A political football in an egg-chasing city

Last week the Government announced some garbled populist spin about giving football ‘back to the fans’, hot off the back of Becks sporting a gold and green scarf and aimed at getting ‘blokes’ to vote no doubt.

But here in Gloucestershire the three main players in the battle for the parliamentary seat are playing a different tactic with the beautiful game. Gloucester City Football Club and it’s future has been placed as a top priority for each candidate – but is any of the election spiel actually going to make a difference in a city where egg-chasing remains the populist sport.

[For those who need a recap Gloucester used to play at Meadow Park, on the banks of the River Severn, until July 2007 when ‘the rains came’ and flooded the ground for the third time in a decade. Already uninsurable after previous floods, the stadium was ruined and the Tigers were exiled first to the New Lawn (Nailsworth), then to the Corinium Stadium (Cirencester) and now, controversially) next season to the other end of the Golden Valley to Whaddon Road (Cheltenham)]

Since 2007 there has been a lot of talk about the return to the City and precious little action from the powers that be. This time last year I was invited to take a tour of Meadow Park with MP (now prospective parliamentary candidate) Parmjit Dhanda (Lab) and Hillary Benn. It was a sight which made me feel slightly overwhelmed. Where the pitch once was were mounds of smelly dirt (the ground is next door to the tip so the topsoil is contaminated too) covered in weeds. The publicity shy owner Eamonn quietely explained to Mr Benn that Gloucester would return to the city and they would become a league side in a decade -and I believe him, but they are going to have to do it the hard way.

After the tour the politicians, some friendly chaps from the Environment Agency and club officials sat down to talk about the ambitious plans which will (hopefully) see a new stadium built on the Meadow Park site, encorporating flood defences to protect the club and neighbouring homes.

The visit, arranged by Parmjit, followed several parliamentary debates and early day motions – aimed at raising awareness of the Tigers plight by the politician who was pictured on the pitch, clad in a City shirt at the historic play off final win at Farnborough. Throughout his term he has used his political nous to keep City in people’s thoughts – not easy when the local paper could not care less and fans are dropping off, faced with a 40 mile round trip for ‘home’ matches and 100 miles and more for away.

When Gloucester were dumped in the Blue Square North he wrote to Lord Triesman, pointing out the farce of Gloucester now becoming north when Worcester remained south. In 2008 he debated the future of the club in parliament. Bringing football banter to the Houses of Parliament can backfire and make most politicians sound like twats but Parmjit managed to sound passionate and articulate – because he is and he does care.

But the first shot of this election was fired about a fortnight ago in the council chamber at Gloucester City Council. There PPC Jeremy Hilton (Lib Dem) led a motion to award £20K to the Tigers to facilitate the groundshare with Cheltenham Town (Ciren’s ground doesn’t meet the ground grading by about 30 seats or something). Knowing it was the last meeting before the local and general elections Mr Hilton (who is also standing in the local elections and sits on the county council too for good measure), resplendent in a City tie, was in fine fettle:

Tigers are an endangered species all over the globe. We need to make sure our own Tigers do not become an endangered species in Gloucester.

His motion was seconded and supported by almost the whole council, with each political leader reeling off the same line about how important football is to civic pride and how the football club really is as important as the rugby club – one councillor even boasting how a lad he coached as a youngster is now the top goalscorer.

Hilton, who has quietly endured the brutal wind at the Corinium Stadium throughout the season, is going all out on his support for the Tigers.  The return to Gloucester is his fourth point on his manifesto and he has sat as the chair on the ‘football task committee’ (the loosely titled group aimed at helping the club build a future back home) for several years. He might look like an idiot in his City cap but his presence at matches since September has been a slow burner, imprinting himself in the fans’ consciousness.

By contrast Parmjit, perhaps with the pressures of Westminster and a young family, seems to have gone a little quieter on the football front. There is no doubt he has gone out of his way to keep the wider public aware of the Tigers plight in the past three years – during the promotion campaign last year he wore his City tie constantly, for weeks on end. He loves football (Liverpool being his main love, after City) and often sends texts to keep abreast of the City gossip. But he faces a tough battle with the obnoxious third candidate – Richard Graham  (Con) and this threatens to overshadow his campaigning for the club.

Parmjit’s latest blog doesn’t mention football – but be sure as hell it will come up at hustings. I fully expect to see him at the match on Saturday and to see the picture of him at Farnborough on his election material.

