END OF THE ROAD

Published in the last home game of the season v Godalming Town Sat 12^th April 2008. We won 3-2 in front of 205 people, which means we ain’t relegated just yet!

Well it’s the end of another season, or at least our last home game of the season. And whereas last season we really were the leagues basket-case club, this time it’s been different - hasn’t it?!

OK, for much of the time the team has we’ve been woeful and relegation and a run in the FA Vase next season looks very likely. Infact the situation is so desperate we are now relying on a team going bust or another bout of non league re-organisation to save us from relegation into the Dog and Duck league. Not that I’ve got anything against dogs or ducks, no football club has a right to be in any league, you have to earn it and having no ground, six managers and over 100 players in two seasons was never going to be a recipe for success.

As I look at my notes for last seasons final home game I said “Will we have a decent squad to compete? What will our playing budget be? Where will the club be playing? Will there be any news on a move back to Slough? Will be have an exciting FA Cup run? Will we have more local lads playing? Will Sue really set up a tequlla bar in the club shop when she takes over as club shop manager? And will we still have a club to support!”

Well off the playing field things have changed dramatically. For starters we are at Beaconsfield, a bit further away than Windsor but at least its on the Slough Road and has got some covered terracing and a bar that sells beer that’s drinkable. We’ve got Arbour Vale as a possible new ground back in the town. A successful businessman has taken over as chairman, who seems to have his head screwed on rather than our former one whose heads shall we say politely seemed to be as much in the clouds as one of his ideas for a new ground. There’s a new management committee and lots of new iniatitives to raise make the club a bit more sustainable. Meanwhile Sue has been on a club-shop sales pitch roll that would make Alan Sugar proud.

After today, we’ve got 3 really important games. Us supporters can help make a big difference – so i hope as many of you travel to the Isle of Wight, Bridgwater and Fleet to make some noise and help the players pull off a mirarcle and stop us being relegated again.

In fact, once again the supporters have picked up plaudits along the way and really it is amazing when i’m on a nearly full coach to Bridgwater with plenty of others travelling by car and train when we’ve had nothing much too shout about for the past two seasons apart from how incredibly crap we’ve been.

Still football is full of ups and downs. As John Tebbit’s mentioned recently in the programme in his ‘Legends’ series; in the early sixties Slough Town were lucky to get 100 through the turnstiles. A few successful seasons and thousands started to come. Just look at clubs like Dartford, Leamington, Maidstone, Chelmsford – clubs that have lost their grounds or gone bust, now rising up the leagues. But these clubs have done it through lots of hard graft and we know that’s what lies ahead for us.

I leave the last word to a friend who came along to that Wimbledon game last season when we got thrashed 9-0 but refused to stop partying "Amazing spirit in the Slough camp. Here you are on the worst defeat of the worst season in your history joking, non-stop singing, having a party, supporting the team through it all. None of the blank faces, depression, whinging, getting on your team's back, sack everyone etc. The Rebels can't fail to return with support like that."

It’s a long way back, but the ever optimistic in me says that one day we will again be a force in non league football. Now I just need to get my map out to see where the hell London Tigers and Oxhey Jets play.

BECOME A MANAGER? YOU MUST BE MAD

Printed in the Southern League South and West League match v Oxford City Saturday 5^th April 2008. We lost 2-1 and are now five points adrift and looking certain for relegation. Crowd 198

Seriously, who would want to be a football manager? More to the point after our sixth manager in two seasons, surely you’d have to have a screw loose to want to manage Slough Town?

Steven King, the manager of Lewes, who has made moaning about officials into an art-form, must be scratching his head in disbelief about calls for his head by some supporters on their message board. They’d just lost but they were still second in the league, playing attractive football, gates pushing 800 (with about a third of these children), announcements about more football in the community schemes, massive ground improvements and knocking on the door of the Blue Square Premier. What more do supporters want? No doubt those calling for his head were not amongst the 40 odd fans who spent the season nearly eight years ago watching Lewes facing relegation from Ryman Division Three and almost certain oblivion.

Dario Gradi is the longest serving manager in the football league, managing Crewe for 25 years, but has faced criticism from some Crewe fans. OK the last few seasons haven’t been great, but Crewe survive on unearthing new players and selling them on as their gates are pretty pitiful. Before his arrival they were another bottom of the pile football league basket cases along with the likes of Rochdale and Workington. As Sir Alex Ferguson pointed out : "It's quite easy for me because I've got the motivation of being at a big club with big games every week but Dario has had to be there for over 20 years producing and selling players from his conveyor belt of talent. They've had to rely on that for financial stability but they've sold players time and time again and he still goes in every morning rebuilding. It's a fantastic job he's done, quite amazing. I'm sure he could have left Crewe millions of times so it just impresses me how lucky Crewe are to have a manager like him. He enjoys the challenge of producing young players and I think that is his main motivation."

When Sunderland manager Roy Keane was asked if he enjoyed being a manager recently he replied no. The interviewer continued 'It must be satisfying?' 'I get very little satisfaction from it.' Why do it?' 'I'm not sure. It's obviously a madness. You do it for the challenge. It's in you. It's a buzz. When I stopped playing I thought I could relax. But then I got this challenge from Sunderland. And I enjoy the challenge, even if I get very little satisfaction from it. Maybe a five-minute taste when we win a game. That's why managers are old before they know it. What I love is being in a team game, being part of a team with coaching, medical and scouting staff.'

Supporters have short memories, chairman want quick results, players complain when they are not playing. One week you are a hero, the next you don’t know what you’re doing.

And yet there is never a shortage of those who want to take up the hot-seat.

But Keane hit the nail on the head, it must be being part of a team, especially after you have spent years playing, it comes to an end and all of a sudden choices on a Saturday include being dragged round the shops.

I feel sorry for Betsy and Barney. They started to turn things around off the pitch putting everyone on the same wages, introducing a rule that if you didn’t train you didn’t get a game yet once they were officially appointed the slide towards relegation continued.

And what about Wilko, a Slough legend as a player, who didn’t leave much of a legacy as a Slough Town manager.

So let’s hope new boss Derek Sweetman can stop us being relegated to the Dog and Duck. If he does, he’ll be praised to the hilt. And then, it will be a new season and new demands. Us Slough fans will be expecting at least mid-table or maybe even a play-off fight. Anything less and no doubt people will be getting on the managers back. As they say “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps.”

COME ON YOU GREENS

Published in the Southern League South and West match v Windsor and Eton Easter Monday 24^th March 2008. We lost 1-0 in front of 260.

