A continental break

As our Eurostar train emerged from the tunnel English-side on Saturday afternoon my mobile phone signalled an incoming text. It was POSH mate explaining that he was sat in a beer garden, in the warming May sunshine, supping a pint of real ale poured straight from an oak barrel an hour before Peterborough United's final game of the season. Painting a quintessentially English scene the contrast to my couple of days in Paris was quite timely. I was back in Blighty just in time for the Saturday afternoon videprinter. Our family continental break had been planned for sometime; the arrival back on home shores in time to catch the last throws of a fading season was purely coincidental.

The speed at which we can travel nowadays still, at times, takes me by surprise. Yesterday I was eating crêpes with my wife and son on the steps of the Trocadéro overlooking the Eiffel Tour in the morning and then, in a matter of a few hours, I was slumped exhausted at home listening to reports of Nottingham Forest's promotion, Bournemouth's relegation and Fulham's continuing Houdini act. As modes and methods of travel become ever more efficient, the real-time distances between our continental compatriots shrink as Europe gets smaller and smaller. It is quicker and cheaper for me to travel to Paris that it is to Sunderland.

My own continental break in the French capital reminded me of a continental break that England and English fans will be experiencing this summer. Every couple of years, around about now, the nation is gearing up for a major international finals tournament, whether it is a World Cup or European Championship. But England's abject failure in the Euro 2008 qualification tournament means that we will have a summer off this time around.

The trip to Paris brought this fact quickly into focus for me. My mind has been occupied with the FA Cup, with Cardiff City, with Wembley and with other domestic end-of-season matters. The odd reminder of Euro 2008 had failed to take hold of my consciousness and any thoughts about the upcoming tournament had drifted out of my mind as silently and effortlessly as they had drifted in. But in Paris, there are constant reminders everywhere, the most striking of which are the mammoth posters adorning nearly every Métro station. "Les Bleus", the French national team, in full colour, looking down on you in action poses and looking forward to the big summer kick-about taking place in Austria and Switzerland.

At Gare du Nord station in Paris yesterday we shared a café au lait with a Dutch family. Their little girl took a liking to my son and came and sat next to him. Their au pair, after dealing swiftly and quite professionally with the aftermath of a comical, but rather messy, incident involving the little girl and a bottle of Coke, asked for a moments leave from her child-minding duties. She returned five minutes later with no less than five football magazines. She enthused about Netherlands' chances of winning the competition and was genuinely, and visibly, gripped with anticipation for Euro 2008. It was exactly at that moment that I realised, for the first time, that I wasn't.

Now is also the time that the Euro 2008 Panini sticker album will hit the streets. Since my son was born a little over eight years ago, we have fully completed Panini albums for Euros 2000 and 2004 and for the World Cups in both Korea/Japan and Germany. For each of those tournaments, the buying of the album and the collecting of the stickers was an important precursor to the main event, the event that would surely, at long last, see England lift a major trophy. The Panini sticker fest every other year fills that void between season's end and the start of summer tournament football and serves to whet the appetite and crank up the anticipation to popping point.

Always keen to stress that it was my son that was collecting the stickers, I used the feeble excuse to mask the inane sadness of it all. Either that or admit how freaky it is for a forty-something adult male to collect small pictures of footballers. But my son now sees it as it is; an important, necessary and unquestionable augmentation to the preparations for any major tournament.

But the thought of buying a Panini album this time round has only just entered my already full head. The first Euro 2008 game between Switzerland and the Czech Republic is only three weeks after the FA Cup Final, but I have hardly given it a second thought. It is May and I still haven't written all the Euro 2008 fixtures in my diary. How could I be so slack? No doubt England's absence is to blame. No constant reminders in the press. No daily assessments of England's likelihood of failure. No broken metatarsals to report. I shouldn't really be shocked. I will still buy a Euro 2008 Panini album. For my son of course. But not with quite the same verve as I would if England occupied a couple of the album pages.

As evident on my trip to France, and no doubt in the fifteen other competing countries around Europe, pre-tournament frenzy is taking hold and trading in Panini stickers will start to intensify. Fans across the continent will already have snapped up tickets for the tournament which is now sold out and hotel bookings would have been confirmed months ago. Supporters from Portugal, Croatia and Romania will be planning their visits to St Jakob Park, Ernst Happel Stadion and (how could I resist a mention) the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf.

It goes without saying that I will still watch Euro 2008. The anticipation and yearning may not be there now, but come early June I will quite likely find myself rushing home from work to catch Spain versus Russia or foregoing a night out to watch Austria and Poland. Don't ask me why.

So for many English fans, a continental break may well be on the cards this summer. A chance to take the family away without the worry of the awful prospect of being stranded in a foreign departure lounge at the exact moment England slot away that last minute goal which seals their first major trophy win for well over forty years. While England sit this one out, one team's continental break maybe be another family man's blessing in disguise.

