A Shit Day…

I’m sorry for the bad language but, well it’s been a very bad day at the football and I’m praying it won’t get worse…

Today Wingate & Finchley welcomed Chichester City for a normal non-league clash in the Isthmian league. It looked to be a good day ahead except I found a couple of additional photography tasks dropped in my lap as we had a group of school children visiting and taking part in the pre-kick off actions. Ok – You want photos? I love photting school kids… Not 🙄 It actually went pretty well – the kids were very well behaved and I’ll have to process those shots this week.

The game kicked off and we saw some good attacking action from Wingate pressing forwards. A normal football game with every possibility of being very entertaining for the committed and the casual fans. Then Chichester got a chance to press forwards themselves – a loose ball requiring one of our defenders to track back and prevent the possibility of a cross into the box.

What happened next will be looked at in close scrutiny by the officials and the Police. As the players ran towards the touchline they quickly ran out of room. If you’ve ever heard the words innocuous challenge, then this was one of those but with ultimately tragic consequences. It’s difficult for me to give a blow by blow on this as I was at the far end of the pitch, but it looked like a legal shoulder challenge with not much force. However, the Chichester town player fell down and rolled over – his head hitting the wall with a sickening crunch that I could hear from the other end of the pitch.

Our player was horrified – We’ve all seen the ‘I didn’t touch him ref’ reaction. It wasn’t that at all – this was a distraught ‘what have I done’ reaction. Though he is probably guilty of nothing more than doing his job as a defender.

Our Captain’s Mum was probably first to call the ambulance just a few seconds after it happened – Well done! The London Ambulance service were there in very short order and subsequently called for the Air Ambulance to assist. These are major trauma specialists and the very best people to deal with this type of situation.

At this point the Ambulance staff asked that all supporters be removed from the ground – It turned out that some sick morons were filming the patient on their mobile phones 😠 The Police arrived and I had to deal with a minor bit of mis-information myself when it was suggested that they only come when it’s a fatality – Nope, they come when it might be considered a case of GBH, something that the Ambulance staff will make a call on. Mis-information is a big issue in our modern world 🙄

This will open a can of worms – The FA certify grounds as fit for play but I’ve seen two very bad injuries in the past 6 months involving the approved fencing at Cray Wanderers and the approved wall at our own ground. The FA need to really look at player safety below the premier league and to provide financial support to lower league clubs to allow them to make urgent safety improvements.

Really not a happy person today – need some positive thoughts and music….

UPDATE: As of 23/09/2025 the injured Chichester City player has a significant brain injury and is in an induced coma at the intensive care unit in St Mary’s. Thoughts and prayers with him and everyone involved 🙏

FINAL UPDATE: 26/09/2025 Sadly the Chichester City player passed away at St Mary’s Hospital. I really don’t know what I can say at this time – Not even sure I want to go back to football at the moment 😢