NON-LEAGUE football is no longer treated with disdain, but there are still many who take a somewhat condescending attitude.
When on holiday, I often meet people who raise their eyebrows when they hear that I cover the semi-professional game for a living. Their idea of a non-league match is a park pitch with a handful of old-timers watching.
I take great pleasure in adding that such often find themselves greatly surprised when they discover the truth.
It once happened to a friend of mine who agreed to join me in watching Mossley play at Hyde United. We were to meet at 7.20 but he didn’t appear until 7.45pm. I asked what the problem had been and he replied that he had set off late expecting to pull on to the car park a couple of minutes before kick-off.
He was staggered that his decision meant he had to spend almost 15 minutes looking for a parking space.
Fortunately, attitudes such as this are diminishing but when people ask why choose the non-league game ahead of Manchester United or Liverpool they have a point.
Four years ago many of my colleagues were astonished that I gave up my free seat for the Manchester United v Barcelona Cup-winners’ Cup quarter-final second leg to watch Hyde United play at Worksop in the semi-finals of the NPL Cup.
The fact is I like non-league soccer. At this level a spectator is more than a statistic. He, or she, is part of the club and can talk to the manager or players after a game.
Of course, this can cause problems and I remember one incident, two seasons ago, when Hyde failed to reach the final of the Cheshire Senior Cup. They had outplayed Altrincham but Frank Carrodus scored, literally on the final whistle, to give the Conference side victory on away goals.
The Ewen Fields social club was like a mortuary. Manager Pete O’Brien walked in soon after with a face like thunder. You could have heard a pin drop.
Suddenly, a well-known supporter walked up to the bar and, putting his arm round the distraught boss, said: “Come on kid, let me tell you where you went wrong.” Perhaps I should add that blood was not spilled.
The friendliest ground I visit must be Glossop’s. The Hillmen might not be the most successful side in the world but a match reporter can always rely on a warm welcome and a smashing cup of tea.
Once, Christine, the lady who does such a good job with the teapot, told me apologetically that I would have to add milk straight from the bottle. The jug had gone missing — perhaps stolen — and she asked if I could put a little note to that effect in my Pav’s Patch column. I did so and with unbelievable results.
When I returned to Surrey Street a week later I found that the good people of Glossop had offered Christine everything from replacement jugs to tea sets and even a dinner service. In fact, enough crockery to fill a shop. In the midst of this generosity the original milk jug had mysteriously reappeared.
Non-league soccer also boasts a host of characters. One of my favourites used to be Paddy, the raffle-ticket seller at Stalybridge Celtic. It didn’t matter who you were, as you entered Bower Fold you were assailed with cry — in broad Irish tones — of “I don’t want to miss nobody tonight”. There was no way you could refuse.
Another veteran of the Tameside non-league scene is Melvin Burgess, very much a legend in his own lunchtime. I have to admit that I have had more than a little to do with his rise to glory.
Some years ago I appeared on a television quiz programme, and when faced with the question “who was Vincent Van Gogh’s neurotic psychologist?” I didn’t have a clue. Rather than pass, I desperately thought of a name and the first to come to mind was Melvin’s.
The Hyde United groundsman became an overnight star. Yet it was amazing how many people thought I had given a serious answer. “Burgess of Harley Street, London?” they would ask. “No, Markham Street, Newton”, I would reply.
It is the people involved who make non-league. From the ladies selling the pies, to those who fold and staple the programmes, it’s a team effort. However, I have to emphasise that non-league football is far from being the country bumpkin to the Barclay’s League’s city slicker.
Our game is run on very professional lines. Many clubs are more successful at raising funds than their professional counterparts. Since promotion to the fourth division was established, every club can dream of glory while a few can make realistic plans for it.
Our profile gets higher all the time. Press coverage increases and the BBC has started to screen first-round FA Cup ties.
With magazines like Non-League Football things can only get better.
Also featuring in that first edition was this piece by my North Cheshire Herald colleague David Jones about the recently-laid Baspograss pitch at Ewen Fields.
WHEN Hyde United announced plans for a plastic pitch the news was met with silence! None of their Northern Premier League rivals knew how to react.
Would opponents be given practice time to adjust to the pitch?
Would trainers be faced with players suffering from carpet burns?
Would Hyde United be prepared to provide opponents with training shoes more suitable for the synthetic surface than football boots?
In the 18 months since the £750,000 Baspograss carpet was laid, most of the teams playing on it have enjoyed the experience although one or two diehards have labelled it as unnatural.
At first, Hyde lost more matches on it than they won. In the 1986-87 season it was Christmas before the Tigers won a Saturday afternoon home match. Nowadays, some sides are beaten before they even step on it.
Playing on plastic is a different ball game. To state the obvious, sliding tackles are out.
Big, ungainly defenders who are great in mud and snow lumber around like dinosaurs. On the other hand, footballing sides love it. The bounce is highish but predictable. Passes run true and the ball sits up invitingly, waiting to be lashed at goal.
The surface is made for speed. Short passing moves that are good on the eye and good for the game often build up in the opponents’ half of the field.
After covering more than 50 matches played on plastic I have only one grumble. Games, no matter how good or exciting, can tend to be the same. I often long for a good old-fashioned mud bath, players hacking through the snow or aqua-planing through the wet.
However, while matches from Land’s End to John o’Groats have to be postponed because of the elements, Hyde’s matches go on. There’s never any danger of games piling up at Ewen Fields through frost and snow. They are called off only in the most exceptional circumstances.
Revenue comes in and gates increase as fans of neighbouring clubs, whose matches are postponed, pour through the turnstiles.
The cost of maintenance is nil. Hyde United sold their tractor, roller and seeder when they sold Ewen Fields to Tameside Council. That means more of the gate money being available to attract top players.
Ewen Fields, now one of the best grounds in non-league soccer, is part of the Tameside Leisure Park complex and the pitch is hired out every day of the week.
Northern American football champions the Manchester Spartans call Hyde their home. England’s junior lacrosse team has played several games there, and other sports played include bowls and hockey.
When Barclays League clubs find themselves playing on similar surfaces at Oldham Athletic and Preston North End they hire Ewen Fields to test the water.
Love it or hate it, plastic is here to stay.
***The plastic pitch used by Hyde United from 1986 to 1995 was Baspograss, not Astroturf. The surface was designed in Switzerland and took its name from the abbreviation for the Swiss federal office for sport — Bundesamt fur Sport.
Baspograss is a sand-filled turf which is now manufactured in Melbourne, Australia. It has become more popular as a surface for tennis or hockey rather than football. Although it was said at the time that Oldham Athletic had the same pitch as Hyde, theirs was Sporturf Professional, a brand made by the Leicestershire company En-tout-cas which now specializes in tennis courts.