Playing Offside – Introduction
(Written in May 2015)
I used to be useless at playing offside. It was like learning maths for me, not useful maths like when you learn how much multi-coloured chewing gum you should really get in lieu-of-change from the ice cream van, I mean rubbish maths, like fractions and shapes. I generally played at centre-back or centre-midfield and used to be decent at passing the ball. I enjoyed setting up goals – from the back. My positioning wasn’t the best, but I got stuck in, enjoyed getting dirty and just generally loved playing the game. Still to this day, I think that my dad (ironically, the manager of my team) mostly had me on the subs bench (we never had a bench) because he didn’t want to play expansive football. It had nothing whatsoever to do with my bad positioning, falling over, risky tackling and constantly being caught offside (especially when I was playing at centre-back). Nowadays I’ll be celebrated, admired and playing in front of the defence, just behind the midfield - but this was the 1990’s and lumping the ball (and your opponents) in the air was the in-thing to do. To be fair though, I’m probably letting my imagination run away with me, run past me, just like that 19-stone opposing winger did when I last played an 11-a-side game.
So watching football was to be my career. I’m 29 and a half now and have supported Wigan Athletic for exactly 20 years. I’ve been fortunate to support a club who have mostly been successful, one who has transformed from lower-league battlers, to a pseudo-cosmopolitan club, signing players from all over the world - and now back to our roots, growing in the local community, with players actually born in the town lining up for the first team. It’s been one hell of a ride, we’ve seen it all as supporters and I’d challenge anyone to trump us in the ‘football excitement’ game. I first saw Wigan play Exeter City in 1995, with the culmination being winning the FA Cup Final against Manchester City in 2013. Along the way we’ve lost in play-offs, beaten all the top teams, fought and won relegation battles, been beaten by non-league and lower-league teams and ridiculed by all and sundry for having the cheek to average 16,000 supporters in the Premier League for a club that represents a town that has a population of around 85,000. As I write this, we’ve just been relegated (for the 3rd time in our history – the 2nd in 3 seasons) to the third tier – but I still love it, perhaps more than ever, now I’m old enough to understand the game and I can’t wait to travel to places that I’ve never been or haven’t been for years. In a funny way, the results on the pitch have become a secondary concern, really. I love going to the games with my family, friends and fellow Wiganers, cheering on the team that represents us. We’ve experienced joy, heartbreak and utter madness together. That’s what supporting a football club is about for me – experiencing as a collective, being together when events on a football field happen and just, quite simply, enjoying yourself.
People who play, coach and watch sport in the UK in general are passionate about what they do, but there is nothing like football. Intertwined with social and even political history, the game which was formed by the upper class was taken by the working class, from mines to factories to schools and churches – it was taken to heart in every town and village in the country and loved. Eventually, based on the principles that everyone, of any background, can play and be equals (requiring only a ball, though you don’t really need a ball) - football became the most popular sport in the world. Being the most popular sport has seen it grow from an informal kickabout into a culture of big money and commercialism and today especially, the status of being a spectator at games is threatening to slip away from the social class of people who made it popular in the first place. Away from the bigger clubs, who have supporters from all over the world and monthly turnovers of tens of millions of pounds, there are the small clubs, heavily reliant on local people turning up and bringing through every penny to make ends meet. These types of clubs can co-exist just three leagues apart, all of them trying to bring in more supporters to improve their infrastructure, which in turn will help them to improve on the pitch.
Here in England, despite our shortcomings on the football pitch in the last 50 years or so, I believe we have by far the strongest league system in the world – and I just don’t think that is celebrated enough. We have four tiers of ‘professional’ football, and yet the majority of clubs in the fifth tier (the newly-renamed National League) are professional too. There aren’t many leagues in the world that have professional clubs in their fifth tier (even if they have a fifth tier!) I feel that we seem to get too het up in the celebrity and money of the Premier League, when there’s a bigger picture, as local people continue to support their local clubs in the face of 21st century branding and commercialism. I want to find out why people today, 20 years on from my first game, love it like they do. Why do they turn up every week, paying extortionate amounts to see their team, sit or stand in relative discomfort, even though some of their clubs may achieve very little and probably continue to do so?
Being someone who enjoys travelling and watching football, I thought it would be a good idea to visit all 92 grounds in England. To make matters more interesting – I can’t afford to drive, I’m not medically allowed to drive and I can’t actually drive anyway - so I’m reliant on public transport to get me around the country. I’m hoping to visit various places, various grounds and meeting some of the characters that frequent them, so using public transport will greatly enhance my storytelling palette! I’ve probably been to about 30 of the current grounds in the 92, but for the purposes of this book, I intend to visit them again, adding them to the grounds that I haven’t been to, learning about the different clubs, their histories, traditions and stories. I’ll be attending all the games in the home ends – call it an obvious statement, but experiencing what it’s like to be a home supporter at the ground, is vital to experiencing the ground and the club. I’ve made a rule to only attend competitive matches - so no random reserve games or summer friendlies count towards my intended figure.
I figured that I would only really get a correct impression of a club, if there was actually something at stake in the particular game. The original plan was to compile all of these reviews into one book (obviously once I had completed the 92) but with the fast-changing nature of football, I think the impact of what I experience will be lost if the matches and situations that the clubs find themselves in are half-a-decade old. Similarly, once I complete the journey, I think it’ll be intriguing to gauge the difference in where a particular club was at the time I visited and measured with where they are now, whenever you are reading this. There’s no greater example of this than Wigan Athletic, FA Cup winners just 24 months ago – next season, in 2015-16, we’ll be starting life back the third tier. Contrast this with AFC Bournemouth - who we beat in the FA Cup that year, themselves a third tier side at the time - will be lining up in the Premier League next season. With the nature of the football pyramid, I realise that clubs will be relegated from the traditional ‘92’ into the National League, but the point is that I would have visited all 92 clubs that are in the professional leagues at one particular time. I’ve worked out that with an average of 20 games to attend each year, I can complete this in 5 years.
This isn’t an academic tome, it isn’t meant to be, the language is very informal and perhaps tailored to an acquired taste, but I hope it’ll come across as an honest account from someone who enjoys the game and wants to promote the role of supporters as much as possible. Despite the television and oligarch money that floods the game, I still think we supporters are the most important aspect of a club, and I want to celebrate that too. It’s also part-autobiographical and part-breakdown as I reach my 30’s, so forgive me for that indulgence. I’m sure someone out there will be able to relate to me!
With all of that in mind, the scene is set as a bitter Tuesday night in October and I found myself at a loose end. I had heard that Preston North End were charging a fiver for people to see their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Second Round tie against Port Vale. With Preston being a mere 13 minute train ride away I made Deepdale my first step on the road to the 92. I may mention the ticket price a few times...
From volume one of 'Playing Offside'