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Post by hatter_in_macc on Aug 8, 2017 17:42:58 GMT
Here is the first of them, from tonight's programme, then (with grateful thanks to the three players I was able to interview). Happy reading!
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GUEST INFORMANT: CURZON ASHTON
Hatter in Macc has a bash at finding out more about ‘The Nash’
Football-related statues outside stadia are both a relatively new phenomenon - with those at Molineux (Billy Wright), Old Trafford (Matt Busby) and St James’ Park (Jackie Milburn) having set the trend in 1996 - and tend to be a feature of grounds belonging to much bigger and older clubs than Curzon Ashton.
But the bronze sculpture which has stood since late 2010 at the entrance to the Tameside Stadium - which The Nash have called home for the last dozen of their 54 years - is one of the more interesting and unusual ones to be found up and down the country.
It honours a trio who, between them, neither played, nor took managerial charge of, a single match for the club. But what they do share is a proud place in Tameside’s footballing history - having all been born there, and gone on to win World Cup winners’ medals.
Ashton-born 1966 hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Armfield, who hails from Denton, were, of course, fellow members of England’s successful squad. And the third figure depicts Simone Perrotta, who was also born in Ashton - but left for Italy as a six-year-old, before featuring for The Azzurri when they lifted the trophy in 2006.
Or, to put it in positional terms, a predatory striker, a stylish full-back and a cultured midfielder. And what do you know - in Matty Warburton, Connor Hampson (albeit operating on the left, as opposed to Armfield’s right) and Sam Walker, we at County have this year filled the self-same roles with players who previously plied their trade just over nine miles up the road in OL7!
Time, then, to speak with the intrepid trio and get ourselves immersin’ in things Curzon…
The three players were at the club for differing spells - albeit ones that overlapped, and most notably in 2013/14 and 2014/15 when The Nash achieved back-to-back promotions from the Evo-Stik First Division North and Premier to occupy the place that they have since held with some comfort in the Vanarama National League North.
It has been a remarkable rise for an outfit that began life only just over half a century ago in the Manchester League as Curzon Amateurs, following a merger between Ashton Amateurs and Curzon Road Methodists. And Sam, who skippered The Nash in both of their recent promotion campaigns, before moving to Halifax Town during the summer of 2015, has no doubt that a collectively ambitious heart continues to beat at the Tameside Stadium.
“When I signed there in 2011, it was clearly a club on the rise,” he recalls.
“Curzon’s big aspirations were a perfect match for my own, and it was fantastic, a couple of years later, to lead the team to those two promotions.
“There is also a great infrastructure in place, and plenty of potential for future development.”
Matty, who had two spells at Curzon, interrupted by a stint with Salford City in the first half of last season when he was briefly reunited with Sam, has no doubt that The Nash have not sacrificed good footballing principles on the pitch for progress.
“We played - and the club continues to play - an attractive style of football,” says County’s new man at Number Ten.
“There was a tremendous feeling of togetherness on our way up through the leagues, too, as we all played for each other.”
While Sam and Matty have several previous clubs to their names, Connor had literally remained with Curzon ‘man and boy’ before moving to Edgeley Park back in February.
“I was there from the age of six,” he explains, “so it was all I had known - and a great family club.”
And the fond memories that the three players have of playing for The Nash look certain to be re-ignited this evening - but only, of course, once the game is over and, hopefully, three points have been won by the Hatters!
“We are all still close to many of the current squad now,” says Sam. “It will be good to catch up with them afterwards.”
And the other two, having experienced at first hand, matches between County and Curzon in SK3, would surely settle for a repeat of the 3-1 scoreline that went in the Hatters’ favour when the sides last met five months ago - with Connor and Matty on opposing teams!
“It was an impressive performance, and a good win”, says Connor, who was by then a County player. “I did get some stick from both sets of lads for giving away a spot-kick at the death, mind.”
“Not from me, you didn’t,” quips Matty. “I stuck away the penalty, remember!”
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Aug 12, 2017 12:44:03 GMT
Today's piece below - with grateful thanks to my interviewee... a certain Heavener, who, mentioning no names, has a strong link to the town from which our opponents hail!
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GUEST INFORMANT: HARROGATE TOWN
Hatter in Macc isn’t scared to get happy with the sparkling spa-folk
Here in SK3, the tradition until the current season has been to roll out the Edgeley Park welcome mat for this afternoon’s visitors on high days and holidays only.
Both our first and second seasons at this level saw the ‘Sulphurites’ play here on the final day of the campaign concerned. And County fans will have particularly nostalgic memories of the inaugural closer, in April 2014, when our then-skipper Phil Jevons ended his playing career with a fairytale brace.
The last two annual schedules, meanwhile, have pitted us against each other in the Boxing and New Year’s Day ‘double-header’ fixtures - for reasons, it is fair to say, that were never entirely obvious to either side, given the 140-plus miles of return-travel
involved!
So today, by comparison, is less of a red letter day in footballing calendar terms - although, of course, it is noteworthy as the first Saturday of the season to see competitive action at EP. And, besides, we should not expect the enthusiasm or general exuberance of visiting Harrogatians to be dented in the slightest at the prospect of coming over here on a more ordinary-looking date.
For one thing, their team is in the ascendancy. Having turned full-time in the summer, and got Town’s new era, as well as the 2017/18 campaign, off to a cracking start with last
Saturday’s four-goal thumping of Nuneaton Town, and a win at North Ferriby in midweek, hopes are high that the Sulphurites are now well equipped to spring their way out of a league in which they have remained since becoming founder members for 2004/05.
And then there is Harrogate the place - voted the happiest town in Britain under Rightmove’s annual survey for three straight years, before having to settle for third place, behind Troon and new winners Leigh-on-Sea, in 2016. (As we go to press, news is eagerly awaited by our visitors of this year’s result, and a hoped-for return to the top spot.)
Perhaps even more impressively, during 2014, the Secretescapes holiday website’s research declared Harrogate one of the world’s most romantic travel destinations - leaving the likes of Paris, Rome and Vienna heartbroken in its wake.
Sounds like Heaven! Can it all possibly be true?
To find out, it happened to be easier than sending your correspondent to Harrogate on an all-expenses-paid, five-star… erm, ‘fact-finding’ mission (sob). For we have a lifelong County fan already settled there! Step forward Drew Moxon, who moved to the fashionable spa town 12 years ago.
“It really does live up to its billing as a nice place to live and work,” says Drew.
“The people are genuinely welcoming, the surrounding countryside is scenic, and, of course, the town has the original Bettys Café.
“It has also built on its reputation by staging a free ‘Happygate' Festival for all the family!”
And do the goings-on at Wetherby Road (or the CNG Stadium, if you will) reflect this wider joie de vivre?
“I would say so,” reflects Drew. “When I first arrived here, Town were struggling to get local support - especially with Leeds not far away, and York City, at the time, playing at a higher level - so the club often relied on neutrals to boost its attendances.
“I have been myself a few times, always wearing a County top - and was struck by how many other different club colours were on show. It was as if Harrogate were many people’s favourite second team - and, to be fair, the banter between the various groups of fans there was very friendly and light-hearted, which always made for a great afternoon out!
“But Harrogate as a club is really on the up, now that money has been put into it. There is a properly-established fanbase, and a belief among supporters that this could be their season.
“It hasn’t been unusual for them to start their campaigns well in recent years - only to peter out after Christmas. This time around, though, having extra funds for the squad could make a crucial difference and keep the momentum going.
“And the 3G pitch [installed in place of grass a year ago] has enhanced Town’s links with the community. Having a facility like that for the public - including my own team, which now plays there! - will only generate more support for the club.”
A happy town, then. And indeed, by all accounts, a happy Town. With apologies to the late Ian Dury, success for the Sulphurites this term would without doubt represent a ‘Reason (for Harrogatians) to be Cheerful, Part Three’.
