Issue 13

BLACK & WHITE

THENOTTSCOUNTYFANZINE

#13 - MAR ‘15 - £2

INTRO

CONTENTS

Not sure even where to start with this issue to be quite honest! After cramming more content into issue 12 than any issue we’ve ever done, we’ve gone for a less is more approach this time out. Less articles, but the articles (mostly) are a lot heavier than what we’d usually carry. I trust it’ll still be worth your time. There’s no sense in me covering the ups and downs of the last few weeks because it’s mostly covered in the very first article on the opposite page it’s a big one, but I’d like to think it’ll give readers a brief insight behind the scenes at Notts - because God knows right now they need it the most!

A Call To Arms .................................... 03 Stuart Brothers

Thank you to the skeleon staff who have helped put the issue together. I was determined to have this out of the weekend of Scunthorpe on Saturday and Notts Ladies v Chelsea on the Sunday which I hope we’ve managed to do. So cheers to Adam Barlow, Jacob Daniel, Dave Fells, the Football Action Network, Adam Taylor, Rob Hornby, Rob Davies, Paul Smith and every single Notts fan who submitted their well wishes for Jim Rodwell. That’ll be none of you.

Taking Back Out Game ....................... 14 Football Action Network

RIP ANONYPIE

Alun Millard is fundraising for Cancer Research in memory of Elaine Brooks, also known as Anonypie, taken by Cancer on 16th December 2014. Elaine was a friend to many, and extremely well liked by those that knew her, Notts County or Forest fan alike. Able to be diplomatic whilst firm in her convictions, Elaine was someone who many deeply respected, and her loss has left a hole in the Notts family.

Alun will be running the Nottingham halfmarathon in September so please dig deep and send pennies to help eradicate Cancer! justgiving.com/anonypie or text ANON50 £5 to 70700

/blackwhitezine

/blackwhitezine

NCLFC Set To Challenge ..................... 07 Adam Barlow English Football’s £5b Payday ............ 08 Jacob Daniel Saint Raymond live review ................. 09 Stuart Brothers Interview: Colby Bishop ..................... 10 Dave Fells Time To Talk ...................................... 13 Stuart Brothers

My Meadow Lane Top 3 ...................... 18 Adam Taylor The Notts Senior Groundhop .............. 19 Rob Hornby Ding Dong .......................................... 20 Stuart Brothers Jacob Has A Whinge ........................... 22 Jacob Daniel Remembering Butch .......................... 23 Paul Smith A Sad End For One Of Our Own ........... 26 Rob Davies

DISCLAIMER

Black & White is an independent release produced by fans and as such has no official affiliation with Notts County Football Club.

The views in each publication reflect those of the individual contributors themselves.

Adverts for club projects appear in return for the club’s help on matters such as stocking us on the club shop but they hold no influence over each issue’s content.

/blackandwhitezine

/thenottsblog

A CALL TO ARMS

STUART BROTHERS @blackwhitezine

Well, what an absolute gash time of it it’s been lately. Rank mediocrity on the field, hemorrhaging staff behind the scenes including an immensely popular CEO, yet another manager and his assistant sacked and as of a week last Thursday - another Supporter Liaison Officer has gone!!

I kid of course regarding the importance of that last one, but yes as of Thursday, March 19th I have resigned as the club’s SLO. Whether they’ve announced it publicly yet themselves I’m not sure in amongst the deluge of departures through Meadow Lane’s revolving door but I think by now enough people are aware anyway.

It’s only a few weeksago that I was able to write in the latest issue of the Stand fanzine of how proud I was to present the club, but now that’s all gone and I’m still hurting if I’m quite honest.

Much like it was when my appointment was announced, the response has been humbling. I gave the role everything I possibly could in some areas but know full well I let myself down horrendously in others which all culminated in my resignation. The day that followed (without wanting to air on the side of melodramatic) were a real personal struggle. I blacked myself out from social media and the like just unable to keep answering questions. I even missed Notts’ next game which heralded the return of Jimmy Spencer - or most pertinently the last game of the Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott era in a blur of Valium-induced malaise.

Derry and Abbott clock out at 503 days’ service, surely each deserves a commemorative teapot in the very least?

There’s a lot I want to cover in this month’s opening article quite simply because I feel the fanzine is the best way to put out such a rallying cry to our supporters when we - our club - need it the most. I make no apology for how long I’m going to need your attention for, but this is still being put together the night before the print deadline. I hope you’ll take in what I say. For whatever reason, when I type a lot of people choose to listen and I hope that this is another of those occasions. There may well be times where I repeat myself more than once to, all I can say to that though is try to deal with it! Firstly, when I was appointed SLO I said in my initial interview sat with Aileen Trew and the now thankfully fucked off CEO of the time that I wasn’t convinced clubs of our standing needed a Supporter Liaison Officer, that in most respects clubs at League One or Two level

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were open books with owners who didn’t hide away when I merely raise these points to highlight the nature of the they were needed. In fact it took a fair bit of arm twisting role and how little impact an SLO actually has. I sat at just to get me to agree to apply. a Football League seminar a few months back where we had (one of) AEK Athens’ SLOs to tell us how their Now I’m out of the picture, and with a good discussion network of Supporter Liaison Officers dealt with the local on Notts Mad (of all places!) out of the way, Pies4U has police forces, co-ordinated with club sponsors etc. The it exactly right - the system is doomed to fail. Some of afternoon was wasted, of no use to us in the Football the points raised in that topic will appear here again by League other than to show how many years behind we the way, though I will attempt to expand on them. Upon are in this country. Clubs with regular attendances of tens applying I was asked to attend an interview with two of the of thousands will find the role vital - at our level it’s merely club’s three Directors, Aileen and Jim Rodwell. My initial a Government-enforced nuisance aimed at making it look meeting went well. Speaking in professional terms the like they really care about our game’s governance. And pair gave me a brief (in amongst Jim’s mindless anecdotes why is an SLO about as enticing to our club as a cockof his time away with England that week) insight into how flavoured lollypop? Money. Not one supporter came to me things had to operate at the club, and there was little with a bad suggestion in my entire time as SLO - but when room for me to disagree if I’m honest. It merely reinforced it costs money it’s so difficult for the club to action things. my view that a Supporter Liaison Officer might not really Notts aren’t alone in this, but I’d estimate 80% of League be necessary in League One. But I certainly wasn’t about One & Two clubs are perched so precariously because of to walk out the door and say no thank you. the financial structure of the game that as much as they would love to, their hands are tied. Departmental budgets But SLO’s for the foreseeable future are merely a are laid out so far in advance that it just isn’t practical Government-mandated inconvenience. I sit here writing to say “Right, let’s make that happen right now!”. From this with my job description at my side for reference and an SLO’s perspective it’s incredibly dis-heartening, from a in retrospect it’s quite the farce. It lists the club’s Media supporter’s perspective which I am first and foremost it’s Team as a key relationship for the SLO - yet on regular sadly understandable. occasions the club’s security officer would reprimand my briefest matchday presence in the pressbox. Jim was in I had a great time conversing with people going back and the security officer’s pocket and so would back him - in forth about where we’d want the club to get to. And by spite of being the man who authorised my Meadow Lane and large people are (or at least, were) more than happy pass to be for ‘all areas’. The job description also says to see us fighting it out around the middle of League there would be invites to internal management meetings One, as opposed to last season. The board at least were from time to time as well but this certainly didn’t ever very sympathetic however which offered me plenty of happen. encouragement. But they’re doing the very best they can with the cards dealt to them - things like Premier Obviously given my view on the role’s necessity (or lack League parachute payments instead of relegation clauses thereof) it came as a surprise when the queries from our in contracts for instance have led us down this path and supporters did start coming in. There’s an element of the there’s only so much that can be done to steady the Notts fanbase who perhaps feel they shouldn’t take up ship. Ultimately though, the risks to our clubs in either the time of those running the club which is very much Leagues One or Two are enormous and all balanced too commendable even if I might not understand it myself. precariously for comfort and it’s perhaps an insight I wish By a couple of weeks, I had enough correspondence to I didn’t have. Supporters are of course fully within their make it worth booking an appointment to address matters rights to stay away if they don’t feel they’re being offered with the board. Things that ranged from ticket prices and enough value for money, but that could ultimately one day offers, the state of the ground and why the club were kill the club. People can and will bleat about the party line secretive over why players wouldn’t be in the first team. but I was never once given a mandate as to what I could You see what might appear trivial to some, is important to and couldn’t say. I was raised in a manner that made it others - this was something I picked up on very quickly. clear that as a supporter, I am here to support. There are enough people out there wanting the worst for my I felt confident going into the meeting. A lot of the ideas club without our own wanting to put the knife in. I was I had gone through in my head and each and everyone supportive of the Trew’s efforts before, I was supportive felt actionable and I was hopeful of being able to contact during my time as SLO, and I remain so afterwards. But supporters later that evening to share the good news that has never ever been me saying that everything they with them. I’d put so much thought into each, thinking do is fantastic or with the most impeccable of timing. See of possible pitfalls and where things might not work out. Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott’s sacking for example - why I came up with nothing - this was going to be a flawless wait until after the MK Dons game? It all feels a lot like victory. But by now we know there isn’t much money in selling someone down the river from where I’m sitting, League One and that the Premier League run the show, particularly when the replacement (if there even is one) all whilst the financial deficit between ourselves and the lined up isn’t in situ.

Championship only widens every season. I learned very quickly how every tiny detail is planned maticulously I said from the very first interview that if Notts wanted months - sometimes years - in advance. The risks are someone to sit quietly in the corner and claim their free enormous if our clubs get things wrong, and whilst we tickets (there is no wage for the SLO role, only one free have a Chairman who continues to fund the club knowing match ticket per game which I doubled or else I wasn’t full well he’ll never see his money again, it’s highly going to take it) then they weren’t going to get that. unlikely they’re going to deviate from the masterplan. Ultimately I over-stepped the mark and had to pay the One thing I learned, is that whilst people say Ray has price for which I’m extremely regretful over comments I lost all interest in Notts County (a conclusion reached I made on Notts Mad - but days after I’d voice the concerns can only assume because he doesn’t get into spats on the that led to my resignation we’re without a manager again! internet anymore) they couldn’t be further from the truth.

He works all hours under the sun to the detriment of time Quite simply I was concerned Jim Rodwell leaving might spent with his family just to bring the money in to keep not be the end of it. I had nothing to back up sduch a the club ticking over. statement, merely saying that these were concerns of other the supporters I was charged with liaising with.

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Worst and perhaps most knifetwistingly of all, it was apparently my fault that staff morale at the club had been damaged. Not the hemorrhaging of staff on a now regular basis, nor the piss-poor form on the field we’ve endured for months, but my posts on Mad were the reason morale was so low. For all the admiration in the world I have for Aileen in running Notts (the real thankless task), that’s an accusation that will forever hurt having seen first hand before defeat to Rochdale how deflated the whole building was, and that was before I’d even taken to my keyboard.

Being told to get a grip about whatever looming disaster I thought we were on the brink of is one thing, but when days later Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott’s names are added to a list of staff that the club was hemorrhaging, it all gets a bit confusing.

