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The vandalised Facilities

This is an interesting story that has caught my eye this week and highlights the good and bad in football/life/society.

Tragically the club house, changing rooms and other facilities at Pelican Colts FC ground in Nottingham were totally destroyed in an orgy of vandalism. The Chairman, Steve “Coco” Chaplin, says, “it was the worst case of vandalism he had seen at the club in decades.

“I’m absolutely gutted,” he said. “God knows what the kids are going to feel like.

“It’s a kids football ground, not adults – this is a youth football club. I’m struggling to take it all in.

“It’s beyond me. Why? For what reason? We’ll carry on, there’s no doubt about that, we’ve got a lot of good friends and everyone will muck in and do their bit.

“We could do with help from the council whose land it is but we’ve had absolutely nothing from them. Not a phone call, they don’t do anything.”

Volunteers arrived at the site on Thursday morning to find paint had been splattered across the changing rooms and the goalposts had been brought down.

The toilets had also been smashed with porcelain strewn across the floor and a fence had been broken where access had been gained. Following the attack, a fundraising campaign has raised more than £5,000 and local tradesman have offered their services to repair the damage.

General manager Tony Hatton said: “The football community has really got behind us in the past 24 hours. The response has been fantastic.

“The amount of people who have offered help – it’s just skyrocketed. It’s amazing how people have been able to dig deep and offer the club a lifeline.”

Mr Hatton said he “didn’t see the point” in reporting the recent vandalism to the police again as he believed there was “very little they could have done”.

A police statement said: “We received a report of criminal damage at Dave Eastwood Sports Ground, in Lenton Lane, Nottingham, on Friday 6 September.

“Officers attended and found fencing had been damaged. It is believed the incident was related to an unauthorised encampment.”

Nottingham City Council, which owns the site, said in a statement: “We lease the ground to Pelican FC and as per the lease agreement, they have sole responsibility for looking after the site – including repairs, maintenance and in this case the removal of travellers.”

So, a pretty despicable act and I can’t say I am hugely impressed with Nottingham City Council wiping their hands of everything. Well done to all who rallied round but look at this…..

The Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis wrote in a September 18 letter to the club’s chairman, Steve Chaplin: “I was saddened to hear about the recent vandalism that has caused considerable damage to your club and its facilities. It is deeply frustrating to see a place that means so much to so many people in our community subjected to such deplorable behaviour…

“I hope this contribution helps you rebuild and improve your facilities, ensuring that Pelican Colts FC continues to thrive as a welcoming space for young aspiring footballers in our city. Together, we can turn this unfortunate incident into an opportunity for growth and renewal.”

He donated £8,000 and Wales international Brennan Johnson, who started his career at the Pelican Colts club, have both donated money.

Well done to all who have supported.

The Good, the Bad and the (very) Ugly.

Evangelos Marinakis

You will remember I mentioned Chris Buckley at Pride of Nottingham yesterday. We got into a conversation about football later and I found there is an amazing backstory to his website cum forum.

In the same way as TheShirt2010 was inspired by Bjørn Heidenstrøm and his cycle ride from Oslo to South Africa , so the Pride of Nottingham was inspired by another Sweden …none other than the recently departed Sven-Göran Eriksson!

Chris kindly gave me an overview. Fascinating!

Chris says, “I previously ran a website that was focused towards writing and art, such as poetry, songwriting and digital art which back then was in its early forms. I started the site at first just amongst family and friends. This was around 2006, it was just a simple message board but I had aspirations of making it bigger.

Around 2009, I met Sven-Goran Erikkson at my work place and he noticed that I was wearing a Notts shirt. This got us speaking and it was him, who encouraged me to take it more seriously. I wasn’t sure, as I am quite reserved in nature but I have a huge passion for Notts County. Obviously, Notts had an amazing season during Sven’s time and we we’re eventually crowed Champions of League Two. This gave me a nudge to start pushing it. It was 2012 when I first promoted the site but the socials was setup in 2010, possibly before. It’s those early days which I feel pushed my passion further, as fans really got behind the Facebook and Twitter pages. I own and run it but I have a dedicated team who assist me with writing fan opinions and moderating. These people are huge to the success of the site itself.

