nlp says... Home is where the heart is

IN TODAY’S centre pages, you can read about three teams making their return home after years in exile. Hayes & Yeading United, Greenwich Borough and Fisher have all had to battle on without the advantage of having a real home support to cheer them on.

United are the highest level club of the trio – in the Southern Premier – and have spent five years playing matches at Woking and then Maidenhead.

Chairman Tony O’Driscoll talks about fans coming back to watch their team play for the first time in years at Friday night’s homecoming friendly against Hendon and seeing smiles on lots of people’s faces.

And that is, after all, what Non-League football is about – it’s about community. If any team plays away from their natural home, they’re going to lose that special bond they have with their supporters.

Not all fans will have the time or money to travel further afield to watch their team however much they want to. Clubs can fall into decline, some into the abyss.

That’s why it’s great that United, Borough and the Fish are back in their home habitats.

Now they’ve got to get the word out in their communities that they are back in town and, in common parlance, open for business.

They’ve got to try to draw the fans, the families, back that may have gone elsewhere in the intervening years or turned their back on football.

We wish them well and hope the plight of Kingstonian, soon to be exiled from Kingsmeadow as AFC Wimbledon sell up, has a happy ending, too.