I know that it’s a long way off but if we do get a new ground let’s make sure it will be as green as the grass we play on. The Arbour Vale site gives us the perfect opportunity to make the club greener than Kermit’s bum, with plenty of grants available to help make it happen. The fact that it is next to a school, a field and some houses that are part of the redevelopment plans, there should no complaints about noisy wind turbines or festering compost bins – unless the noise and smell wake the dead at Slough Crematorium. Not only would some bold energy conservation measures tick lots of planning boxes (Slough Borough Council tell us they are “committed to making the town a cleaner, safer and greener environment for its residents”), it would in the long term cut costs, and with ever rising fuel bills this is something that should be given serious consideration.

Dartford’s new home was the world’s first custom-built eco-friendly football stadium. I know some Slough councilors have visited and it really is something to aspire too. Features include a living green roof which keeps in the heat and provides a natural air filtration system. Solar Panels providing electricity for the community changing and public toilets hot water storage cylinders. Reclaimed rainwater collected in two vast ponds and used for the loos and the pitch. The place is also heavily insulated, there’s under floor heating (be nice to have some under the terraces!) and low energy lightings.

Other examples include Manchester City’s stadium which has the world’s first football wind turbine powering not only the stadium but also up to 1,250 local homes. They serve up local food and encourage fans to use public transport. Germany’s SC Freiburg roofs are packed with solar panels generating electricity equivalent to the annual power consumption of 800 homes. Infact in Germany every public bin - including at football stadiums - is divided into four sections: paper, cans, plastic and general waste. And anyone who collects bottles and cans for recycling earns cashback.

So what could Slough do to lessen the environmental impact at the proposed new ground? The main drawback to Beaconsfield is the fact that it is so far away from Slough that driving is the only options unless you want to chance the crap bus service. The proposed new ground will be near the City Centre and many fans will be able to walk. Maybe there could be a link up with the local bus service to take people to the ground near kick off time with reduced rates for those producing a bus ticket. Or maybe for those of us planning a walking pub crawl to the ground, we could get a free beer in the clubhouse for drinking and not driving? How about some decent local sourced food being served up, washed down with some local real ale. It would also be nice to ditch all the plastic cups, plates etc that seem to blight every football stadium. Some decent recycling areas wouldn’t go a miss and what about composting bins? The Northwich Victoria’s groundsman apparently uses old dried tea bags to repair pitch damage!

If we do end up at Arbour Vale, I hope we get a stadium that is a bit more than another identikit soulless mechano set. As one Dartford fan wrote about their new ground “It's not often that a whole community can be proud of one, specific local initiative but in Princes Park we have something that is, not only truly exceptional, but a local development we can honestly be immensely proud of.” Now that’s got to be something to aim for at Slough.

MEETING THE GRADE

Published in the Southern League South and West game v Burnham Saturday 22^nd March 2008. We lost 3-0 in sunshine and blizzards. Had our sixth new manager in two seasons and are deep into relegation trouble. Dog and Duck League here we come!

It’s that ‘squeaky bum’ time of the year where teams across the country are worrying about relegation and promotion – and for those of us in the non league pryamind, ground grading rules and regulations.

Already the Blue Square are welding the big stick threatening clubs with relegation if they haven’t got their grounds up to scratch and throughout the non league pyramid, every club seems to have a ground grading horror story.

Many moons ago, Slough finished eighth in the Conference. Unfortunately we didn’t have the required number seats in our stand, it went to a vote and we were booted out of the league.

Evesham United were ground sharing at Worcester City when they were told by the Southern League that they would not be promoted because Worcester’s ground wasn’t up to scratch. Forget the fact that Worcester were playing two leagues higher in the Conference and had passed their ground grading rules! Mind you the reason for rejection was a serious one – there were gaps under advertising boards surrounding the pitch!

Many moons ago when Wealdstone were playing their home games at Watford’s Vicarage Road, they had to have their own portable dugouts because the Football League club’s dugouts weren’t deemed suitable by the Southern League.

When Yeovil Town moved to their new ground in the mid 1990's, the Isthmian League apparently had to think twice before passing the ground fit for their Premier Division as there was no covered terracing, even though there were five thousand covered seats!

Walton Casuals originally failed ground grading because the seats in their new stand weren’t numbered! Instead of allowing them to number the seats while they were there officials made them wait over two months before coming back and passing the ground just a couple of weeks before the season started. Burscough have to spend £60,000 on improvements even though they are moving to a new ground. Or what about Beaconsfield and that extra set of turnstiles – when was the last time they were used?

While these stories might make us laugh, unfortunately they are not isolated incidents. Unless there are real safety issues surely flexibility should rule the day. Just what is the point in spending money on facilities that hardly anyone will ever use?

Clubs at Step 5 of the pyramid must have a capacity of 1,000 with 250 covered of which 150 must be seats. Take a club like Whitehawk (basically an estate in Brighton) whose picturesque ground has a decent covered stand but no seats - hardly necessary in crowds that average 57. But so what, they face relegation unless they build a new stand – one that will undoubtedly be as distinctive as a Tesco superstore.

Now I am all for facilities being improved for the spectator, but forcing clubs who are lucky if they get 100 people come through the gate into over the top ground improvements is ridiculous. Especially when many of these clubs should spend the time and money on improving the most important part – the pitch.

The story of Merstham just about sums it all up. A few seasons back they won promotion from the Combined Counties League only to fail the ground grading. The foundations were in place for a new stand but unfortunately the steel supplier let them down. So when the ground grading committee turned up, despite Merstham having the plans, receipts and the ground work done, they turned them down. 10 days later the stand was erected in hours so they appealed. That cut no slack with the bureaucrats who once again rejected their request, telling them there could be no exceptions with the rules and that grounds must be on budget and ready by the given date.

What, just like Wembley stadium?!

SOMETHING TO SAVOUR

Printed in the Southern League South and West match v Paulton Rovers Saturday 8^th March 2008. A 2-1 defeat and another dismal performance in front of 204 fans (at least my son and his cousin had fun being mascots).

Well what a great couple of weeks it’s been. OK, let’s forget about the Winchester AFC Hayes and Godalming games where 90 minutes of football spoilt a good day out; that win against top of the table Fleet really was something special, something to celebrate in the Beaconsfield shed!

Afterwards as we crammed into the bar it felt like Wexham Park old days as we were introduced to our new chairman Steve Easterbrook. Steve is a retired successful businessman who said “I’ve been a supporter since I was a boy. I continued to follow the club after moving away, and reading about the team falling down the leagues over the past five years made me want to help. So I phoned Roy Merryweather (club secretary) and it went from there.” Born and bred in Slough he was educated at Langley Grammar School. “I see my role as someone who steadies the ship, gives the club some direction, financial stability, plots the course forward, gives the fans some confidence and brings a bit more commercial awareness to Slough Town.” Steve joined the club last autumn as part of the management committee and has been involved in negotiating with Slough Borough Council over plans for the new stadium at Arbour Vale.

