Plymouth: massive in Poland

An unpopular FA decision has riled United’s suffering chairman, Guillem Balagué

“I’ve never woken up before at 4am, sweating and kicking the mattress. It’s just so frustrating. I thought we were doing things the right way – but then this.”

Guillem Balagué has had a summer he won’t forget. As one of the world’s pre- eminent football journalists, in August he was at the Parc des Princes, enjoying a personal audience with Paris Saint- Germain’s new recruit: one Lionel Andres Messi. It was his other life, as the chairman of non- league side Biggleswade United, that caused the night terrors.

At the end of the curtailed 2020- 21 campaign, United received notice that they were being shunted sideways in the football pyramid, swapping the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League for an equivalent division in the United Counties League. Despite its name, the Spartan South Midlands exclusively includes teams from north- west London, central Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, where Biggleswade is located. Its catchment is a tight one. The United Counties Premier South, on the other hand, spreads itself somewhat wider, from Leicestershire down to the edge of the Cotswolds.

United put their appeal to the FA. While this was being heard, and with the prospect of additional travel to away matches, many players simply opted to leave – the entire first- team squad bar one, in fact.

In the wake of a failed appeal, the club has had to field a senior team consisting of raw youngsters plucked from their under- 23 and teen sides. The consequence has been a series of shellackings: Biggleswade lost their opening six August fixtures heavily, with a 7- 3 loss being the narrowest defeat. Rooted to the bottom of their new league with a - 37 goal difference after six games, the situation was in sharp contrast to six months earlier; United were three points clear atop the Spartan South Midlands Premier after 14 matches when last term was abandoned in February.

“Because we’d appealed, it created more uncertainty,” admits Balagué. “Our coach Cristian Colas was telling the players, ‘ Look, we just don’t know which league it’s going to be’, so we let them do whatever they wanted. We probably got it wrong by opening the door for them that way, but what else could we do? We didn’t want to deceive them. Now we’re paying for it.

BIGGLESWADE WERE TOP OF ONE LEAGUE; NOW THEY ARE BOTTOM OF ANOTHER

“Yes, there’s more travelling in the United Counties, but in practice it’s two long trips out of every 10 games. I think it’s more of a psychological barrier than a real one. Players want security, I understand that, but you can’t travel for an extra 45 minutes? Still, we’ve got to look at ourselves – what is it that we haven’t done well enough to convince them to stay?”

In order to arrest the awful results and avoid relegation, the philosophy that has underpinned the first team since Balagué joined seven years ago – one based on exclusively selecting homegrown players who have been coached through their system – has had to be jettisoned.

“Forget training, forget homegrown, forget all that – for the men’s team, at least,” sighs Balagué. “Right now, Cristian is going to have to spend his time ringing players and managers. That’s his job for the next month. We have to create a team, but I’m sure we can find 18 players who can help.

“I hope that by November, results start improving and we manage to get the 10 or 12 victories that keep us in the division – that’s our target.”

Fancy it, Leo?