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Aug 26, 2017 10:06:30 GMT
Latest article, for today's programme, below - including an interview with a lady from the Gainsborough Tourist Office (and, yep, there really is such a thing!):
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GUEST INFORMANT: GAINSBOROUGH TRINITY
Hatter in Macc heads east to Lincolnshire, and back in time, to uncover some fascinating history - as well as some County… erm, Lincs
The National League North’s 22 clubs currently include eight that once plied their trade in the Football League. County, lest we need reminding, are one of them - having initially, and proudly, held membership way back in 1900.
But even we Hatters were pipped at the post when it came to first joining the FL by today’s visitors, who became members of the then-only-four-year-old Second Division in 1896.
And so it came to pass that the ‘Holy Blues’ - founded some 23 years previously at the instigation of Reverend George Langton Hodgkinson (1837-1915), vicar of the town’s Holy Trinity Church and a one-time right-handed batsman for Oxford University (where he was awarded his cricketing ‘Blue’) - were to remain at that level until they failed to be re-elected at the end of 1911/12.
The Hatters’ own progress in Division Two had suffered a brief interruption during 1904/05, which saw them return to the Lancashire League for a season. Nevertheless, their fortunes did enjoy sufficient overlap with Trinity’s in the early years of the 20th Century for the two clubs to rub shoulders with each other over 11 campaigns.
Gainsborough were to play a part in Edgeley Park’s history, too, by becoming the first-ever side to concede a goal here! The noteworthy strike occurred on 13 September 1902, and in County’s inaugural League match at EP, as the teams fought out a one-all draw.
Only a handful of players have turned out for both County and Trinity over the last hundred years or so - but, as coincidence would have it, one of their number, Joe Raby, scored for the Hatters on that historic day.
Many present-day supporters of both clubs will remember with great fondness the free-scoring Luke Beckett, who is nowadays the best-known and loved footballer with a playing link to each (County, 2002-04; Trinity, 2008-11). But our great-great-grandparents would have gone into similar raptures about Raby, a diminutive inside-forward who lit up games with his pace - and weighed in with a few goals for good measure.
A Lincolnshire lad by birth, Raby enjoyed three spells at Gainsborough between 1894 and 1902 - netting 25 times in 76 matches - before becoming a Hatter, scoring in what was only his second game for County and remaining at EP for nearly two years (52 appearances, 12 goals). A Gainsborough connection remained beyond his playing career and until the end of his life - as he passed away there in 1954, aged 81.
The sharing of the spoils at EP in 1902 followed a defeat and a victory against Trinity at the Hatters’ previous Green Lane ground. And County’s home ‘head-to-head’ statistics were to remain in much the same, and rather so-so, vein (Won 4, Drew 2, Lost 5) throughout the clubs’ mutually-shared Football League seasons. This, though, was positively sparkling form when compared with our woeful record (W0, D6, L5) in reverse-fixtures at The Northolme - a place at which we were seemingly destined never to win, until a Kristian Dennis hat-trick helped settled that particular score in 2014.
The Northolme has, since 2015, gone by the title, for sponsorship purposes, of The Gainsborough Martin & Co Arena. But it is by its traditional name that Trinity’s stadium occupies a place in history - as the oldest football ground where one club has played continuously.
The Holy Blues moved in 1884 to The Northolme - where cricket matches had already been staged for over three decades, and for more than 20 years before Reverend Hodgkinson had formed his ‘Trinity Recreationists’ club for the wider benefit of football-curious parishioners.
Quite a venue of historical interest, then. And yet TripAdvisor omits any mention of The Northolme when listing its ‘Top 20 Things to Do in Gainsborough’ for the discerning visitor!
A garden centre, a golf course and two antique shops make the list. So, what gives? A chat with the Gainsborough Tourist Office is required, to highlight this apparent snub.
“Really?”, exclaims the GTO’s Marion Thomas. “I shall have to take a look at the TripAdvisor suggestions, if that’s the case!
“We are very proud of our town’s club and its history. And we advertise all of Trinity’s matches, as well as any special events going on at the ground.
“Obviously, with access restricted to match-days, The Northolme isn’t a tourist attraction in the conventional sense - but we would encourage anyone to go and enjoy an afternoon or evening there when a game is on.”
Hatters yet to visit Gainsborough, and its playing field with a place in footballing history: make a note in your diaries for 17 March 2018. We have won on three of our last four trips there, too…!
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Sept 2, 2017 12:36:13 GMT
Here is my piece for today's programme about The Avenue - including a chat with Mark Ross:
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GUEST INFORMANT: BRADFORD PARK AVENUE
Hatter in Macc travels through time to look at the curious life of another old Football League rival, before making it back to catch up with a recent ex-Hatter at the modern-day Avenue
For the second home match running - and following Gainsborough Trinity’s visit to Edgeley Park last Saturday, which saw us… erm, gain three more very useful points - we welcome to SK3 a club with whom we once rubbed shoulders in the Football League.
(Actually, there will be a hat-trick of such greetings to extend next Tuesday, when Southport come a-visiting - but more of them in the next issue!)
Of all the eight ex-League outfits (including County, of course) currently in the National League North, only Bradford Park Avenue - so named after the club’s former ground, a mile or so away from today’s Horsfall Stadium - have reached the promised land of English football’s top flight.
An all-time highest finish of ninth was achieved in 1914/15, before The Great War intervened. And although Avenue hung on to their First Division status for the following two post-war seasons, relegation at the end of 1921/22 saw them not only lose their place at the top table, but also begin a steady decline that led to the club, less than half a century later, failing to seek re-election after three consecutive bottom-place finishes in the Fourth Division between 1968 and 1970.
It was a sad end to Avenue’s Football League career, which had been earned the hard, and a peculiar, way in 1908, after the infant club, knocked back by a rejection to join the previous year, had taken up a vacancy to ply its trade in the Southern League - with trips to and from Northampton Town, nearly 140 miles away, the closest thing on offer by way of ‘local derbies’!
Seasons shared in the League by Avenue and County tended to be concentrated before World War One and after World War Two, and, at 23, were relatively modest in number. But just as last Saturday’s opponents Gainsborough were on the receiving end of some history in 1902, as the team that conceded the inaugural County goal at Edgeley Park, so, too, were Avenue, when, on 19 September 1908, the Hatters - through amateur forward T.C. (Chris) Porter - became the first-ever visitors to score, and to register a League victory, at Park Avenue.
Another connection of sorts between the two clubs saw legendary striker Jim Fryatt (at Edgeley Park from 1967-68, and, subsequently, but briefly, in 1974) get his name in the record books whilst an Avenue player at an earlier stage of his career. The time of the opener scored by ‘Pancho’ in Bradford against Tranmere Rovers on 25 April 1964 was four seconds - the fastest-ever Football League goal.
Avenue’s departure from the League was followed by liquidation after just four years, in 1974. And although the club was reactivated forthwith to play Sunday football, it was 1988 before it became fully reformed to take part in Saturday competitions - in the first instance, as a 13th-tier side in Division Three of the West Riding County Amateur League.
The road back up the many steps of the non-league pyramid, over the last 29 years, has been a long one. But, following a brief, albeit doomed, initial taste of the (then) Conference North as founder members in 2004/05, Avenue have since consolidated themselves at this level with a period of residence that dates back half a decade.
During that period - and, most particularly, the last couple of seasons - there have been enough former Hatters subsequently joining Avenue to form a team by themselves (without a recognised goalkeeper, mind)! Lamin Colley, Liam Dickinson, Paul Marshall, Sanchez Payne, Danny Schofield and Chris Sharp have all recently been to, and departed from, the Horsfall Stadium after spells at EP. And among Avenue’s current squad are Danny Boshell (who combines playing with duties as Assistant Manager), Gianluca Havern, Oli Johnson and Javan Vidal - as well as County’s captain from last term, Mark Ross.
The popular defender signed for Avenue, on a non-contract basis, seven days after this new season’s start. And, just three weeks further on, Mark is relishing an early trip back to play at EP.
“I loved my experience at County,” he says. “I was gutted to leave, but I really look forward to returning this Saturday.
“I’m still in touch with a lot of the players there - while Luca (Havern) is one of my best mates in football, so there is plenty of County talk over here, too!
