WE'RE GONNA WIN THE LEAGUE

Printed in Southern League Premier Division game v Kettering Town Saturday 12th August 2017. First game of the season. We lost 2-1 in front of 760.

 

And so it begins. My 40th season supporting Slough Town and what a season I reckon its going to be. As I sat high up in our new airport lounge-cum-bar trying desperately to get an alcoholic beverage, I surveyed the scene with that pre-season feeling of every supporter: Hope. So no pressure on the managers and players but I will nail my amber and blue pants to the mast and say we will win the league. Not in the Billericay financial car-crash way where mind-boggling resources are thrown very quickly at a club; a model which nearly always ends in tears. No, our club has been transformed slowly and steadily. From homeless basket case, to a club that our chairman and active supporters trust have built up a footballing head of steam. Some class additions to the squad, a squeaky new ground fully operational, the place to be on a Saturday for Slough residents and hey presto. Wouldn't it be nice to be league champions the first time since the Boer War?

The irony is that today I will be leaving some muddy camping field heading for the AMEX to watch Brighton play their first ever game in the Premier League against a team whose turnover is greater than some continents GDP. Thanks to my eldest I've got a season ticket for two Premier sides. The one I support is seven levels below apparently the best league in the world, but I know where I would rather be today.

I don't do friendlies but it would have been rude not to turn up at Super Kevs well deserved testimonial against West Brom to thank him for an incredible 32 years as physio at our club. OK it was never going to be their full squad, but our second half display against full time professionals was pretty bloody impressive. Of course the hard work is slogging it out on pitches that look like they've had minefields detonated on them in the slanting rain while being booted around the park (come to think of it, haven't all our home friendlies been in the slanting summer rain?)

As a ball thundered above the goal to the back of the stadium and the rain poured, the biggest cheer of the game came when Kev got out his well-worn magic sponge, I heard one guy say this is why he loves non league. There's an intimacy that no clubs in the top flight can match. I spoke to one West Brom fan about their previous season – they were disappointed they had finished 10th rather than 8th and yearned for a cup run, a bit of excitement, as challenging the Premier League oligarchy is out of the question. A football glass ceiling that Leicester incredibly smashed but most clubs in West Broms position will be grateful at not getting relegated. Where clubs like them lose their promising youngsters too clubs like Chelsea who stockpile players like old people hoard baked beans in case of nuclear war. The Chelsea manager had a pop at Spurs for lacking ambition because they didn't spend millions on new players this season. Millions on players who are often pants while their youngsters never get a look in. Brighton have just picked up one of these youngsters Izzy Brown on loan. Chelsea signed him for West Brom where he had became the second youngest player in the Premier League at just 16 years and 117 days. West Brom initially rejected Chelsea's approaches but they got him anyway, making West Brom consider scrapping the clubs academy as they continue to lose their best prospects for nominal fees that fail to cover the cost of running the academy. Since then he has only played for Chelsea under 21s and been loaned to Vitesse, Rotherham, Huddesfield and now Brighton. With so little Premier League game time, former Chelsea manager Mourinho even admitted that he would be to blame if Brown were not to become a senior England team player!

So Slough Town reach for the stars, we've been in the gutter (and some of us the pub) for far too long. It's Conference South or bust (ok if we don't get promoted I will make do with an appearance in the 3^rd round of the FA Cup and i'm not talking 3^rd Qualifying round). Up the Rebels

BATTLE OF THE HAVENS

Printed in the Southern League Premier Division game v St.Ives Town Saturday, August 26th 2017. We won 3-0 in front of 618.

It's getting to the point where the FA Cup is starting so early the extra preliminary round will soon be played before the FA Cup final! It can't be a good thing that for many clubs their first competitive match of the season is one with so much to play for - including £1,500 for the winners. 
Of course none of the 370 clubs who start in the extra preliminary have much of a chance of reaching the first round proper (making the previous six rounds improper?) yet everyone at this level wants a good cup run. It's not just good for the bank balance but also exposure. Remember Westfields from the ninth tier of the pyramid who last season reached the First Round getting international exposure and £30,925 in prize money.

So while Brighton reveled in Pride, a few of us ventured over to sunny Newhaven, a town of not much more than 10,000 that is less than 10 miles from Brighton.

Unlike Brighton it has a sandy beach, but this has been fenced off by the French company that runs the ferry for 10 years cos they say it isn't safe! I spent many a sunny afternoon relaxing on the secret coves when the tide is out. On one romantic outing, the hand glider one of my exs had been chatting too half an hour earlier landed right next to us as we were enjoying each others companies. I’m not sure who was the more embarrassed!

Newhaven's ground is surrounded by woods, parks the impressive Newhaven Fort and the harbour – they're can't be many grounds that have a ruddy great ferry appearing on the half way line during a game.

It also has a bit of a carbuncle of a stand. Built 30 odd years ago it will only be fully functional this season and mirrors the town and clubs fortune. With eye-watering property prices in Brighton, people are moving to Newhaven. Yes they might have had a bloody great incinerator burning Brighton's rubbish imposed on them and a high street encircled by a busy road on its last legs like so many shopping centres, but they have some great seaside pubs, a ferry service to Dieppe, stunning coastline and I reckon the future is bright. This is the same with the club who not so long ago nearly got relegated from the Sussex County League Division 3. With 14 clubs under their banner including a women's team for the first time, many of whom were at the game in their Newhaven kits. They are one of the Southern Combination Clubs who I reckon could hold their own in the Ryman League.

They've got some of Brighton's old Withdean stadium seats behind both goals, but they could do with some cover. When the heavens opened in the second half, everyone legged it to the main stand, and I can't imagine it being much of a laugh watching games on a Tuesday night in February.

New neighbours Peacehaven got to the dizzy heights of the Ryman Premier before the money ran out. To me the Ryman League always felt a step too far. Crowd grading regulations insisted they built a 200 seater stand when they are lucky to ever attract that many supporters. However they are now a supporters run club and it seems to have put a spring in their step with apparently 3 ultras groups, all well represented in the bumper crowd of 504. They've also got a song that will be hard to beat 'Oh Telescombe Cliffs are wonderful, we've got two pubs, a garage and a Wimpy, Oh Telscombe Cliffs are wonderful.' Lyrics Peacehavens Peter and the Test Tube Babies would be proud of.

Wonderful is not something that could be said of today's match. In a game of few chances Peacehaven edged it and looked the more skillful, but it ended 0-0 and a replay on Tuesday.

The bigger picture for me is that the FA need to stop treating all clubs equally when they are blatantly not. They need to look again at punishing ground grading rules and drop the rules for the early rounds that you can't drink on the terraces. They need to increase the payments for winning in the early rounds (do the FA Cup winners really need £1.8 million?) and come up with a plan to make sure the FA Cup extra preliminary round isn't the first competitive game of the season. I won't hold my breath.