The modern game is a morally repugnant beast and people forever will remain quick to put the knife in on the Trews. But these are good people who admit to making bad decisions - and I have no doubt that Jim Rodwell will have more than played his part in reaching a lot of those bad calls. You see when I raise security concerns with one person at the club regarding Sheffield United supporters piling in through our gates without payment and that person says they will not be looking at the security tapes yet Rodwell says they have? Well I’m sorry but I’m going to be a little suspicious. I bet there’s not one person reading this who is sad to see someone else putting the cunt in Scunthorpe right now - with sincere apologies for my language there.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say being a Supporter Liaison Officer is a thankless task and I said that even before I applied. There just needs to be a balance. First and foremost the people need to believe their SLO is in the very least LISTENING to their concerns. So long as they feel someone from within the club is listening they’re happy. It meant the world to me the amount of people who came up to me at Chesterfield (first game after I’d been appointed) congratulating me and saying I was the right person for the job, it was such a humbling experience and I hope that whoever takes over gets to feel that themselves. These weren’t friends of mine either patting me on the back - these were complete strangers with whom I’d never spoken before. It’s something that will stay with me forever.

Was the SLO role all good times? Absolutely not. I’d get the odd supporter every few weeks have a pop (one of which apologised the next day which I thought was fantastic and if anything, unnecessary) as if it was my fault we’d lost. Whoever takes on the role next also had my deepest sympathies in that they will at some stage be forced into working alongside the Notts County Official Supporters Association’s Patricia Akers - an infuriating tyrant of a woman who has already forced many a helpful,willing volunteer to give up wanting to help our club.

Upon my first meeting with them, she allocated me a point of contact who I could liaise with going forward so as not to keep getting communications lost in amongst it’s numbers. Seemed fair. And so me and my point of contact met regularly and productively with the idea of setting up a farreaching survey of Notts County supporters so that we could get to work on improving the matchday experience. For reasons only Akers will see fit, she called a special meeting with her and the rest of the committee members to hold a vote to stop such meetings happening.

About as bizarre as it was counter-productive. I disagreed with the Supporters Club/Official Supporters Association split enough to begin with, but having experienced first hand how they operate, I am even more so. My point of

contact quit the Association because of the vote, and I support his decision 100%. Whatis sad is that he wasn’t the first, and nor will he be the last.

It is a grave concern of mine the SLO position will now be appointed within the NCFCOSA. To do so would be a real missed opportunity given that committee members (not least Akers) have had no concerns telling each other that I (or the role) was to be seen as the enemy, not an ally.

During my short-lived spell as SLO, I had run-ins with supporters on the way home from games, I met with the Notts Supporters Trust, there were confrontations with over-zealous stewards at away games, and I had some great discussions with Malcolm and Iris at the (original) Supporters Club. Quite unbelievably, it was the club’s official branch with which I had the most difficulty working with. It simply should not be like that - and believe me I had no issue telling them as such. One thing I took from the seminar I mentioned above was from the SLO at Sheffield United and how many supporters clubs they had, and how each would branch out at the slightest hint of trouble. For a club of their size, it’s workable.

For us it’s not. All I wanted at the club was to get as many supporters pulling in the same direction as possible to help drag the club forward (admittedly ironic given my comments of concern for our future). But we at Notts now have a Supporters Club, the Supporters Trust, a Disabled Association, a Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender group, and the Official Notts County Supporters Association. For a club whose home attendances dropped below 3,000 last week, how can it possibly be beneficial for the fanbase to be splintered in so many different directions? We have a fantastic Supporters Club with great people behind it who were the ones losing sleep, rattling buckets, putting on events to ensure the club was kept alive which is all we should need!

I beg and pray that both Aileen and Iris to be able to meet and put their differences aside but I don’t think it will ever happen. Both are fantastic women and want what’s best for the club, but they’re too similar in that neither will concede ground for the other which is what needs to happen - but that’s what strong women do. Each sees things very differently of course and there’s little I can do to change that but if the two combined I can guarantee the club would be a far more harmonious place. Were it up to me we’d lock them in a steel cage, let them fight it out and not open the door until both were seeing black eye to black eye. Mistakes have been made at Notts County and we all know it. However for the issues I may have with my departure that doesn’t change that I know people are hard at work to fix those mistakes. I’m extremely proud to have been afforded the opportunity to represent this club and did everything within my limited means to fight for the best interests of our supporters. I put myself in the firing line immediately after the final whistle of the home game against Rochdale, standing next to the walkway because I knew supporters were angry and that they’d need someone to take it out on. I took a bullet for the club in hearing abuse after accusation after blame because I felt I had to. I don’t regret it, and I’d have continued to if the club had allowed me to. I loved being able to represent the club and getting even the slightest insight into how things are run. And it’s that sort of look at things that I wished every week I could give others.

We all support Notts County Football Club. The keyword I’d highlight there is club, of which the first team draws much of the focus. But just because we’re losing games at an alarming rate doesn’t suddenly make Notts County FC the shambles many would have you believe. At Notts we are truly

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 5

fortunate with some of the infrastructure we have in place. Our youth academy (which brought us Haydn Hollis and Curtis Thompson) improves year on year with us this year flirting with the top spot on more than one occasion - injury to the quite fantastic Colby Bishop looks set to curtail that bid sadly. Last year saw the debut of Notts County Ladies, who in spite of the number of injuries that would bring lesser clubs to it’s knees, reached two cup semi-finals ahead of securing it’s top flight status for another year. Last weekend, a 4-0 win at Meadow Laneagainst their Tottenham Hotspur counterparts took them two games away from Wembley.

It’s a rosier picture before you even take into account it’s award winning commercial department and a highly profitable catering arm. Things are far from acceptable on the field right now and that’s what matters the most to the average supporter, but elsewhere things are ticking over nicely. It’s just the bread and butter which we need to take care of right now. Moving on from the Supporter Liaison Officer side of my piece, I’m devastated we’ve sacked Shaun Derry and Greg Abbott - but surprised I certainly am not.

I commend the board for showing near untold levels of patience by their previous standards in wanting it to work, and had attendances not dipped in the manner they did I’m sure this wouldn’t be something I’d be discussing now.

I’m confident however that when I say for every supporter who had reached breaking point and wanted Derry out, I would bet that each and every one of them wish it hadn’t come to this. We’ve all come to terms by now though that we’ve sacked managers who were in better form than this however.

I daren’t go into the ins and outs and who may or may not be appointed because by the time this issue has gone to print, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that he (or even she!) will already have been hired and fired. But I worry that in sacking Derry and Abbott all we’ve done is renew the vicious circle we’ve been trapped in for years.

Hit a rough patch, sack the manager, bring in someone new, reap the short term benefits only to find ourselves in the same position 12 months later. The time if Derry was to go was the end of the season - not with nine games to go. I’m sadly confident we’ve signed our own death warrant here.

have labelled him a bottler which was a second yellow card. Let us not forget the red card he picked up and subsequently was awarded the free-kick for at Meadow Lane - we still don’t even know why or what the referee was thinking that day. Which leaves his 15 seconds of madness at Swindon Town that has left him on the sideline for three games. But does anyone actually know what he was saying to pick up two yellows in a matter of seconds?

I spoke with Liam prior to a game recently to ask him, and I dare say if his response is true there are very few Notts fans alive who wouldn’t either react the same way, or want one of their players to. As Roy Carroll put another of his errant goal kicks into the stands, Noble spotted the referee laughing and made his approach. This is about the point where you would hope any captain worth his salt would be pulling Liam away in my opinion, it was only ever going to go one way after all. When asked why he was laughing, Noble was told it was none of his business, and to play on. After a few seconds remonstration, the referee brandished the first yellow. To this point still no one had stepped in to drag Liam away. Instead, he told the referee he hoped the referee’s assessor had seen the incident and that he would be punished for it. Boom. Second yellow.

No one would dare excuse the petulance shown, but I for one won’t criticise a player so frustrated with his side’s treatment that he demands explanations when a a supposedly impartial match official is laughing at us.

We’re not the set of brutish rogues some of our own make us out to be - we’re just gobshites. This is the lowest level of football that Roy Carroll has played at so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that his attitude isn’t where we need it to be at times. Alan Smith however knows this level well enough to not need to piss and moan at officials constantly in the manner he does. Some games all we want is for them to knock each other round the head and just get on with it, but these are the cards we are left with to fight out the season with.

Jimmy Spencer is back, the man who we kicked off the season by signing in a real show of ambition. Such is our luck that, well we know how that story goes now. Jamal Campbell-Ryce (hopefully the good one) could be here to see out the season with us, whilst Taylor McKenzie’s time may well come now after a stop and start campaign. The reinforcements are arriving, with nine games (as we go to print) we’ve more than enough in the squad to keep I’m worried what it means on the field too though. Few us up. will forget the mess Keith Curle’s sulking bitches left us in last season, a mess that would only be rectified on the So that’s where we stand now. A State Of The Union final day of the season - Curle had already been gone for address of sorts. We’re shot of Jim Rodwell (for whom more than a year at that point! And what of the current no tears shall be said), same as we are the manager players left in amongst all this? No they’re not performing, (rightly or wrongly, sadly or happily) whose football so there’s no getting away from that. Then you have the many claimed was keeping them away from Meadow chicken and the egg situation - do the players Lane. We’ve nine games left to play, and we sit outside give you something worth cheering first or do you get the relegation zone only on goal difference - though with behind them? Everyone of course has their own take. a game in hand. Footballers are unfairly portrayed as overpaid at times, but that certainly isn’t the case with There’s no escaping the discipline issue, but let’s not lose this year’s squad. If you think booing them or jeering all sense of focus and make out we’re kicking the shit out them from the field is worth them giving a shit for their of League One on the way to relegation. We’ve a bunch £100 a week at times then you’re very much mistaken. of gobshites for sure, but look at the red cards we’ve These are players who need support for 90 minutes, not accumuated and the picture isn’t anywhere near as bad just the first 10 before the near entirety of Meadow Lane as you might think. Ignoring the rescinded Gary Jones red turns on them. card - Cieron Keane has committed three fouls all season and was booked for two of them, Nicky Wroe one night It’s sink of swim time for Notts County Football Club. My picked up a second yellow for kicking the ball away, we immediate reaction in light of Derry and Abbott’s sacking had Kwame Thomas sent off for supposedly taking too is that we’re League Two bound, but we all need to snap long to get off the field, and then we come to Liam Noble. out of this sort of malaise if we’re to remain in third tier for another season.

Oh Liam. What do we do with you? One, was for the sort of tackle late in the game that if he hadn’t made we’d

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NCLFC SET TO CHALLENGE The 2015 FAWSL season is upon us once again and following on from a steady first season here at Meadow Lane, Notts have steadily built over the close season and have made some useful additions to the squad that should hopefully see the club push on from last season’s midtable finish.

Notts were really hit hard with injuries to key players last year but with most of them back to fitness now, the squad looks in a much better place than the one that finished last season.

One of the key signings has been of striker Rachel Williams from Chelsea. Williams was top scorer in the FAWSL when she was at Birmingham in 2012 and after a bad run of injuries at Chelsea is looking to get her career back on track. If she can rediscover her Birmingham form Notts could well have made the signing of the season in the FAWSL. Jess Clarke was fantastic for much of last season for Notts both in creating and taking goal scoring chances, and now that they have more options up front there will be few sides relishing playing Notts.

The midfield has been further been strengthened by adding Jess Sigworth from Doncaster; a youngster with time on her side and one who will only get better. The fact that the Magpies can attract players like this shows the club is heading in the right direction.

At the back Alex Greenwood and Laura Bassett have joined from Everton and Chelsea. Both are players who know the league inside out and also full England internationals. To sum it up Notts now have strength and depth in every position on the pitch.

So who should we expect to challenge for the title? Liverpool have won the league for the last two seasons but have lost a few players this time around and may go through a period of transition. Chelsea came so close to winning the league last time around but fell short in the final league game at Manchester City. They too have been busy in the transfer market but with the FAWSL being a sprint not a marathon, could find the first few games tough going.

