Written by Nick Upton
There are a lot of lazy, half-wit, tedious accusations that continue to be thrown at non-league football these days, by fans of the popular and attractive clubs. Even fans of clubs that should know better (the likes of Oxford United come to mind, from personal experience). Considering how far football has come in the last few years – for better or for worse – it’s quite disappointing to witness so many people still not acknowledging the hard work that continues to take place at these clubs scrambling for success, deeper within the pyramidal footballing structure.
I’m not writing this article as a “typical non-league fan”, or maybe in your opinion I am, but the purpose of this is to portray how I genuinely feel about the seemingly common perception of the game at this level.
I was at work around a month ago, I work in a busy call centre but this was in the evening and the phones are often quieter later in the day, so we tend to converse with colleagues a little more than normal. I had a team leader ask me to put the TV on so that we could watch Swansea City in the Europa League. “Fair enough” I thought to myself. We rapidly arrived at the subject of Swansea and as someone who likes to give his opinion whether it’s wanted or not, I blurted: “They’re one of very few Premier League clubs I actually like, to be honest.” This resulted in said team leader responding with “Oh, that’s just a typical non-league fan’s comment, that. You all hate the Premier League!” That was generalisation number one. He then rambled on about how bad non-league was. I questioned him on what non-league fixtures he’d attended. Missing the term “fixtures”, he went on to produce the names of teams: “Stafford Rangers, Gillingham, Carlisle United…” I stopped him there. Anyone with half a footballing brain will immediately notice the fault with his prematurely interrupted list. Gillingham? Carlisle? I didn’t even feel obliged to continue my conversation with him, but we continued for a very short while. Apparently, non-league football not only includes League One now, but in his words it also only plays host to one style of play – long ball. These days, according to such people, tactical knowledge and coaching ends at League One. Who knew?
It’s this kind of ignorance and petulance that really dints my bonnet. People don’t give non-league football a chance. All you see amongst football’s self-proclaimed loyalists and “die-hards” on social networking sites are comments about the state of the modern game, how money is ruining everything… yet the exact same people turn their nose up at the game’s more modest depths and the true die-hards that often quite literally put blood, sweat and tears into operating their club and supporting them behind-the-scenes as well as on the terraces (proper terraces, not plastic seating that cuts off the circulation to your legs in the same manner as cheap toilet seats).
The Bill Stokeld Stadium. Affectionately referred to as “The Bill” by Carlton Town fans.
I recently made a point of spending four hours of my evening creating a post on my personal blog aimed at getting fans into The Bill, getting behind Carlton Town, providing some much needed physical and financial support. This went out to roughly 400 people after being shared on Twitter and Facebook. The attendance for the game following my efforts was still 90. The number wasn’t necessarily the disheartening thing. Do you want to know what was? This was in the middle of an international break, with so-called fans taking to Twitter in their droves, moaning “no football *sad face*”. Never mind the clubs on your doorstep, eh? If you wanted to go to a game that badly, you would get your backside down to one. I accept that a lot of fans can’t bring themselves to watch any other club than the one they love, that’s fair enough, I understand. Many people have to feel a connection to a club already, before they even turn up to a ground, I get that, and I’m not targetting you lot. It’s the people who say there’s “no football to watch” and act all sorry for themselves when they do have a choice.
Having said all of the above, I do know and understand the mindset well, myself. I used to have the same attitude. You grow accustomed to the theatre-like atmosphere at Championship and Premier League grounds. You start to believe that is football, true to the soul. I have news for you, kiddies and teenies – you’re fooling yourselves. Being a non-league fan doesn’t make me any more important than you, neither does it make my opinion any more valid than yours, but having watched live football at Championship, League One, Conference Premier, Conference North and Evo-Stik level in my time as a football fan, I feel I have some fairly decent grounding for my views and I can also back my opinion up if required.
I don’t truly know the reason as to why people don’t look into non-league football properly, and I doubt I ever will. I would hazard a guess that a lot of it has to do with the fact that they leap onto the common misconception that the quality of football is bad. In which case, let me ask you a couple of things: How often do you find yourself moaning about bad sequences of play while watching your side in action? How many times have you sat there in your seat, moaning about yet another long ball being punted forward? It happens at all levels. Intricate, tiki-taka passing also plays a part at all levels. I’ve watched various teams at lower levels of the game and seen some brilliant football played at times. As I’ve used Carlton Town already in this discussion, I’ll use them as an example here too. I’ve seen them play some great football, as well as some very poor, wayward, long ball stuff; every team has these periods in games. They play at Evo-Stik First Division level (Level 8 in the English football pyramid) and have kept me entertained on more than one occasion. Teams like Carlton deserve more fans, and perhaps I am speaking with a certain degree of bias, but they genuinely do deserve to be playing in front of bigger crowds. There are people at clubs around their league who are fans of their brand of football and the way in which they conduct themselves, and to be looked upon in that way at such a level is a lovely thing, I think. Crowds between 90 and 150 don’t do these kinds of clubs justice.
Another poignant and perhaps regrettably factual reason is that the lower level game isn’t glorified in any way, shape or form. Premier Sports have shown Conference level football on TV in recent years, but it’s not even a drop in the ocean compared to the coverage the Premier League and even the Championship gets. This opens up another debate though, is this lack of mainstream attention a good or a bad thing? One of the big pulling points towards non-league football for me is the exclusivity of it and feeling as if you matter. Would you be approached by senior members of staff at your Football League club? Maybe, but probably not. I’ve had Boston United players make an effort to actually trade words with me after games when they could have just walked past and not bothered to even acknowledge my existence and I’ve had Carlton Town’s commercial manager approach me and speak to me at great length during a game, about where I’m from, what brought me to go along to watch the team play, greyhound racing and much more. It feels good to matter, as soft and corny as that sounds. I didn’t really know how to react to the Boston players as I didn’t expect to be even looked at. The human element is a massive, massive pulling point for me. As a result, I’d be far more inclined to spend my £12 on Boston United or £8 on Carlton Town (when a Boston away day proves too expensive for one week) than my £28-32 on Nottingham Forest these days. You will already have formed an opinion of me based on that statement, and you’re welcome to share that with me, but it won’t affect my words or my motives. It’s still football, and it’s still enjoyable to watch if you have an ounce of admiration for the club you’re watching. Taking in games of different clubs you wouldn’t usually visit can result in strange connections and that’s what happened to me with Carlton. First impressions are everything and never have I felt so welcome at a football club as I did with them (possibly with the exception of Buxton).
It’s down to you how you wish to view different levels of football. This post wasn’t created to take swipes at the Football League, it was created to argue for the case of our smaller and often more local clubs that are regularly overlooked.
As an end-note, please keep your preconceived opinions on non-league football to yourself. If you’ve been to non-league games before and disagree or have had differing experiences from my own, don’t shy away from commenting at the bottom of the page. I have time for people who have taken the time to experience a different level of football, I have absolutely no time, however, for people who draw for the pathetic and obnoxious “Sunday league” comments, having never hoisted themselves out of an armchair for a Saturday afternoon.
Good day to you all!
Under The Floodlights 