We currently have 1,419 registered accounts, we average between 30-100 active and casual members. Page views is like 25-30,000

I would say I spend about 10 hours on the project most days, with match days being about 5 hours. To be honest, it’s not about the time. I feel passionate about the club and showcasing Notts in the way that the Pride of Nottingham does. I would also say that I have a few health issues and the site helps me focus on something positive whilst at the same time, I hope I am giving something back to all of us who proudly follow Notts.”

Thanks, Chris. Wow, some story! Inspired by Svennis himself – incredible. It is too easy to remember his successes across the continent and with the England team. Let’s not forget what an immense job he did at County in a relatively short period of time. Respect to Svennis….and, of course, respect to Chris. Running websites is never easy. Many of you will know I have a 2,500 website about Spain ….. that is also a real labour of love!

I am just about to ping Chris my thoughts on Gillingham 2024 but in the meantime, if you are a Notts County fan, I suggest that you pop over to see the PrideOfNottingham to see what a huge resource Chris has built.

An interesting few days – I am “officially” over Covid but feel worse than when I had it, Gillingham beat Tranmere Rovers to go second in the table and I have met some interesting new football friends. All in a ll a good week!

Let me introduce me to you the guys at The Dads’ Talk. Bobby Conway says, “We are four football fanatical UEFA Coaches, football Dads and all round Good Blokes who have created a YouTube channel that will be full of debate, discussion and banter on all levels of the beautiful game from elite to grassroots. We will have regular content but we are also including special guests. 

We have started the channel due to realising that grassroots football is what brought us together. We thought that as between us we have such a broad knowledge and passion for all aspects of the game and covering all levels, that it was something that would set us apart . 

We would love people to firstly see that we are genuine football lovers offering genuine opinion without any bias. The chemistry between us when talking football just flows naturally. Come over to our Facebook channel and subscribe free of charge to view all our future content.”
So, there we are. Nice to meet you Bobby and the Boys and I wish you every success with your YT channel The fact that you have forsaken the Mercenaries at Arsenal for your local heroes puts you very close to my heart!

A few minutes later Chris Buckley introduced himself to me. He is the man behind the fabulous PrideOfNottingham website that focuses on Notts County. Every week he asks opposing fans about their team and its Good, Bad and Ugly. Gillingham play at Meadow Lane this weekend as we look to take top spot. I shall spend this evening trying to write incisive and meaningful overview. Hopefully it won’t turn into a Bradley Dack eulogy but I have to say that I am excited seeing him back at the Priestfield. If he can keep fit (BIG “if”) he is probably worth a dozen points to us this season. That could be enough to move us from play-off contenders to automatic promotion. That is how important I think Dack could be.

Bradley speaks here about his new life at Gillingham.

If Chris chooses to publish my thoughts, I will add them here too. Fame at last! Taking about fame and stars, Darren Ashley was out blogging again this weekend. Catch up with him at Aylesbury United in sunny Bucks …but not Aylesbury!

Enjoy the week, everybody. I know it will be tough for many of us. Arsenal stealing all three points means I will worry if the sun will ever shine again but then I realise Brentford play Orient tomorrow and that FC Deportivo Galicia are at Uxbridge to play Langley on Wednesday and realise I have something to look forward to. The fact that AFC Wimbledon destroyed the Plastics at the weekend is a sign there is justice in the world and that Taylor Swift has come out fighting for Harris should guarantee some MAGATs follow Kamala.

It was good to hear from our friends at 3 Retro today. They have launched some more Special Edition Retro Shirts.

They have a wide range of England and Scotland shirts as well as new Manchester City offerings.

They are also promoting their famous Mystery Gift Boxes.

Full details here

Darren looking for a Brexit Benefit ….. no, he did not find one!

I can’t claim to be the greatest fan of international games, certainly unless Spain are playing, but I watched England play the Republic of Ireland on the television yesterday and was quite impressed. Unusually some of the players replicated the best of their club form (or better!) and it was good to see Grealish play in a freer role. All in all a good win in Dublin. A few minutes earlier Gillingham had trudged off the field at Doncaster after their worst performance of the season and have now lost the top spot in League 2. #football It was an impressive eleven home league wins in a row by Doncaster Rovers but we have a couple of tough games ahead and at least a point would have been welcome! Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, I could not be there. The Covid is clear but I am still struggling a bit. All will be good.