“It’s felt like a rollercoaster summer for me - with the incredible experience of being part of the first V9 Academy intake followed by pre-season appearances for Chorley and Halifax that didn’t work out. And it was hard to sit out the first Saturday of the campaign without having a club.
“But I’m getting back into playing, and enjoying my football again with Avenue. And as I get settled, I’ll be finding out more about the club’s history.”
Welcome back this afternoon, Rossy. And happy reading!
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Sept 5, 2017 17:12:45 GMT
Tonight's piece for the programme - including brief chats with former 'Sandgrounders', Ben McKenna and Darren Stephenson:
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GUEST INFORMANT: SOUTHPORT
Hatter in Macc jumps aboard the Pier Tramway, and in good time to make some County connections with the other ‘Port
For all the ever-shifting debate that there is about when middle age actually begins, it may be pretty fair to say that one would have to be at such a stage of life now to remember Southport as a Football League club.
The ‘Sandgrounders’ - a term that describes both the town’s football team and native population - were, in 1978, the last club to leave the FL through the old re-election process, following a tied first ballot, and then an unsuccessful second one, against near-neighbours Wigan Athletic from the Northern Premier League.
Any Hatters recalling County’s last-ever competitive win against the Haig Avenue side - by the odd goal in three at Edgeley Park, four whole decades ago this October - would also have to confess to being middle-aged. And yet, for all the time that has since passed, there remain only 10 clubs other than Southport against whom we played in the League more frequently before leaving it ourselves in 2011.
The club formerly known as Southport Central, until 1918, and - and, by way of a brief, ground-breaking link with a (motor company) sponsor’s name - Southport Vulcan, joined the Third Division North, as founder members, in 1921. And the Sandgrounders were also present at the later birth, further to League re-organisation during 1958, of the Fourth Division. As a result, their paths were to cross quite often with the Hatters, both before and after the Second World War.
Even when, in later years, the two clubs achieved promotion and suffered relegation, they could not help but do so together. County’s Fourth Division title-winners of 1967 were accompanied by Southport as runners-up, while both sides dropped back to whence they came in 1970. The Sandgrounders did escape one more time from the basement division, and without the Hatters in their midst, when they finished as Champions at the end of 1972/73 - albeit still with a County connection in the form of manager Jimmy Meadows, who had brought the divisional trophy to EP six seasons earlier.
Several Southport bosses other than Meadows have arrived to take over the managerial reins at Haig Avenue - or, in more recent years, the Merseyrail Community Stadium - with a playing pedigree that included time spent in SK3. Current Wigan boss Paul Cook (at County as a midfield player from 1997 to 1999) managed the Sandgrounders in 2006/07 - while striker Peter Davenport (1995) did likewise the following season, before being replaced briefly by another ex-Hatter, midfielder Gary Brabin (1989-91), who was subsequently to return for a second stint in 2014/15.
And County goal-scoring legend Andy Preece (1991-94) was in the hot seat earlier this year, as Southport tried but ultimately failed to avoid relegation to the National League North - another league of which the club was a founder member (in 2004), and one of which it is so far the only team to be crowned as Champions twice (for 2005 and 2010).
Both of our close-season winger signings, Ben McKenna and Darren Stephenson, include Southport among their former clubs - with Ben having played there last term during the ill-fated tenure of ‘Preecey’.
As coincidence would have it, Ben joined the Sandgrounders from our most recent opponents - and another former Football League outfit - Bradford Park Avenue, in November 2016.
“I jumped at the opportunity of playing one step above in the National League,” he recalls. “When Southport came in for me, I couldn’t turn it down.
“We got a few wins after I started, too - but it’s a tough league, and we were having to compete with the likes of Lincoln and Tranmere, while training just three days a week.
“As it happened, we drew against (champions) Lincoln on the final day, but we were already down well before then. Worse still - with no chairman, and the manager (Preece) sacked, that afternoon was literally the last time the club had any contact with me - which ended things on a bit of a sour note, as I would have liked the chance to say goodbye properly.
“But I wish them all the best - and they have made a good start this season with a completely new set of players and staff.”
Darren’s spell at Haig Avenue, by contrast, was during 2012 - and at a time when the Sandgrounders (who finished seventh in his initial loan-spell there) were reaching the zenith of their third and most recent period in residence as members of non-league’s top flight.
“I wasn’t there for long,” says Darren, “but it was a well-run club, with great fans, and you could sense a good feeling about the place back then.”
Let it not be forgotten, either, that the Hatters were renewing their acquaintance with Southport around that time - albeit with very little success. Four (Blue Square Premier) league meetings, an FA Cup-tie and two FA Trophy matches between our clubs from 2011 to 2013 produced two draws, as well as a whopping five wins for the Sandgrounders. For County, so far as these particular opponents are concerned, we are now close to 40 years of hurt!
The pair of current Hatters who have played for both ‘Ports will, of course, be going all-out to play a part in ending that sequence. Or, as Darren succinctly puts it about his former club:
“Good luck to them after tonight. But I’d love to get one over them here!”
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Sept 23, 2017 12:36:32 GMT
Here is today's piece. 'Ferri' happy reading...  ***************************************************************************************************** GUEST INFORMANT: NORTH FERRIBY UNITEDHatter in Macc goes aboard a passing long ship to explore the most famous of all the FerribiesClubs in this season’s National League North hail from various types of settlement. The majority of these are towns and market towns, with the odd couple of spa towns - Harrogate, Leamington - and a quartet of cities - Bradford, Manchester (Moston), Salford and York - thrown in. But, of the League’s 22 members, only North Ferriby United can call themselves a village team - albeit from a fairly sizeable village (2011 population: 3,893). The aptly-nicknamed ‘Villagers’ from the East Riding of Yorkshire owe their roots to the Viking invasion which, over a thousand years ago, saw the development for the incoming long ships of individual communities around the Humber Estuary. Two such settlements that are still there today, on the north and the south banks, take their names from the Danish words Ferja bi - meaning ‘Place by a ferry’ - linked as they originally were by river crossings which had first been made in the Bronze Age using plank boats. North Ferriby was, and remains, the larger of the pair - although the modern-day North Lincolnshire village of South Ferriby (2001 population: 651) incorporates what was once a third one: Ferriby Sluice. Whether the tiny, over-awed Sluice hamlet threw in its lot with the South village following a suggestion in Medieval times that the three Ferribies might stage a triangular Shrovetide tournament involving some new-fangled kicking ball game, we can only speculate… But what we do know is that, a millennium or so further on from the Norse seafaring era, a village meeting was held on the Humber’s north bank to discuss the formation of a football team. Trilbies, rather than Viking helmets - and, for the ladies, bell-shaped cloche hats - were the fashionable headwear of the day during 1934 as the meeting voted in favour of founding North Ferriby United. And from small beginnings, prior to and immediately following the Second World War, in the East Riding Church and Amateur Leagues, the Villagers steadily rose through higher levels covering the whole of Yorkshire (from 1969) and the Northern Counties East (from 1982), before celebrating the advent of the 21st Century, during 1999/2000, with promotion to the Northern Premier League. In knockout tournaments, they were making their presence felt, too. Having reached the FA Vase Final, before losing to Whitby Town, in 1997, the club from the old Viking settlement plundered a record from mightier near-neighbours Hull City six years later by capturing the East Riding Senior Cup for a seventh successive season. Even headier heights were to be reached by North Ferriby when - together with, among others, County (albeit from the opposite direction) - they joined the-then Conference North in 2013: finishing runners-up in their first season; lifting the FA Trophy, after sensationally defeating Wrexham on penalties, in their second; and seeing off Fylde through the play-offs, to go up to non-league’s top tier, in their third. Don’t you just love a ‘Ferri’ tale?! Certainly, this would have been one - and a pretty remarkable one at that… had it ended in the summer of 2016. But real life since then has become difficult for the Villagers, who last term struggled throughout their National League campaign before suffering relegation. In the midst of it, their midweek trip to Chester on a freezing November night attracted publicity for all the wrong reasons when social media claimed that only two away supporters were in attendance to watch a 3-0 defeat (although subsequent reports upped the figure to six). And the current season has started badly, too. With over a quarter of it played, they find themselves in the National League North’s basement position, boasting just a single victory, a couple of draws and eight reverses - the most recent one of which saw them ship a whopping six at home to Spennymoor. So, I ask journalist Will Jackson, from the Hull Daily Mail, what has got in the way of a happy ending? “In a nutshell, the money has dried up,” explains Will. “Ferriby had a young squad last year, albeit one with promise for the future. But a number of the players went to Halifax (managed by the Villagers’ former boss, Billy Heath) or Guiseley this summer - and the club, with a very small purse, has tried to recruit from the lower leagues.” By way of an additional hampering factor, the Villagers can no longer rely on a supply of talented youth players on loan from Hull City - with the ‘Tigers’ opting instead to give their best cubs earlier first-team experience in professional competitions. It all adds up to the prospect of trickier times - a reality that, as Will adds, is not lost on Ferriby manager Steve Housham. “I spoke with the Steve at the start of this season, and he told me that his aim would be to try and stay out of the bottom three. He knew a tough year lay ahead. “The promotions and, in particular, the FA Trophy win created a real buzz on Humberside. And we saw good crowds at the Eon (Visual Media Stadium) when the likes of Lincoln visited last term. “But you have to remember that this is a part-time village side that has been punching above its weight - and is having to compete for local attention with (Hull) City, as well as two major Rugby League clubs.” So, will a fall follow their rise, just as it did for the Vikings who first settled in North Ferriby? Or can they arrest the decline? Either way, it will be interesting to see how the Villagers (closing-pun alert!) fare. |
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Oct 14, 2017 12:45:05 GMT
Today's piece follows below. And if Ancient Greek warriors don't float your boat, you can skip to the second half and read what 'Super Al' had to say to me...!