Manchester City have again been making the news; after winning the Continental Cup last season they have signed Lucy Bronze from Liverpool, brought Demi Stokes over from America, as well as adding the likes of Welsh striker Natasha Harding.

Off the field their home games will be played at the newly built 7000 capacity Manchester City academy stadium. They have invested heavily but along with investment come expectations, it will be interesting to see how they cope.

However the side to beat this season could well be Arsenal. By their high standards they have had a lean period in the past 2 seasons having neither won the league nor qualify for Europe (They have however won 3 out of 4 knock out competitions in this time so it’s hard to say they have been awful).

They do seem to be getting back on track though having brought Lianne Sanderson from America and added half of Bristol’s first team to their squad. They look strong and seem to be much more settled.

Whoever finished above Arsenal stands a very good chance of winning the league.

So back to Notts; as we saw last season, Rick Passmoor will have Notts organised and very hard to beat. Now that they have options up front and a good mix of experience and youth the side could well challenge.

If they can just steer clear of injuries and then there is no reason why they can’t challenge for the title or make it to the FA Cup final that is to be played at Wembley.

Now wouldn’t that be special?

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ADAM BARLOW @ferretimp

ENGLISH FOOTBALL’S £5BN PAYDAY

JACOB DANIEL

@JacobNCM

It's easy to become utterly disenfranchised with the entire debate surrounding the new Premier League television deal. The £5.136bn figure that Sky and BT bought the rights for is so big that it is basically meaningless, it just melts into the page as if it had been written in that disappearing ink they use in Harry Potter.

The response of the Premier League didn't help either, with Richard Scudamore predictably ramming his plumage into the faces of anyone who could bear to listen. But neither did the careless dismissal of the figure as obscene and the Premier League as an irretrievably evil enterprise just years away from colonising Mars to start a league for its B teams.

There is no reason why the money shouldn't be a great thing for English football. The real crime is not the figure itself, but the fact that it will disappear into the black hole of the Premier League's never-ending growth. Wages will rise, the earnings of directors will rise and transfer fees will rise - but no one will notice the change.

All that will be different is the size of the figures disippating meaninglessly into newspaper pages underneath our disinterested, tired eyes.

I'm not someone who would call for a complete reorganisation of English football. I'm not for tipping the Premier League upside down and shaking the loose change out of its pockets. More redistribition of wealth downwards is needed, of course, but not until clubs at lower levels show a willingness to think differently to the top flight and resist the temptation to make average third flight footballers slightly better paid, but still average, third flight footballers every time they scrape together some cash.

Every time a lower league football fan even so much as breathes the word 'budget', they help to reinforce this self-fulfilling prophecy.

Before that conversation can happen, English football needs to address the obvious points seriously and without the tokenism that they are usually approached with in the media and by those in the game's positions of power. Clubs, not just top flight ones,

should be paying staff a living wage.

Ticket prices should be much more affordable at all levels. Fans should be treated with far more respect by their own clubs and almost every level of footballing authority, from the FA to the police. This much is obvious.

egalitarian nature of the television deal is one of these things that is often lost in the maelstrom of fury at figures that are essentially meaningless to most of us. The Premier League is, despite the horrible sideshow that follows it around, a fun league to watch with a lot of fantastic footballers. The state of the Sorting these issues would be little more England team, for me, is a side issue than a financial token gesture from the that can only serve to blur the lines of proceeds of the new deal - and the fact the whole debate. that Scudamore has dismissed them is proof that he is high on power, viewing I know you want it, but a successful the world through some sort of fucked international side can only come kaleidoscope. The myth, perpetuated from a cultural shift, rather than the

by Scudamore and journalists including indiscriminate piping in of money.

Martin Samuel, that football clubs have no responsibility to pay the living wage The new deal should allow clubs to because they are mere businesses is keep them here without trebling their absurd. Our clubs represent us, we wages, with enough change left over essentially view them as extensions of to make the simple changes that would ourselves. Sadly, this tight bond often make such a significant difference. A leads to tribal defences of one's own living wage and fair ticket prices should club when it comes to these arguments, be the minimum that we demand from rendering them just as pointless as the new deal, but we won't. I say 'we' talking about whether Louis van Gaal because these are issues that affect all or Jose Mourinho is a bigger dickhead. of us. Luton Town recently became the first Football League club to adopt the Nor, however, does the thoughtless living wage. This should've been galling fetishisation of foreign football, news for the fans of all other 91 clubs, particularly the Bundesliga, help us but it invariably wasn't. much. I went to Germany recently and saw Bundesliga games at Financial redistribution also needs to Borussia Monchengladbach and come, but in a structured way that Borussia Dortmund. So much about allows it to be spent on improving stuff, it was fantastic - the atmosphere was rather than just making Calvin Andrew great, people had beer in the stands a slightly richer man. without instantenously turning into brawling wankers and I didn't have to The financial abyss that faces any club remortgage anything to pay for it. relegated from the Premier League is the real cliff-face that football is I also saw a guy take a piss at the back starting at, as opposed to the size of the Westfalenstadion without anyone of the actual figure itself, and it is noticing, the quality of the games only a matter of time before a club was terrible and, at Gladbach's next implodes because of it. The sad reality home match, the pitch was invaded is, though, that said club will have by terrifying, boiler-suit clad Koln financially fucked themselves despite supporters trying to punch anything paying their staff in loose change and that moved. bankrupting supporters every time they want to watch.

There are some things that English football does very well and we At least if it happens with that sorted shouldn't lose sight of that. The out, we can say that they've tried.

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 8

SAINT RAYMOND: LIVE REVIEW

STUART BROTHERS @blackwhitezine

Saint Raymond (or Callum Burrows) is a phenomenal talent, one that perhaps wouldn’t have caught my eye were it not for him being recommended to me by Darren of this fanzine prior to getting him tied down to an interview.

My partner and I went to watch him (Saint Raymond - not Darren) last year at a sold out Rescue Rooms and were blown away by his live show. Since that night he's toured with Haim and Ed Sheeran amongst others but headlining one of the best venues in the UK, in your own home city is something very different altogether.

Me and he have spoken on Twitter for a fair while now. He's done interviews for the fanzine, we've dissected Notts performances good and bad, but have never met. Yet he was still kind enough to put me on the guestlist since I was too late to get a ticket before they sold out.

The support band Amber Run - another set of locals - have me in chills from beginning to end, a euphoric noise crafted for sold out stadiums rather than the Rescue Rooms around the corner that they'd headline in a few weeks' time.

Callum nails it though. He's got a charisma that you can't not admire, and his songs are ridiculously melodic.

I’m the first to admit that this isn't the kind of stuff I'd usually listen to, Grinning from ear to ear for pretty much the entirety of his hour long set, you can see how appreciative he is of the opportunities that he's forged for himself.

When I lived back in south Wales, you'd witness bands break out of the scene not for especially for the music they produced but for who they knew at which touring agency. Soul destroying it might be for really hard working musicians but none the less very true.

For Saint Raymond however it appears very different and he's earned every bit of the adulation of the sold out crowd. A sticking point for many artists is prior to an album release when you need to fill a set with songs the crowd hasn’t heard as yet. To captivate those who have given up their evening with material they’re unfamiliar with is no easy task but he manages it with

aplomb - the simple fact is that songs Your Feet is a song so good it deserves like Great Escape are just too good to to be heard by a wider audience than go ignored. perhaps it’s initial release would have received. That it’s good enough to close Prior to the encore, he finishes with the set speaks volumes.

Ghosts, a song that had been stuck in my head since I first heard it nearly As Callum eventually leaves the stage a year ago. It's still as fantastic live after an extended closing, he walks off thankfully as I remember it. Back on double fist pumping the air. He's clearly for the encore by himself as opposed to delighted, as very much he should be. the rest of his set with backing artists, he's absolutely fearless in singing Getting out of Rock City on nights like songs about Nottingham life and this is a nightmare though. It's narrow friends upping sticks and going away to halls are full of young girls trying to University. His favourite song of mine is hang off the support bands in any way Bonfires and it's next up - only I don't they can, reducing the chances for get to see much of it thanks to two people to get out, the merchandise drunks who have commandeered spots stalls similarly over-crowded thanks on the balcony ahead of me. I'd likely to the notion that apparently you be furious if it wasn't so funny that can't buy a t-shirt unless you have a it was in fact Liam Noble and Jimmy minimum of four or five friends with Spencer! you. It's a ridiculous situation that always happens at Rock City and it's an I can't do anything but laugh, thinking experience that slowly begins to drain it's something that's just so typically me. my luck. To their credit, the lads are buzzing for Callum too, constantly Football fans it can often be said have raising their pints as if they've any a chip on their shoulder about the chance of being spotted, spilling beers way they are treated week in, week aplenty on the crowd below, before out by footballing stewards and the Jimmy breaks into a bit of pissed Dad at police - but in fairness were this a a wedding dancing to the amusement football match it wouldn't be allowed of those around. I very much love the to happen. There's a complete lack of squad of players we have this year crowd control - if this was happening compared to last - even more so on on the concourse at Old Trafford and this night as I'm witness to just how there were an accident, you can bet it much alcohol these lads can put away! would be big news.

Given their support of one of our own in Callum too, you imagine squads as Back in my south Walian days, live fine as this won't come around again music was my life. Barely a week would for a long time. go by where I wouldn’t be at two or three gigs a week watching bands bust The gig comes to an end with Fall At a gut to break out of Cardiff’s confines.

Your Feet, the first Saint Raymond The Blackout, Kids In Glass Houses song that I ever listened to and it's and Funeral For A Friend among others lapped up by everyone - there's even a all made it by hook or by crook - but member of the bar staff singing at the they’ll tell you that homecoming shows top of his lungs at this stage. are always the pinnacle of the touring schedule. Callum Burrows is a musician I’m generally against record labels this city should be extremely proud of, having their artists re-record older and this night at Rock City is genuinely material. It suggests to me a lack of an ‘I was there’ type of event that confidence in the new stuff they’re people would be claiming to have been producing but it isn’t a concern where witness to for many years.

Saint Raymond is concerned. Fall At

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 9

INTERVIEW: COLBY BISHOP

DAVE FELLS

@MagpieDave

Black and White fanzine caught up with the youth team’s striker Colby Bishop and his dad Dave to find out about Colby’s meteoric rise from playing in a school cup final to playing for Notts County’s first team in the space of only eighteen months.

Are you a local lad, born and brought up in the area?

DAVE It was at a parents evening, there were three Yes, I was born in St Ann’s, later moved to Radcliffe and coaches in there and I could just tell from the atmosphere now I live in Carlton. that things were not good. I thought Colby had a raw deal that final season, for example he had a cracking game at Who were your football heroes when you were right-back against Manchester City only to be dropped for growing up? the next match, so I pushed it a little bit preferring the truth rather than Colby be messed about as he had been during The reason I support Arsenal is all because of one man, the last season. Discussions took place and by the time I Thierry Henry, I just couldn’t believe how good he was, I came out of the room Colby’s time at Derby had come to just loved watching him. an end.

How soon after you had started playing football did How big a blow was that?

Derby show an interest?

