IT was almost as if they were trying to prove a point, and not to the Forest Green Rovers fan making a spectacle of himself in amongst their hardcore on Tuesday night.
Cheltenham Town topped the National League in midweek, their football as they thumped an albeit handicapped Guiseley 5-0 was as good as I’ve seen all season.
You could only wonder what Lee Harding, the Braintree Town chairman, made of it all.
Interesting too the views of the Football League decision makers, who announced with a fair smattering of back-slapping last week that clubs relegated from the Football League will from now be hitting the Conference with an extra £500,000 in their wallet.
If you would have given them a penny for their thoughts, you’d have probably got change.
Short-changed is what you could describe Cheltenham as. A year after their 16-year stay in the League was ended, the news filtered through that if they waited a year to self-destruct, they could have had the National League title won by now.
Harding is not a happy man and seemingly, he speaks for most of Non-League football.
Evidence, he says, of how the game is disintegrating at our level – and how the authorities just don’t care.
His point was straightforward, and illustrated perfectly by the Robins’ whitewashing of part-time opposition who could just about afford the coach money down to Whaddon Road, forget an overnight stay.
Cheltenham are strong, their fans faithful and its chairman Paul Baker as prudent as he is long serving. Their team is well organised and full of experienced players guided by the best manager in the Non-League game.
Why, then, would a club like Town need someone to help them? Soon, awarded £474,000 in their first season down, with a £237,000 kick–back for year two – a nice bonus, similar to Bet365 bonus codes.
If a solid level National League player earns in the region of say £1,200 a week, the reality is that with the extra money they could afford eight more of them over the two seasons they are being sponsored for their failure to remain in a, from what I’ve seen of it so far, hardly rigorous League Two.
Robins boss Gary Johnson is steaming. Not (just) because his club missed out on a tidy windfall, but because he loves the game at this level. He knows the strong are only going to get stronger. He fears the Conference as we know and love it is in danger because of the developments.
We’re forever told “what comes down rarely goes up”. The worry is that what goes down is heading right back.
Like Harding, the-ex Yeovil man didn’t mince his words. “It’s very disrespectful to teams who are in the National League,” he told me.
“I suppose we wouldn’t have moaned if we got it but we just missed out. Although I really don’t think that’s the point.
“It can’t be right. It can’t help the league, it’s got to be equal and it’s a worry. It should be spread among everyone – and if a chairman wants to put a little bit more in, then that’s fine and that’s what we see happening.
“You can bet your life that the clubs coming down here who will get this money have chairmen who have spent a lot of money trying to keep them up there.
“I still can’t believe someone has even put this idea forward. I can’t think of a good reason other than the reason of only wanting the big teams in the Football League – but that’s a very poor reason. It’s not what football is about, it’s not why people work hard at Non-League clubs year after year.
“Who does it help? I’m not sure it helps anybody. For me, I think it’s wrong – I would like to know who put this forward and perhaps he or she can explain to us all where the benefits are, outline why they did it and tell the truth about what their real motivation was.”
I threw Johnson the worst case scenario. Cheltenham lose in the play-offs and down come Bristol Rovers, or Luton Town again, with a Notts County in toe.
“Better bloody get back up now then, eh?” he smiled. Johnson’s certainly making a good fist of it.
