I have been watching Wingate & Finchley Football Club for 20 years and I’ve seen a lot in that time. For the ordinary fan it’s always a battle for glory or survival and I don’t mean that to be denigrating to ordinary fans – What defines a fan at this level of football in the UK anyway? Many have a home club but many are also groundhopping, attending matches elsewhere in any given week of the season.
This season has been perhaps the worst I can remember. After our great performances in the previous season many of our players were poached by other clubs. That meant a major rebuild of the team before this season began. The result was a poor start and we were struggling when the Billy Vigar tragedy struck in our game against Chichester.
Tragedy sometimes builds character – Wingate & Finchley, after an enforced break, found some form. Tragedy had brought the players together much more quickly than normally happens in a season but it wouldn’t last…
We signed McGettigan and Botti… Two young lads who immediately were brilliant in midfield and upfront. McGettigan is a tiny terrier while Botti is a very ‘Italian’ goal scorer – always popping into the area in the hope of a ball arriving. Add in our always present Camillo and we had a trident of personnel likely to cause lots of angst for opposition defences. I should add that this doesn’t mean that the rest of the team is not good – they are but we needed a true striking force! Here’s McGettigan in action at Chichester – Dangerous enough to be drawing in 4 of their defensive players…
… And Botti picking his spot to beat the Walthamstow keeper…
…Typically bad non-league lights 🤣
We had a good period until the end of November then we lost all three… I have joked a number of times that other teams had a plan along the lines of ‘Get McGettigan and Smack Botti’ 😅 Whatever the truth of it we have had numerous injuries over the rest of the season affecting many key players and forcing the manager to bring in other players either on loan or as new signings. We’ve even lost our Keeper with a back injury necessitating a loan in from QPR’s Youth set-up!
We lost 4-1 against Carshalton last Saturday – Normally that wouldn’t bother me. We often struggle on their 3G pitch. But we weren’t ever in the game which tells me the players are tired and maybe also lacking that essential belief. Losing yet another player due to a hamstring injury late in the second half really doesn’t help. Loss of confidence can be a killer in football 🙄 And so we find ourselves sitting just 6 points clear of the relegation zone and with a key match against Welling United this weekend.
It’s actually quite interesting talking to fans in the club bar. Where we are based some of our fans are also Tottenham fans. The Spurs are also walking a tightrope above the drop, perhaps more so than us, but it is still a moment of shared angst and doubly painful for some of our fans although we are able to joke about it – the potentially inevitable brings out the best in gallows humour😅 But for many of Wingate & Finchley fans, myself included, we’ve been here before and battled through and there is a belief that we will somehow survive. Even so, I sometimes feel that perhaps relegation would prove to be a bit of a release. It’s been noted many times that we’ve been punching way above our weight since we got promoted in 2011 – Money is everything and something we don’t have! That can be a bit of a yoke to carry every single year.
Next Saturday looms… We will need the spirit of 2011 with us…
…Murat scoring for us in that year’s London Senior Cup final against Hendon – The year we got promoted and won two cups as well!
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