It was a big blow. It would be for any fourteen year old boy Pretty quickly. I was playing for Carlton Town youngsters after spending five years at the club. I went to play with and a Derby County scout came to watch me, invited me for my mates at Vernon Park and at Dunkirk FC on a Sunday a trial and it all started from there really. and at Carlton again on a Saturday, but initially I did find it a bit difficult to get motivated but I loved playing with my DAVE It was his first year of organised football. He was mates again. eight years old and playing for Carlton Town. The front three for Carlton that season were prolific – they all scored DAVE I was asked to help to run the team at Vernon Park more than 40 goals each. A scout from Derby invited us to and then the whole club moved completely to Dunkirk FC go to the club for a trial and that was it, from that point on which had a better pitch and facilities – and I didn’t have Colby was a regular in the various age groups for the next to put the nets up! Running the team that Colby was in five years. didn’t last long. He was only sixteen but he was soon asked to play for Dunkirk’s first team in the Midland Amateur What was it like at Derby?

Alliance.

We were based at the academy at Moor Farm. The facilities What football did you play during your school days were amazing, loads of pitches and everything you could Colby? possibly wish for. I trained two nights a week, plus Saturday mornings and then we had matches on a Sunday morning. I played for Gedling School, South Notts district team and the Nottinghamshire Under 16 side. We had a pretty good But, after five years and at 14 years of age you were school team. We went on an Easter tour to Holland, playing released by Derby. What happened? against teams from Holland, Ireland and Scotland in the initial group stages before only just missing out on the main For four of those years I had been top scorer but in the last prize but we came away with the runners-up trophy. year, with different coaches, it was clear they didn’t fancy me up front and I was regularly selected at right-back. I The school also won the South Notts Cup in both 2012 and was disappointed but preferred playing right-back to not 2013. In the 2013 final we played against Eastwood. We being in the team at all. won 6-2 but I only got one, we had six different goal scorers that day, a real team effort.

I was then selected as sub a few times so it was obvious things weren’t going as well as they had been. Because Strangely, the referee didn’t turn up that day so my dad I was young, I wasn’t told directly, my dad heard the bad stepped forward to referee it. news first.

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 10

Had you ever refereed a game before Dave?

were next to bottom. When you joined they won six games on the trot and finished the season in fourth DAVE (Laughing) Of course! It was an easy game to place. I guess you added the cutting edge they referee as Gedling were clearly the better side. lacked. As a scholar, tell us about your working day.

And then Ray Power offered you a place at Central My specific jobs are to clean the boots of the gaffer and College?

Greg Abbott and sweep out the first team dressing room.

We train every day except Wednesday because we are at Yes it was soon after the 2013 South Notts Cup Final against Central College all day studying. Normally, we would get in Eastwood which was played at Central College. The college to Meadow Lane about 8:30, we might do some work on the is at Clifton and Ray Power is the head of the football NVQ books for an hour, or have an hour in the gym, then we development courses there. get the bus down to the training ground, do the jobs that need doing like cleaning boots and then we will have our As well as his role at the college he was, at that time, also training session, followed by more cleaning of the boots and a coach at the Notts County academy and has also recently dressing rooms and then back to Meadow Lane for maybe been appointed as the under 21 manager at Basford a gym session.

United FC. I joined the Performance & Excellence Football Academy which was aimed at ex-academy footballers who And how do you like the lifestyle? had been released but still felt they could make it. It was similar to what players at any football academy would do, I absolutely love it. part of the time playing football and the rest of the time you were studying.

Last July you went on a trip to Spain with the youth team. What are your memories?

So was it Ray who recommended you come to Notts for a trial?

Yes we played Lavante, lost 0-3, Villarreal, drew 1-1 and won the final game against Valencia 2-1 with me managing Yes. Ray knew Mick Leonard through his work at Notts to get one of the goals. It was a fantastic experience. All County and conversations took place between Ray, Mick and three teams were technically very good. In the first game my dad and it was set up for me to have a trial with the against Lavante we played their team who were a year older youth team although initially there was a problem because than us but we were told to go out and press them, to close the Notts youth team already had their full allocation them down, but they just passed it around us the whole of scholars, I think the maximum is eighteen, so I was game – they were technically very good. It was hard work wondering if there was any point to the trial if there was no training and running in the heat but the place we stayed at chance of an opening for me to take it any further. was excellent and it was a good opportunity to get to know and bond with the new scholars who were joining the youth DAVE I had known Mick for many years so we had a chat team for this season. but I as always refused to ‘big up’ Colby when Mick asked for my opinion and I just recommended that he had a look Do the youth team train separately from the first for himself. team?

So you made your debut for the Notts youth team Yes, they train on one pitch and we train on another but if against Lincoln, what do you remember? you have been doing well for the youth team you are asked occasionally to train with the first team to see how well you Well it went well, I had been training with Notts, already do and fit in. We are with the first team players all day. knew some of the players, but got to know more of them They are top lads and they make us all welcome. and I managed to get all three goals in a 3-1 win.

I know in the past the youth team were strict on DAVE It was an odd day because we had agreed that Colby things like the colour of your boots and shirts must be wouldn’t play the full game because he had another game, tucked in etc – is it still the same under Mick Halsall for Dunkirk, in the afternoon. In fact they kept ringing me and Paul Hart? while I was watching the game to make sure he would be ok for the afternoon. At the same time delighted that Colby Yes it is still the same, you have to wear black boots and was having a trial for Notts but also knowing there wasn’t a ensure your shirt is tucked in. You have to wear black boots scholarship vacancy for him. with the youth team, it is only when you move on from there that you are allowed to wear coloured ones.

So you had more trial games and eventually scored nine goals in four games? Sounds safe to assume Through your time in the youth team, who else do it was a successful trial. So how did the lack of a expect will have a professional career? scholarship vacancy sort itself out?

They are all good lads and all the second year scholars I don’t really know other than Mick Leonard sorted it out. deserve a professional contract, but if I was pushed to pick I don’t know if they found extra funding or whether it was one it would be Jordan Richards, his attitude is just spot-on due to the fact that a couple of players left soon after I and he just gets better with every game. joined. Although I was doing very similar work at college to the Notts lads I did find myself with a bit of a college work Good choice, I love to watch him play. After a backlog to catch up on before I was up to speed with the steady season at full-back last season he has really rest of the group. blossomed in the centre of midfield this season and I suppose because I watched his dad Pedro play I DAVE I think what helped Colby as well was the fact that he would love to see Jordan follow in his footsteps. had been doing pretty much the same course as the Notts scholars at the same college at Clifton so it was easier to So, a couple of times last season, for the first time, transfer him in on a scholarship under those circumstances. you were on the bench for the first team – how were you told you were part of the matchday squad?

Well you certainly made an impact on the youth team that season. After 8 games at the start of the season, Yes it was against Sheffield United at home and away at before you joined, the team had won only once and Preston. You would normally be training with the first team

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 11

if you were in contention for a place and on a Friday, after training, the squad list for the match next day is put up and if your name is on it you are in the squad. For the home game we met up at Meadow Lane. For the away game at Preston we went up the day before and stayed over in a hotel. It was a good experience, it felt nervous and good both at the same time and we had a really good laugh, the rest of the players made me feel very welcome.

In November you signed a professional contract to take you to the summer of 2017 – tell me how that came about.

concentration has to be on for one hundred percent of the time. You might be able to switch off for a moment at youth team level but not with the first team. The players are also a lot bigger and stronger than in the youth team so the physical demands are more in the first team – but nothing I can’t deal with.

At the moment we seem to have brought in a huge number of players which probably puts you down the first team pecking order – how do you deal with that?

Yes, I am pleased with the opportunities I have already been given and while I am disappointed not to be currently with the first team, I fully understand why I am not there at the moment but I love playing with the youth team lads they are a class bunch and I will give everything I can for whichever team I am in.

I was just taken into the office one day by Paul Hart and he said they were going to offer me a professional contract and handed me a large envelope which I had to take home read it through with my dad and if I was happy with it I should return it signed after a few days. A good feeling, it gives In what way do you feel your game has improved during me a couple of years to try and impress the coaching staff your spell around the first team? with what I can do.

I think I am better on the ball now. When you play under Your debut finally arrives at home to MK Dons on pressure in the first team with time limited before you are Boxing Day – how were you told? tackled you learn to do things a bit quicker. When I now play for the youth team I seem to have that little bit more I was told two days before, on Christmas Eve. We had an time on the ball with the pace being just a little slower. analysis meeting about MK Dons and afterwards the gaffer pulled me to one side and told me I would be making my Tell me about you singing in front of the first team debut on Boxing Day but I couldn’t tell anyone except those players. very close to me. It was the best Christmas present ever.

For the first time ever in my life I just wanted Christmas I have sung twice for them. I didn’t want to do it but it is Day to finish so it would be Boxing Day and I could get on something you have to just get on with and you do feel quite the pitch. good when it is all over. The first time was when all of the youth team had to sing for the first team. It was just before DAVE Colby rang me up, it was great news but it also felt a the youth team broke up for Christmas. We were all having bit surreal and at the same time difficult as we had to keep a meal at Meadow Lane. All the youth team had been told it to ourselves. You are really proud as a parent and as I in advance that we had to do it but, of course, none of us support Notts as well it makes it even sweeter but you try to had done anything about it. make sure he is ok. That his food is right, that he has all the clothes he needs, when I dropped him off at the ground that Just before we had to do it the youth team had a day off day I was wondering just what he was thinking. It was too from training so they decided to rehearse the song, but I early to go into the ground so I went to pick his mates up, was training with the first team. This meant that when we just to pass the time until kick-off. When I was at the game went to perform it I was handed a sheet with the words on I was kicking every ball for him – but mainly I was hoping and had to just join in with no rehearsal. We sang ‘Last I didn’t get sat next to someone who was going to have a Christmas’ by Wham! and the first team loved it. right whinge about Colby!

It was a really good laugh with some of the youth team Two days later at Bradford you come on at half-time lads going for solos all over the place – but I am no singer in front of 14,518. What memories do you have? so didn’t step forward for a solo. The second time was my initiation into the first team when we were staying over at I felt a little more relaxed having played a couple of days a hotel before the Bristol City game. Fortunately I did it earlier but it was still tough. The biggest crowd I have with Alefe Santos who was on loan from Derby and also played in front of so far, it certainly gives you a lift and gets had to do his initiation. We sang a Drake song. It wasn’t the adrenalin pumping. good. The first team were laughing a lot and after a couple of minutes they had all heard enough and told us to stop Then the first half away at Bristol City - What are the singing and sit down. major differences between youth football and first team football? Pace of the game? Technical side?

I would just like to thank Colby and Dave for their participation in this interview and for their kind hospitality Yes a major step up. Not so much technically but the in inviting me to their home to carry it out.

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 12

IT’S TIME TO TALK

STUART BROTHERS @blackwhitezine

I don't often do serious. Perhaps that's why my admission to suffering anxiety and mental health issues came as such a surprise to so many. The whole excercise was quite the eyeopener however, one I hope you'll allow me to convey before dismissing the idea and moving on to the next page.

My 'coming out' so to speak took even my partner of 12 years by surprise. For months both her and my GP in Arnold have told me I needed to open up to someone - be that a friend, a professional, or any of the countless support networks available out there.

However my way of dealing with things appeared to be staring me right in the face the whole time - writing.

I emailed it to Leigh Curtis at the Nottingham Post who passed it to their features editor who said they'd be using it. Within a few hours it was on their website, the next day in print adorning an entire page. Initially it was difficult in itself to deal with.

From keeping my problems to myself, they were now in front of the entire city - and beyond when you consider it was on their site.

It was a piece of work I'm proud of however, a far cry from the often apologetic match reports I found myself writing about Notts.

I'd covered a serious subject to pretty decent acclaim in my opinion.

