Mat Guy - Minnows United

First published 2017

ISBN: 978-1-912147-06-9

The authors right to be identified as author of this book under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

The paper used in this book is recyclable. It is made from low chlorine pulps produced in a low energy, low emission manner from renewable forests.

Printed and bound by Ashford Colour Press, Gosport

Typeset in 11 point Sabon by Lapiz

Photographs (except where indicated) and text Mat Guy 2017

MAT GUY lives in Southampton with his wife Deb and cat Ellie. He has written about football for a number of magazines, including Box to Box, The Goalden Times, Thin White Line, and Late Tackle. Minnows United is his second book. Another Bloody Saturday: A Journey to the Heart and Soul of Football was published by Luath Press in October 2015.

This book is dedicated to my grandfather, who showed me that life can be joyous as long as you remain faithful to your hopes and dreams.

Contents

Acknowledgements

I WILL BE forever grateful to Alice Latchford, this books editor, for all her hard work, insight, and suggestions. So too Gavin MacDougall and Luath Press for their faith in the people and stories within these pages.

Indeed, without the stories this book would be nothing. I owe a debt of thanks to those who shared their experiences with me: Jamal Zaqout, Motaz Albuhaisi, and Moahmoud Sarsak from Gaza, Cassie Childers, Sonam Dolma, Sonam Sangmo, and Tenzin Dekyong from Tibet Womens Soccer, Keil Clitheroe, Adam and Julie Houlden, Nick Westwell, Adam Scarborough from Accrington Stanley, Dan Hatfield from Selfoss, Anton Jonas Illugason from Olafsvik, Sarah Wiltshire from Yeovil Town Ladies, Iggy from Darfur United, Mick Ellard from Southampton and Rob Heys from Macclesfield Town thank you, from the bottom of my heart for opening up a wonderful world to me.

Introduction

A LIFE AT the fringes of football, far from the media spotlight afforded the worlds biggest leagues and the most successful national teams, can be a largely anonymous one.

Supporters, players, clubs, and nations that find themselves existing right at the very edge of the game, be it geographically, politically, through size and status, historically or ideologically, do so in a vacuum devoid of attention, money, and quite possibly to those from above looking down, purpose.

However, among the clubs and nations that physically cling to the very ends of the footballing earth; are national teams that exist in a twilight world beyond the international scene, thanks to political decisions taken far from any football pitch. Among the teams and their supporters constantly living in the shadow of the games giants, in lowly leagues populated by ageing ramshackle stadiums and dwindling attendances, there exist stories, living histories that better detail all that is captivating and magical about this simple game than that which is offered through satellite televisions focus on the biggest and the best.

In a game fast becoming dominated by money, it is those furthest from it that tell the story of football in its purest form, and that can help to re-connect a soul to their first memories of going to their first ever match, or the moment that kicking a ball about a scrap of land or backyard became an obsession. Among the stories of players, clubs, and supporters rarely written about exists the heartbeat and foundation blocks that enables the Premier League and Champions League to be the enormous entities that they are.

Without these fundamental passions and truths that exist, have always existed at the very fringes of mainstream football, at its grassroots, everything that has gone beyond it could not.

It seems apt in a time where the higher echelons of the sport are beginning to lose this understanding of the importance of the game further down the food chain that we begin to explore it more, cherish it. Because in a world where FA Cup replays are being mooted for the scrapheap, and initial matches to be played in midweek to avoid fixture congestion for the bigger teams; where qualification for the World Cup and European Championships could soon be preceded by a pre-qualifying tournament between Europes lesser nations, so as the larger ones dont have so many unnecessary and meaningless internationals the world of the minnow needs to be trumpeted like never before.

The riches of the Champions League, and the Premier League seem to be blinding governing bodies to the simple realities that football is such a universal sport because of its inclusivity.

Every young child with a ball can dream of one day playing for their team, their country, of playing in the FA Cup or the World Cup. And if they cant play in the final, then maybe one of the stages preceding it.

As a young boy, the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup felt just as exciting as sitting down to watch the final on television the following May. Salisbury FC s old and ramshackle (even back in the 80s when I was a young boy) and sadly long gone Victoria Park had an extra touch of magic about it on FA Cup qualifying round day.

Sitting down with my grandfather in Victoria Parks only and very basic stand (Grandad had made two cushions out of foam to protect us from the cold concrete seating) the anticipation of a good win, followed by a couple more, that could result in little old Salisbury drawing a football league team in the first round proper had both the supporters in the stand, and the part-time players crammed into their changing room beneath an old, creaking pavilion, dreaming of something special on a blustery autumn afternoon as far from the early summer sun of Cup final day as you could get.

By threatening to devalue the competition by switching it to mid-week, by scrapping replays that could see a minnow team pull off an amazing feat by drawing at home to more illustrious league opposition setting up a dream return match at a stadium players and fans alike could only dream of the magic of the competition would be eroded, diluted.

And with it the inclusivity; that any child that dreamt and persevered hard enough could find themselves on a Saturday afternoon running out against Manchester United in the FA Cup third round. That any part-time player could maybe have the chance to do this any given season is what has preserved the competition as the most loved and revered competition on the planet.

It will be, as always, the teams far from the big leagues that suffer the most from these proposed changes and who will lose the slightest of opportunities to mix it with the big time, for just one day.

So too the minnows of the international game will suffer if they are never allowed to test themselves, to develop, by playing against the Worlds best.

It is what makes the game so special, that the Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Gibraltar can be drawn to play against Germany and Spain in a qualifying group; that school teachers and firemen and bank clerks can have the opportunity to take on the champions of the world.

It is the connectivity between all abilities that makes football the most watched and loved sport on the planet; it is for anyone, everyone, who can aspire to live out their dreams, no matter from what lowly starting point they find themselves.

It is this seemingly terminal fracturing between the big time and the rest that compelled me to explore and celebrate football that exists way out on the fringes of the game; to check the heartbeat of the sports very essence.