CASH-HIT Macclesfield withdrew their offer of a ten-minute run-out for someone willing to part with £20,000.
They back-tracked because of an “error of judgment” in failing to realise it created “a possibility of altering the outcome of a competitive fixture”.
Not to mention the potential outcome for the poor sucker to get seriously injured! While Doncaster Rovers chairman John Ryan has been used as the obvious example of such a stunt, designed for him to become the oldest player in Conference history, I give you two others.
In the summer of 2002, John Batchelor had just become owner of York City and I played in a pre-season friendly up there on a wet Friday night for Bracknell Town – a curious fixture arranged through his friendship with our chairman Chris Nixon.
Amid the fanfare of his takeover, Batchelor came on as sub, the ball went out to him and I allowed him a touch. When he started to advance down the wing, I slid in and took him and the ball out onto the cinder fringe of the pitch. It was a fair challenge, but a middle-aged man with money clearly isn’t able to cope with a young, fit (as I was back then) centre-half not prepared to be made a mug of.
The same goes for my old club Ware, who went to Barnet in a Herts Senior Cup game in December 2003 – long before I joined – to find the Bees had raffled off a place in the squad to a fan.
Supporter Steve Percy was the ‘lucky’ winner who manager Martin Allen put on in the closing stages, but Ware – already getting the runaround at 4-1 down – took exception to a club appearing to mock them.
My old gaffer Glen Alzapiedi describes Percy as “extremely lucky to have avoided injury” as Kevin Kilroy received his marching orders for a challenge that sparked a 22-man brawl.
So the would-be Silkman can count himself similarly fortunate if you ask me – both in wealth and health!