News of his appointment comes off the back of the meeting where councillors gave the thumbs up to outline proposals for a new ground. The club now have three months to come up with concrete plans to satisfy the council. There’s a long way to go, but it was the positive response the club desperately needed from all of Sloughs strange mix of political parties.

It was good to read some good news about us for once in the Slough Observers; especially how Slough Amateur Boxing Club are really keen on the move. This isn’t surprising as they are stuck at the dilapidated old Centre Stadium building in Manor Park, Sloughs home more than sixty years ago. A new boxing facility could end up playing a part 2012 Olympic Games.

I think all Slough supporters have felt battered and bruised especially over the past few seasons so all this was something to savour. That’s not to say there hasn’t been some enjoyable times since we got thrown out of the Conference, but mainly its been stumbling from one crisis to another like some old basket-case, until we are facing the possibility of playing in the FA Vase next season!

To be truthful I nearly didn’t bother with the Fleet game myself. My chauffeur, Gary House, had flu and I couldn’t face a five hour round trip to watch certain defeat. If I didn’t need to sort out a few things for my dad, well I would have been kicking myself and any cat that came near come 5 o clock Saturday night. But football is like that. It’s why we come back for more. It’s why we scratch our heads and wonder just why we can’t play like we did against Fleet and Farnborough every week we would be hoping to be in the play-offs not battling to stop ourselves dropping into the Dog and Duck League next season.

As for us fans, well it was good to see manager Mark Betts acknowledge the supporters in the programmes interview. Losing week after week for two seasons does knock the stuffing out of you! “It’s a great motivation before kick off knowing the support they are going to receive. The lads love it being applauded off.” Well you can thank the Beaconsfield ‘shed’ for that. How much better to be on some proper terracing under cover than stung out in a line and stuck in the open at some grounds we’ve visited this season, where its very hard to get the vocal chords motivated; and as for Windsor’s picturesque morque – let’s not even go there.

If that sort of atmosphere is good for the players, it’s certainly good for hooking younger supporters. While it has been doom and gloom, reading what other clubs supporters say about us gives us a lift. Lots of ex players come and watch, Matty Miller and his dad even have season ticket holders. How many players buy season tickets to support the club! Today I’ve got my son Ruben and his cousin Liam making an appearance on the pitch. This thankfully isn’t due to another financial crisis where all the players have left, but because they are mascots. Let’s hope we can get a win, get some singing in the shed and get away from that relegation trap door.


* To read about the new ground proposal plans http://www.thisisslough.com/live/stories/story.php?story_id=3137

* For some history and photos of what happened to our old ground Wexham Park

http://www.rebelsonline.co.uk/index.asp?stid=9000619

NEXT STOP MARS

Printed in the league match v Fleet Town Saturday 23rd February 2008. After the last two weeks of abject performances, we beat the league leaders 2-1 in front of 221 people. After the game we were also introduced to our new chairman and told of plans for a new ground in Slough which are political parties in Slough are backing. A good week for the club after two seasons of crap!


I can't say I was that surprised to hear the latest plans from the Premiership planning a game a season abroad. Exporting the brand across the globe to millions of grateful fans who can't make it to our wind swept shores is a football club chairman's wet dream. Anyone opposing it is portrayed like some old fuddy-duddy; patronisingly patted on the head and told that unfortunately in a globalised world, football has too love with the times - play abroad of just watch the Premiership brand wither.

But anyone with half a brain cell knows that this is a load of bollocks. The idea is just another way of increasing profits; flogging more merchandise, getting some people hooked on the Premiership – oh and getting some more pay-per-view subscriptions for any of those actual supporters (remember them?) who pay good money to go to games but won’t be able to afford that trip abroad but will pay to watch it on TV. For any chance of getting the go ahead they have had to include every club in the Premiership but asked about the proposal an insider at one of the smaller clubs told it how it was. "It's being pushed by the big clubs. They have commitments to sponsors and to owners."

The last thing the Premiership clubs needs is more money, but Man United and Liverpool have landed themselves with such massive debt they need to squeeze every penny out of any fan across the world whose ever cheered them on. Accountancy firm Deloitte believes their revenues will only increase if they maximise their money-making potential abroad. "Manchester United have 300 million overseas supporters but do not make as much money from them as possible," said Deloitte's Alan Switzer. "Even £2 extra from each fan would make an enormous difference. That is something all the big English clubs are now focusing on. The idea of a 39th game is part of that strategy."

But do the big clubs really need more cash? How about this for a crazy, Robin Hood style plan - re-distribution of wealth? While these proposals were being announced AFC Bournemouth nearly went out of business. They are now in receivership with debts of £4 million, have been deducted ten points and are almost certainties for relegation. They join Luton Town and Leeds United in League One who have both had points docked this season for going into administration. Still, who cares as long as Man United can “maximise their revenue expenditure.”

The new American owners no doubt want to mould the Premier League along US lines. No matter how bad your season in the NFL you wont suffer the financial calamity of relegation. Wouldn’t it be swell if that could happen in the Premiership? And if Liverpool and Man United get drawn together in Miami, both sets of owners might actually get to watch their team play.

Thankfully there has been a massive back-lash for the idea. From Sepp Blather saying it would threaten England’s bid for the World Cup, to the Australian and the Asian football federation saying no; to supporters groups threatening to target sponsorships to proposals for a breakaway club AFC Liverpool.

I’ve argued countless times football clubs are not business in any proper sense of the word but are community assets. That’s as true for Liverpool as it is for Slough Town. Football is able to cross many boundaries and barriers and get people working together who wouldn’t normally mix and become part of the social glue that binds communities together. In such a transient town like Slough with so many different people and cultures that is something to be cherished. As Norwich City fan Delia Smith put it “Football is the best kind of community you’re likely to be exposed to in the twenty-first century. And community is where we flourish and become human. Football can be wonderful, life-enhancing.” One of the hurdles Slough Town had to pass to be given the initial go ahead for our new stadium was the councils 'well-being' criteria. Mind you the past few seasons haven’t exactly helped with any of our supporters well being! But if we are run as a proper community club involving all ages playing football and bringing in lots of other sports such as the boxing club then we will tick all the council boxes and help create a buzz around the club that will bring in the crowds.

In its desperation to chase new markets, the top level of football long ago gave up worrying about silly things like heritage and tradition. This is another opportunity for non league clubs to go out and attract those fed up fans of top level clubs to come and watch football on the terraces once again.

* The Football Supporters Federation are planning a day of action at forthcoming Premier League fixtures www.fsf.org.uk

* To find out about AFC Liverpool http://www.afcliverpool.org.uk/

INDEBTED TO THE FANS

Published in the Southern League south and west division one game v AFC Hayes 9^th February 2008. A dismal game where we lost 3-0 in front of 220 pissed off fans.

While those playing for high stakes on the financial markets stuff their pockets with as much cash as they and in doing so have taken the world to the brink of a major recession, it’s no surprise that some of these ‘bankers’ have moved into the Premiership.