What worried me most however was the amount of people who began to approach me, either on Facebook, Twitter, or a few days later ahead of the Peterborough game at Meadow Lane. My state of mind leaves me in a paranoid state quite often, so

any correspondence I'd receive was opened with trepidation.

What I found howevear was that there are more people suffering mental health problems that you might dare imagine. I received messages of thanks from a few who said it had opened their own eyes, that they too had been suffering some of the issues I'd spoken of going through.

Me being me, all I could advise was that they either went to the doctor themselves, or they open up to me - a problem shared etc. It opened up dialogues with people I hadn't heard from in years, the last people on earth you would think would be in this precarious state.

And it got me to thinking that each and every one of us had hidden our problems from our friends and family - so why the negative stigma attached to it if we're all suffering in silence? I can assure you that you'll know more people than you think who in the very least are on courses of anti-depressants.

it to make any difference. To say there are people worse off is no help, it might as well be your hands pushing them over the clifftop.

I don't profess to be any kind of professional on the subject, these are merely my learnings since opening up about my problems. The Stuart Brothers that people see on the terraces every Saturday is a very different Stuart Brothers to the family man at home. With that in mind I was encouraged to write a book about the effects it'd been having on me. It may never even see the light of day but that doesn't matter so much. For whatever reason I have found committing my thoughts to the keyboard to be more therapeutic than opening up to friends, family, or mental health professionals.

The response to my admission has been humbling, truly overwhelming. I'm grateful that people see me as someone they can open up to, or as a person who has given them inspiration to share their troubles with family My advice however is no different themselves but that's only the to what I said in the Post - just be first step. there for those people. Don't tell them to snap out of it, don't tell It honestly feels like a weight has them they could have it worse. It been lifted from my shoulders could very well be that they know and I can only hope that others that full well but their brain can't will start taking steps to do the process it accurately enough for same.

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 13

TAKING BACK OUR GAME

@STANDFANZINE @THEFAN_UK

Football fans, players and campaigners know that something is wrong with the game. The roar of the crowd has been muffled; tickets no longer reflect economic realities; fewer young people can go to matches; traditions are swept away by imperious owners; the game’s administrators attend to the needs of the powerful before those of the public; and the private opulence at the top of the game contrasts with the public squalor of the grassroots.

We see that people and organisations try to resist: from protests against sponsors, challenges to club’s owners to demands for safe standing. Some may still say that politics and football don’t mix, but a political struggle for how the game is run and staged is evident every week.

the business of building solidarity, support and consensus and taking them to the stadiums, the streets, the sponsors and the boardrooms.

We do not seek to supplant or undermine organisations like the Football Supporters’ Federation and Supporters Direct which do excellent and important work. We do not ask anyone to sign up to an agenda they find problematic. We are in

In 2011 Hugh Robertson, then Minister of Sport said, “If football proves unable to sort this out itself then the government may have to legislate”. Four years later football has not sorted itself out and there has been no legislation.

We have, as football fans, followers, players and coaches, more power than we are allowed to believe. We have set up the F.A.N to make it a The people who run and own the game have reality. We hope that you will join us. the money, power and authority. We only have the justice of our case and the strength of our Visit our website www.thefan.org.uk, follow us on numbers. The conventional ways of making that Twitter @thefan_uk or like us in Facebook www. voice heard, lobbying, policy-work behind the facebook.com/theFANuk scenes are important but they can only get so far without making the scale and reach of discontent The F.A.N. Manisfesto (Abridged) visible. So how can our voice be made to count?

This Game is Our Game offers a model of a more just If you have asked these questions, or if these are and socially responsible football economy; a more your concerns, F.A.N - The Football Action Network democratic and effective system of governance; - is reaching out to you. We want to create an open, and a football culture that is diverse, atmospheric unbureaucratic, flexible network of football activists and participatory.

- of supporters’ trusts, independent fan groups, campaigners in the women’s game, advocates for This manifesto looks to politicians of every party, grassroots football - that seeks to build alliances the football authorities and the football public to across clubs, leagues, nations and interests. make it happen. Football, like everything else in this country, could be different and could be better.

We need to focus upon what unites rather This is how. than divides us and use this as a starting-point for collaborative, innovative, provocative but THE GOALKEEPER - SAFE PAIR OF HANDS humorous, eye-catching activities and protests 1. PASS A FOOTBALL across the football community.

REFORM BILL

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 14

to the Football Spectators Act to allow the licensing Whoever is the next Secretary for State for Culture, authorities to permit the introduction off safe Media and Sport must make the introduction of a standing. Do it now.

Football Reform Bill a departmental priority. This would serve as the final opportunity for the Football THE MIDFIELD - FIXING THE ENGINE ROOM Association to complete its process of internal 5. A FIT & PROPER reform. Either way there must be legislation to FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION ensure the reform of club ownership, taxation and governance.

The FA’s record of internal reform has been so tortuously slow that this must be considered the THE DEFENCE - DOING THE SIMPLE THINGS WELL last opportunity for it to complete the process 2. PAY THE LIVING WAGE rather than it being imposed by legislation. At the very minimum the FA needs to: At the leading clubs, players, coaches and chief executives earn more in a day than those on a • Reform the composition of the FA board minimum wage earn in a year. Some clubs have reducing the number of representatives of the tried to make their contract staff buy their own professional game and the national game and uniforms. Yet without the army of stewards, ticket replace them with independent directors and a takers and catering staff, the show cannot go on, supporters representative. however good the football.

• Reform the FA council so it actually looks If Chelsea at the top and FC United of Manchester and sounds like the wider football nation. and Dulwich Hamlet, six levels below them, can afford to pay the Living Wage then everyone in • Establish and fund a system of club between can too; and that should include the FA licensing and regulation with teeth. and the Football League.

• The Freedom of Information Act should be applicable to the FA. 3. SET FAIR TICKET PRICES In the last twenty years, at every level, tickets have increased in price faster than inflation many times over. In the Premiership the real rate of inflation at some clubs has been close to a 1000 per cent. This is shameless rent-seeking by effective monopolies over people’s football affections. If you want to watch Spurs, there’s no option but to go to Spurs.

6. GETTING OUR CLUBS BACK The next government should, as a legislative priority, draft a Football Reform Bill that will ensure that:

• All shareholdings in football clubs will be made public; including full disclosure of any This is particularly unfair given that the value of beneficial owners and holding companies behind the games’ media rights is underwritten by the which the unscrupulous have hidden. ebullience of crowds. Supporters are not just customers, but critics and chorus. Away fans, vital • The introduction of a new club licensing in sustaining a meaningful atmosphere at many scheme overseen by a reformed FA that would: games, have been treated shamelessly. make clubs financial dealings transparent; We call for the Premiership to collectively freeze ticket prices for the duration of the next TV deal, set a maximum price league-wide for away fans’ tickets and increase the number of cheaper seats.

We call for club’s at every level to ensure that a reasonable number of cheaper tickets are available.

4. SAFE STANDING NOW! If football fans were customers, if football really was a free market, then presumably fans would get what they wanted and they were ready to pay for. The introduction of safe standing has been researched, tested, found safe and acquired considerable support from fans and their clubs. It is an effective way to improve the atmosphere at matches and to lower ticket prices. It is in operation in Germany with great success. Yet still government and clubs dither.

This requires no more than a simple amendment

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 15

strengthen the fit and proper persons test and make its workings public; require all new owners to meet a club’s supporters trust prior to acquiring shares; protect key aspects of the club - like its main strip and its name - in law.

on the money to the Football Foundation. Fifteen years of growth later we want this arrangement renegotiated.

• Reform the composition of club boards and the duties of directors through changes in corporate law. This would include: making the interest of the club paramount over shareholders; require a majority of independent directors on club boards with a legal responsibility to encourage supporter ownership, include a minimum of two directors from a club’s supporters trust.

UEFA takes nearly ten per cent of the money generated by the Champions League for solidarity payments. FIFA, for all its faults, has allocated twenty per cent of its budget to development projects. We want the Premiership to raise its contribution to fifteen per cent. Half of this should be spent ongrassroots, non-league football and social projects and half should be allocated to a supporters ownership fund that will underwrite supporter trust buy-outs and rescues.

• A statutory right to buy for supporters trusts whenever a club faces insolvency, its shares are going to be sold, or new ones issued.

8. BOOKMAKERS AND BROADCASTERS, PAY YOUR SHARE

• Changes in the tax regime. These would designed to support social ownership and deter carpetbaggers, for example removing tax relief on leveraged buy outs and making it easier for supporters trusts to obtain it.

7. A WINDFALL TAX ON THE PREMIER LEAGUE In the absence of wage controls the massive windfall that is coming the Premier League’s way will almost entirely disappear into players’ wages and agent fees. No one can say that these groups has not been generously rewarded. Some of that windfall needs to go elsewhere.

In 2001 the Premiership acknowledged its obligations to grassroots football and subjected itself to a voluntary five percent wealth tax, passing

Bookmakers and broadcasters have made a lot of money out of the football boom. Profits have been very healthy, and in the case of offshore gambling sites, taxes have been very low. Neither industry, despite a garlanding of corporate social responsibility projects, has returned a fraction of the value they have extracted from the game.

The gambling industry already pays a levy to the horse racing industry; it would be administratively very simple to impose a small percentage turnover tax on every football bet, and more equitable if there were to be a levy on bookmaker’s football profits too. When football media rights are sold, by the FA or the Leagues, the bidders should pay some pro-rata rate to social projects THE FORWARDS - THREE CULTURED LEFT FEET

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 16

9. INVEST IN GRASSROOTS & NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL If the grassroots of football got a pound for every time the professional game praised it, it would be rich beyond all imagination. But the grassroots including the youth, women’s and non-league game - are not rich.

The state of the nation’s playing fields and facilities is poor, the provision of changing rooms and toilets for women and girls is worse, and the massive squeeze of local authority expenditure has led to a collapse in the maintenance budgets of established grounds. For those who can find a decent pitch, the number of trained coaches per capita is a quarter of Germany’s where the costs of training are subsidised. Yet football’s private opulence feeds on the enormous pool of enthusiasm, fascination and talent for the game that grassroots football generates.

The windfall taxes should be spent here, focused on: subsidising coaching education, supporting struggling non league clubs, building pitches in Britain’s poorest neighbourhoods and making sure every single playing field has women’s changing rooms.

10. MAKE THE PEOPLE’S GAME LOOK LIKE THE PEOPLE

Dave Wheelan, Malkay McKay, Ched Evans and Richard Scudamore, demonstrate that the upper echelon of the football establishment holds attitudes to difference, to gender, ethnicity and sexuality, that are at best antiquated and at worst discriminatory. It is this culture that is responsible for the scandalous underrepresentation of minority coaches at every level of the game, and everyone other than old white men on football boards.

If aiming for a quarter of boards to be women is a good enough model for the FTSE 250, its good enough for football clubs? There should be a two year’s grace before legally backed gender quotas are required.

If the Rooney rule, ensuring a qualified minority candidate is seen by interview panels, works for the NFL in the United States, why not here? The football authorities should introduce the Rooney rule immediately.

11. CLEAN UP THE GLOBAL GAME The FA have been hapless operators within the FIFA system, and an ineffective voice for reform when on the outside. The Premier League’s lust for foreign markets and its attempts to stage games outside of Britain are simply shameless. We want a football foreign policy that is a smart effective voice for reform not a marketing operation.

