When I was a kid it was understood that whatever football team you chose – That was your team for life. As we shall see, that is not really true in our modern world. However, it’s important to talk a bit of history to get an understanding of where we are today.
In the UK, football matches have traditionally kicked off at 3pm on a Saturday. The reason for this was not arbitrary. For much of the history of the modern game, most football fans were working class men employed in the factories. They would go to work on a Saturday morning for an 8am to 12 noon shift. The 3pm kick-off allowed time for them to get home, get cleaned up and grab some lunch before attending the game in the afternoon.
This began to change after WWII. Manufacturing industry declined – initially slowly but with gathering pace. Affordable Television arrived and with it outside broadcasting of sports events. And football itself began to become more international with foreign players and coaches being brought in to assure success for those teams that could afford it. The normal working man – was slowly priced out of going to watch his club be it, for example, Manchester United or Arsenal. Satellite TV, when it arrived, brought in the era of the couch fan. Kick-off times changed too – moving to fit in with TV schedules rather than the needs of the fan and the factory shift. There are fans now who’ve never set foot in a football ground yet would claim to support their team! And frankly, it’s not their fault – they’ve been capitalised out of the market. You need to have a very well paid job to be able to afford tickets for the bigger clubs these days and the demographic of the football fan at top league matches has changed as a result. No more cloth caps…
Lets drop down a few divisions. At the top in the UK we have the Premier League. Below that is the English Football League which comprises 3 Divisions. The game at that level is referred to as League Football and comprises 92 clubs – remember that figure because it’ll crop up later! Everything below that level is referred to a Non-League Football despite being run as a league set-up. All the League and Non-League divisions are inter-connected by the relegation and promotion process at the end of each season. Wingate & Finchley, my club, play in the Isthmian Premier Division which is just below the English Football League, ie one of the top Non-League Divisions. It’s the fans here that I’ll now turn my attention to. I believe the make-up of the fan base is fairly typical of many of the smaller Non-League clubs though less so for the larger clubs that more closely resemble those in the League.
Pictured above is a selection of Wingate & Finchley’s support at an away match last season. Perhaps the most surprising aspect is the lack of club paraphernalia though on colder days many will have club hats and scarves. Lets start doing a breakdown of the fan base…
The Board and the Club Volunteers – Quite a few of us attend as many games as we can. In most cases the Volunteers are first and foremost fans who’ve decided to do something extra for their club. Who knows what the motivations of individual board members may be😅
The Local Fan – We have a number of these though most only come to home games and often have work commitments that make even that difficult. As an example there’s a guy who works for a local supermarket and can normally only get to evening games!
The Distant Fan – We have a couple of these. One lives down on the south coast but retains his love of Wingate & Finchley to the extent of writing a regular piece for the club programme. His Wife is a Lewes supporter and they often come to matches together especially when the clubs play each other!
The Displaced Fan – We have picked up a few of these in recent seasons. A group that came from Barnet FC when Barnet moved from Underhill. Several have since moved on as they live further afield but one remains and now sits in the Local Fan bracket – He also fits in the Groundhopper bracket which we’ll come to soon. We’ve also got fans of clubs who have adopted Wingate & Finchley because work or family have brought them to our area. In our number we currently have a loyal Plymouth Argyle fan who still goes to see their games when the cost and distance are viable. We’ve recently acquired a young Brighton fan. We used to have a Derby County fan – Though he has found a London based Derby Fan Group and saves his money to travel with them.
Transient Fans – This is not intended to be derogatory. Best summed up as players families and friends. They form part of the regular attendance while the player is at the club but when a player moves on, they move too. I’ve formed good friendships with a number of them over the years that have lasted perhaps one or two seasons. We have a good bunch of friendly parents at the club currently.
The go to the Nearest Game That’s On Fan – We have a few of these. Irregular regulars, they can be found at Haringey Borough, Cockfosters and other local matches when W&F aren’t playing. They just want to watch a football match and have a beer without paying an arm and a leg for it.
Groundhoppers – These show up at League and Non-League matches around the country. They are the football equivalent of Train and Plane Spotters, collecting Grounds, Matches and Results. We have one of our fans who is so well known in the London area that I’m happy to name him! – Take a bow Tom👏. Our conversation in the bar before any match usually starts with a rundown of which matches he has attended in the past week. Normally he gets to a match every day except Sunday – sometimes two! The Holy Grail for most Groundhoppers is to have visited all 92 League Grounds. But most go far beyond that to visit as many grounds as possible in the UK and abroad. In recent years a number of Apps have appeared to help them. Most popular of these is probably Futbology – Even I’ve signed up to that now! 🤣
The Gone Somewhere Else Fan – Sometimes fans in Non-League decide to change allegiance for one reason or another. It could be that they think they’re seeing better football at a different club or it could be that it’s cheaper at another club. Equally, perhaps they’ve fallen out with someone? I’ve had a run-in with our Chairman in the past but we’re both thick-skinned enough to sort our differences and move on. Some are not and I know of a couple that have moved on for this sort of reason. A few ex-fans can be found at other local clubs while at least one has stopped going to football altogether – Now that was a financial decision. Some of these do show up occasionally if their new club doesn’t have a game!
Football has its share of characters and sometimes fans get nicknames. One of our regulars is a retired Postie. When he was working he used to turn up in shorts whatever the weather – He got christened ‘Hot Legs’. Another was known as ‘Squirrel’ – The apocryphal story behind the name is that once, when a floodlight failed, he shinned up the mast to change the bulb so the game could continue. One fan used to call me ‘Camera-Never-Lies’. Then there’s ‘Effing Dave’ – I think you can guess how he got that nickname🤣
In the twenty years that I’ve been attending, I’ve seen an intermittent slow increase in the number of fans at home games. In the current season our average attendance is 209. When I first started it was probably around 125. 10 seasons ago it was 178. This is a positive trend that we can only hope will continue in the future. For some the desire to go to a real match rather than sit in the pub and watch pixels on a screen may be the trigger to try Non-League. This Saturday is the annual Non-League Day – a day when the Premier League and Championship Clubs don’t have games because of international fixtures. Most Non-League clubs will have special offers in place designed to attract League Fans who are looking for a match to attend. Hopefully a few will decide to stay…
Finally we have to nod to Father-Time. A number of fans have passed on since I arrived – Some I knew well and some less so. A few can no longer get to games due to ill-health. Who knows how many more seasons I’ll be there. Hopefully as the old guard move on a new generation will take their place…
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