US tycoons George Gillett and Tom Hicks bought Liverpool nearly a year ago with Hicks boasting that buying Liverpool was just like buying another one of his purchases - Weetabix. But you don’t find thousands of people cheering on Weetabix every week. Despite buying the club, not one penny of the cash was either Hicks or Gilletts! Instead they borrowed £298m and a couple of weeks back entered a new £350m refinancing deal, making Liverpool even more tied in debt; the club will have to find an additional £30 million a year just to pay back the annual interest payments on the loan! Even better for the new owners, switching ownership to a holding company also means that while they can take any profit for themselves, they will not be liable for any debt. So just like the collapse of Northern Rock which has cost taxpayers a thousand pounds each, if Liverpool goes to the dogs it will be its supporters who would pick up any bad debt.

Faced with these economies of the mad house, the Share Liverpool FC Group wants to use a Barcelona style, "member-share" scheme, aimed at raising £500m to buy the club from its US owners. Those behind the plan include football business lecturer and Liverpool fan Rogan Taylor and lawyer Kevin Jacquiss - an expert in launching co-operatives. "The time is right to offer a different solution to the rising concerns that football fans have about the patterns of ownership developing at our major football clubs" said Taylor. "Large amounts of debt often devolves onto clubs newly purchased, but the fans know that in the end, it will be they themselves who will have to pay it off through increased ticket prices and other schemes. In such a case, why not simply buy the club yourselves?"

As Taylor pointed out, in Germany and Spain most top-level football clubs are not for sale as they were owned by many thousands of "member fans". The Champions League has been won on six occasions in the last 15 years by these member only clubs.

Maybe Liverpool supporters could ask Cambridge City fans for advice on taking on the rich and powerful. It was a bolt out of the blue when City supporters learnt that their ground had been sold and they would merge with rivals United. However a relentless campaign by supporters eventually led to the sale being challenged in the high court where judges said that former directors had misled the club, undersold the ground and that the actions of their former chief executive amounted to bribery. This has meant that the land deal has been cancelled and the club given another opportunity to achieve a fair value for its ground.

One of those supporters Rab Crangle said "People said I was a conspiracy theorist when we began, but the judgment says it: the club was the victim of fraudulent misrepresentation on behalf of a property development company with whom we were supposed to be in partnership. Fans of clubs in financial trouble, but sitting on valuable land, should understand this, and be very careful about the deals directors do in their name."

The Liverpool refinancing package is the economics of Never Never Land; part of an economic system that has led to tax avoidance by the super-rich costing Britain £13bn a year. Where dealing in what is called the futures market – predicting the future of the cost of commodities to make a profit is acceptable. This second guessing is what led to a French Bank investor making bets so big he managed to lose his bank £3.6 billion! But betting on the high stakes futures market is exactly what the owners of Liverpool and Man United are doing. But what happens if Liverpool don’t win the Premier League? Don’t even come fourth and don’t qualify for the Champions League? What happens if the football bubble bursts?

Just look at Manchester United were Glazier has also saddled the club with massive debts. Were making money has become the be-and-end-all where even a 50^th anniversary memorial of the Munich air disaster bears a large logo for AIG. The memorial has already been vandalised by fans angry with the advertisement – which the club has condemned as 'mindless idiots'. But since when has it become ok to put sponsorship on memorials? Since when has it become acceptable to buy something with someone elses money where you take the profit, but none of the debt if things go wrong? It’s no surprise this economic madness has come to football, its just about bloody time Liverpool supporters made the first moves to take back their football club away from the clutches of people who don’t care for the club, back to where it rightfully belongs – with the fans.

SQUARE EYES

Printed in the Southern League South and West match v Farnborough Tuesday 5th February 2008. We lost 3-2 to a last minute goal with our best performance of the season. Best crowd of the season as well 279.

You’ve got to hand it to Sir Alex, when it comes to moaning the bloke is Premiership class. This time he’s having a go at his teams own supporters, bemoaning the fact that 75,000 people could be so quiet at a recent game against Birmingham. Well what do you bloody expect when you call the place Theatre of Dreams? What do you expect when you get thrown out by stewards for standing up and singing, with season ticket holders having their cards confiscated if they are ejected? What do you expect when a significant proportion of any United home crowd does not speak English as a first language and is visiting the ground for the first time, filling their faces with prawn sandwiches and merchandise from the licence-to-print-money megastore.

The same week Ferguson was complaining, breakaway club FC United of Manchester were boycotting their league game away to Curzon Athletic because it had been moved to a 12.30 kick-off. While both clubs were against the move, the league and a small internet company insisted, and so instead of a bumper crowd and pay day Curzon got a paltry £400 from the company – and of course the joy that you could watch some crappy images on a computer screen.

While the kick-off switch might seem a minor inconvenience it was a matter of principle for supporters of FC United. Although the takeover by Glazier led to the breakaway club being set up, it was rising ticket prices, over zealous stewarding, all seater stadium and the fact that a 3pm kick off was a rarity that had been stoking the fuels of discontent for years.

Since there formation just 3 seasons ago, FCUM have risen up the pyramid, breaking attendance records wherever they have gone, and done much to promote themselves as a community club helping attracting thousands of new converts to non league footie. But the FC united board felt the moving of the kick off time was the thin end of the wedge – and rightly so. Go back five years and people would have said you were insane if you had predicted regular Conference games live on the TV. Of course the Blue Square Premier and Setanta have hailed its success, although frankly watching Woking v Kidderminster on a Thursday night doesn’t really do it for me. But look at what’s already happened. Setanta have been busy mucking around with the football schedules. I’m sure Torquay fans were overjoyed of having a round trip of over 600 miles to watch their game against York which Setanta had moved from a Saturday to a Tuesday before finally deciding 7pm on a Sunday night would be just perfect.

Infact TV schedules are controlling the game to such an extent that kick-off times are barely recognisable anymore – and now this is filtering down to the non league game.
I’m not saying we should be dogmatic about all this, but really it’s not exactly the level of footballing skill that attracts us to non league is it? Being on the terraces, having a drink, meeting friends is part and parcel of the match day experience. I think Friday night games in the lead up to Christmas would be good, and an eye on the Champions league to try to avoid clashing with those dates might help shore up support. But 7pm Sunday night – do me a favour.

As one FC United fan put it “It is a worry that if we climb the pyramid we will be increasingly made to jump through commercial hoops, comply with TV deals etc. And this is the crux of the problem with the Curzon game. We are trying not to make the same mistakes again. If back in the early nineties we had organised ourselves and bought shares in the Man Utd flotation then Glazer would never have stood a chance. If, as TV deals began to have more and more influence over the fixture list, fans had stood up and rebelled, then Saturdays may have remained the chosen day for Premiership football. We turned our back on this rubbish... and here we are again... the first Saturday game to be moved for Northern Premier League TV and it’s a FCUM match. Coincidence? Ironic? Inevitable? You choose.”

