| October 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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"You're supposed to be at home, you're supposed to be at home" Ah for the chance to even hear that chant! With only one home game in October, being the Worcester game, it's got to the point where I'd almost forgotten the directions to Middlefield Lane. I'll just head in the direction of the bright lights and big cheers, er, or something. So far we've had an away draw for all the cup competitions, but while being disappointed that we're not at home, it's not really affected the performance of the team. In fact some people think it has brought the team and the supporters together more. It creates a sort of survivalist mentality where it's 'Us vs the World' and everyone closes ranks and gives a United front. (pun most definitely intended.) Apart from the fact that all these away games got our Manager nicknamed 'Blakey' (from iconic 70's TV series 'On the Buses') in the Non League Paper, it also mirrors our best FA Cup run from a couple of seasons ago. We were drawn away at Bilston, Histon, Weymouth, and then Grays before eventually being drawn at home to Cheltenham. The home game was the game we lost! As most footballers and supporters are obsessed with luck and superstition, is this Hinckley's lucky charm? Many of us do things on match day so as not to 'jinx' a game. Paul Ince for instance always runs out last without his shirt off. A lot of players always tap the door frame before leaving the tunnel. Which boot they put on first, not shaving until a defeat are two more examples. Football has more superstition than Voodoo. I was personally part responsible for United finishing fourth in the 1998-1999 season. No really! If you can remember that far back going into the Christmas period we we're in the bottom six of the league and the Shed were calling for DT's head on a silver platter. I was on holiday (in Stevenage at the 'in-laws') over Christmas and was not able to make any of the games. (Though did make up part of the biggest Conference crowd at the time, of 6500, in the Stevenage v Kidderminster match, but that's another story.) Anyway, Hinckley didn't lose any of the 4 Christmas games and I decided I wouldn't go the next game to see if it worked again and it did. Then the next, and the next after that. I never went to another game again that season until the final match. Hinckley never lost a home game during that time and finished in fourth place. The last match at home to Stamford didn't affect our position so I decided to go. Stamford were in the bottom six so obviously, slam, we lost 1-3. The season ended and so did the jinx, so I could start going matches again. I was the jinx and I stopped us being relegated that year. Trust me. So then, not red under pants, not running out last, not putting right boot on before left, not eating chicken and beans before the game, but going away is our charm! But then that wouldn't explain our dismal record away from home in the league last season. So it's got to be going away in the Cup! (Shhh! I think I avoided mentioning the 4th qual' replay away at Telford without anyone noticing, er, did I say that out loud...) |
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There is a growing trend of an extinction of a cherished breed of English eccentricity that seems to have overcome this country. The classic non-league football ground will soon be a thing of the past and 'breeze blocks' will have completed their domination of the world. Never having got to St George's Lane, Worcester, I did my best to get there this season so I could have a good look at one of the last characteristic 'old school' non-league grounds, before that goes the same way as the rest. With today's increasing standards for a higher level of football, many clubs are relocating or rebuilding to modern criteria and with modern techniques. Worcester themselves have a plan for an edge of town, purpose built stadium. Grounds that have evolved over the last century with one stand here and one bank of terracing there, to emerge in an awkward layout, yet be perfectly suitable for what they're intended for. As these eccentricities disappear, and we realise just what we're going to lose, the remaining few are treated as an endangered species. We can see the future by looking at our league now. Consider the ground of Weymouth, Hednesford and Crawley. Our own stadium will be built along these lines and from what I understand so will Worcester's, as will be the new ground for Weston. Whilst they will all be grounds of good standard and take all the teams concerned up to a higher level of football, they will also all look very similar. Almost as if you'd gone down to B & Q and bought yourself a flat packed stadium. Just like at the highest level of football, where top grounds all now resemble huge goldfish bowls, non-league football teams will be defined not by what team they have or how well they play, but by what standard of ground they have. Many clubs in the Conference are now more concerned about attaining a certain level of ground grading before they even consider building a team capable of playing in it. Look at Telford as an example. Most of us would have seen their 3 sided ground redevelopment in the FA Cup game a few seasons ago. Now the final Main Stand is almost complete, along with obligatory Conference Suite and Restaurant. Nearly $18 million put into the redevelopment of the ground and amenities, yet