Weymouth FC - club #6

It started with Chertsey Town. Then Sittingbourne. Followed by Dartford and Bromley. Plus Eastbourne Borough for a while.

And now it's club number 6 - Weymouth - who have hold of my baton (so to speak).

Other clubs have played their part along the way - Wick and Camberley Town - but as opposition to two of the above. Nine games in total so far, including two replays. Nine hundred and seven miles and twenty four goals (not including penalties).

I must confess, I know little about Weymouth FC and up until last Saturday, I had never seen them in action. I mentioned in an earlier post that they are nicknamed The Terras; a nickname they acquired in the 1890s when they wore terracotta and blue quartered shirts. They play their home games at the Wessex Stadium having left their old Recreation Ground in 1987. An odd fact about the club is that, because of the proximity of the ground to the coast, they rarely have any postponements

Weymouth are currently 17th in the Blue Square Premier having won six, drawn four, of their eighteen games. Cambridge United occupy 4th slot. The teams have met once in the league this season, the game at Weymouth ending 2-2.

For a non-league team, Weymouth have enjoyed reasonable success in the FA Cup. Having first entered the competition in 1893, they reached the "national" stages in season 1905-06. Unfortunately, they lost that match 12-1 against Gainsborough Trinity. Weymouth met Manchester United in the Third Round Proper in 1949 (a 4-0 reverse at Old Trafford) and they went one round further in 1962, losing 2-0 away at Preston North End.

More recently (2005) they held Nottingham Forest to a famous 1-1 draw in front of the TV cameras, before going out 2-0 in the replay. The following season they held league side Bury to a 2-2 draw.

Famous Weymouth players over the years include Graham Roberts, Andy Townsend, Shaun Teale, Tony Agana. And Tom Jones (not the Welsh singer - that would be unusual). The athlete Darren Campbell briefly donned the Claret and Blue shirt for the Dorset club, making twenty seven appearances and scoring four goals. You learn something new every day...

Famous managers include Trevor Senior, Neil Webb and Steve Claridge.

And one last thing (for now); a Weymouth player may be off to the FA Cup Final in May 2008. Stuart Beavon was nominated (by the Daily Star) as the FA Cup "Player of the Round" after his hat-trick against Eastbourne Borough. If he wins (based on a public vote) he will enjoy a VIP visit to the new Wembley.

Good luck Stuart. I hope to see you there...

Banana, Haddock and Black Pudding

The Eastbourne Borough v Weymouth game on Saturday is gearing up to be a cracking cup tie. Neither set of fans are over confident about the result and both know it will be a difficult, close game. Any kind of predictions are proving hard to elicit. There promises to be a good atmosphere and I sense that a party mood will be prevalent. Eastbourne will have their drums and Weymouth fans will be wearing wigs for their journey along the South Coast.

Why wigs?

Well, back in 2005 Weymouth had a memorable day in the FA Cup First Round Proper away at Nottingham Forest where they held the League One side to a 1-1 draw. The Weymouth fans made a lasting impression after bringing a carnival atmosphere to the City Ground. The 1800 Weymouth fans on that day took with them a plethora of inflatables.

After the success of the inflatables in 2005, the Dorset club have urged their fans to wear team coloured wigs (claret and blue) for the game this coming Saturday.

This story about the Weymouth inflatables reminded me of the craze in the late 1980s whereby supporters began to take inflatables to matches. I recall that Manchester City were one of the clubs to start this trend where the inflatable of choice was the banana. At West Ham it was the air-filled hammer. Bury had blown-up black puddings.

And I never forget the inflatable haddock at Grimsby. I remember being trapped in a sea of Grimsby fans and large haddock which was all rather traumatising for me. So much so that I have never since been able face a plate of kedgeree without breaking into a cold sweat.

The inflatable craze was a great lift for the game in England at that time, which was still reeling from Heysel, hooliganism and the threat of national identity cards. And I remember how it brought some good publicity back to the game. Football fans in our country do know how to party, and the FA Cup brings out the best, whether it's silly costumes, inflatables or wigs.

So this Saturday I'm looking forward to the drums and the wigs. Although I am relieved that there will be no haddock.

Thank cod.

Don't take anything for granted

There are many things in life we know will happen. Night follows day. We are born, we will die. We pay tax. Our knees will eventually give up on us. These are certainties.

Then a there are things in life I take for granted, which I know I should not. Water. Electricity. My wife. My family. My health. Sugar.

And there are things in life that perhaps we should do, but never do. Enjoy your youth before it's too late. Do one thing every day that scares you. Don't worry about the future. Dance. Sing. Floss.

In football there are perceived certainties. We know that one of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal will win the Premier League this season. Maybe not? We are certain that England will lose the next penalty shoot out they are involved in. Who knows? We can say confidently that a club outside of the Premier League will not win the FA Cup in the next ten years. Who can say? Maybe in this beautiful game there are no real certainties.