Of course just like AFC Wimbledon, FCUM have their detractors. But what would you do? We all like a moan and cry into our beer, but at least their fans decided enough was enough and fought back. Call me old fashioned but the core principle is that footballing matters ought to be decided by footballing organizations for the principal benefit of the clubs and their supporters - with sponsors and TV companies having to work with them rather than dictate.

As their board statement put it “FC United came into existence in direct response to the disregard shown for football supporters by those who put profit before the fans who support the game week in week out.”

The speed at which the media revolution is happening, how long before 12 men and a dog watching Slough are replaced by 12 men and a goldfish watching us slug it out on a computer? That might sound ridiculous now, but with ever increasing channels and they need to fill them how long before the British Gas South and West Divison Match of the Day. I can’t bloody wait.

TRAVEL CHAOS

Published in the Southern League South and West Game v Uxbridge Saturday 2nd Feb 2008. A well earned 1-1 draw in front of 233 people. We are now only 4th from bottom!

After Yeovil Steve missed the local bus and had to hitch the last 20 miles to get to see us play Taunton it got me wondering of other stories of journies to matches that didn't quite go to plan.

For a time my cousin Mark and fellow fanzine editor Pleb used to make our way across the country watching Slough play the Conference. My cousins driving was erratic to say the least and in the days long before Sat Navs we never seemed to bother with a map either. I remember us being caught in a blizzard realising that there’s no way the game would be on; losing a wheel on the motorway doing about 100mph; getting stuck behind tractors and a wedding party as we zig-zagged through the country roads to get to Boston. I remember us heading towards Wales when we were meant to be going to Telford and not getting there till half-time. But the best was running out of petrol on the motorway on the way back from a game. We sat in the dark waiting for the breakdown services, only for them to point out that if we had only had the brain power to get out of the car and look behind a tree we would have seen a petrol station just five minutes away!

Anyway Chris Sliski recalls when Slough played Winsford in Cheshire. “We lost the match and the team returned to the train station to pick up the night service back to Euston. Well it was a freezing night and the train broke down just outside Rugby as the overhead power lines had fallen onto the train. We froze and finally after being rescued the train arrived in Euston at 7am. I remember going straight to work frozen, lack of sleep and also knowing we got beaten ...”

Hayes Rebel remembers “Travelling to Ashington for an Amateur Cup replay in the final year of the competition. Whilst Slough lost 1-0, the locals did us proud before and after the match buying all our beers, crisps etc. I think I still had 4 pints left at kick off time. After the match everyone stopped to ask the score. Rather better experience than some other 'big' matches. My brother was in regular touch for many years after with one local fan. The coach left Slough on Friday evening and we got back during the early hours of Sunday. We were not allowed to stop at any Little Chef outlets because they did not allow coaches and we only wanted chips!”

One supporter told of a long trip up north “Most disappointed trip was to West Auckland in the Amateur Cup we won 3-1 and they invited us to spend the evening in their local club (that was in the days when folk raved about the northern clubs and the entertainment in them) but a few old foggies on our coach said "no lets get home " - what a wasted opportunity that was!”

Chris remembers his trip to Horsham last season “I went from Slough to watch us play Horsham, only for it to pour down and get called off. I then needed to travel to Bournemouth to meet my friends to celebrate the New Year, only to get my car stuck in mud in the Horsham car park. I was covered in mud and soaked through!”

Marcus remembers an away trip to Dagenham and Redbridge which finished 4-4 “The coach got flashed by some 'ladies of the night' which ended up with 40 blokes running to the back of the coach to get a better look!”

While Richie Rebel recalls “My favourite was driving all the way to Merthyr the night before an FA Trophy game in terrible weather conditions; the Severn Bridge was closed for a period it was that bad. We went out in Merthyr and got blind drunk and slept in our cars overnight only to find in the morning the game had been called off!”

As for Yeovil Steve he did manage to get to Taunton by the power of his thumb, to catch our first away victory in 11 months!

OBSCENE

Printed in the New Years Day 2008 Southern league south and west division match v Thatcham Town. We lost 2-1 in front or 232 people.

It said everything about the values of our society. The new sports minister attacked the financial excesses of the Premier League, and instead of chants of support he got shot down in flames.

In an address at a sports business conference, sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe singled out England captain John Terry's wages as "obscene", said Chelsea's financial position was "unsustainable", and warned that season-ticket rises at Old Trafford were pricing out ordinary fans. A few factual errors were pounced on by the clubs to denounce his arguments. He inflated John Terry's weekly wage from £130,000 to £150,000, and said Chelsea were £250m "in the red" when their actual losses for the past two years was just a mere £220m. So that’s alright then. He said Manchester United had increased ticket prices by 13% when the real rise was only 10.87%. But if we want to get into nit-picking then maybe he should have taken into account the £38,000 Business Week estimates the England captain gets a week from his official endorsements from companies like Umbro, Samsung, Nationwide and Pro Evo Soccer.

Of course, down the lower reaches of the league not every player is paid such ridiculous amounts of cash but the main reason John Terry’s wages are so wrong is that the people who do the essential work in society get paid a pittance. Nurses, fireman, bin men, teachers – look what happens when they go on strike. But if John Terry and his mates went on strike? (People can be forgiven for thinking that this has already happened when England played Croatia).Well we might see a few more Chelsea fans at Slough games but society wouldn’t exactly come grinding to a halt now would it?

The Prime Minister wasn’t best pleased with Sutcliffe’s comments either coming 24 hours after the government had thrown its weight behind the World Cup bid. Infact the government has little sympathy for the wider argument. This is not surprising really, since New Labour have done little to sort out the scroungers in our society. I’m not talking about the usual tabloid targets, but the corporations and super rich who are masters of dodging taxes. Football mimics our society, with the obscenely wealthy stuffing their face with even more of the Christmas cake. Everyone else is told to tighten their belts and warned that their just isn’t enough money in the fifth richest country in the world to have decent public services.

It was recently revealed that the international super-rich had stashed assets worth $491bn in Jersey in order to 'avoid tax'. John Christensen, a former economic adviser to the Jersey government and now director of Tax Justice Network said "The trend in the last 30 years has been to shift the burden of tax away from companies on to the consumer and labour. Capital is increasingly going untaxed."

As football is now just another cash cow for the super rich, the ideas of the new president of Uefa, Michael Platini, haven’t gone down so well with the elite. He wrote to Gordon Brown arguing passionately that “the values championed by football are a powerful source of social integration and civic education”. “Football is a game before a product, a sport before a market, a show before a business.” He proposed crazy things like cutting the number of Champion League places allocated to Europe’s top leagues and giving 75% of allocated tickets to the finalist’s supporters. He wants wage caps on players; quotas for home-grown players; regulations on agents; financial checks on owners; revenue sharing between clubs; and redistribution of revenue into lower leagues.

