Written by Nick Upton
Sir Halley Stewart Field – Home of Spalding United Football Club
I’ll make this clear from the off; I don’t like Spalding United. They epitomise what’s wrong with football and what’s wrong with seemingly blind businessmen who nudge themselves into the lower echelons of our footballing pyramid. Smart people who run at least somewhat respectable and successful businesses transmute into frothy-mouthed, idiosyncratic gamblers – chaotically throwing their money into small clubs (like Spalding) and deluding their visions with desperation for success. These people are the woody nightshade of the more modest footballing world. You wouldn’t mind, but there are clubs around their level who have tried this and failed, ultimately costing their existence. One would predict that such owners would take note of this and realise that you can only buy success and live your simple dream up to a certain point.
To give you an idea of how ‘The Tulips’ got themselves into this position, I’ll give you a brief timeline of events. There were troubles in the 2000/2001 season, where the club finished 18th in the Southern League Eastern Division, Spalding made an OK start and were even top of the league for a short while, but entered a lengthy slumber and found themselves at the aforementioned depths as the season reached its climax. They were, however, granted a stay of execution by the league as two other sides resigned (if anyone has further information on who those teams were, please let me know) meaning that the Lincolnshire outfit, through no act of their own, staved off relegation. It would take a further season for things to get pear-shaped at the South Holland club, finances started to dwindle, I suspect their gates were equally as low as they still remain to this day, new players and managers came and went… it was a turbulent time. One of the men involved in the new-look Spalding setup was Alex Irvine, who in the 2002-2003 campaign took matters into his own hands to replace the departing chairman Alan Mitchell. He sustained the club during this period and it was him who introduced the current chairman Chris Toynton to the club; an appointment their fans would probably look back on as bittersweet. A succession of managers, again, came and went. The club escaped relegation once more, but produced little much else to celebrate.
Since Toynton took over at the club, they have returned to the United Counties League (where they currently reside), they’ve won two East Anglian Cups, finished 18th in the Northern Premier League (2004/05), had three management spells under Alan Biley, been relegated to the Southern League, faced a mass exodus of players in 2011 as the club continued to fail and then-manager Richard Scott resigned, claiming that “The club will never go anywhere while he [Toynton] is in charge.” Scott’s point was aimed at the lack of stability and consistency at the club; he had a point. Between 2004 and 2011, Spalding had seen 8 managers come and go and a huge turnover of players during that time. Not exactly top grounds for progression.
Mark Jones playing football on a park for Spalding United
Since the 2012/13 season however, Pat Rayment has been in charge and given a free role over transfers, it would appear. The wealth of players who are far too good for United Counties League level is there for all to see. The likes of Lee Canoville, Mark Jones, Nathan Stainfield and Peter Bore stand out a mile. I fail to see how having players of this standard is financially sustainable at that level. I stop myself from calling it pub football because I do like AFC Rushden & Diamonds and if I looked closer, I’d no doubt respect other clubs in Spalding’s league. My point is, Mark Jones was banging them in, in the Blue Square North – notching 14 in 29 appearances for Boston United before making the questionable move to Gainsborough Trinity in January 2013. He’s still an exceptional striker at that level and for his standards, it is pub football. Seeing him waste away in the UCL merely for a bigger paycheck is saddening. Consider that in his words, he accepted an “unbelievable offer” from Gainsborough that led him to leave The Pilgrims in the first place, what must he be on at Spalding? This is my point when it comes to idiotic chairmen who don’t have a first clue about football. Toynton has already shown his petulance and insecurity with his succession of previous sackings, I’m sure Richard Scott wouldn’t have had so many bad words to say about him if he wasn’t a complete moron either, to be quite frank. The hilarious thing is, that he was quoted in the local paper in 2005, saying “The Conference dream is still alive.” Brilliant. I should at this stage, point out that Toynton isn’t the only one with money behind Spalding. In the same article he was quoted in, it makes it very clear that “millionaire entrepreneur” Bert Jukes had also been unveiled as a new board member.
Looking at the rest of their squad, which includes Chris Hall (yet another ex-Boston United player) and ex-Nottingham Forest youngster Sam Mullarkey, it’s hard to predict when the spending will slow down. The current board have already been in place for a while now, but how long will their ridiculous plan continue? How many genuine clubs will miss out on a deserved promotion thanks to a club run like a machine? The club gets an average gate of just over 100, at non-league ticket prices you’re not going to make a profit on your spending when you’re pulling in such small crowds. Also, where do this board believe their target market is? Spalding has a population of under 30,000 people. They’re in a pocket of Lincolnshire surrounded by villages and small towns. Boston United have their own fanbase, further to the East in Norfolk, even King’s Lynn have their own fans. Nobody cares enough about Spalding and they never will. They’re even less attractive these days when you consider the generally negative opinion about money in English football is spreading throughout the country and finally starting to turn heads. People are wising up to it and in my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before Spalding’s owners realise the enormity of their self-laden task and bottle it. That day will be a day I shall make a toast to football and the good fans out there, who will have done their job.
Until then, clubs like Spalding United and chairmen like Chris Toynton remain a very real problem.
Under The Floodlights 