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GUEST INFORMANT: BLYTH SPARTANS
Hatter in Macc talks legendary Greek war and speaks with ‘wor’ County legend
The northernmost outfit in this, or indeed any, season’s National League North owes both its existence and its distinctive suffix to one Fred Stoker, who in 1899 not only founded a football club for the Northumberland port of Blyth but also named it after the iconic Greek Spartan army from over two thousand years earlier.
After getting these late Victorian Spartans up and running as the club’s inaugural Secretary, Stoker moved south to pastures and challenges new - becoming an eminent Harley Street physician and consultant, as well as a talented gardener, and writing learned works about both medicine and horticulturalism.
But what Stoker had left behind on the playing field from his younger days has arguably stood the test of time better than his subsequent high-brow treatises.
The club he founded is undoubtedly one of non-league’s famous names - partly due to its memorable moniker, and partly to its actual achievements. The last half-century, in particular, has seen the Spartans become a force to be reckoned with in the Northern League, before moving further up the pyramid to where they are today. And their FA Cup reputation goes before them - with Bournemouth, Stoke, Bury, Chesterfield, Crewe and, lest we forget (at Croft Park in 1971/72), County among Football League opponents that they have slain.
When Stoker named the club after one of the most feared military forces in history, it might well have been on a whim - not uncommon in the era of the late-19th Century amateur game - that the hardy and athletic classical allusion would spur players on to heroic deeds when in ‘battle’ on the pitch. But, inadvertently, he also set himself up as the founding father of giant-killing!
The original, infantry-based Spartans had, of course, gone in for the kill to great effect themselves - especially between the Sixth and Fourth Centuries BC, the era of the Messenian, Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, when they were at their most feared - but they trained intensely and placed great emphasis on tactics, too. And these latter qualities - rather than simply sharing a name with some Ancient Greek hard-cases - are ones that translate more readily into modern-day football.
Or do they? Time to check with a man who, as current Blyth boss, will know - and, given his legendary status as a County striker between 1994 and 1998, time to reminisce a tad as well.
“What I’ve learned so far above all,” begins Alun Armstrong about his first job in football management, “is the need to treat your players with respect.
“They’re the ones doing the work on the pitch, and you’ve got to start by looking after your own.”
The Spartan army certainly fought well as a community, and, two millennia on, there is no doubt that the fledgling gaffer’s notion of creating at Croft Park a feeling of togetherness at his club has been working wonders. He has only been in charge for just over a year - but last season oversaw two separate 12-game unbeaten runs that helped sweep Blyth to the Northern Premier League title at a canter, and avenge a Northumberland Senior Cup Final defeat to North Shields from 2015/16.
Not bad going at all, especially considering he had managerial greatness rather unexpectedly thrust upon him!
“I had been coaching for a few years at Middlesbrough’s Academy, when I got a call out of the blue about coming here to work as (then-Spartans manager) Tom Wade’s number two,” he recalls.
“The idea was that I wouldn’t take charge until this season, but Tom resigned (after an FA Cup defeat to local rivals Morpeth Town last September) and I stepped into the role. It was a huge shock, but I just had to get on with it.
In approaching the inevitable steep learning curve that accompanied an unfamiliar job, he did, at least, have some role models for inspiration from his Football League playing days at County, Middlesbrough, Ipswich and Darlington.
“I learned a lot from Danny Bergara, Dave Jones, Bryan Robson, George Burley and Dave Hodgson,” he explains. “They did different things well, and I tried to keep all the good bits in my head.”
And this afternoon will bring with it a much-anticipated ‘full-circle’ moment, as ‘Super Al’, who netted 49 times in 160 appearances as a Hatter, returns to Edgeley Park.
“This was the first game I looked for when the fixtures came out,” he says.
“I was extremely grateful to Danny Bergara for bringing me to County. I was only 19, and moving away from home for the first time, but loved my time there and will never forget it.
“The fans were fantastic to me, and, while it’s sad to see County where they are, the club is still getting great support at this level. I’m sure they’ll come through.”
Welcome back, Al. Let us hope as Hatters that you are right, and - ending as we begun on a battle-related note - that Leo Tolstoy was also on the money when proclaiming: ‘The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.’!
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Oct 28, 2017 12:08:49 GMT
This afternoon's piece below - with my interviewee today a former Kidderminster mayor and rabid Harriers fan!
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GUEST INFORMANT: KIDDERMINSTER HARRIERS
Hatter in Macc does his civic duty and meets a football-mad Mayor
Researching for this column never ceases to throw up what are, for me at least, previously-unknown feats and records achieved by clubs about to visit Edgeley Park.
And today’s visitors are no exception: ‘Kiddy’ are the only club from Worcestershire ever to have plied their trade in the Football League (which they did from 2000 to 2005); their Aggborough ground was the venue for the first-ever floodlit FA Cup-tie, a Preliminary Round replay against Brierley Hill Alliance in 1955; and they took part in the first competitive match to be staged at the new Wembley Stadium, losing by the odd goal in five to Stevenage in the 2007 FA Trophy Final, as well as in front of a 53,262 crowd that remains a record attendance for the competition.
The Harriers are also the only current National League North representatives to have reached the Welsh Cup Final - twice, actually, before losing to Wrexham in 1986 and Swansea City three years later - although AFC Telford United’s predecessors did steal across the marches to lift that particular silverware on three occasions as Wellington Town.
Since 1983, they have featured as near-perennials at non-league’s top level - only taking time out from the Conference (as was) or National League (as is) for their quinquennium in the sunshine, just after the turn of this century, as a Football League outfit, and, more recently, following relegation to the National League North at the end of the season before last.
Over the 38 years since the National League began life, in 1979, as the Alliance Premier, the Harriers have been there for 28 - and, throughout that time, Marcus Hart has been cheering them on.
In one sense, Marcus is no ordinary fan. For he is Councillor Hart, the Leader of Wyre Forest Council - the local government district that covers Kidderminster - and has also served as the town’s Mayor.
But in the footballing sense, he is very much an ordinary, and a true, fan, turning up to games in pullover and jeans, sitting with his father and among other Kiddy supporters, and never holding back when it comes to giving vocal support or - on occasions, shall we say - ‘advice’!
“My Dad started taking me in the early 1980s, when I was five or six,” recalls Marcus, now 39.