Smart means working with Europe and acquiring a leading place in UEFA; the FA needs to be part If football is the people’s game it needs to look of an effective coalition rather than an ineffective the people. Football’s diversity campaigns have independent. had real successes getting racism, sexism and homophobia out of the stands, disabled fans into It goes without saying that both the FA and seats that work for them and women onto to the government must actively support international pitch. Yet as recent accounts of racist fans on the efforts to reform the governance of global football; Paris metro and sexist chants in stadiums remind call for the complete reconstitution of FIFA on the basis of a globally supported reform convention; us, there remains much to be done. insist on models of tournament hosting that are The problem is not just in the stands. The words sustainable and carnivalesque ; and insist that and then tortuous apologies of, amongst others, musical instruments be allowed at all FIFA matches.

Perhaps they should be made compulsory.

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 17

MY MEADOW LANE TOP THREE ADAM TAYLOR @adam3663

Boiling down a lifetime of positive memories into just three games can be a tricky proposition, although in fairness perhaps not as difficult were the criteria reversed. This list seeks to select a match each from each of our notable periods of recent history and hopefully spark the synapses in respect of a few forgotten classics.

Notts v Luton Town

and objectives. More drama than you could shake a bucket at.

Division 1 - May 2nd, 1992

By the standards of the time therefore, this was an unremarkable season; with this game representing a rare highlight as loveable granddad figure Billy Dearden’s team battled against adversity, coming from behind twice before securing the win.

Barnsley’s first minute opener was cancelled out by a Mark Stallard penalty before the referee saw fit to send Richard Liburd for a first half early bath, The domestic game was at a crossroads, as the outgoing providing a stark reminder that third tier officiating has TV deal which fairly distributed the broadcasting revenue always been someway short of second rate. amongst all four divisions, acted as a catalyst for the Ian Richardson pulled Notts level again after Barnsley nosed formation of the Premier ahead on the hour and, rather than sit back and settle for League.

That afternoon the draw, both teams continued to kick lumps out of one Luton were fighting not just another and press for the win. This came in the final minute to preserve their top division from Ian Barraclough, who promptly ran the full length of status but also for the riches the Sirrel stand waving his arms in the air and screaming on offer the following season, his head off; doing an excellent impression of most fans’ and it showed, with a packed reaction to Haydn Green stepping in and saving the club away section generating a from extinction the following season. cacophony of noise prior to kick off.

This enthusiasm even spilled over onto the Notts v Forest pitch when a couple of likely Pre-Season Friendly - July 25th, 2009 lads made it as far as the centre circle to plant a flag, years before Graeme Souness popularised this sort of behaviour It may be a bit of a stretch to include a friendly game but at Galatasaray. after a summer unlike any other, with the club splashed over the front and back pages of the nationals, the circus finally Perhaps it was this invasion of territory that stirred the came to town and this was the day when people realised it Meadow Lane faithful into generating the sort of atmosphere hadn’t all just been some kind of mass hallucination. that lived long into the memory of a 10 year old. Luton took the lead early on which turned the away volume up Rounding the corner onto Meadow Lane it was immediately to 11, before being cancelled out by university student Rob apparent that something had changed from the stagnation Matthews prior to half time. When Matthews grabbed a and slow death of The Trust years. There were crowds second on 70 minutes, the 20 minutes or so of mockery for a start, to the extent that the queues at the turnstiles and goading handed out to the away end was satisfactory stretched back from the main gates onto Ironmonger Road, revenge for the flag incident and a shame the two much to the annoyance of most. The match day programme protagonists, who had long since been thrown out to fend quickly sold out, in part due to its value as a collector’s item for themselves on the Ironmonger Road, weren’t around to but mostly because it acted as a convenient excuse to speak see it. The bulldozers moved in shortly after to tear up three with the hired stunners employed to peddle them, a snip at sides of the dilapidated old ground and redevelop it over the £1k per match day of imaginary money. summer into what stands today, perhaps a fitting metaphor for the changes to the wider domestic game then running Further strange events were to continue inside the ground. concurrently. Neither have been the same since.

During the pre-match warm up a cackle of Paparazzi assembled at the foot of the Pavis Stand in sufficient numbers to put any watching epileptics instantly on edge, Notts v Barnsley desperate to catch a snap of the man himself. When Sven Division Two - December 26th, 2002 did finally emerge the roof almost came off and housewives Boxing Day fixtures are special. For some it is the rare within a 3 mile radius experienced an involuntary hot ambiance of live sport on a bleak winter’s afternoon, flush. Maybe those rumoured sightings of Ted Beckham in the sights and smells of thousands of tightly assembled Hopewells weren’t so far-fetched after all. supporters laid bare by the harsh sodium floodlights overhead. For others it is the chance to escape family The key moment of the game itself which stands out is the commitments to quickly top up the previous day’s alcohol goal scored by Lee Hughes. Craig Westcarr whipped in a consumption and be half-cut by 1pm. Either way, this long raking cross from the right and Hughes instinctively match was an absolute classic and often forgotten. The peeled off his man to give himself just enough space to 2002/03 season falls between two stools. The original Great plant a header past the Forest keeper, a moment of quality Escape™ of the previous season something of a distant not seen previously for many a year and a precursor of memory, the dawning realisation that the achievement in what was to follow, as Hughes made a beeline for the away confounding the odds to stay in the third tier did not usher supporters in response to his tormentors. in a change of fortune and further struggle lay ahead.

Inevitably the house that Munto built was founded on The following season the wheel really did come perilously lies; a fraud which not only jeopardised the club itself but close to falling off as the ITV Digital chickens came home to endangered a number of local businesses who’s goodwill roost, prompting Albert Scardino to contemplate unloading was abused. Was it all worth it? A better man here would the club to a string of consortia with highly dubious aims definitely say no.

So many games from our most recent spell in the top flight could be justifiably included in this piece. However it is the final fixture of the season, featuring an already relegated Notts against a not-yet-relegated Luton Town, which ticks more boxes personally as a fan than say the hallowed draw with Manchester United or the defeat of Chelsea.

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 18

NOTTS SENIOR GROUNDHOP

ROB HORNBY

@robhornby

In 1990 I had to stop watching league football as I couldn't travel from Nottingham to the Hawthorns as I had came down with Hodgkins Lymphomia. I still had a love of football but whilst working on Broxtowe Lane at a small family TV shop, I had to pack up whilst on chemotherapy.

But my boss knew I loved my footie, so he bought me a Notts County season ticket. I used to have my chemo on a Thursday and if all went well, I would catch the bus from my house in Clifton to Meadow Lane.

13 years and ten central Midlands League Groundhops and this season sees the third Notts Senior League Groundhop.

But what is a Groundhop you may ask and where do these people come from I hear you ask?

The following season saw me unable to work and with not much money I would sit at home, until one afternoon I picked up the Nottingham Evening Post and saw that local non league club Dunkirk FC were playing Ilkeston Town in the FA Vase. So I ventured along and caught the non-league bug as I then joined the Dunkirk FC committee and became Programme Editor and Press Officer.

A groundhop is set up around league matches - one on the Friday evening and four on the Saturday all at different grounds under proper FA/League Rules. Some people buy the Advanced Tiicket for just £15, this gains entry to all five matches and a pack of each matchday programme.

One of my proudest moments was to become friends with the late Tommy Lawton who I interviewed and became very good friends with. Just before he passed away I took him to Dunkirk FC v Radcliffe Olympic and he said though he had played and been manager of Notts County many years before, this was the first time he had been to a non-league ground in Nottinghamshire.

This season already we have over 100 people pre-booked and paid for. Advanced tickets have gone as far as Sweden, Germany, Holland, Scotland, Kent, Cornwall and of course the beautiful county of Nottinghamshire. There is a Saturday coach from Midland Railway Station in Nottingham, price is £15 per seat but already we’re down to the last available seats available.

Each home club also has to issue a enamel badge and I do take orders for £18 for the pack of six badges - five for the In 1993 a gentlemen called Mike Amos came to Dunkirk home sides and also Kirton Brickworks, who are an away FC as Secretary of the Northern League as the club took club who cant stage a home Hop match. on Whickham in the FA Vase. Mike had just set up the first ever Groundhop - to which I went along and really enjoyed The date of this seasons Groundhop is Friday/Saturday it. A set of matches at different grounds in the North East 24/25th April 2015 and the games are as follows: over a weekend at a cheap price. The groundhops have now widened. I moved on from Dunkirk FC to Arnold Town Friday 24th April 2015 FC to do the programme and run the club shop whilst Ashland Rovers FC v Newark Flowserve FC @ 7.30pm the joint-managers there were ex-Notts duo Ray O’Brien Saturday 25th April 2015 and Iain McCulloch, along with in the playing ranks were Bingham Town FC v Ruddington Village FC @ 10.10am Adrian Thorpe along with a couple of ex-reds, Bryn Gunn Netherfield Albion FC v Nottinghamshire FC @ 12.50pm and Brett Williams. In 1999 I got divorced and moved to Lichfield before meeting my current wife Hazel and we live Burton Joyce FC v Attenborough FC @ 3.20pm Sandhurst FC v Kirton Brickworks FC @ 6.15pm in Mansfield.

In 2002, I joined the Central Midlands Football League Committee and asked if we could stage a Groundhop. A few eyebrows were raised but the first one was set and on the Saturday we set the World record of five matches in a day covering Greenwood meadows, Dunkirk, Pelican FC, Sandiacre Town and Graham St Prims. The crowds came from all over with attendances hitting 300 at all games which was impressive as Greenwood would sometimes struggle to get double figures through the gate.

Food and refreshments will of course be available at all five grounds, also my wife runs a football programme stall with cheap programmes for sale with the proceeds going to charity.

For those who cant make the Groundhop but would like to order either or both a programe pack or badge set, please contact me on hornby60uk@yahoo.co.uk or please ring 01623 486678

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 19

DING DONG

STUART BROTHERS @blackwhitezine

When I started the fanzine, those submitting articles to me simply had one remit: Be rational. If you're writing for Black & White you can be as angry, as cynical, as critical as you like of about any aspect of supporting Notts - just so long as you're going to convey it in a manner that suits the publication.

When I started the fanzine, what they wanted, not the listening to Billy Big Bollocks those submitting articles to truth. There was no bullshit, tell me about how the FA had me simply had one remit: Be no sugarcoating when he just treated him like a king rational. If you’re writing for appeared with a microphone during that week’s England Black & White you can be as in hand, but that ultimately trip to Switzerland. angry, as cynical, as critical as meant there was very little you like of about any aspect positivity for him to pass It felt like a complete and of supporting Notts - just so on. What must be the most utter waste of both my time long as you’re going to convey pessimistic fanbase in the and Aileen Trew’s, but such it in a manner that suits the Football League took umbrage was my desire to earn the publication. to a man who merely fed them role that I sat there smiling further negativity. It was all a and laughing along at inane And we’ve covered a lot of bit strange. anecdotes about runway ground in our previous 12 limosuines, Wayne Rooney’s issues. We’ve covered, and I’ll take people as I find them. missus spending a fortune in been respectfully critical of If they treat me with respect, Rodwell’s missus’ boutique, so much at Notts that very they’ll get the same in return. and Raheem Sterling taking few stones have remained That’s just my nature and how an interest in his daughter. But unturned. One such stone, or I was raised. But that’s not to I took it. If a series of mindboulder, is Jim Rodwell. A man say for one second I’ll give you numbing short stores were the who came to the club with an easy ride in spite of what biggest concern that morning Ray Trew five years ago now the common conception might well then so be it. with a reputation drowning in be. corruption. Not many Notts Of course I got the gig, and fans can tell you what exactly I met Jim first at the Player things were good. I’d see him he did wrong at Boston if you Of The Year awards night from time to time, he’d ask put them on the spot - but he when Gary Liddle cleaned up how things were and we’d chat was there. What more could all night long. When I joked for a minute or two before you possibly need to know? with Rodwell that no one liked saying our goodbyes. It wasn’t him, his response was merely until about two weeks ago that His is the first head that the that if they did, he wouldn’t we’d sit down again to ask how majority of supporters want be doing his job properly. I things were going. on a plate, because in spite of laughed, because as much what he appeared to believe, as he might have considered I wasn’t going to lie to him, I supporters aren’t stupid. Of it funny I imagined it to be knew I had excelled in some course you get those who quite true. He’s there to run areas of the SLO role but had think all our problems begin a business and that means let the club down badly in and end with the Trew family making decisions that are others. But I was adamant that but whilst they continue to going to royally piss off a lot I was finding my feet given the bankroll Notts County to the of people, the type who want rise in volume of supporters I exuberant amounts that they to give up their Saturdays to had began speaking with on a do then few will speak out support Notts County. matchday. His response: “I’m unless they have something just not sure you’re suitable concrete against them.

