Non-League – GAME OF THE PEOPLE

IT FELT like a rather raucous wake. The bar was packed, beer was flowing, there was lots of back-slapping, laughing and joking. In the cold light of day, when the pints of lager have run from the system, the stark realisation that Hitchin Town had been relegated will sink in. It had been coming, not just this season, but at various times in the past decade. These things are often cyclical and the cycle had been running 15 years.

A team doesn’t lose 23 of 40 games because they are unlucky, a group of players cannot deliberately lose so many times, and a squad that fails to win at home for months on end obviously lacks something. Hitchin’s relegation was deserved and even the most dedicated and one-sighted of fans surely cannot contest that the outcome was almost inevitable.

If anyone wants to be sympathetic, it should be that the Canaries were unfortunate to run into one of the most inadequate refereeing performance of this and any season. Rumours abounded that he was under assessment so he was officiating according to the rule book, but in addition to that, Hitchin also lost two players to injury in the first half – Shane Bush was replaced by Joel Anker was replaced by Isaac Galliford. Then Lewis Barker was red-carded for returning to the pitch without permission after he had been forced to change his shirt due to a cut head. There was some confusion, some gestures of harsh treatment being handed out, but the referee had merely applied the letter of the law. Then one of Brett Donnelly’s bench team was sent off, but simply vaulted the fence and kept within earshot of the dugout.

Another red card was later shown to Stephen Gleeson after a bad-tempered skirmish, leaving Hitchin in the unenviable position of trying to win with nine men. Popular mythology says it is hard to play against 10 men, but there is nothing in the book of cliché about nine men. Aside from one phrase, “hopeless cause”, of course.

It never looked on for Hitchin really, no matter how much they huffed and puffed. The story of their season, really. The crowd, which was an impressive 1,100, waved their inflatable Canaries and jeered the referee whenever they could, but Stourbridge seldom looked in serious trouble until the final stages when a bullet header from departing goalkeeper Charlie Horlock was cleared off the line by a blue shirt. Some, desperately, claimed it was in the net, but who would have defended behind the line? When time is running out and a goal is needed, players plead for anything and everything.

Hitchin scurried around searching for a single goal that could have meant survival and Torin Mtege went close a couple of times, but for the fourth consecutive game, their scoresheet was blank. The final whistle went, the ground almost fell silent, the grim reaper returned to Top Field. Veteran Top Fielders shrugged their shoulders, pointed to past relegations with a little encouragement and acknowledged that the trapdoor had been open all season.

And yet, crowds at Top Field had been undeservedly high for most of the campaign. The worse Hitchin played, the more people appeared to file into the stadium. This is encouraging, but how will they feel about watching the likes of Dunstable, Aylesbury, Leighton and Hertford Town? Actually, past experience suggests a successful season at step four will not affect attendances too much and it will have minimal, if any, impact on commercial revenues. Admission prices may have to be adjusted, however.

Relegation is part of the life cycle of a football club. We have become too accustomed to success being the only thing that determines whether football (indeed, anything) is worthwhile, but not every club can be triumphant in the same season. Take the current 92 in the Premier and Football League; less than 20 clubs can experience tangible success, while a dozen will go through the pain of relegation. Being in the latter category doesn’t make that club worthless, it means that others are more success in that particular season. The margin of success is so narrow that nobody should be wringing their hands or seeing counselling because their football club has failed. As for Hitchin Town, one goal against Stourbridge would have been enough to preserve their Southern League Premier Central status. It didn’t come, but as every coach, reading from the lexicon of football cliché and jargon will tell you, “We go again”.

THE FA Vase, not so long ago, was dominated by teams form the north, largely from the Northern League. This season, the last four comprise Worcester City and three teams from the east side of England – Romford, Great Wakering Rovers and Lincoln United.

As ever, the Vase is a very attritional competition; Worcester City and Great Wakering Rovers, who meet in one of the semi-final two-legged ties, have played through eight rounds. In six of those rounds, Worcester have been drawn at home and they been quite prolific, notching up 29 goals, nine of which came in their first game with Bridgnorth.

Worcester are a big name who have played at a much higher level than the Hellenic Premier – hence their average attendance at step five is an impressive 600-plus. They are currently top of the table, three points clear of Corsham Town and have lost just once in 27 league games. They have won 20 games in a row. Worcester left their traditional home, St. George’s Lane 10 years ago and have a site outlined for a proposed new ground. They currently play at the Worcestershire FA’s headquarters Claines Lane.

Great Wakering Rovers and Romford are both members of the Essex Senior League. Worcester’s opponents, Great Wakering, were relegated from the Isthmian League last season. They have also had a long run as they entered at the first qualifying round stage. This has hampered their league programme and they were hoping to be higher than eighth as the end of the season approaches. Manager Marcus Bowers is under no illusions about the task waiting for his players: “Bad teams don’t get this far in a major cup competition and it is going to very, very, very tough.”

Romford are four places higher than Great Wakering in the Essex Senior League. They are, rather strangely, playing at Rookery Hill in Corringham, which was the home of now defunct East Thurrock United. Football in Romford has struggled to find direction since the old Romford club was dissolved. It is a town of 123,000 which is around three and a half times the combined population of Stanford-Le-Hope and Corringham. Back in the 1960s, Romford were a club that fancied itself as a member of the Football League, but in their current location it is difficult to envisage a pathway back to former glories. They average around 120 at their home games. However, the profile of the club would be raised significantly if they reach Wembley stadium this season. They did make headlines when the controversial former Billericay Town owner Glenn Tamplin took over at the club. That’s now all in the past. It is often overlooked that Romford played at Wembley in the 1948-49 FA Amateur Cup final, where they lost 1-0 to a very good Bromley team.

Romford’s opponents in the semi-final, Lincoln United of the United Counties League, have demonstrated they can take penalty kicks in their FA Vase run. In four of their seven ties, they have won through after a penalty shoot-out, including the quarter-final against Deal Town. They are second in the UCL Premier North, eight points behind Sherwood Colliery. Manager Chris Funnell has urged his team to adopt a “cup final mentality” for every remaining game. “The FA Vase is huge for us. Financially, it’s not that great until the final, but the momentum that comes with it, and the excitement that builds the longer you stay in the competition, keeps everyone buzzing,” he told the media.

Four games over two weekends will decide who runs out at Wembley on Non-League Finals Day on May 21. Whoever gets there will have worked hard for it – the FA Vase is a long and winding road, laden with banana skins.