“In those days, the old East Stand (where Kiddy’s large cantilever stand, that includes a seated area for visiting fans, is now situated) was the ‘Cowshed’ - and we stood there to begin with.
“An athletics track ran around the pitch, and the North Stand was just a covered bank.”
It was among these surroundings that the club was first in Marcus’ blood - and during his teenage years, he was to experience the first of a series of highlights as a supporter when the Harriers, in 1993/94, became what was then only the fifth non-league side of post-war times to reach the FA Cup Fifth Round.
“We went to Birmingham and won, before beating Preston at home and then losing narrowly here to West Ham. It was a fantastic run, and my solid support for the side - home and away - really dates from that time.
“Then, when we made it into the Football League, we hosted the likes of Blackpool and Swansea who would bring away followings of between five hundred and a thousand, which made for a great atmosphere at Aggborough.
“Another day to remember was our trip to the ‘new’ Wembley in 2007 - with dozens and dozens of coaches taking fans down there from Kidderminster. It was a great occasion… apart from the result - we lost after being two-up at half-time!”
A year following that, in 2008, Marcus - by then a 30-year-old solicitor specialising in criminal law in Birmingham - had become Kidderminster’s youngest-ever Mayor. Not that his ceremonial chains of office got in the way of him continuing to take a seat alongside fellow Harriers, mind - as he politely declined VIP hospitality to do so at the Ricoh Arena, when Kiddy visited Coventry City in the 2008/09 FA Cup!
And since 2014, he has been Leader of the Council - without any intention of changing his ways as a supporter when Saturday comes.
“Dad and I have sat in the same seats, and on the same row, for as long as I can remember now,” he says.
“Many people at Aggborough know me - but as a fan, and not just a public figure. They may catch me for a word at half-time, or on the way out, about what’s going on in the town - but
always leave me to watch the games!”
Not a bad way of complementing work with play - given that, to misquote Sartre slightly, in football, as in politics, everything is complicated by the presence of the opposition!
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Nov 4, 2017 13:34:53 GMT
Here is today's piece - including a chat with the genuinely nice Harry Winter:
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GUEST INFORMANT: FC UNITED OF MANCHESTER
With British Summer Time over, Hatter in Macc turns his thoughts to Winter and chats with Harry
That old phrase, ‘Haven’t we met before?’, hardly bears repeating when it comes to this afternoon’s visitors, who we meet today on a fourth occasion - and for the third time at Edgeley Park - in 2017.
Memories will, of course, be reasonably (and a tad painfully) fresh in the minds of Hatters, so far as the two most recent meetings are concerned. For they saw the ‘Red Rebels’ not only claw back a three-goal deficit here to force an FA Cup replay, but also, three days later in Moston, go through to the Fourth Qualifying Round at County’s expense - courtesy of a single goal on the Broadhurst Park turf, and despite two red-carded home players off it.
Our first encounter of the calendar year was rather further back, in mid-February, and was sufficiently long ago for Harry Winter to recall County’s win by the odd goal in three as a member of the opposition.
Around a dozen other players have now plied their trade in some form for both the Hatters and FC United. And with a goalkeeper (James Spencer), as well as defenders (Tom Eckersley, Jordan Fagbola, Kyle Jacobs, Dale Tonge), midfielders (Richie Baker, Sam Sheridan, Andy Welsh, Greg Wilkinson) and attackers (Micah Evans, Tom Fisher, Glynn Hurst) in relatively equal distribution, among their number, there would be the basis for an inter-club squad that required little tinkering.
This imaginary ‘FC County United’ outfit would, of course, need a captain. But who better to fill the role than Harry, who has skippered the two real-life teams - as well as contributing to each his trademark midfield bite?
Indeed, he was FC United’s captain on that… erm, winter’s afternoon earlier this year - which proved especially memorable for him, albeit not quite for all the right reasons.
“I broke my nose that day,” Harry explains. “And I was receiving treatment on the touchline when County’s first goal (by one-time Fleetwood loanee, Elliot Osborne) went in just before half-time.
“Ben Hinchliffe saved my shot with his legs after the break, too, so it wasn’t really my day!”
But any Winter discontent over the outcome for his then-team - before a crowd of 5,630 that set a new attendance record at the time for the National League at Step Two (North/South Divisions) - was soon mollified somewhat by the prospect of a move down the M60 to join the victorious hosts. And, just over a fortnight later, Harry was a Hatter.
“The game at Edgeley turned out to be my second-to-last for FC,” he recalls. “Two weeks after that, I played when they beat Kidderminster 1-0, and the following Tuesday I signed for County.”
The transfer brought to an end Harry’s association with FC United, which had extended back to November 2015 when he arrived at Broadhurst Park from our next visitors here, Chorley. But he certainly enjoyed his time playing for the largest supporter-owned football club in the UK - which, since its formation by disgruntled Manchester United supporters 12 years ago, has risen four steps in the non-league pyramid to occupy a place in the National League North that it has now held for over two seasons.
“I felt pleased to go there,” Harry says. “I’m from Salford, and I was a United fan as a kid.
“I was made captain, and helped get FC to a respectable mid-table position in my first season. The fans liked me, and I felt appreciated.
“But when the opportunity came to move to Stockport, I couldn’t turn it down. I’m fully committed to County, of course, and really wanting to kick on here.”
Turning to this afternoon’s game, nothing could motivate Harry more than the chance to play a part in proceedings against his former club - with whom the Hatters so far during 2017 have enjoyed a victory, shared a draw and suffered, one month and one day ago, that rather ignominious replay-defeat.
“They have been struggling in the league this term - but, make no mistake, it will be a big game. If a match like this doesn’t get you fired up, nothing will.
“I am still in touch with Tom Greaves (who was made FC United’s caretaker player-manager, following the recent departure of Karl Marginson after 12 years in charge). Tom’s a nice lad, and he’ll have his team ready for us.
“I also keep in contact with Scott Kay, who was my midfield partner, and is now captain, there. But, obviously, any catching up will have to wait until after the game - and, hopefully, a County win!”
Quite right, too. And, as a supporter of the former US President Truman once famously urged his candidate of choice on the 1948 campaign trail, might we add… ’Give ‘em hell, Harry!’
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Nov 18, 2017 13:22:39 GMT
Latest article, for today's programme, below - including chats with former 'Magpies' Dan Cowan and Chris Smalley:
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GUEST INFORMANT: CHORLEY
Hatter in Macc takes tea and Chorley cake, while rolling back the years with the ‘Magpies’
They share their year of birth with County. They were the first club of those in this season’s National League North with whom we had a competitive fixture. And, until a year ago, they proved to be our ultimate bogey team - having remained unbeaten against us for 117 years!
Yes, the Magpies of Chorley and we Hatters go back a long, long way. Back, in fact, to the days of the late-19th Century Lancashire League, which not only admitted both clubs together for the 1894/95 campaign, but also determined that the two should play each other for their opening-day fixture on 1 September 1894.
The spoils were shared two-apiece that afternoon at County’s former Green Lane ground - which was also the venue on 4 November 1899, when goal-nets had been in use by the FA fewer than 10 years but the Hatters had the ball in Chorley’s three times without reply.
And following that, County failed to register another win - or even a draw - in a competitive match against Chorley until October last season, as Danny Lloyd’s route-one effort at Victory Park simultaneously secured all three points and exorcised a long-standing historical demon.
As well as having a shared ancient heritage, County and Chorley can list an extraordinarily long list of players who have plied their trade for both clubs. This writer gave up after going back no further in time than the 1920s and counting 35!
Around half of these were Hatters who turned out at Edgeley Park in our Football league days - including the likes of Frank Worthington, Neil Matthews, Andy Kilner, Kevin Ellison, Danny Pilkington and County’s record appearance-maker Andy Thorpe. And so the list has continued to grow during the seasons spent in non-league football since 2011. Former players from last season alone who also previously appeared for Chorley could have formed a five-a-side team (albeit with a ‘rush goalie’!), as Mark Ross, Max Cartwright, Courtney Meppen-Walters, Sefton Gonzales and Danny Lloyd all once wore the black and white stripes which give the Magpies their nickname.