Our intrepid vloggers Christian Obray and Darren Ashley have been out again and their offers are here and here. I know that many are enjoying their particular takes of non league football. I certainly am! Christian has even started a little merchandise set-up so if you want a unique badge or T-shirt give him a ping.

I am also delighted to confirm that Alex Webber’s book about Polish football is out. Alex has kindly offered to let me have some more information but in the meantime, you can find it on Amazon. It’s approximately 30% bigger than the UK but with a population of not much over half and is a country that has fascinated me as long as I can remember. I am looking to get to Poland again in the next few weeks (a weekend including travel/hotel is cheaper than a ticket at Spurs or WHU!) and have asked him to suggest a dozen grounds that would give me a feel for Polish football. Hopefully that includes Świnoujście as it’s been on my bucket list since 1975!

CPD Llanilltud Fawr/Llantwit Major AFC

Apologies for radio silence. Covid AGAIN! It was not fun but Arsenal dropping points at home and FC Deportivo Galicia scoring 5 away from home helped me pull through. God bless the NHS ….yet again!

On to more exciting things, I found a great story about CPD Llanilltud Fawr/Llantwit Major AFC and knew it needed sharing. So it is ……

” ….. And here it is, the special Adventures with Mr Octopus shirt we will wear for our Fenix Trophy matches and as our away strip from the 2025/26 season! We will donate a portion of our profits from the shirt and ticket sales to the charity.

Of all the beautiful yet slightly whacky kits we’ve released, this one has a very meaningful purpose

Our new Fenix Trophy shirt for this season will also become next season’s league away shirt and will brighten up the stadia of south wales and Europe for the next 2 seasons!

Get yours here from our friends at Tor Sports

As a club in the Fenix Trophy we are asked to name a local community charity to support, this season we are humbled to be supporting Adventures with Mr Octopus in memory of Evelyn

The charity was setup by good friends of the club and community in memory of their beautiful daughter – Evelyn Elizabeth Sara Thomas.

As a club we will be donating £1 for every paying entrant to our home Fenix Trophy matches this season and a percentage of sales profit from the ‘Octo-shirt’ to the charity. We hope you’ll all join with us in whatever way you can in supporting this fantastic charity

We are also looking for a front and possible rear sponsors for the shirt. We expect this to be a sought after kit so please message us or email sponsorlmafc@gmail.com to register your interest.

Many thanks for your support as always”

So, this gorgeous creation is going to be the shirt of choice of the Welsh Teanm who play in Cymru South in the Fenix Trophy. I have mailed the club and hope to get full details soon but I have found the next game will be in Antwerp. Anybody want to join me?

I know about as much about as I do and my Flemish is markedly better than my Welsh but it looks a great gig. Further details soonest.

“Two solid sides to watch, two wonderful sets of fans to drink and party with and two underrated locations to visit:

@LlantwitMajorFC vs @berchemsport has all this and much more! Will the Windmill Army succeed in conquering Europe on their second attempt or will the Antwerp-based powerhouse reach Round 2? Regardless of the outcome, I am sure it will be a great weekend. Direct bus from Flixbus…..life is sweet!

Below the Belgian stadium …..

Sincere apologies to Christian Obray and Darren Ashley. Afraid I will have to leave you until tomorrow. I will say both our intrepid heroes have been away again. A little birdie tells me we missed each other at Millwall but you can see their latest adventures here and here

There is nothing better to finish the weekend than seeing yourself “top of the league.” As a Gillingham fan since 1964, I cannot say I have had that pleasure too often. Even in the glory years at the end of the last century we got into the play-offs through the back door. However after a 0-0 draw we find ourselves top of the pile. Long may it continue. Are we going to stay there? Daniel Pearson thinks we won’t be there at the end of the season. Here are his predictions for the twenty four clubs in League Two. Check his You Tube and see whether you agree with him.

Another interesting story this week was that of Blackburn Rovers’ fan Lewis Robinson who is going to cycle to every Rovers, away match this season. I wish him every success. You may remember that Luton Town fan, Mark Crowther, did something similar with his team last season. See here. Lewis is probably going to have to do even MORE miles because of the geography and because in the Championship there are an extra four away games each each season. I have caught up with Lewis and hope to have some more content soon. Good luck, warrior.

Meanwhile my friends Christian Obray and Darren Ashley ….are buzzing around the country groundhopping, vlogging and blogging. Jump over to their pages to see where they have been to recently.

