LET’S ALL MAKE IT A DAY TO CHERISH
Yeah, but who’s your proper team?” is the standard response when I tell people I’m a Chelmsford City fan. I get it. I work a lot on the Premier League, I’m expected to support a Premier League team, so I’m quite well versed in my response: “Yeah, but we do play in a league, the Vanarama National South, and we could have been elected to the Football League, but apparently we were paying too much money... and Jimmy Greaves once played for us, and Alan Brazil, and we played Ipswich Town in the third round of the FA Cup.. and.. and…” That’s normally how it pans out when I’m talking about the club I love, but the moment I start to link the Clarets with big players people will know, or Football League teams, I kind of feel like I’m letting myself down. What I want to say is this club was my finishing school. An education spent enviously watching my brother with the singing masses under the Wolesley end, shouting exotic things. Watching Billy Goldstone thunder in another free-kick and taking three players with him. The time I finally learnt the words to “Tony R, Tony R, he’s a really super striker and a bricklayAAAAAARRRRRRR”. I want to tell people about the intoxicating smell of dust and wood and bleach, every Saturday morning as I wiped down every wooden seat in the stand before the turnstiles clunked open. I want to tell them about my dad trying to explain what the noise was from the open urinal behind the stand at Gravesend and Northfleet. This was the time with my brothers; this was the late nights under the floodlights, hoping we’d get extra-time, hoping I’d never have to go to sleep let alone waking up; this was growing up; this is my football club. That was at New Writtle Street where I made those early memories, squeezed in next to the cricket ground, like me amongst my brothers on a cold Monday night. But that comfort of the cricket ground buddied up to us wouldn’t last. I remember the grand ideas of turning the pitch around, a new stadium and all the hope. I remember sobbing as we were told the old stand I’d cleaned in return for a lemonade would be sold to developers. It had all gone pop!
Pride
As much as it hurt then, it gave us our club. The supporters, us too, got the Clarets going again. We went to Maldon and to Billericay to groundshare, and we kept going and now to Melbourne Park, where we may have a running track and a long jump pit, but we have our team to watch, to try and then fail, again to get promotion, one day. All those emotions, they aren’t unique. You may have felt them with your team, hopefully without the ‘going pop’ and ‘ground sharing’ but the celebrating, the hope, the despair, the not wanting to talk about it the next morning, the helping to clean your ground, the being part of it is everything we all feel, regardless of our team. For many, that emotion started 130 years ago this season, when the first national league in the world was founded, in september 1888. Twelve teams started in the first season – Preston North End were champions. But we were already at it. Everyone should know 130 years ago the Football League was found- ed, but first they need to know Sheffield FC were born in 1857 and can still be found, now plying their trade in the Evo-Stik League East. And that’s the point. These clubs stick at it, because of you. Skip forward 130 years (and a month) from that first football league, and you’ll find Non-League Day, scheduled this year for Saturday, October 13. If you don’t know, Non-League Day was set up by James Doe in 2010 as a social media experiment. Since then it’s grown into a chance to sing about our 40,000 clubs. It’s merchandise, it’s mushroom giveaways, it’s kids for a quid, it’s bring a mate, it’s things many of us do every week (maybe without the mushrooms). It’s a chance to tell the world what they’re missing out on. I loved that when the fixtures came out this month, some clubs were already highlighting Non-League Day and are already working on its partnerships with the charity Kick it Out. This year, you can even get help selling tickets online.
Efforts
There’s lots to do, lots, and it’s a chance for you to get involved, again. Have a word with your club, ask them what they’re doing, ask to help – Non-league clubs are crying out for more volunteers because it is the volunteers – you guys – who can make the real difference. We all know every match is a Non-League Day for many of us, you’ve already been helping repaint the clubhouse, open the gates for friendlies, putting posters up in the town. But now is the time to talk about the pride for who you love, to shout about it. For me it’s a moment to answer, when asked: “So who is your proper team?” “Chelmsford City FC, I was born under the Wolesley End.”` They’ve kept going, you’ve kept going, let’s enjoy and support the brilliant clubs we love. See you on October 13, and every other match besides. Up the City, Wheel ‘Em In...
MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDAR October 13th NON-LEAGUE DAY