Something similar applies for the respective current squads. One-time Hatter Kieran Charnock may this afternoon form part of our visitors’ defence, while no fewer than four players now at EP are former Magpies.
Darren Stephenson (in 2014/15 and 2015/16) and Harry Winter (2014/15) have both lined up against us for recent NLN encounters - with ‘Daz’ proving a particular source of torment, scoring four times in three winning appearances for Chorley. And a couple of our defenders - Dan Cowan and Chris Smalley - have also spent time with the Lancashire outfit - albeit at different times from their other two ex-Magpie club-mates, and over eight years apart from each other!
Dan went to Victory Park on loan from Macclesfield Town for a month late last autumn, while Chris spent two seasons in Chorley’s defence during his late teens when the club was in the Northern Premier League’s First Division - two tiers below where it now finds itself.
“I was at Myerscough College when I joined,” recalls Lancashire lad Chris, who hails from Darwen. “Phil Brown (Myerscough’s Football Development Manager) was assistant to Tony
Hesketh at Chorley back then, and going there gave me a good start.
“I ended up playing everywhere in defence - left-back, right-back and centre-half. I think the fans appreciated me for that! And I was among some good players.
“They were a mid-table club at the time, and playing in front of just a couple of hundred or so. But they have done really well since.”
Indeed, the Magpies have soared since the young Chris left them for Clitheroe in 2009. Within five years, Chorley made it into the NPL Premier Division, after beating Fylde in the 2011 play-offs, before reaching the NLN as champions of that division just over three years back.
Attendances at Victory Park these days more often than not exceed a thousand, rather than hovering around the 200 mark as they once did. And the club had already established itself very firmly as one of the stronger sides at its current level by the time Dan was loaned out there a year ago, as our regular Man at Number Two remembers.
“I wasn’t getting games at that stage for Macc,” he says. “Going to Chorley really helped my performance and confidence, and I enjoyed my time there.
“Matt Jansen is a very hands-on manager, and was supportive and positive to me. He gets the most out of his players, which helps explain their consistency. They’re a tight group, who gel well.”
And how we Hatters know it, especially from our first four meetings in modern times - all of which deservedly went the way of the Magpies, before County began to redress the balance a little last term with that Victory Park… erm, victory and a scoreless stalemate at Edgeley Park.
“We shall be in for a hard, tough game this weekend,” adds Chris. “And everyone here will need to be up for it.”
Chorley, truer words were never spoken.
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Dec 9, 2017 13:15:09 GMT
Today's programme-piece below - including thoughts from our visitors' Club Secretary/Kit Man on their NLN adventure thus far...
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GUEST INFORMANT: SPENNYMOOR TOWN
Hatter in Macc finds out ‘moor’ about the National League North new boys - and Frank Skinner’s Dad!
Spennymoor Town, as a club, is the new kid on the block in more ways than one. Formed as recently as 2005, the ‘Moors’ are enjoying their first season in the NLN after gaining promotion from the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League, courtesy of a single-goal victory over Stourbridge in the play-offs last term.
And ‘enjoying’ certainly is the operative word! Approaching the halfway-stage of the campaign, they travel to Edgeley Park in fifth place, as well as with a game in hand over all but one of the teams above them.
Their season began, of course, with a 1-0 defeat of the Hatters at Brewery Field in early August - meaning that, further to our win against North Ferriby the following month, Spennymoor are the only team we have never beaten in a competitive match. Hopefully, that will change today…!
The County Durham town of Spennymoor not only has a relatively new club to do it proud, but is also itself of comparatively tender years - having been founded on its coal-mining activity just ahead of the mid-19th Century. Prior to that, ‘Spenny Moor’ had for the most part been a vast, barren expanse of land where only outlaws and wild animals roamed with any regularity - although some organised activities such as horse racing and military training had, from time to time, taken place on the moor before the town came properly into being.
And it hardly needs adding that football arrived in the town well before a dozen years ago! The now-defunct Spennymoor United had played at Brewery Field from 1904 until folding before the end of the 2004/05 season - and those original Moors even did their bit for the world of comedy in 1937 when, on the evening following a Third Round FA Cup-tie at West Bromwich Albion, ‘Spenny’ player John Collins met, and later married, a local girl from the West Midlands town. Some 20 years later, their son, Christopher Graham Collins, was born - to become an avid ‘Baggies’ fan and the entertainer known to most of us by his stage name of Frank Skinner!
Fast-forwarding to the present, we find Spennymoor Town plying their trade at the same ground, and in the black and white stripes, of the original club that bore the town’s name - although the new outfit is technically a successor club to Evenwood Town, from a small village just over 10 miles away.
Both Evenwood Town and Spennymoor United had enjoyed success in the Northern League - with one club or the other claiming the title on eight occasions during the 12-year period from 1967 to 1979. And it was in Division Two of this, the world’s second-oldest league (after the Football League) where Spennymoor Town began life as a 10th-tier club - when County, sad to recall, still held a place six levels higher in League Two (and were yet to ascend briefly back up into League One).
From winning the Northern League Second Division title in 2007, the Moors have climbed four steps of the Non-League Pyramid in a decade. And they also contributed to the Northern League’s recent domination of the FA Vase by lifting that trophy for 2013.
So far, so successful. But how is the pre-teen Town feeling about it all? Time to chat with Club Secretary, David Leitch.
“It’s a case of one adventure at a time,” says David - who has been with Spennymoor since 2009, and doubles up his duties on match-days with those of Kit Man - “but we’re certainly enjoying the ride so far!”
Spennymoor, together with last term’s Northern Premier League Champions Blyth Spartans, look set to continue the pattern whereby clubs promoted from the NPL perform well in their first National League North campaign. Telford, Gateshead, Guiseley, Boston, Halifax, Chester, North Ferriby, Hednesford, Chorley, Fylde, Salford and Darlington have all, immediately following promotion, achieved top-five NLN finishes in the last 10 seasons. So, what is their secret?
“Getting into the National League North is a huge attraction for Northern Premier League clubs,” explains David, “and the NPL is of a good standard, which prepares them well - but they still need to adjust for the challenge.
“We believe we made some good adjustments over the summer, after winning the play-offs - and we are delighted to be in the NLN, playing good football.
“To be able to visit clubs with rich histories is exciting at this level, too. We’ve already scored a last-minute winner at Southport, and put away a late penalty to earn a draw at Kidderminster.”
Clearly, stepping out in front of crowds at former Football League grounds holds no fears for the Moors - and we can be sure that they will relish their trip to ours today, as David confirms.
“Oh, yes - we’re really looking forward to Edgeley Park. In fact, before travelling down, I’ll need to delete 20 to 30 photos on my phone so there’s enough space to do the visit justice!”
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Dec 26, 2017 13:26:49 GMT
Happy Boxing Day, fellow Heaveners!
Here is my piece in today's programme - including a chat with Kallum Mantack:
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GUEST INFORMANT: ALFRETON TOWN
Hatter in Macc talks festive double-headers, or - on this occasion - fixtures of two ‘Alfs’!
It’s official! The fixtures-computer is becoming kinder to County when it comes to scheduling the National League North’s traditional Boxing and New Year’s Day ‘double-header’ matches.
Conventionally, and conveniently, these public holiday contests have tended to involve clubs within close proximity of each other… other than ours, it seems! An inaugural festive seasonal coupling with Bradford Park Avenue in 2013/14 was not exactly a local derby - but, with a mile or two fewer than 50 separating the two clubs, a stroll on up to The Avenue felt like precisely that in comparison to the next three campaigns, which saw us paired with the more distant Harrogate Town (twice) in God’s own country of Yorkshire, and with Colwyn Bay in another country!
This year (to save us from tears), we at least get to do dual Yuletide battle with a club that both ticks the just-under-50-miles-away box and is from a county whose borders actually touch those of Cheshire! So, the Derbyshire ‘Reds’ of Alfreton Town may, in one sense, be described as neighbours - after a fashion. They also happen, in my experience, to be one of the most genuinely friendly clubs on the NLN circuit - which bodes well for goodwill!
