Martin Voller finds out why some fans prefer the non-celebrity side of football.
Non-league football is a load of rubbish. The grounds are bad and the players are even worse, so why bother?
I’ve heard plenty of people say it, and in all honesty I’ve been guilty of saying it myself. Nowadays I admit I stand corrected, but it’s taken me two years to come round.
Football fans in East London and Essex are blessed with an abundance of professional clubs on their doorstep. The likes of West Ham United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Chelsea are all within an hour’s train journey.
Then there are local, lower league clubs such as Leyton Orient, Dagenham & Redbridge, Colchester United and Southend United.
However, for some people these professional clubs don’t quite do the job.
Every weekend thousands of football fans across the country go to watch their local non-league club.
In recent years local non-league sides such as Clapton and Concord Rangers have seen attendances surge, while Ryman Premier League outfits Dulwich Hamlet and Maidstone United regularly achieve higher gate numbers than some League Two clubs.
So what’s the attraction? To find out, I spoke to fans of the amateur game. The first person I asked was Adam Dennehey, former press secretary at Redbridge Football Club and writer for Sport In Essex. Adam describes non-league football as the ‘honest version of the game’.
‘There are no big egos,’ he said. ‘It costs far less to get in, you don’t have to spend ages looking for space to park your car and you don’t have to spend ages queuing for food, the toilet or standing in line to get through the turnstiles.’
But that’s not all: ‘At this level you can get to know the players and staff at clubs quite well, and when you’re at a good game or see a good goal you can appreciate it a bit more.’
What’s more, since you are closer to the players you can see their appreciation of your reaction to their efforts – it’s the kind of bonding that you just don’t get with ‘sleb’ players in the Premier League.
I also spoke to Brentwood Town fan, Michael Fitzgerald, who noted ‘the community spirit type involvement of supporting my local team.’
He continued: ‘I also think it’s good to support the lads who are going out on the pitch mostly for the enjoyment and not simply to line their pockets, as we see in the upper tiers of the sport.’
For Michael, there is a sense of solidarity to be had with players who are ordinary, everyday people.
Finally, I spoke to Tom Reeves, who has been watching non-league football since 2008. For him, too, what counts is the close interaction between amateur players and their supporters:
‘That’s what’s so great about non-league players,’ Tom said. ‘Once they’ve got changed and showered and headed back out of the dressing room, they are just like you. You don’t even need to ask anything in particular after a game, and all of a sudden you can find yourself having a 20-minute conversation involving players, staff, fans and sponsors.’
The amateur game is often said to be poor quality compared to its professional counterpart. But Tom argues that non-league football is more competitive and it certainly doesn’t lack excitement: ‘I have seen almost all there is to see. Eight-goal thrillers, nine-goal thrillers, red cards, yellow cards, correctly disallowed goals, incorrectly disallowed goals, early goals, late goals, fights, tears, tantrums, celebrations, confusion and so much more.’
Finally, along the same lines as Adam and Michael, Tom touched upon what it means for the fans, the people who make the game what it is.
‘There may be less people at the ground, but at a non-league club you are all in it together, yards from the action, within earshot of the opposition fans and next to your friends.
‘For me, that’s probably the best bit about non-league football.’
If you’re a football fan, next time you’re scanning through the fixture lists, look a little lower down and consider taking in a non-league game. The pies are just as good and you’ll save yourself a few bob, too.
And if you don’t normally enjoy football, you might be pleasantly surprised by the non-league experience.
It’s football, but not as you think you know it.