Support Non-League Day this weekend!
Former guest predictor and reporter for Real Madrid TV Kay Murray explains why we should all be supporting Non-League Day this weekend…
Non-League Football Day takes place in the UK on September 4th. The event is a brilliant initiative thought up by James Doe – a lifelong football fan and supporter of Harrow Borough FC – to encourage fans to go and support their local non-league club and get the gate numbers up. Sadly, I cannot be there to participate but I am hoping this article can bring you a personal insight into my passion for the semi-professional game and convince you to get behind your nearest non-league team this weekend.
Call me a romantic, but there is something about the non-league game that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I was introduced to lower league football by a former boyfriend early last decade and although it’s a world away from where I watch my football these days, I am an advocate of the non-league game having spent seven years following it.
Going to my first match back in 2001 in Buckinghamshire to see Chesham play at the Meadow was something of a homecoming for me. I’d say it stemmed from my roots as a football fan growing up in Middlesbrough and supporting my humble hometown club.
As I grew, my local side did too and in my mid-teens the signing of a big name coach was followed by famous foreign players and a shiny new stadium. Although this new era was welcomed with open arms by the fans, it was somewhat bittersweet to wave goodbye to the old days. Getting a ‘squeeze in’ through the turnstiles at Ayresome Park to stand on the terraces to watch rough and tumble football would now be gone forever.
Today, Boro’s fortunes aren’t quite what they were five or six years ago – when they won their first major trophy and found themselves playing in Europe – but the club has come a long way since the dark days of the mid-eighties and are now a financially stable side with a productive youth academy. Still, it seems it was the Middlesbrough of yesteryear that gave me a taste for lower league traits and the nostalgia I now associate with them.
And so it came to pass that semi-professional football proved to satisfy my craving. You see the non-league game has a real retro feel to it and I could not help but become attached to it.
I suddenly found myself standing on the terraces again next to old men in flat caps. At half time I could swap ends to ensure I was behind the opposition goal for each half or sit among the away fans without risking my safety. If I wanted some matchday grub, I would be served in less than ten minutes at one of the ground’s outdoor kiosks and would not be charged the wallet-busting prices we have come to expect at top flight football grounds.
And why line the bookmakers’ pockets when you fancy a flutter, when you can pay a couple of quid for a 50/50 scratchcard? Should your card display the minute in which first goal is scored, you win half the takings, while the rest of the money goes back into the club.
It’s perks like these that make up a big part of the reason why many football fans favour the non-league game – a game that can at times prove to be scrappy and not as well-structured as one in the top flight, but will almost always entertain. You see in non-league football, men are men and diving, moaning and harassing the referee is seldom seen. A tough tackle is usually ‘run off’ and there is no place for some of the amateur dramatics that are present in Europe’s top leagues and shame gamesmanship.
This is because almost all non-league footballers play for the love of the game. Most semi-professional players work or study full-time and still manage to fit two nightly training sessions and up to two matches a week into their busy schedules. Like their professional counterparts they are obliged to feature in games over the Christmas period and can only take their summer holidays in June; as preseason training begins in July. Yet, for these men and their families, immense wage packets and sponsorship deals are not on offer as consolation. Most of the players do get paid, but their earnings are not even a fraction of what Premiership players get, and if the club they belong to is in financial trouble, a select few play for nothing.
But despite this, some league football fans are quick to scoff and humour these ‘lowly’ non-league clubs and their players, telling those of us who do support them to ‘come and see some real football’, yet in their ignorance they don’t realise that football doesn’t get any more real than this.
It’s time these players got the credit and support they deserve; non-league football is all too often categorised with Sunday League pub teams, which could not be further from the truth. Most semi-pro players train hard and stay at home the night before games of their own accord, not because the FA requires them to do so.
So many semi-professional footballers started their careers playing at a much higher level; more often than not on YT schemes for Premiership and Championship clubs. Since their promising beginnings many have suffered the heartache of not quite making the grade, worse still, many have ended up at their final destination as a result of constant injury or by quite simply being overlooked by the management at the time.
But on the flip side of the coin, non-league football also throws up its fair share of success stories too.
Ian Wright’s story is probably the most famous of all; the former striker impressed a scout in a Sunday league game to earn a contract with Crystal Palace before going on to become one of Arsenal’s most famous players of all time. During the years I followed the semi-professional game, Leicester City’s DJ Campbell also climbed the ranks from the non-league to the Premiership. Elsewhere other players who took the step up to the professional league were (One-Size) Fitz Hall and Wayne Andrews, who were signed for Crystal Palace from Chesham – with both going on to experience success with other league clubs, Scott Fitzgerald who went from Northwood to Watford and Tresor Kandol whose prolific goalscoring record at Thurrock FC paved the way for him to emerge into the higher tiers.
I also saw my fair share of international players in the non-league, among them were Wayne Dyer of Hinckley who played for Montserrat and scored his country’s first ever goal in in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, and Basingstoke’s Scott Smith, who was capped for New Zealand 28 times.
We all talk about the magic of the FA Cup due to the fact that teams throughout all levels of the league pyramid are given the chance to compete. In the 2007/8 campaign, Chase Town (who were then playing in the Southern League Division One Midlands) became the lowest ranked team ever to reach the third round of the tournament.
In 2005 Yeading (then of the Ryman’s League) landed the chance of a lifetime draw against Newcastle United. The game was televised on the BBC with the underdogs going on to lose 2-0 to their Premiership rivals, though The Ding put in a performance to be proud of, not least because no less than 123 places separated them and their rivals in the league.
For the fans and everyone involved with the running of the club, the feeling is indescribable – a dream come true. It is an appreciation that many top-flight prima donnas will never possess. And it is this gratitude that often makes these players richer than any Premiership footballer can ever be.
Unfortunately I cannot be in England to go and support one of the many non-league teams turning out on Saturday, but I hope that those of you who are not following teams in leagues one and two will make the effort to get behind your local side to support this very worthy cause. I guarantee you’ll enjoy the experience. Take it from a girl with a wide range of tastes when it comes to football. My hot Spanish sugar daddy Real Madrid and hometown childhood sweetheart Middlesbrough may get the best part of my affections, but non-league football will always be my bit on the side, after all, us girls can’t resist a bit a rough!
For more information on non-league football day and your local side visit http://www.nonleagueday.co.uk
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Kay also writes for the excellent Beyond The Pitch website, which also has a superb world football podcast, which you can subscribe to HERE