Which leaves Mr Graham, a former banker who is a big hunting fan, apparently, bang on for his target audience in Gloucester. His website mentions bringing City back to Meadow Park but I have never seen him at a match. Jeremy and Parmjit could probably name a starting 11 between them with ease. He would not pick Tom Webb out of a line up, for all his claims of a love of Gloucester.

In a city where egg chasing takes most of the headlines it will be interesting to see the ‘minority sport’ thrown into the political arena in the coming weeks.

Top travel tips in the BSN (excluding Harrogate and Northwich)

Two away trips left this season and I have made about 85% of them (Eastwood, Staylbridge, Hyde, Stafford and somewhere else were missed through illness/midweek fixture hell). Not counting the odd draws in the FA Trophy and the FA Cup which saw trips to Bashley, Dorchester, two journeys to Truro in three days and a Tuesday night in Lowestoft (which I also missed) it was mainly an M5/M6 affair with a few forays onto the M42 and beyond, the nearest was Redditch (Boxing Day, lost, it was muddy), the furthest Blyth (won 3-0, watched my Geordie Uncle try to fit in with the City fans).

In no particular order here are my BSN highlights so far…

Solihull Moors: Nicest club ever. This was a Tuesday night early on in the season and one of the nearest ties, just off the M42. On arrival I was welcomed in by the chairman – I think we just arrived at the same time as him and shown to the board room (the press box apparently doesn’t have a great view). There I met Len, who does the mic, he gave me a team sheet, a run down on the team and a cup of coffee. Then Darren Patterson turned up, talked about City’s keeper and Oxford Utd and I got some cake. Oh and it was the first win of the season…

Workington: Strange place, far far away but best pie, chips and peas of the season. There were strange echoes of flooded Gloucester and the stadium has seen better days, faded Northern glory in the the drizzle and mist. They also appeared to have dog wearing a raincoat as a fan.

Blyth Spartans: Traveling nearly 300 miles to watch football and seeing Gloucester destroy Blyth, priceless. Watching the game with about 50 other fans who had also made it there by plane, train and automobile, even better.

Fleetwood: Bit surreal, a stadium in a housing estate where the new extension is going to cost four times as much as Gloucester’s new ground. More flatscreen TVs than an out of town Dixons and a concourse even more out of place than that weird nightclub they have at Clevedon’s ground. Big aspirations here, they even served risotto to the players as the after match meal. However despite the millions they are throwing at the the club and the quality of the players, it is still a small town on the edge of the footballing giants on Merseyside and down the road in Manchester. The goalie is a twat too.

Farsley Celtic: Pun ridden village on the edge of Leeds and probably the second friendliest place after Solihull. They can’t have known what was to come and it is a real shame. The ground was slowly being strangled by new housing (probably a foreshadow of the future use of the land) but it retained a bit of character with the giant nets, full of holes, which were supposed to keep the balls inside the stadium. Second best pie and chips.

to be continued….

Part time footballers, full time heroes

After my last rant about the idiocy I experience at non-league grounds around the country it is time to give the boys their dues.

Reading this http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/football/635754/ROBINHO-DOOMED-AFTER-CHARITY-SNUB.html pretty much sums up the arrogance which poisons the image of footballers as over paids idiots who are more bothered about the next Ferarri/flashy watch/micro pig/etc/etc than the club and the badge.

In the past two years since I have actively covered non-league a bit more I have lost interest in the world of the Premiership (by a strange coincidence my team, Newcastle seem to have done the same). The game has become cynical, with diving and cheating and referee baiting the norm.

Compare this with some of the games I have watched recently, Gloucester City still learning the ropes in the Blue Square North – finding a league full of physical ex-league boys and against the odds holding on in there, with fans who care about their club more than anything, in the case of some (Hyde, Farsley and indeed Gloucester) going above and beyond to keep the club in existence.

But back to Robinho, he could be out of Man City for failing to turn up to a kids’ party. Too right. Players seem increasingly unable to realise that the fans matter (or again with Newcastle, the owner forgets). They are the ones paying to watch them week in week out.

Last night in Gloucester the football team had their annual Xmas party. With no game due to being knocked out of the FA Trophy the lads trained then headed off to a function for the youth team, the whole squad – even the players who are injured or live far away. After that they went on a pub crawl in fancy dress…and like every year the fans came too.