struggled at the foot of the table for the last couple of seasons. But for a couple of results we might have been going back there again this season. Yet what was there before was perfectly acceptable and had no one stumped up the squillions, no body would have moaned that the ground wasn't good enough. The obsession for ground grading is unfortunately a symptom of the modern game. Wether we like it or not there is not really an amateur league anymore until you reach below level 8 of the pyramid. Every team above that is being sucked along or discarded aside. It's wrong but still is happening. No longer is it good enough just to compete in the non league and enjoy playing and watching your football. Clubs have to be serious about success, promotion, and a professional approach to the game or be by-passed by the modern game. The imminent re-organisation of the game will see quite a few clubs discarded from the top levels of the pyramid, purely on reasons other than footballing ability of the side. Is this really the spirit of the Non-League game? |
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| October Results | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Well a month of big cup games only saw us play three times in the league. 5 points picked up from those games is probably 2 less then we would expect but no-one can complain really. Yes it's disappointing how we let a 2 goal lead slip at Weston, but these things happen in football. The Worcester game was a bit of a non-event. Both sides had glorious chances to win it but neither side really deserved to. As for the FA Cup, we may not be in the 1st round, but we can hold our heads high knowing that we were beaten by a better team in Scarborough and that we matched them for commitment and workrate but the full timers were fitter and quicker on the ball. Nothing to be ashamed about there. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| In out, Shake it all about | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Goal machine, Matt Lewis, had his loan extended for a further 2 months at the
start of October. Then within 3 days he was recalled by Kidderminster to fill
the gap created by their striker injury crisis. Things that make you go hmmmm? Ex keeper Chris Taylor made a brief cameo this month too. Tom Whittle injured his shoulder and was out for almost the entire month. Chris Taylor did an excellent job deputising for him. |
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| World of Football Stuff | ||||||||||||||||||||
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A judge, in Brazil, had an entire football team arrested because their ball kept
hitting her house. The team was playing in the city of Porto Velho when Judge
Rosemeire Conceicao turned up with an arrest warrant. She called the police and
had the whole team sent to prison, accusing them of disturbing the peace and
damaging property. The Judge said: "They kicked the ball at my house wall and
on other occasions destroyed part of my ceiling with it" The 11 men, who include
a policeman, a doctor and a lawyer, were all taken to prison but later released
after paying bail. They are being sued by the judge but deny all charges. A team
spokesman said: "We have been playing football here for years and she only moved
in three months ago. We have not disturbed anyone it was a normal football game." They should count themselves lucky, knowing judges in Brazil I'm surprised she didn't line them up against the wall and shoot them herself. Then this got me thinking. If they could be arrested for damaging property with the football, surely the Sh*psh*d Albion team could be arrested for posing a terrorist threat to overhead flying aircraft. Imagine what would happen if one of those Wealthy footy stars have found a new way to make money. (Selling drugs?) Become property wheeler dealers. Gone are the days when footballers used to retire from the game and open a pub or become a window cleaner. Today's Premiership stars are fast becoming Britain's top property owners. Top of the league is Manchester City (lard boy) Robbie Fowler, whose personal portfolio includes 85 properties. Fowler has bought large numbers of homes in the Northwest and Greater Manchester. (How many of them are crack dens then?) In Oldham he has bought 9 houses in one street alone. Gareth Southgate owns 15 properties in Surrey and Essex, while Danny Mills has 7 houses in Yorkshire. ITV's (highlights show muppet) Andy Thownsend reportedly owns over 30 properties. (Yet none of them has a decent suit in the wardrobe) Many players are investing in bricks and mortar because of Government plans to close a loophole that allows them to claim a pension at 35. (Thirty f*****g five! I've got to work another 35 years before I can even think of mine. Jebus.) Advisor Des Bremner of the Professional Footballers Association said: "News of big profits in the property market has quickly spread through the dressing rooms." (I'm sorry did he say property or drugs?) |
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| Coming next Month: The FA Cup trail is over but the FA Trophy begins at Rugby. A home game would be nice sometime! Yeah! The Rolleston is back as the units from the University of Loughborough, known as Dynamo, come to Middlefield. Also visiting will be league leaders Crawley Town. Does anybody feel another double coming on? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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