In reality these are things we are just taking for granted.

Regular readers will no doubt have gathered that the FA Cup is my favourite football competition. And there are certain things I have always taken for granted. The excitement of the games; the David v Goliath match-ups; the Cup shocks; the fact that the BBC always chose to televise a dull all-Premier League tie in the Third Round.

And the thrill at the small clubs when a big team comes a visiting.

On the eve of the Eastbourne Borough v Bromley match last week, the FA allocated draw numbers for clubs that would be in the hat for the First Round Proper. My post that day was all about the "prize" of a small club pulling out a big name in the cup. Eastbourne Borough v Leeds United or Nottingham Forest, for example. Go back to an earlier post in this blog and I dared the Sittingbourne fans to dream of a home tie against Liverpool.

I have always assumed that if you spoke to anyone involved with a non-league club they would positively drool at the thought of a big club coming to town. But during my visit to Eastbourne Borough, a comment from committee member Lee Peskett really caught me on the blind side.

It made me question something I had always taken for granted.

I put this question to Lee. "I guess you fancy Leeds or Forest at home in the next round then"? I felt at the time that this was a rhetorical question. Goes without saying doesn't it?

But no, it doesn't. Lee painted the picture for me. Yes, a home tie against a big club would be great. The fans would love it. It would be a proud moment for the club. It would capture the imagination of the town. And so on; things we hear every season at this stage of the competition. But there was a but. A big but.

For a small club, drawing a big team at home could be a logistical nightmare.

Lee pointed out that there are many additional things that need to be considered if a big team comes to town. For example, segregation. This does not simply involve throwing up a gate between two sections of ground. It has to be installed to meet all of the Health and Safety standards. The segregated fans must have safe access in and out of the ground. Refreshment and toilet facilities need to be made available. Things we take for granted at the top grounds, but at places like Priory Lane, things that cannot be changed overnight.

And then there are increased costs associated with bigger crowds. More turnstiles to be opened, more programmes to be printed, more chips to be fried. And the Police expenses can be astronomical. Many clubs at this level could feasibly lose money when a big team is in town.

In this situation the club's feelings can be mixed. And under FA regulations, clubs can no longer choose to switch their game to be played elsewhere, unless the Police insist. So for many non-league clubs, an away tie at a big club would be preferred. Clubs get 50% of the gate for FA Cup ties so the benefits of an away trip are obvious. Getting a big team at home is not all that it is cracked up to be.

So there you have it. For us footy fans, we simply turn up. We pay our money, we watch the game, have a bit of a moan, a shout and (if we're lucky) a cheer. Then we go home. The club is always there and the volunteers are there long before we arrive and will be there long after we have left. And many of us (myself included) perhaps don't appreciate the detailed planning that goes into running a club and organising a match day, especially an FA Cup game against one of the big guns.

It is something we just take for granted.

The Prize Draw

A little less than two weeks ago Bromley and Eastbourne Borough were winning their FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round home ties against Dartford (1-0) and Welling United (2-1) respectively. Those results set up the big game at Priory Lane tomorrow in the last qualifying round of the competition.

And now it gets really tasty.

The big prize awaiting the winner of tomorrow's game is an entry in the draw for the FA Cup First Round Proper.


But first things first.

In between FA Cup games both clubs have had other matches to concentrate on and I would have to say that Eastbourne Borough appear to be in better form. One week ago Bromley won 3-2 in a league game away at Dorchester Town but followed that up on Tuesday with a bizarre result at home to St. Albans City. Bromley scored first in this match after only three minutes, but then conceded an amazing three goals in four minutes to trail 3-1 before some supporters had even finished their pre-match bovril. Bromley eventually fought back to 3-4 but couldn't quite snatch a result. The news on the streets of Bromley was that their defending was woeful.

As for Eastbourne Borough, they had one more game to play than Bromley following their win in the last round. On the Tuesday after their success over Welling United, they disposed of Ringmer (3-0) in the Sussex Senior Cup and then went on to beat Sutton United at home in the league by the same score. Last Tuesday they had another league game up at Cambridge City which ended 1-1. Defensively a bit meaner for the South Coast club.

And so to tomorrow's game, and I anticipate a good match and a great atmosphere. Financially, the rewards aren't insignificant; clubs winning in the 4th Qualifying Round receive a tidy £10,000 which is not to be sniffed at for these non-leaguers.

But the biggest prize of all for club and fans alike must be the opportunity in the next round to pit your talents against a league outfit. The draw numbers have already be allocated by the FA; Eastbourne Borough or Bromley have been given number 74.

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that both sets of fans have one eye on the next round and 74 versus either 22 or 32 would be rather nice. Leeds United or Nottingham Forest.

Now that's what you would call a prize draw.