Gloucester have been through enough in the past three years to realise that their fans matter, half of the players first became involved in the club as fans. Neil Mustoe, Tuffley-born defender, was a regular at Meadow Park before he signed for the Man Utd youth team.

Every week the players and fans travel upwards of 40 miles for every home match (no ground in Gloucester thanks to the 2007 floods) and even further for away matches (thank you FA for putting them in the Blue Square North). This season other fun trips have included Lowestoft on a Tuesday night and Truro twice in three days.

And the City lads would still do anything for the fans, every post match interview they get a mention for the increasingly elaborate songs. When Gloucester were promoted last season the substitute keeper, brought in for the last few games of the season, bought Moet in the nightclub and shared it with everyone to celebrate (once a footballer…). Last night the players made sure the fans had drinks, no champagne this time.

Would you get a Brazillian wonderkid doing that? They take it as a given that fans will want to watch them no matter what. One of the Gloucester City strikers had to put up with a fair amount of stick from some of the fans about his lack of goals this season but there were no diva strops, when another player, a baby-faced winger, was refused entry for having no id one of the fans offered to go back to his hotel with him to get it.

Maybe the problem is that few players work their way up from non-league to pro now, they don’t know what it is like to be part of a grassroots club and move clubs for the money?

Perhaps Mark Hughes should farm Robinho out to Hyde for a couple of weeks, dock his wages down to non-league standards and make him donate the rest to the kids he could not be bothered to see.

Cocks and camera phones

Now I have been covering non-league football for four years now and I thought I knew footballers well. I even lived with a goal keeper until very recently and count several players as close friends but this season has been a revelation.

Lets start in Southport, Gloucester City’s first foray into the Blue Square North. Arriving at the gates I asked for directions to the press box – why asked the little man on the gate…worse was still to come. There I am, sat up at the top of the stand trying to set up my Mac when an older man asks me to move because I am sat in his seat, there is a row of them, I move. Next he pipes up: “So which one of the Gloucester boys is your boyfriend” ummm…

…I laugh it off, soon another man joins us in the press row, the question is repeated by him. I am tempted to point to Jack Harris or Matty Sysum, the youngest on the pitch but instead point to my actual boyfriend who is somewhere in the stands.

Elsewhere I have been asked to move so the ‘real reporter’ can have his seat (Corby, where Gloucester won 6-1), called ‘love’, ‘pet’ and every diminutive name going.

Only one ground so far has won me over with kindness and acceptance – Solihull Moors, where I was put in the directors box and brought chocolate cake at half time and looked after by a kind man called Len and former Oxford United Darren Patterson.

Mostly I sit quietly and eavesdrop on their team news.

Of course it is different at home – at the Corinium Stadium they know me, two and a bit seasons reporting on Ciren before I started covering the Tigers, it is like my home from home. But the visitors don’t know that and I face the usual sexist nonesense.

However today – wow!

Sat shivering in the stands watching Sarah Garrett attempting to control an increasingly unruly game, I was getting distracted by the group of Northwich Victoria lads sat in front of me. Firstly there were loads of them – how do the Vics, already having been in administration, in financial shit, afford so many players – there were about seven in front of me who were surplus to the squad! They have about five keepers – I had already met one called Kyle up at Vauxhall Motors when he was injured and had been sent out scouting.

There was a gobby, ginger, northern lad who seemed to be the ringleader – quite tall and clutching gloves so clearly one of the keepers. First he started asking the football scores, no problem. Then asking to go on facebook – no, I am trying to concentrate.

Next thing they are playing with their phones (nothing new, I usually travel on the City team coach and am used to the football banter)…”Here love, look at this its your Christmas present”

I look up to an old, cracked phone.

Me: “A broken phone, cheers”

Him: “Um no, wait a second, this”

A picture of him, presumably, naked, cock out

Me: “Great, cheers, do I get anything else”

Now lets consider the options

a) would he do this to a male reporter – no chance

b) would he do this to another girl – possibly

c) what possesses anyone to consider doing that??

A quick google search shows he is Curtis Aspden, on loan from Hull – a Prem team (just) – do these teams not do media training??

Surely the first lesson would be DON’T SHOW A NAKED PIC OF YOURSELF TO A REPORTER