CHAMPIONSHIP CHALLENGE
Nige Tassell’s big adventure
AS IDEAS for a book go, it might not have been the wisest. There was probably a more advisable time to step outside the house and spend the next nine months chronicling the soup-to-nuts unravelling of an entire Championship season. The world was still in the tight grip of a pandemic and the odds of the season being delayed, suspended or completely written-off were far from long. Nonetheless, I had to do it. My natural curiosity compelled me – as did the signed contract from the publishers.
I travelled from Middlesbrough down to Bournemouth, from Swansea across to Norwich, and to all points in between, privileged enough – in those times of behind-closed-doors football – to be given a socially distanced seat in press boxes across the land. Each time I plonked down my backside and gazed across each field of dreams, I wore a beam like Charlie Bucket unwrapping his golden ticket.
What was initially intended to be a snapshot of a typically dramatic Championship campaign turned into a season like no other before it (and, hopefully, like no other yet to come).
I enjoyed many memorable moments as I made my way across both country and season. Several of these came at Adams Park where Wycombe’s first-ever Championship campaign failed to provide a single dull moment. I’ll never forget Adebayo Akinfenwa – having just scored his first, and presumably only, second-tier goal
– giving an ecstatic, semi-rambling touchline interview under the bright lights of
Sky Sports. The Beast wasn’t standing on ceremony. He was in his flip-flops.
That same Adams Park touchline had been the crucible for a somewhat less ecstatic post-match interview a few months earlier. Most are a set dance between interviewer and interviewee, the questions gently bowled and returned with a straight bat. Not so this encounter between BBC Radio Sheffield reporter Mike McCarthy and under-fire Owls boss Garry Monk. It was a terse affair, with Monk’s steel-blue eyes fixed on his interrogator throughout. If they didn’t know it already, the Radio Sheffield listenership were now in no doubt about how precarious Monk’s job was. He was sacked nine days later.
Not all managers were so serious. On being greeted by a distinctly chipper Neil Warnock, I decided to question his sanity for accepting a job at the Championship club furthest from his Cornwall home, a full 400 miles away. He accepted my diagnosis with good grace.
Gazing behind the velvet curtain was always fascinating, no more so than when Soccer Saturday reporter Michelle Owen revealed the mechanics of her afternoon from her sub-zero perch high at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Ben Foster’s behindthe-scenes GoPro videos proved revelatory last season. I spoke to him while he was imprisoned in his hotel room in Bristol, having arrived for Watford’s game at Ashton Gate a full 24 hours before kick-off the following evening. When I suggested that lazing around a hotel for this length of time didn’t seem to be the ideal preparation for a crucial game, Foster answered with admirable candour. ‘Stop talking common sense. It doesn’t fly round here.’
The season wasn’t without its low moments, most notably my ten-hour round trip to the New York Stadium where Rotherham’s match against Derby was called off at the eleventh hour. All I had to show for the day was ten minutes spent staring at Wayne Rooney across a car park. Another low point was experiencing the notorious West Stand bogs at Oakwell.
But there was plenty of joy too. In December, Bournemouth’s fans returned to the Vitality Stadium, albeit temporarily. You could have powered the entire town with the energy and spark given off by the 2,000 lucky souls clutching their own golden tickets.
Fans were back again by the time of the play-offs. At the final at Wembley, arguably the most joyful moment of the season occurred. Peter Gilham, left, a Brentford fanatic whose blood runs redand-white stripes and who had been stadium announcer at Griffin Park since the late Sixties, saw his ultimate dream come true: the Bees reaching the promised land of the Premier League.
But better than that, Peter was invited onto the winner’s podium to raise the trophy with captain Pontus Jansson. It was an honour fully deserved. For more than 50 seasons, Peter Gilham had done the hard yards.
The Hard Yards is published by Simon & Schuster