Not that our paths have crossed competitively until recent years, mind. The current incarnation of today’s visitors - brought about following a merger of two clubs, Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alfreton United - only dates back to 1959 (although an earlier ‘Alfreton Town’ outfit had existed three decades or so years earlier). But, having worked their way up through the non-league pyramid over the next 52 years, the Reds were crowned Conference North Champions in 2011 - to enter the Blue Square Bet Premier (as was) from below at precisely the same time as County dropped into it from above.
Any sense of affinity that the two clubs might have felt through this perfectly-synchronised reversal of fates was utterly shattered before their first season together concluded and the Hatters found themselves on the wrong end of a 6-1 thumping at North Street (or the Impact Arena, if you will)!
But, that rout notwithstanding, County’s head-to-head record against Alfreton is relatively unblemished - with three wins and a goalless stalemate at Edgeley Park, as well as a pair of victories and last term’s draw in Derbyshire that together have gone some measure towards exorcising the away-day demons of 2011/12.
Defender Jordan Rose, who had two spells with the Hatters during 2010/11 and in 2012, scored (and memorably, if rather incongruously, celebrated!) County’s late consolation in defeat - and happens to be one of a dozen or so players who have plied their trade at both clubs. The list also includes a few others who, like Jordan, played for us during our Football League days and for Alfreton in later stages of their careers - such as goalkeeper Matt Duke, strikers Peter Duffield, Bob Newton and Neil Ross, and defender, as well as current Buxton manager, Martin McIntosh.
Fast-forwarding to the present, each side’s squad will contain a member who once turned out for the opposition. Chris Sharp, part of the Edgeley Park attack in 2014/15, is now an Alfreton player - having joined the Reds from Bradford Park Avenue this summer. And from within the County ranks, step forward Kallum Mantack - who spent five months at North Street around this time last season.
Alfreton were the first of three National League North sides to take Kallum on loan from parent club Oldham Athletic. (The right-sided player has since appeared, earlier this season, as a loanee at FC United of Manchester, before arriving at EP early last month.) And he remembers his stay in Derbyshire fondly.
“I was only 18 when I went out to Alfreton - and it was my first competitive loan,” he recalls.
“But they had a great bunch of lads there, everyone was good to me and I settled in quickly.
“I got plenty of game time, and did alright. During my spell, I played - as I have done with County - at right-back or wing-back and as a right winger, so it was all good experience.”
He also, coincidentally, made friends with a team-mate who had once played for the club that Kallum would himself join the following year - sharing lifts with former Hatter Paul Marshall, who lived nearby!
The midfielder, who was with County in 2013, has since moved on to last Saturday’s opponents Curzon Ashton. But, despite that and a few other changes to the Alfreton squad since Kallum’s time, our current Man(tack) feels he has a good idea of what to expect this afternoon and next Monday.
“Alfreton teams are always up for a battle, so they will be tough games,” he says.
“But I did manage to score for County against my last club (FCUM, on his debut). It would be good to do a personal double over Christmas!”
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Jan 6, 2018 13:43:21 GMT
Here is today's piece about the other SCFC - including 'bantz' with 'G-Stop'...
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GUEST INFORMANT: SALFORD CITY
Hatter in Macc gets ‘out of his league’ with telly-stardom, the Class of ’92… and G-Stop!
Right now, the stock of Salford’s football club in the world of non-league is high - and still rising. And for a good number of Salfordians, living in a major English city without a Football League outfit to call its own, the development is well overdue.
In 2026, Salford will celebrate the centenary of its City status. And if all goes to plan, Salford City - the club - may well, by then, be supplementing the civic celebrations with some for sporting achievement at a rather higher level than that at which it currently operates.
Indeed, one of its famous footballing part-owners - of whom collectively more later - declared, at the outset of his involvement, that the ‘Ammies’ (a nickname derived from the previous club-title of Salford Amateurs) would be playing in the Championship before the 2020s were out.
Is it possible? Well, precisely 10 seasons ago, they were in the North West Counties League - three tiers below the National League North. And now, with the club having turned full-time, the occupation of pole position at the halfway-stage of the campaign reflects well on Salford’s pre-season installation as favourites to go up, ready to climb another step, by the end of April.
The Ammies also have a wholly-redeveloped playing venue, of FL standard, to back their aspirations. When County last visited there in August, the work was well under way to convert a ground that still carried the Moor Lane name - after the street in M7 on which Salford settled 40 years ago. But now it is the Peninsula Stadium, and duly completed in readiness for future adventures.
Adventures that will no doubt continue to occupy the public consciousness, just as they have done since 2014, when five members of Manchester United’s ‘Class of ’92’ - namely, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes - bought into it, and, the next year, had their vision and work broadcast by the BBC in the Out of Their League documentary-series.
Salford’s endeavours on the pitch received extra, and live FA Cup, coverage from the ‘Beeb’ during 2015/16, when the ‘Ammies’, as a Northern Premier League Premier Division side, beat Notts County and drew with Hartlepool. Exciting times - and ones during which two of County’s current players were plying their trade at Moor Lane.
Not only that, but the popular, larger-than-life duo in question - our Irish international, Stephen O’Halloran, and every Hatter’s favourite Burnley lad, Gary Stopforth - were room-mates on the Cup run! Surely, the rooms in question must have some tales to tell? Time to quiz ‘G-Stop’…
“Ha ha - I don’t think either of us stayed in the rooms much,” confides the midfielder. “More often than not, at the end of the evening, I just got a taxi back to Burnley!”
Curses - so much for goings-on off the pitch. But there must have been heady days and evenings on it?
“Yes - Salford got promoted (from the NPL Division One North) the first season I was there,” recalls Gary, who arrived there halfway through 2014/15. “And in the second, we had the Cup run and went up again (into the NLN).
“With the Cup matches and Out of Their League being filmed, there were always cameras at the ground, too. We got used to turning up for training and games and seeing the BBC there. They were good people - but they must have a lot of material still lying around that they didn’t broadcast!
“The Class of ’92 would turn up regularly as well. We would always see at least one of them at every game, and they stood with the fans.
“As for the team itself, there was a good spirit in the camp. I keep in touch with Scott Burton, who is still at the club - as well as with Jordan Hulme and Billy Priestley (now with Altrincham and Southport, respectively).”
Despite a recent dip in the form of the visiting table-toppers, who picked up just one point from three games over the festive period, Gary knows that his former side will be a tough nut to crack this afternoon.
“They’re concentrating at being solid at the back - and promotion-winning teams don’t concede too many,” he says.
“They’ll be tough to break down, and we’ve got to be at 110 per cent. If they nick an early one, as they did against us in August, we could be in for a long afternoon - so the first goal will be very important.”
The stage has to be set for one of those… erm, ‘special’ goals for which G-Stop has become renowned and adored in equal measure at Edgeley Park. Did he bag many like them for Salford?
“Not really,” he reflects. “I just netted with pure strikes there.
“Mind you, I did get a good ‘un while playing for Ramsbottom. The opposing keeper cleared to the halfway line - where I was waiting to kick it straight back and past him!”
A winning one of any description will do very nicely today, Sir!
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Jan 27, 2018 13:33:31 GMT
Today's article below - and the most enjoyable one to have done so far, following my interview with former York legend, and descendant of two ex-Hatters, Phil Burrows:
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GUEST INFORMANT: YORK CITY
Hatter in Macc burrows around and gets to chat to a much-loved ex-Minsterman with a rich County ancestry
Of all the interviewees with whom I have had contact for these articles, today’s - Phil Burrows - is unlikely to be rivalled when it comes to commanding reverence from visiting supporters at Edgeley Park.
Ask any York fan of a certain age, and he or she will remember Phil as an outstanding left-back, who, as a virtual ever-present during his eight years with the ‘Minstermen’, twice helped them to win promotion as they rose between the Football League’s fourth and second tiers in the early 1970s.
