If I published these photos with no captions, most of us could guess that these characters have something to do with football. Why is it that football folks have to look like football folks? enjoy
Rachel Rees. Physio at Bognor
Kingsley Aikhionbare
Broken legs are a tragedy in football, and elsewhere. Thankfully they are relatively rare considering the force that one sees all over the pitch. On saturday Tooting v Ramsgate in Ryman South a Ramsgate left back called Luke Wheatley went in for a simple tackle and came out of it with a broken left leg. By chance the camera was pointing at him the moment it happened. from the forum he had his operation Sept 16th and we all wish him well.
Sad moment when Luke Wheatley broke his leg versus Tooting
Sad moment when Luke Wheatley broke his leg versus Tooting
In a life of a football fan and especially a non-league photographer a day of hideous weather such as yesterday, is not wanted. Most games were called off and the challenge was to find a game that was actually on. For me this would have represented a challenge to the management of a club that wanted to boost their attendance by getting the word out there that the game is on, or even off. Some clubs did this very well. Respect due to Sutton who even replied to my humble tweet to them about if the game was on. A club that did badly on all counts was Tooting and Mitcham FC. I could find no social media nor internet site to answer my question. The websites attributed to Tooting seem to have been last updated months if not years ago. No Twitter account. No Facebook page. I might add that all these media are freely available and indeed free. Many other clubs did well to update their fans. Lets throw some praise around. Walton and Hersham have both twitter and facebook and their fans knew the night before that the game was off. Horsham regularly tweet game updates during the game.
I belong to a closed group on Facebook related to non-league photography and from the multiple postings there it was clear that our little coterie could have been driven to any game probably on, hence boosting attendances by a few, but multiply this up and clubs could have done themesleves a real favour.
Having guessed correctly that the game might be on I arrived 2.20pm at Tooting to find no information available. Was the game on or off? Turnstiles all locked. No signs. No clues. No programmes. A few stewards appeared, mostly young lads, doing a grand job I must say, of about 13-14 years, who appreciated the issue and went away to solve the problem. Turnstiles duly opened at 2.40pm. A thin paper based programme was on sale from a cheery gentleman for 2£. In all honesty the poorest non-league programme I have seen for some years. I do not exaggerate but I could have printed this off from my computer in far better format. Little to no food was available in the snack bar. A wait for 10 minutes led to a burger. Priced at the not so cheap price of 3.50£. Entrance to the ground was 10£.
The pitch was not in bad condition at all considering the rain .
I will stop my social media rant here, but what opportunities are being missed by clubs who want to boost their crowds. Each week we read that non-league football needs larger crowds but clubs must promote themselves a little better to get new fans. Tooting missed this opportunity big time yesterday.
The game itself was not a phenomenal one. The better side won easily. The reality was that Horsham looked fitter and better, by a bit, but maybe more interested as a team. No players stood out. no one disgraced themselves. Tooting might have felt a little aggrieved that they did not get an equaliser in the second half but maybe this would have been unfair. The Tooting manager in his technical area spent most of the second half swearing badly at his team, with some non-funny sarcastic comments thrown in. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that children could hear each and every of his well chosen words. I cannot say I warmed to him and wonder if his team does. Neither side will win anything this season and neither will get relegated, although on a bad run, Tooting might be drawn into the relegation battle. The low crowd of 155 should however be of concern to the club as based on this performance will not be getting any larger.
Small Crowd at Tooting
In a life of a football fan and especially a non-league photographer a day of hideous weather such as yesterday, is not wanted. Most games were called off and the challenge was to find a game that was actually on. For me this would have represented a challenge to the management of a club that wanted to boost their attendance by getting the word out there that the game is on, or even off. Some clubs did this very well. Respect due to Sutton who even replied to my humble tweet to them about if the game was on. A club that did badly on all counts was Tooting and Mitcham FC. I could find no social media nor internet site to answer my question. The websites attributed to Tooting seem to have been last updated months if not years ago. No Twitter account. No Facebook page. I might add that all these media are freely available and indeed free. Many other clubs did well to update their fans. Lets throw some praise around. Walton and Hersham have both twitter and facebook and their fans knew the night before that the game was off. Horsham regularly tweet game updates during the game.
I belong to a closed group on Facebook related to non-league photography and from the multiple postings there it was clear that our little coterie could have been driven to any game probably on, hence boosting attendances by a few, but multiply this up and clubs could have done themesleves a real favour.
