There are many ups and downs of course to supporting a Non-League club but they generally don’t include NOT being able to watch them play, declares Steve Hill in The Non-League Paper this week.
I reflected smugly on this recently as my Chelsea-supporting neighbour posted an Instagram photo of him watching his team take on Bayern Munich – on TV. Despite attending all the Stamford Bridge group games, he was unable to secure a ticket for the knockout round and was forced to watch it at home with his cat.
What an absolutely horrendous state of affairs. That’s the equivalent of me not being able to go to Chester v Gateshead because I didn’t make it to the previous home games against King’s Lynn and Brackley.
As it happens, I didn’t make it to the previous home games against King’s Lynn and Brackley. Instead, I was locked in to the live commentary, bucking wildly in a three-star hotel room as we grabbed an injury-time winner in the former, and slumping in mute despair on my sofa as we conceded an injury time winner in the latter. Football giveth, and football taketh away.
All the same, permission granted for Chester v Gateshead, no ticket required. Indeed I gratefully accepted the corporate hospitality invitation of a generous benefactor who had sponsored the match ball, despite his woeful record of sponsored six, lost six.
Due to the inevitable alcohol consumption associated with such events, I made the momentous decision to take the train, booking a return from Euston weeks in advance, even printing out my tickets like an eager boy scout.
Sympathetic
No club colours allowed, shoes buffed, jean/jacket combo ready to go. Win or lose, we’ll have some booze. If we draw, we’ll have some more. GAME OFF. Sake. They at least had the decency to announce it on the Friday night, as Storm Somebody decimated the National League North.
A dreaded blank Saturday then, sofa-ridden like the rest of the telly clappers, simply flatlining towards Match Of The Day. Clearly, I am no stranger to televised sport, something that makes up the bulk of my next book.
But football really is a live experience. Robbed of even commentary, the day lacked any tangible structure. No team sheet analysis, no nervous clockwatching, no 90 minutes of emotional turmoil, inevitably greeted by total indifference from her indoors.
There were a couple of decent Premier League games, and I took minor pleasure in a heavy defeat for our cross-border neighbours while keeping an eye on our play-off rivals. But ultimately it was like watching the lottery when you haven’t bought a ticket. And of course I missed out on a slap-up feed in the Legends Lounge.
All because of a bit of weather. No disrespect to Baz the groundsman, who does a sterling job, but unless there is actual danger to life can’t we just get these games played?
League Two games went ahead on the same day and it’s the same pitch and stadium that we had in League Two. When we won the Conference North on the way up there was a game played at Harrogate Town in standing water and nobody got hurt.
On the plus side, the railway company was extremely sympathetic, offering to refund my tickets if I bought some considerably more expensive tickets for the same journey at a later date.
So for slightly less than the price of a season ticket I will be attending Chester v Boston next Saturday, although will sadly have to provide my own food and drink. And I haven’t told anyone yet, but it will also delay my attendance at the Chelsea neighbour’s dinner party that evening. They’ll just have to start without me.
It’s a big game, and historically Chester have always cocked it up in the big games, a trait that predates the reign of of my close personal friends Bernard and Jonno.
Arguably, the reason we always cock it up in the big games is because they are generally played against superior opposition. That’s what makes them big. Whatever happens, at least I will feel something, just over a decade after Chester City ceased to exist, the ultimate postponement. Never forget.
As well as more views from Steve Hill and other columnists, make sure you get your copy of The Non-League Paper on a Sunday for the latest news and action from across Non-League over the last seven days.
As well as exclusive match reports and pictures from all of Saturday’s fixtures in the Vanarama National League, the BetVictor-Sponsored Isthmian League, Southern League and Northern Premier League, The Non-League Paper’s live coverage extends all the way to Steps 5 and 6.
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2018, The Card: Every Match, Every Mile by Steve Hill is published by Ockley Books.