Of course the top clubs said Platini was “pursuing his own bizarre agenda.” Like what? Trying to introduce a more level playing field that might bring a bit more competition into football? The British government unsurprisingly weren’t impressed either. A Gordon Brown spokesman said he would not allow England's national game to be run by Brussels. Oh no, much better to have it run by a murky global gang of the criminally rich, already salivating at the prospect of breaking free from tiresome Uefa and even national leagues, instead mounting show games in global tours, modelled on rock concerts and sponsored by multinationals (que Man United’s up and coming dates in Saudia Arabia).

How about this for a New Year wish: Chelsea, Man United, in fact the whole of the Premiership and their dodgy owners disappear up their own self-interested, bloated, backsides. The rest of us can then just get on with supporting our local clubs.

100% English

Printed in the Southern league south and west division match v Marlow Saturday 22nd December 2007. We lost 2-0 (mind you last week we won our first away match since January - and i bloody missed it)

While you lot are standing in the cold watching us play Marlow I will be in the city of Pune in India for a four day wedding. The bride, Tanuka is one of my girlfriend’s best mates. She’s Asian, my girlfriend is Jewish. I’m just a plain old working class boy from Slough, who didn’t go to University so never went to ‘discover’ myself on a beach in Goa during my gap year; apart from joining in the mass protests in Seattle a few years back have never been out of Europe.

My dad’s family are from the Rhonda valley, where whole villagers decamped to the Wexham estate and where apparently you could hear Welsh being spoken more than English. Some of my earliest memories are the taste and smell of my nan’s delicious welsh cakes! My mum’s family moved to Langley after the Second World War which was being expanded as part of the London overspill. Some of her family came from Italy. And on it goes, as humans cross towns and countries and continents to find a better live for their families or escape persecution. When I played for Crusaders and went to Herschel, the football team and school was a melting point of families from across the world.
So what? Well a while back Channel 4 Dispatches showed ‘100% English’, the best TV I’ve seen in a long time. Advances in DNA now allow us to trace our roots back thousands of years. Family trees usually run a blank after about 200, but if you’ve a spare few hundred quid and want to delve deeper into your past, you can rub a small brush inside your mouth to obtain a tissue sample and send it to a laboratory to be analysed.
The programme lined up willing volunteers who believed that they were English through and through, although their definitions of what it takes to be 'English' varied widely. One believed being born here was enough. For another, England had gone down hill since the invasion of 1066 and she was sure she was descended from Anglo-Saxon England. Others said the acid test was simply whether a person supported the England football and cricket teams.
The results and subsequent reactions were hilarious. A stand up comic said that despite ex footballer Ian Wright being hugely patriotic he couldn’t be English because he was black. The comedian had to laugh when it turned out that he was 10% Middle Eastern, 11% South Asian, 37% south-eastern European and 43% northern European. Carol Thatcher, was 24% Middle Eastern. And so it went on, with the crazed woman who said England had gone down the pan since the Norman Conquest threatening to sue the production company over the fact that she wasn’t 100% English. Infact being 100 per cent English or 100 per cent anything, at the genetic level, would be very bad for your health.
The tests are based on mitochondrial DNA – chromosomes passed exclusively through the female line and changing little over time – pinpointing an individual’s maternal ancestry. Go back 150,000 years and all human beings are related from a relatively small area of Africa with scientists identifying 36 clans who inhabit the world. So when we sing ‘your sister is your brother’ to opposition fans and players we are probably right somewhere down the line!
Man has been on the move ever since. Infact migration is not only the norm; it is nature's way of keeping us healthy. The more our genes mix, the better the long-term health of the species - the better we can withstand infectious diseases and the less likely we are to suffer from genetic diseases.
Dr Mark Thomas, of the Centre for Genetic Anthropology at University College, London said new research suggests we are hard-wired as a species to attract those with different genes from our own. When asked just how many pure 'English' people currently lived in England he replied. 'At a rough guess? Er, zero.' Such a thing would only have been possible if a particular social group, isolated from the rest of society, had inbred for centuries. Which probably explains Windsor supporters.
One young soldier who had worried about immigration before the film found out that through his family tree he was from at least a quarter of the globe . “For racists to find out that part of them may be what they have discriminated against for years, well that would certainly throw them off their game.”
Judging someone on the colour of their skin or where they are from has always been ridiculous – we’ve now got the science to show that all of us Little Englanders were ‘bloody foreigners’ at some point!

THE PERSONAL TOUCH

Published in the Southern League South and West match v Winchester City Sat 3rd December 2007. We drew 2-2 in front of just 170 people.

So its goodbye to Wilko, a Slough legend who took up the poison chalice of manager last season when most sane people would have run a mile. He played on despite
injuries, but unfortunately his never-say-die attitude didn’t seem to transfer onto the other players. Wilko was always approachable and ready to chat to supporters after the game and to me he was an example of everything that is good about this level of football.

When I start my journey to games early Saturday morning (well you have to get to games early to avoid the rush at the turnstiles) I get on at a small train station just outside Brighton. The friendly guard seems to know everyone, as people stop to chat as they cut through the station. He told me that when he retires, he fears they will close the station and just have the electronic ticketing machines to greet you. Does that matter? While it will be justified in typical economic terms what price losing that personal touch?

CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) are sponsoring todays game, and for me, fighting to keep open local pubs isn’t just about saving the local boozer. My dad lives on his own and his local pub is his social. When he fell over and broke his pelvis, it was the local landlord that took him to hospital and rang me up to tell me the news. It was the new manager of the place who popped round the other night to see if he was ok. People in the pub who fixed his broken boiler for free. You can’t put an economic price tag on that.

It’s the same with the local shop. While the big supermarkets suck all the money out of the local economy and the people on the till look like they have had a lobotomy, a proper local shop should be more than someone who just sells you milk and a paper.

With the government hell bent on privatising the post office, local post offices are continually being closed. I had to laugh at one government minister who claimed this is because people weren’t using the service as much; he obviously hadn’t queued up to buy a stamp for a while. Again, in many places, the post office can be the social hub. So is the post office a social service or just another way to look for profits?

For my job I run a community allotment project. We teach youngsters gardening, carpentry, woodland management and cooking skills but probably most importantly social skills. Sitting round the firepit on a winters day there will be children from the local schools, refugees, older residents, people with learning difficulties. I call this the social glue that binds communities together. People mixing together, breaking down barriers, having their sterotypes challenged. In a fragmented society this is really important especially for a lot of the pupils that come down to the project who are often having real problems at home and at school. It gets them out of their comfort zone and they have to grow up and work with sorts of different people. With all the crap that is written in the tabloids with their scatter gun approach blaming everyone for societies ills it is good to see what human nature is like when lots of different people work together. (But isn’t it funny how the tabloids always avoid attacking the super rich whose massive tax avoidance could help fund essential services and where the average boss-to-worker pay ratio stands at a staggering 98:1).