Our paths wouldn’t meet again for the role”. until a few months ago when I Jim though has always rolled up at Meadow Lane for To say it caught me off guard been fair game. Few liked my interview for the Supporter is no understatement, a him enough to support him Liaison Officer position. What feeling that was felt similarly publicly, but still they couldn’t followed was ten minutes of by the fans I shared his quite tell you why. Criticised productive talk about the club judgement with in the days for his attitude in interviews, and how an SLO could help which followed. My payment people merely wanted to hear our fans, the other 50 minutes as SLO comes in the form of

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 20

match tickets and travel, so all meetings I attend (some that don’t even need my presence and often last no more than five minutes) come in my own time and at my own expense but never once did I complain if someone had summoned me to the ground or requested a meeting, such was my pride that I was able to support the club in such a role. I absolutely love doing this and have a great time on a matchday chatting with our supporters and I walk away from each genuinely feeling that people know I’m listening. Sometimes that’s all people want - a voice within the club who is listening to them.

Evidently that doesn’t mean enough to Jim. In fact his assesssment of the situation makes it clear as day that he wishes the role didn’t even exist in the first place. “I don’t go on social media. I don’t read Facebook. I leave shit like Notts Mad to people like Aileen. I find that customer feedback can weigh on your mind when it comes to business decisions.”

Read that last quote again.

That’s right. Jim Rodwell, the then-CEO of Notts County Football Club, wouldn’t listen to supporters because their views might come at the detriment of how the club was run. Talk about missing the fucking point. It appeared almost instantly as if the fog had cleared in an instant and the bloke people had slagged off constantly for five years was standing right in front of me missing the point of running a football club entirely.

I’d lost any remaining respect for the bloke straight away, and wondered why I was left to liaise with supporters whose views meant so little.

which I can assure you will one day find the light of day, he said in parting that it was his intention to have a discussion with Aileen with the intention of removing me as SLO - or I could just resign there and then rather than him having to force the issue.

By this point I had it in my head that he had dug himself a big enough hole for me to push him down if I got the opportunity. I wasn’t going to offer up my half-hearted defence that he just didn’t say what people wanted to hear any longer, he’d be on his own.

You see as much as I love representing our supporters, they respect me similarly when I write. And as I wrote earlier, people just needed a reason to to want him out, something tangible. I figured that if I wrote, people would listen, but with my role at the club evenly balanced I’d have to bide my time.

All I wanted was the smallest reason to go out all guns blazing.

Sadly, his leaving the club took that from me.

Course I say sadly, but as the news leaked to me before it was announced, I was over the moon.

The night before his exit went public, the mood at Meadow Lane was dismal.

Each and every one of the fantastic ladies I see working hard After countless back and forths behind the

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 21

scenes looked like they’d had the life drained out of them, the scenes on pitch against Rochdale told their own story, and enough has been said already about the crowd’s response at the final whistle a round of boos that will sadly live with those in attedance for a long while yet.

What does Rodwell leaving mean to Notts? I’m not so sure. I’d like to think that we’ll one day look back on this as Day Zero, the day the rebuild started and we were able to move forward. However I have grave concerns that it could merely be the tip of the iceberg and that more trouble may lie in wait for us. But make no mistake, his removal from such a senior position at the club is one to be celebrated. Well, as much as you can whilst we continue to stare relegation in the face.

JACOB HAS A WHINGE

JACOB DANIEL

@JacobNCM

It’s quite easy to forget this, particularly during the latest phase of self-immolation that Notts seem to have embarked upon, but football is actually supposed to be fun. Going to watch a football game is supposed to be an enjoyable day out, like visiting the cinema or the brothel.

Meadow Lane, for the entirety of this season and pretty much for as long as I can remember, has resembled what I imagine one of those gyms that they turn into a makeshift house after a hurricane is like – people gently weeping in the corner, anxiously glancing at each other and waiting for their own personal hell to end, ready to celebrate the moment that they’re allowed to return home.

The crowd for the recent, shambolic home defeat against Rochdale was the lowest for almost a decade. The easy answer to this miserable riddle is that cast of Last of the Summer Wine, as I now refer to the squad that Shaun Derry managed to lure out of Springfield Retirement Castle with a trail of Werthers Originals, have somehow contrived to equal the club record for home defeats by early March. But that record had been set twice during the course of the last eight years. Something is fundamentally wrong with the whole atmosphere at Meadow Lane.

It’s sucking the air out of everyone, players included. And I’ve heard that your lungs lose capacity when you get really old like Gary Jones.

It is small changes to the ordinary fan’s matchgoing experience that have helped to kill any atmosphere and redressing the balance will require an element of boat-rocking and going against the grain. Firstly, the away fans need moving back to the other end of the Jimmy Sirrel Stand, even if it requires a slight cut in the attendance we are allowed.

That change has butchered the atmosphere inside the ground.

The vast majority of football fans, particularly at Notts, are not interested in fighting anyone. Or throwing stuff. But most of us also like to swear and mock and shout for a couple of hours – a chance that has been taken away because of this simple, mindless change. Even Again, there’s an obviously answer to our editor’s voice isn’t loud enough all of this. Notts aren’t a particularly to penetrate the eardrums of sixty good football team and haven’t been Crawley Town fans in the far corner. for some time, probably since the League Two title winning campaign, But it’s not just that. Notts are save for the occasional burst of currently living off fans turning up random good form. But it goes deeper out of habit, but recent crowds are than that – Notts have failed to do proof that peoples’ habits are starting enough to control the variables that to change. I’m well aware that all of they can and in doing so have made this could be copied and pasted into Meadow Lane a soul-sapping place almost every other team’s fanzine, to watch a football match. The very but that’s not the point. It’d be nice nature of football means that some if Notts decided not to follow the teams will be good and some teams crowd, to forge their own path when it will be bad – there is only so much came to presenting the ‘product’ that that can be done to tip the balance football now universally seems to be in your favour and, whilst Notts have referred to as. clearly struggled on that front too, that’s a conversation for another time. If you’re going to charge the prices that Notts do, then you have to I will happily concede that some of make sure that all of the elements the work that the current ownership within your control are top quality, has put into the infrastructure of because it gives you the best chance the club has been fantastic, but it is of tempting people back to the club mostly hidden away in the executive even if the football doesn’t turn out as suites, pre-match dining and the entertaining or successful as hoped.

Meadow Lane Sports Bar. I have Notts are competing for supporters, to take peoples’ word for those particularly young ones, with a much improvements, because I have no bigger club across the river. But we interest in watching a game through don’t seem to have asked ourselves plexi-glass or starting my match day the million dollar question – what is it with a sit down meal. The MLSB is that is going to tempt people to come great, obviously, but i’ve had to move and watch us instead of them? drinking establishments because it takes approximately three weeks to Clearly it isn’t the quality of football get a pint in there after about half on offer. Nor the price – the difference twelve. is negligible for a much higher standard. So what is it? Blind loyalty?

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 22

New supporters don’t have blind loyalty, which is why the average of the people on the terraces at Meadow Lane seems to be increasing every single year. Offering the same low quality food and overpriced beer as every other club undoubtedly makes basic economic sense, it can be outsourced and it isn’t our problem any more. But to do this, as Notts have, is to allow another key element of fans’ experience to slide out of your control. What is there to stop Notts actually serving nice food and reasonable beer inside their ground, other than a desire to pander to shorttermist economic thinking? Nowt.

The burger van behind the Kop is a step forwards, but only a small one.

Chips, as any dietician will attest to, can only take you so far. Then there’s other, smaller stuff. Giving kids the chance to play on the Meadow Lane pitch at half-time is great, but why are they hidden away in front of some disinterested away fans? Why is there no game that fans can enter, as appears to be the case at every other club we visit? I’d even accept that one where you’ve got to kick the ball into the shed. Isn’t the point of half-time entertainment to actually entertain our own fans?

Right now, visiting Notts is no different to visiting almost any other club in the league. It’s just that we have to cope with the huge handicap of fighting for supporter in a city with a different, bigger club. If we’re to have any chance of growing our fanbase then we need to find a way of standing out from the competition, of making the experience of coming to Meadow Lane different to the City Ground.

Find a way of making watching Notts better than watching them, even if the football isn’t. Obviously the action has to take a significant role in any hope for long-term growth, but successful clubs tend to be happy ones, places where people enjoy visiting – and can anyone seriously say that they like it when we’ve got a home game the next day any more?

REMEMBERING BUTCH

PAUL SMITH

@psmithyjourno

The untimely death of former Notts County midfielder Richard Butcher at the age of just 29, while still a fighting fit League Two footballer with Macclesfield Town, shocked the football fraternity. Now a new book seeks to ensure the memory of the gifted goal-getter lives on.

Butcher had scored his final ever goal just nine days before he was found dead in January 2011 by teammate Ben Futcher, having apparently died of natural causes. Being one of the fittest footballers in the lower leagues, Butcher’s death resonated across the country.

he’d have stayed but he was still thrilled the club went on to do as well as they did.”

The book charts Butcher’s struggles to break into the team at his hometown club Northampton, before spells in nonleague with Rushden and Kettering earned him a move It was keenly felt at Meadow Lane, where just three seasons to Lincoln City, where he flourished under the late Keith previously Butcher had played the starring role in ensuring Alexander with the Imps enjoying a prolonged period of Notts survived relegation to the Conference with 12 league promotion-chasing football in the bottom tier. goals - including the decisive winner, to secure safety in front of the Kop over Wycombe in the final home game of Before his two-year spell at Meadow Lane, Butcher had the 2007/08 campaign. less impressive times with Oldham and Peterborough, later going on to rejoin Lincoln and play his final games with Butcher scored 20 goals in 88 Notts appearances over two Macclesfield. seasons, leaving in the summer of 2009 prior to the Munto Finance takeover. He will forever be remembered as the For Gail, the book offers a chance to raise money for man whose goals kept Notts in the Football League, allowing Richard’s charity, while also bringing some closure to the the club to experience the better times that followed. most difficult of times in her life. A time made worse as a cause of death for Butcher still hasn’t been clearly The new book, Butch: The Wings of Football, has been concluded. written by his mother Gail and documents Butcher’s career, including a comprehensive look back on his two- “There has been a lot going on in my mind for a number of year spell under Steve Thompson and then Ian McParland years since Richard died and it has helped me being able to in Nottingham. Gail, who has set up the Richard Butcher put it all on paper,” said Gail. “To raise money in Richard’s Memorial Trust to raise money for a football pitch and memory is also very important. clubhouse for the community in Northampton where Butcher was brought up, says his time with Notts was one “I wanted the book to be as honest as possible. I think cherished by her son.