So far, so impressive… at least in the minds of our visitors. But Phil also has cause to feel closely associated with County, despite never having himself played for our first team. He was born in Stockport, and his father and grandfather - both named Arthur - were part-time professionals at EP.
Not only that, but the two Arthurs had links to matches that established an unrelated pair of the more unusual footballing records - against which County’s name will probably stay forever.
Arthur Burrows Senior, a right-back, was in the Hatters’ squad whose end-of-season 1920/21 match against Leicester City attracted just 13 paying spectators. (Actually, there were between one and two thousand watching this ‘home’ fixture - held at Old Trafford after EP had been closed due to crowd trouble - with the majority of the attendance comprising people who had stayed behind after watching a United game earlier the same day. Oh, but I’m letting facts get in the way of a good story…!)
He was also at EP almost a quarter of a century later, on 30 March 1946, to watch his son, and Phil’s father, Arthur Burrows Junior, a left-half, turn out for County in the second leg of a Football League Third Division North Cup-tie against Doncaster Rovers. Some 203 minutes elapsed that late spring afternoon in an attempt (albeit, on the day, unsuccessfully) to determine the winner of a contest now known as the longest match ever played.
Phil, now 71, remembers nothing about the record-breaking tie - and understandably, too, given that he was still nine days away from being born at the time! But his household was one of many awaiting, with some concern, the return of those who had gone to EP much earlier in the day.
“My mother was at our house near Vernon Park, and heavily pregnant with me,” he says.
“Fortunately, though, a friend of my father’s called in to tell her that the match was still going on, so Dad would be late back.”
As fate would have it, the 40-year-old Phil was to establish a third-generation Burrows association with County by managing, and sometimes turning out for, the Hatters’ reserve team in 1986. But that was only after his own substantive playing career, in which he notched up well over 500 Football League appearances, had come to an end.
More than half of those - 337, to be precise - were made for York, where he arrived in the warm afterglow of England’s World Cup victory of 1966, and was to remain until the club reached the then-equivalent of The Championship in 1974. But, as Phil recalls, the club’s progress through the League was anything but predictable - coming as each step up did on the back of seasons of struggle.
“After each of my first three seasons, we finished in the bottom four - so had to apply for re-election. The fourth season ended with us in mid-table, and in 1970/71 we gained promotion to the Third Division.
“For two years at our new level, we escaped relegation on goal average - and it was no surprise that, when the 1973/74 campaign began, York were favourites not to be in Division Three the following year. And that’s exactly what happened - except we went up rather than down!”
Phil did not get to play in the Second Division with York, having moved to Plymouth Argyle at the end of the Minstermen’s promotion season - but was able to do so as an Argyle player one year later, after helping his new club to go up from the third tier in 1974/75.
He had also left Bootham Crescent with a ringing endorsement from fans, who for 1973/74 voted him their inaugural ‘Clubman of the Year’ - an annual award which is still made to this day, most recently, last season, to former Hatter, and current York captain, Sean Newton.
Now living in Bramhall, Phil has maintained contact with each of today’s opposing clubs - having been a regular attender at former York players’ dinners, and, most recently, called by at EP for Wednesday morning meetings of County’s ‘Sport in Memories’ social group. He will also be at the match this afternoon.
“It’s sad to see both York and County where they are at present,” he adds, “and this is a tough league.
“But today’s game will still have the feel of a big occasion. It was the first one I looked for when the fixtures came out.”
And would he, weighing up his own life in football with those of his immediate antecedents, care to hazard a prediction for this afternoon? His response is admirably quick.
“A three-all draw,” Phil replies in the blink of, and not without a twinkle in, his eye.
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Feb 10, 2018 14:00:20 GMT
Following this afternoon's postponement, it will not see the light of day again until later in the season - but here is my piece from the programme printed for today, including a chat with Mr O'Halloran...
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GUEST INFORMANT: NUNEATON TOWN
Hatter in Macc ponders the Irish Question, as he discovers County-Nuneaton player links from both sides of the Bor(o)-der and the strange coincidence of the number 37!
Nuneaton, of all our visitors this term, have perhaps had the most curious history when it comes to different names and nicknames - as various incarnations of the club have come into being.
The club names number three - although one of them has been used twice, whilst another may very well be restored in its place next season. And there has also been a trio of nicknames - with one having long ago been shared for over 40 years with the town’s rugby club, and the current moniker applying to two versions of the footballing organisation bearing different names!
‘Nun’ the wiser? Well, it all started off simply enough in 1889, when Bible Class students at Vicarage Street School founded the original club, and named it after their local church. Nuneaton St Nicolas - the ‘Nicks’ - contented themselves with playing friendlies and Charity Cup-ties.
Then, four years later, and with the leagues of Warwickshire and the wider Midlands beckoning, the ‘Nicks’ became the ‘Nuns’ - in the form of Nuneaton Town ‘Mark One’, which went about its business until 1937, whereupon it was wound up, rather unusually, in spite of being financially sound after selling its Manor Park ground to Nuneaton Corporation late in the previous year.
Nuneaton Borough came into being two days after Town had been disbanded - changing the name to reflect the Twentieth-century status of Warwickshire’s largest town by virtue of Royal Charter, and ditching the nickname under which Town had co-existed with Nuneaton Rugby Football Club (who are still in the… erm, habit of being called the ‘Nuns’ today), but remaining at Manor Park.
‘Boro’, as the new club was dubbed by its fans, became a major non-league force over the next 70 years - becoming, during that time, Southern League Premier Division champions (in 1999), as well as a founder member of what we now know as the National League and the National League North. But liquidation of the club following the 2007/08 season led to the formation of the third, and present, entity - re-named as Nuneaton Town (which, having not yet turned 10, is technically the youngest outfit currently in the NLN), and moving into Nuneaton RFC’s Liberty Way stadium, while retaining the ‘Boro’ nickname.
And there could be a further re-naming, with a second change from Town to Borough, next season! A poll conducted by the club among supporters last summer produced an overwhelming vote in favour of reverting to the name that had been carried, and with which much success had been associated, between 1937 and 2008. Before the turn of this new year, Nuneaton duly submitted an application to the Football Association - which, if approved, would restore the
Borough suffix in time for the start of 2018/19.
Of the two best-known County players to have also plied their trade at Nuneaton, one did so in the original Borough days and the other during more recent Town times. Both are also capped internationals from Ireland - albeit from the Northern Ireland region and the Republic, respectively.
East Belfast boy, and legendary winger, George Best, who famously played three matches as a Hatter in 1975, turned out for Nuneaton Borough in 1983 after the club approached him in the course of arranging a friendly against Coventry City to raise funds towards payment of a potentially crippling tax bill. Best was by then going on 37 - which would bring his age precisely into line with the number of appearances he made for Northern Ireland - and had officially retired from the professional game, but still lit up a cold March evening at Manor Park where, in front of a 4,000-plus crowd, he scored from the penalty spot.
Fast-forwarding to the present, Stephen O’Halloran, who has been capped twice by the Republic of Ireland, spent one season at a newly-promoted Nuneaton Town - turning out on (rather spookily) 37 occasions in non-league’s top flight during 2012/13.
“It was a good experience,” recalls the County defender, who was to move directly to Edgeley Park for his first spell as a Hatter at the beginning of the following campaign.
“Nuneaton were my first non-league club - and with the Conference (as was) being very competitive, I took a while to get used to it. But we ended up having a decent first season at that level.
“I played in both matches against County - and beating such a big club at Liberty Way early on in the campaign gave Nuneaton a huge lift. The return at Edgeley (which the Hatters edged 3-2, thanks to Jon Nolan’s winner that gave Darije Kalezic a winning start to his brief, but ultimately doomed, managerial stint in SK3) was a cracker, too.
“Kevin Wilkin was manager at the time. He took several Boro players with him to Brackley, and I am still in touch with some of them who are doing very well there.”
Turning his thoughts to this afternoon’s fixture, Stephen adds: “Nuneaton are having a bit of a tough time at the moment, but they are developing their youth area with an eye to the future.
“It won’t be easy today - but, having won there in October, hopefully we can do the ‘double’ and keep the good results coming.”
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