As a society we participate less and observe more. We’ve all got an opinion about the non-entities in the Big Brother house and watch the moaning minnies of East Enders, but we don’t know our next door neighbours. Youngsters are more likely to playing football against imaginary teams on a computer than running round on the local rec against real ones. These solitary pursuits coupled with the end of heavy industry, mean we all have less experience of collective endeavor and working together as a team. Which is why football is so effective in breaking down barriers. I’m not talking about the TV football supporter. Football is a social gathering, not merely an entertainment option. Although in my mind £50 to watch Arsenal sitting, prawn like is not my idea of a properly run community football club; no, a properly run club should not just judge their success on results but on its ability to make people feel that they belong.

So if you want to make one New Years resolution, i would suggest it should be get involved. This could be your local football club, local residents group or school. Forget an expensive gym membership why not do some conservation work instead and get fit working outside and doing something useful? If you feel somethings wrong in your communities then get involved to change it. Don’t just turn up to meetings when you want to moan about something, but get involved in shaping your neighbourhoods and help make them become better places. In doing so, you will also get to know your local neighbours and you might even have fun doing so.

Whoever gets the Slough Town managers job, I hope like Wilko, they have the time to chat to us supporters after the game. The human touch is priceless in keeping supporters onside and cheering on the team, especially when the chips are down.

PASTYGATE

Printed in the Southern South and West league match v Abingdon United 1^st December 2007. We won 4-1 in front of 208 people.

I don’t think I’ve ever been called a Slough inbred before and that all my piercing’s had made my brain fall out! I was being slagged off on the Slough Town forum by a Didcot supporter for being rude to one of their charming caterers. Well I hold my hand up; I was being rude. Being vegetarian I don’t expect to served with the finest of foods when I go on my travels, but I don’t understand why such crap is served up to people at football grounds. Is it too much to ask for an egg butty? A cheese toastie? Some chips? If Lewes can manage it, serving the best food I’ve ever tasted at non league footie, why can’t others make a bit of an effort like Beaconsfield do? So at Didcot when I spotted a cheese pasty being advertised I thought I was in luck. But as I was queuing one of the caterers came out, wiped it from the board, and told me if I wanted one I should have got there earlier. As it was 10 minutes before kick off, just how much earlier should I get there for some food?! There is a way of talking to people, and for some reason I don’t like being talked too like I am a piece of dirt and told her so. It’s a shame because I love this level of football. You can mix with opposition supporters, stand up, swap ends, chat to players. Oh and shout your gob off and let off steam!

The difference to going to League grounds is stark.

Some of my mates made the long trip up to Mansfield to see Lewes play in the first round of the FA Cup. Tickets were reasonably priced at £12, but what they didn’t expect was being ‘stewarded’ by what they described as nightclub bouncers. They were told to take their flag down because it might blow off in the wind. One middle age woman stood up because her back was hurting. When she went for a cup of tea she was thrown out. Later in the game one of the Lewes supporters representatives tried to talk some sense into the crowd officials – and was also thrown out. It spoilt the day and my mates reckoned if it wasn’t for the genial nature of the Lewes fans would have resulted in crowd trouble.

Meanwhile Malcolm, a Dagenham fan, told me about their first season as a league club. “There’s the new rules as Victoria Road is now a “designated sports ground”. You have to remain in the area of the ground where you came in which means all those in the seats are barred from wandering into the terrace area, and therefore from using the club shop or going to book coaches for away travel. I’ve seen people being told their cameras will be confiscated if they attempt to use them. At away grounds some of the stewarding seem far more likely to start trouble than stop it. At home, prices have risen by around £2-3. Some of the away prices though have been staggering, £20 at Brentford for away fans. I also miss the cameraderie of the non-League game. While we all have our rivalries, in general they are much healthier in the non-League game. There are clubs in the Football League who would rather cut your throat than help out with bits and bobs for a rival's programme. And for all that the standard of football isn’t that much higher than the Conference. I’ll continue supporting my club, but the whole experience is less fun in the Football League.”

I got a free ticket from my next door neighbour to watch Brighton the other week. The football Brighton paid was slick and impressive. But as we sat in one of the stands open to the elements, there was more atmosphere when we all get going under the stand at Beaconsfield. The next day the local Brighton paper bemoaned the low crowd – why aren’t more people coming to the games? Er, because it’s £25 to get in.

I don’t want a return of the hooliganism that blighted football, but if you extinguish the passion out of the game, then you might as well be watching theatre. Football is overprized, over sanitized, and increasingly out of touch with reality. New stadium are far too often out of town and soulless.

This was summed up for me in England’s lacklustre performance against Croatia, with the crowd booing the players and singing ‘you’ve got a Ferrari you don’t care’. Golden generation? More like Bling generation.

The FA and Premiership are too dazzled by TV money to see the signs, but if they don’t try and tackle the big four’s monopoly, player’s wages, ticket prizes; distribute money more fairly, reintroduce standing at grounds etc while football is at its height of popularity, then soon there will be a rude awakening.

As for Didcot. With their set up and support, they are a club going places. But if they want to shut me up then I suggest they sell me a pastry full of quick drying cement. And it will probably also taste better than most of the inedible crap that is served up at non league footie grounds.

SEVEN OUT OF TEN

Printed in the Southern League south and west league match v Hillingdon Borough. 27th November 2007. We lost 3-1 in front of 167. The day before our manager and assistant manager resigned.

Who would have thought there would be two non-league papers a few years back? I know that for those under the age of 20, it’s hard to comprehend life before mobile phones, email, facebook, bebo, myspace, youdrivel and the millions of other ways we can all keep in touch with each other (am I missing something, but why does anyone care what their mates are doing 24/7?). But when I started watching Slough Town it was hard enough trying to get hold of results of matches in our league, let alone reading supporters comments on the internet.

The Oxford United Manager Jim Smith was recently on the warpath, blaming the web based football forums for making everyone a manager and then there’s the radio phone-in where anyone with a big gob and little understanding of football can mouth off. But surely giving supporters a voice is a good thing? I was involved in one of the Slough Town fanzines ‘Rebels Without A Clue’ which was part of the wave of independent football fanzines that started demanding a right to be heard and has culminated in the Supporters' Trust movement.

Anyway, in a recent copy of the upstart NonLeagueToday, the Slough Town programme received a favourable 7 out of 10. So being an investigate type, I tracked down the reviewer to find out a bit more about him and how the hell – in the age of computers and mass communications- we’ve got two papers covering non league footie to choose from on a Sunday morning.