…and as little teaser I hear that a Carlisle United fan is doing ” A Year in the Life of…” a la Nick Hornby.
I am looking forward to reviewing the book soonest.

Enjoy the week

Steve

I was in conversation with Oliver Jack at Curzon Ashton yesterday and promised to add this. Many moons ago, I lived in Ashton-u-Lyne but I used to watch Stalybridge Celtic and Ashton United normally. No reason whatsoever not to support Oliver though !

“Hi, I’m a Director at Curzon Ashton FC. Bit of a long one but could do with some feedback from the people of Ashton and Tameside.

Curzon Ashton have just started our 10th season in the NLN which is Step 6 of English football. We are competing in a league with some huge clubs with massive finances and fan bases. Last season we got the playoffs after a wonderful campaign.

We have the facilities, the team, the stadium what we don’t have is the fan base. Our crowds range generally from 200-400 but we are competing with teams that get 10 times that amount.

My questions is… what do you the community want from a football club? We are the best chance Tameside has of achieving a football club in the EFL but we can’t progress without you. We are and have always been affordable and are struggling to think of what more we can do.”

Any thoughts? You can contact him via Facebook

I was delighted to find that people were pleased to learn that Christian and Darren would be continuing to vlog and blog this season.

Darren has been busy again ….. he apologies in advance for a few “choice words” here whilst Christian has been equally busy blogging, editing and much more. Here he highlights an interesting “rags to riches” story from Finchamstead. Good luck, guys, as you move through the table. Natty shirt too! Darren photo above, Christian, below)

Two other shirt stories hit my screen this week that I thought I would like to comment on. Sheffield Wednesday making a contender for the media own goal of the season whilst at Dorking both the kit man and the referee and his assistants should hang their heads!

Yes, Sheffield Wednesday had the gall to issue this statement that fans found wearing “fake” shirts (whole discussion about fake shirts, of course!) may be asked to leave the stdium. The BBC website picked it up.

“Sheffield Wednesday have warned that home fans wearing counterfeit shirts at Hillsborough could be ejected from the stadium.

The South Yorkshire club issued a statement on their website to “respectfully request” that supporters refrain from wearing fake shirts at home games.

Wednesday stated: “Anyone found to be wearing a fake shirt inside Hillsborough could be asked to leave, with information passed on to the relevant parties.”

They have also made it clear that staff at the official club shop will refuse requests to add numbers or letters to counterfeit shirts.”

Let’s remember that their “official” shirt is £77 and if you wanted to also buy the TWO away shirts (aka 2nd/3rd kit) and a training shirt a fan is looking at an obscene £300!!! Then we could talk about the shorts, the socks, the etc etc etc …. It should come as no real surprise that fans of the Sheffield club are not amused whilst the rest of the football world derides the club!


Meanwhile in Truro….

“Truro City’s first match in their new stadium was delayed soon after kick-off due to a clash of shirts between the home side and visitors Dorking Wanderers.

Dorking’s orange tops clashed with Truro’s new red home kit and, after just three minutes, the visitors went off the field.

When they returned they had turned their shirts inside out – a situation which lasted the rest of the game.”

Ooops. Until next time….

Well, the tuktuk tour might be over but football continues unabated! I have spoken to both Christian (above) and Darren who provided vlogs every week last season and they have kindly agreed to continue. You can look forward to their excellent input on a regular basis. In fact, they have both already been out this summer and you can see their first instalments here and here.

Darren was also at Brackley Town which is a name that strikes fear in every Gillingham fan as we seem to reserve our worst possible FA Cup performances for trips to Northamptonshire.

FC Deportivo Galicia’s league season started in the worst possible way. After six hugely encouraging pre-season games, we somehow managed to lose 2-1 at home to our friends from Westside. To say it was disappointing would be a massive understatement. We have almost a complete new team, a new focus, lots of activity off the field and we concede a 1-0 lead. Football …that’s why we love it!

Talking about Gillingham, we have a new manager and Steve Clemence has moved on to Barrow. Obviously, I wish him well. Sadly, the results were not as hoped for but we can say that for pretty much every manager over the last 20 years so I thought he might have been given a full season. Football … that’s why we love it.

Gillingham start off at home to relegated Carlisle United this weekend. Promotion for the Gills and FC Deportivo Galicia would be a nice present!