morning. There’s probably something to be taken from that. The majority of my time is spent watching in a coaching capacity, or in preparation to write an article, so the analytical nature of that means you can rarely just relax and take in the game like a fan. If I’m at a game, or watching one on TV, I’m always looking for an angle for an article – seeing how a manager has set up his team or watching a particular player. It’s frustrating because it always feels like work and that’s not how you start out falling in love with football. Even when I go to watch my boyhood club, Sunderland, I can’t just sit and be entertained. That’s probably a bad example. I don’t think anyone actually watches Sunderland to be entertained. It’s more a form of masochism than anything else. You don’t choose your family and for many of us, you don’t choose your football team. That’s the way it should be though. Some people are lucky in life, and born with silver spoons in their mouths. I can’t imagine what it was like to be brought up on the kind of success Manchester United fans had under Sir Alex Ferguson. To be a Sunderland fan is the equivalent of being born with a lump of coal in you mouth, and the taste rarely changes.
Old friends
I’ve been to watch Sunderland play more times this season than the 17 years combined since I left the club, and the fact I’m a columnist for the Sunderland Echo means I can’t even shut down my emotions and just admire the opposition. And, it’s frowned upon to shout abuse from the press box – so I can’t even get my kicks from that. During the course of your career as a player, you develop a fondness for the clubs you play for. Playing for a few clubs, as I have, it allows you a few chips to put on the roulette table on a Saturday. If one of your sides loses, you can generally find comfort in a result elsewhere. Sunderland didn’t win? Ok, how did Aberdeen/Barnsley /Lincoln get on. It’s not a bad deal, now I come to think of it. Last week was one of those rare weeks when most of my old teams did well. Sunderland, Aberdeen and Lincoln all won, while Barnsley drew. Only Darlington let me down. The most enjoyable part of this season so far has been the progress Lincoln City are making in the National League. Last week’s win at leaders Forest Green was remarkable given the two-goal advantage the home team had and it was a result that wasn’t just needed by Danny Cowley for his team to stay in touch at the top, but also for the rest of the chasing pack. A win for Forest Green would have opened up a sizable gap, but the reigns have been put on them by that defeat, which is great for those of us looking on from afar. Forest Green have always had the budget to make an impact at the top, but it’s only now, under Mark Cooper, that it’s making a real impact. Money doesn’t buy you happiness. It doesn’t necessarily buy you promotion for that matter. It does help, of course, but it takes more than just financial clout. You need enough to be competitive in any division, but huge budgets have failed to be an advantage for some clubs over the years.
Money talks
Look up and down League tables and you’ll more or less see a list of wage expenditure in descending order. Give or take the odd over-performer and underachiever. There’s no getting away from it, pounds means places. A quick glance at the Premier League’s approximate expenditure on player salaries, you’ll see the top seven places occupied by the top seven biggest hitters. Burnley and Bournemouth are punching above their respective weights, whilst Sunderland and West Ham toil despite their outlay. The rest occupy their rightful place, give or take a point or two. The National League is no different in that respect, but money is still no guarantee of promotion. There are so many more variables in this division than any other above it, that makes it so difficult to get out of. They say the Championship is the most difficult league in the world to get promoted from, but there is still more of a level playing field there. You don’t get a full-time player and a part-time one pitted against one another in the Championship. You don’t play in an all-seater stadium one week, then at a ground that only has one stand the next. And you rarely have to contest with a backlog of fixtures because of postponed matches. In the National League, this is what players face week in, week out. Toughest league in the world? It’s isn’t even the toughest league in the country.