David Fletcher is an Associate Editor with the NLT, who lives on the outskirts of Romford, “but a safe distance inside the M25 that warrants him having five fingers on each hand."
He has supported Romford since 1965, apart from the club's 14-year sabbatical from '78 to '92. His first visit to Slough was for an FA Cup game at the Dolphin in 1971, where Romford 1-0 and he visited Wexham Park for their debut in the Conference, against Boston United. The Prog Blog review is part of his remit at the paper and despite upsetting a few people this season, he is of the impression that you should tell it as it is, even though the columns are just a personal opinion.

So will two non-league papers survive?

“A few of us at NonLeagueToday used to work for the Dark Side (aka the NLP). I would love to have been a fly on the wall of their office when we first issued this August. As for sales, well all I know is that we are sitting between 35-42,000 a week. We have experienced a few technical glitches along the way, but things are running more smoothly now. Personally I wouldn't lose any sleep if they went under.”

Why do you think that NLT is better than the Non-League Paper?
"It's a bit like asking Dawn Neesom why the Star is better than the Sun! Full colour throughout makes it look more impressive and I believe our feature articles and regular columns are far more vibrant and cutting edge."

What do you think of non-league programmes?
“Whoever produces them, 99% of the time they are a labour of love. I was editor of the Romford programme for three seasons and spent many a late night in the office to produce, what I would like to think, was a readable and presentable issue. I do prefer my issues to be A5 and have football content that is relevant to both sides on the day. Just neatly laid out, spell-checked and devoid of those ghastly email quotes...grrrrr.”

What do you mean by email quotes?
“For some strange reason, when one copies and pastes from email, the apostrophes tend to have no relation to the type face one is using. A quick search and replace gets rid of them. Nitpicking maybe, but just professional pride I suppose.”

You wrote that the Slough programme needed a sub-editor, then a recebt issue of NonLeagueToday didn’t print any of the Trophy results! What happened?
"Technical glitch = Communication breakdown. These things can happen in a small office with an 8.30pm deadline. Not good, but not intentional and we will hold our hands up to the error."

You gave the Slough programme seven out of ten, what would we need to do to get an eight?

“A few more action shots wouldn't go amiss and considering that Slough have cornered the non-league YouTube market, there has to be plenty out there!”

Any advice to give to people who are thinking of becoming a programme editor or want to improve their clubs issue?
"You have to remember if you are working alone it can be very time consuming. Try to think a bit left field, but never cram it with nonsensical bits that have no relation to the game in hand."

So it’s up to you lot there to help Glen the Slough programme editor out and start sending in your articles, and see if we can push our score to 8!

UP AND DOWN THE PYRAMID

Published in the Southern League Division One South and West game v Didcot Town Saturday 3^rd November 2007. We lost 6-3 in front of 239.

The one thing I love about non league football is its fluidity. I’m not talking about attractive passing play but the fact that teams go up and down the pyramid. Just a decade ago Histon were playing in the Eastern Counties Division One in front of a hundred, now they are in the Blue Square Premier. Eastbourne Borough have gone from playing parks football to knocking on the Blue Square Premier door in 30 years.

Of course this works both ways. Scarborough not so long ago played Chelsea in the FA Cup, but last season went bust and are now a fans run club playing in Northern Counties East against less well known teams like Yorkshire Amateur. Runcorn played in the Conference for many years, lost their ground and are now supporters run playing in the lower reaches of the pyramid.

Of course Slough have been on the downward trajectory ever since we got booted out of the Conference. OK, we had a great couple of seasons with Eddie Denton with promotion, the win over Walsall and the League Cup. But really the writing for the club has been on the wall for some time for numerous reasons that John Tebbit’s columns in the programme often spell out.

Infact it was John who was telling me before the Farnborough game that Slough supporters are pretty special and unique. Nearly 100 of us turned up that wet Tuesday night at Farnborough’s ground making it their biggest gate of the season (Farnborough were another club flying high, playing Arsenal in the FA Cup, before financial misery engulfed them). Similar numbers have travelled to nearly every away game, despite the fact that we haven’t won away since January! And fair play to the 30 odd who travelled to Didcot in the Berks and Bucks Cup to see another thrashing. As one web forum poster put it “The best thing about Slough last night was the fans. As usual they made 90 minutes of crap football easier to take.” Whether this was to do with Dave the Programmes sinking 4 pints of cider before the game I don’t know, but in the face of adversity it’s best to have a laugh and look on the bright side of life.

The remaining few months of last season turned into a Monty Python endurance test where we decided rather than just moan throughout the game we would get behind the team and at least enjoy ourselves. But the club were in a mess off the pitch as well as on, and relegation seems to have given the behind the scenes set up a much needed kick up the bum. The fact that we are penniless and just relying on gate money now has meant a welcome call up for Slough youngsters and while we can’t do much about on the pitch activities, there’s enough of us still to make a noise during the game and help out behind the scenes to make us a stronger club. That was shown by the brilliant response from everyone at the home game against Bridgewater Town. £320 collected in the bucket before the game, 50/50 draw tickets sales up, season ticket holders paying and complimentary tickets being stuck in the bin - and then another £60 more in the supporters trust bucket after the game.

But is it fair supporters must keep digging deep into their pockets? Is it right the Trust is asked to donate to help fund the club while we await the outcome of the planning application?

Some would say us supporters that have suffered enough, and this takes the biscuit. But with local business sponsorship hardly forthcoming, what’s the alternative? The loan last year from the Trust has meant is now the sponsors of our fancy new away kit with the Supporters Trust name emblazoned across the front.

The finances of the club and long term future could also well be stabilised by the Arbor Vale ground proposal with the Trust having some say over what happens to the stadium infrastructure, which is essential if we don’t want a repeat of what has happened to our old ground.

Still, I know defeat after defeat is hard to take, but there is hope over the horizon and I think we need to grasp the opportunity. I look at clubs like Leamington who went from the old Alliance Premier to oblivion, who now have their own ground and are back in the Southern League. Or Dartford who also went bust but now have an amazing new ground in the town attracting average gates of a thousand plus.

We can wring our hands with despair and turn our backs on the club, or we can come out fighting; from sticking a few extra quid in the bucket, joining the Supporters Trust, joining in the singing during games, trying to get some sponsorship etc. It’s our club, and who knows one day we might be all sitting round a table in our spanking new club bar while flying high in the Conference. There we will be boring younger Rebel supporters to death with of our tales of epic parties during 9-0 defeats at clubs who may well have risen then fallen back down the non league pyramid.

SKINT

Printed in the Southern League South and West League match v Newport Isle of Wight, Saturday 27th October. We beat the bottom team 2-0 in front of 211.

How much does it cost to run a football club at Slough Town’s level? Now Martyn Deaner has gone, so has his money, so who is paying the bills?