Having guessed correctly that the game might be on I arrived 2.20pm at Tooting to find no information available. Was the game on or off? Turnstiles all locked. No signs. No clues. No programmes. A few stewards appeared, mostly young lads, doing a grand job I must say, of about 13-14 years, who appreciated the issue and went away to solve the problem. Turnstiles duly opened at 2.40pm. A thin paper based programme was on sale from a cheery gentleman for 2£. In all honesty the poorest non-league programme I have seen for some years. I do not exaggerate but I could have printed this off from my computer in far better format. Little to no food was available in the snack bar. A wait for 10 minutes led to a burger. Priced at the not so cheap price of 3.50£. Entrance to the ground was 10£.
The pitch was not in bad condition at all considering the rain .
I will stop my social media rant here, but what opportunities are being missed by clubs who want to boost their crowds. Each week we read that non-league football needs larger crowds but clubs must promote themselves a little better to get new fans. Tooting missed this opportunity big time yesterday.
Small Crowd at Tooting
On the face of it a straightforward game. A routine 3-0 win against a demoralised and dejected and frankly awful looking Tooting side, with a routine hat-trick from Paul vines. The crowd of around 280 was a little higher than in recent weeks that maybe reflects a good run of being unbeaten in now 5 games. But there is a backdrop to all this and as usaul can only give a personal opinion. On arrivial at around 2pm at the ground a leaflet was thrust more than given to me extolling the need for all Carshalton fans to boycott the final home game of the season in two weeks. This as a protest against their manager / owner Paul dipre. A litany of reasons are given on the A3 piece of paper that range from bad results, failure to talk to the fans enough and many more between. When reading Twitter and other social media one reads not about the good run of late but this litany of complaints against Dipre. what I have seen in the 5 games that I have attended this season is a good team that I have chosen to come and watch over other non-league teams, because they play good football and give 100% effort. This is what I saw today, a superb hat-trick from Paul Vines, who also incidentally you will see in one of the photos defending his goal from corners and free-kicks. On the terraces I heard not a single shout against the manager all game? So is this all helpful? In my opinion sadly not. The fans should get behind their team and not effectively penalise them which is what their actions achieve. Furthermore to do this via some silent leaflet and to hear nothing in the ground suggests a little dissonance in their actions. No one can deny that today Carshalton were good. Maybe the fans ought to give Dipre more time and more encouragement. Relationships have broken down and one suspects that for all parties to meet halfway might be the optimum solution.
The game itself. It was clear from the start that Tooting were dejected and well on their way back to Ryman South. It was the worst team I have seen at this level for a while and rarely did they look like scoring. The photos tell the story really.
When it was suggested that taking 11 yr old and 10 yr old friend to the cinema to see the Muppet movie, this was not high on my excitement index for the weekend. However what a great movie. Fun all the way through, some great lines and the odd decent song too. Absolutely loved it. Other than that a mixed weekend. Brentford v Sheff Utd was a real dissapointment. Big crowd, well for Brentford it was, 7500, lots of noisy away fans and the game started well for Bees. But two bad defensive errors gave the game away and Bees comfortably lost 2-0 to a decent though not scintillating team. This now ends the season for Bees. even with their best efforts relegation would be impossible as would a play off position. The weather over the weekend however has been fantastic which is fortunate as the gas bill arrived that was less than fantastic. A bill for a 4 bedroomed house where we used half the amount of gas as in the preceeding 12 months, yet our bill was doubled……….
Dusk Arrives over Tooting
Billericay slumped to only their fourth league defeat of the season with Tooting scoring 3 second half goals. At half time with Billericay leading 2-1 , despite tooting having taken the lead it seemed normal service was resumed in the Billlericay march to promotion. The billericay side were a big side in all ways, with comments coming from the Tooting fans along the lines of ” well at least your stomach was offside”. And tooting were mostly blown away in the first half. The second half was vastly different. Tooting played the football on the ground, certainly had the luck but just about deserved the win. I went to see Glen Poole play. He had a quiet game and was substituted midway in the second half. If I was a betting man I would still bet on Billericay to get promotion, maybe via the play-offs at worst . If I were Tooting, I may be looking for a new goalkeeper.
Billericay come close. This one was headed off the line
Handbags at two paces lead to yellow cards
Billericay defend
Glenn Poole
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 