Richard would laugh if he knew I’d written about him because I always told him that one day I’d write a book “He enjoyed his time at Notts,” she said. “There were times about him. he was criticised even though he was the only one scoring, simply because every time he scored Notts never won. He “It was also important to share the life of a professional was desperate for his goals to make a difference in terms of footballer and that of his family. It isn’t always as glamorous points and eventually they did. as you’d believe and when you are involved with the game you see how tough it can be.

“He was getting a bit of stick and I remember him telling me he’d read negative comments on message boards that “For Richard it was his life and his passion. He desperately he wasn’t doing enough to win Notts games. When he got cared about all of the fans he represented and now I want that goal against Wycombe I remember him saying he didn’t to make sure his memory lives on.” know if he should have scored it incase it cost the win!

Copies of Butch: The Wings of Football are available in the “He was very relieved afterwards to score such a big goal. Notts County Club Shop.

Richard and Kevin Pilkington basically kept Notts up that season.”

At the end of the following season, out of contract Butcher left the club having not been offered a new deal. Having featured so prominently and left a lasting impression on supporters with his goalscoring feats from midfield, it was something of a shock.

“He wanted to stay and was devastated he didn’t get a new contract,” said Gail, who throughout the book reveals the wages Butcher received at each club, a refreshing approach that allows supporters to see what the average lower league footballer earns. At Notts, Butcher received £1,200 per week, plus a £100 goal bonus, during two seasons in League Two. “He really believed he would get a new contract because he got on really well with the manager, Ian McParland. When he did leave for a while he was angry towards McParland, though they made up at a later date.

“Richard was made up when Notts went on to win the league the next season. If he had been offered a contract

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 23

SAD END FOR ONE OF OUR OWN ROB DAVIES

@RobD97

And so, it wasn’t to be. Ray Trew didn’t quite manage to go for a full season without changing his manager after all. Only 10 months after leading the club to the most improbable of great escapes, Notts County’s own Shaun Derry and his influential right-hand man Greg Abbott were sacked from their respective posts to become the sixth management team Trew had sacked in the past five years.

The departures of Derry and Abbott seemed implausible as recently as two months ago; the Magpies were the last professional club in the country to remain unbeaten away this season, finally ending their impressive streak at Bradford on the 28 December. They ended October having won every single game, including the memorable 3-2 win at Barnsley having been 2-0 behind.

Having followed up keeping them up against all the odds by building a squad challenging at the top end of the League One table, it seemed that the only way Derry was heading was up.

Now, he finds himself out of a job.

heart of the problem.

Despite public proclamations that signings were in the pipeline, Derry brought just two players to the club on contracts beyond this season – Will Hayhurst and Billy Daniels, both 20, - neither of whom have been utilised much in the first-team picture.

Alongside them came four untested loanees – Kwame Thomas and Alefe Santos from Derby and Kaiyne Woolery and Hayden White from Bolton – all of whom returned swiftly from whence they came. The cost of these signings would have been minimal financially, but their impact – or lack of – on How have things unravelled so quickly? the pitch would have much deeper ramifications and, after the positivity Many supporters will point to January of earlier in the campaign, a malaise as the month that ultimately sealed had set-in.

Derry’s fate; the Magpies boss guided his team to just one victory in the By the time Derry was allowed to whole month but it was events off the genuinely bolster his squad with the pitch which caused the most concern. additions of the experienced trio of Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Paddy McCourt Though the influence of one or two of and, less successfully, Leroy Lita in the following players has since been mid-February, the damage was done. over-emphasised, the departures of The club was in a relegation battle. loanees Jake Cassidy, Louis Laing, Michael Petrasso and Stephen THE BEGINNING McLaughlin – with Zeli Ismail having Derry is rightly credited with left in November due to a serious knee masterminding the club’s great escape injury – was undoubtedly a factor in the from League One relegation but, club’s downward spiral in results, but having joined the club in November, it was the inability to bring-in players it wasn’t until the middle of March of similar quality that was really at the when the Notts manager truly kick-

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 24

started their fortunes. After a relatively slow start when a 5-1 hammering at Oldham in the JPT left the new boss under no illusions as to what he’d inherited, the Christmas and January period seemed to suggest that a ‘great escape’ wouldn’t be necessary after all.

A battling 1-0 win at bottom-of-thetable Stevenage at the end of January was their third in succession and propelled them to the heady heights of 16th in the League One table. Less than two months later, a 6-0 mauling at Rotherham was their 7th defeat in eight games and signalled what looked to be the end. As a result of that game, the previously-influential Andre Boucaud was never to play for the club again, while the enigmatic, work-shy Yoann Arquin and summer marquee signing Danny Haynes had already been jettisoned to Scotland. Work rate was the order of the day; those seen to be giving anything less than 100% were shown the door, regardless of ability. This approach ultimately proved successful in the short-term but would cause problems later on when it came to compiling an all-new squad.

THE GREAT ESCAPE

Many cite the Great Escape as starting in mid-March with three wins in a week; a 3-0 victory at Crewe sandwiched between impressive home victories against Carlisle (4-1) and Colchester (2-0). However, in terms of personnel,

it actually began a week before the home win over Carlisle, with a 3-2 defeat at Tranmere that consigned them to the very bottom of the League One table. This seems a strange place to start but, following the humbling at Rotherham and another home defeat against MK Dons, it was before this game that Derry decided it was time to drastically shake things up in terms of personnel.

Two brand new partnerships that would be crucial to the club’s upturn in fortunes were formed; experienced Birmingham loanee Hayden Mullins was moved back from midfield to the heart of the defence alongside young Haydn Hollis, who came into the side while, at the front, the M & S pairing of Ronan Murray and short-term January addition Jimmy Spencer was formed.

Out went the likes of Boucaud, skipper Dean Leacock, Manny Smith and Mark Fotheringham and Derry’s decision to persist with this new formula, which didn’t exactly have unanimous success at Tranmere, was a brave one.

Hollis, an often maligned figure up to that point, scored twice in the win over Carlisle and netted another the following Saturday against Colchester, while Murray was in fine goal-scoring form, finding the net five times in the three wins that kick-started the club’s rise from the depths of the division.

Murray’s strike partner, Spencer, was then to take over the goal-scoring mantle in the latter weeks of the season, impressing with his Velcrolike touch combined with powerful hold-up play and general shit-housery, particularly in a 1-0 win over Crawley on Easter Monday where he scored the only goal. On the flanks, Aston Villa loanee Jack Grealish and Jamal Campbell-Ryce were now producing their best form of the season, with the fit-again Liddle and Bolton loanee Josh Vela and, latterly, homegrown product Curtis Thompson – who had previously played as a right back – shoring things up in the middle. Whether at fullback or centre back, new captain Alan Sheehan (thanks Alan) was also in the form of his Magpies’ career, leading by example and also scoring some crucial goals, notably in the 2-0 home win over Swindon. Experienced loanees Gareth Roberts and Nathan Tyson would occasionally emerge from the sidelines to play their part, but Derry and Abbot had streamlined their bloated squad and were selecting just 13-14 players who, having been at the foot of the table for much of the campaign, were producing promotion form and some outstanding football.

It was a memorable time; Sheehan stepped-up to smash home an equaliser from the penalty spot at Oldham in front of 3,500 delirious travelling fans and the ‘great escape’ had been completed. Hopes were high

that Derry and Abbot could now go on was in October, when Derry’s men won to build something very special. every single game and started to rackup the performances and goals to go with their defensive solidity, which THE NEW SQUAD Outgoings were expected in the had been enhanced by the addition of summer, but these were generally for Forest loanee Louis Laing. At the other the likes of Boucaud, Leacock, Smith, end, loans for Stephen McLaughlin Fotheringham, Enoch Showunmi and and Michael Petrasso and a switch into Arquin, who hadn’t been playing. attack for Garry Thompson contributed What most fans hadn’t banked on to a memorable month which saw was the club losing six of their key Notts rise all the way up to third in players; loanees Callum McGregor League One. Subsequently, home and Grealish, as expected, returned defeats against Walsall and bottom-ofto their parent clubs but it was of the-table Yeovil – after an extremely major disappointment that Sheehan, harsh red card for Gary Jones – and Liddle and Campbell-Ryce all turned a humbling FA Cup exit to Accrington down new deals to join League One Stanley brought a dose of realism in rivals, with another great escape hero, November, though this was aligned goalkeeper Bartosz Bialakowski, also with an away win at Coventry and being released from the final year of creditable draw at Sheffield Utd which his contract to allow him to play in the kept their unlikely away unbeaten run going into the festive period.

Championship for Ipswich Town.

Arguably the most significant absence was still to come. New talisman Spencer had delighted manager and supporters alike by committing to a two-year deal at the start of the summer but disaster struck in the club’s very first pre-season friendly at Arnold Town. Spencer suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament and was ruled out for the entire season. Derry had tailored his team’s whole approach to a more direct style to suit the strengths of Spencer and this injury would have huge ramifications.

This left only Mustapha Dumbuya, Mullins – signed on a permanent deal and named as the new captain – Hollis and Murray from the team who had sealed the great escape in May, meaning mass new arrivals were a necessity. Derry opted largely for experience; Mullins (34) was joined

by Alan Smith (33), Gary Jones (37) and Garry Thompson (33), whilst Roy Carroll (37) came in to replace Bialakowski in goal. Alongside the experienced heads came a number of very young players such as Taylor McKenzie (20), Cieron Keane (18) and Elliott Whitehouse (20), while Nicky Wroe (28), Liam Noble (23) and Blair Adams (22) were also brought-in and expected to play more of a role within the first-team. A double loan swoop for Wolves pair Zeli Ismail (21) and Jake Cassidy (22) completed what was an all-new squad going into the season.

THE EARLY SEASON

Expectations were low as Notts entered the season but a creditable 1-1 draw at promotion-favourites Preston increased optimism, with new signing Carroll in inspired form. Generally speaking, Derry had built a battling squad that was picking-up results and victories that, on the balance of play, they scarcely deserved. A 2-0 win at Port Vale courtesy of two deflected goals having been battered for the 90 minutes summed-up Notts’ earlyseason fortunes. The exception to this

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 25

THE END

After the unbeaten away record was lost and such an underwhelming January in the transfer market, the Magpies took an alarming spiral down the increasingly-tight League One table. Without the away record to fall back into, the lack of home results was highlighted and the four successive defeats against Peterborough, Chesterfield, Sheffield Utd and Port Vale at Meadow Lane couldn’t have come at a worse time. Derry was boosted by a battling 1-1 draw against Bradford, but the writing was on the wall after the same side lost at home to Rochdale three days later. A 4-1 humbling at high-flying MK Dons, which left Notts above the relegation zone only on goal difference, proved the final straw for Trew, who had offered considerable financial backing for the recent loan additions of Campbell-Ryce, McCourt and Lita.

TRANSFERS

Derry produced a masterstroke at the end of last season by getting the best out of existing underperforming talents and adding the likes of Murray, C Thompson and Hollis to the first-team picture, but it was noteworthy that only Spencer and, for a very short period, Vela of the manager’s own signings were integral to the great escape.

In truth, his record in the transfer market was hugely underwhelming, though it must be pointed out that he was very much shopping at the lowbudget end of the market, even by League One standards. In total, the Notts manager brought 44 new players to the club in nearly 17 months. This season alone, Derry has used 43 players and 16 loanees and it is this scattergun approach that never really convinced there was a long-term strategy, after the amazing short-term impact at the end of 13-14.

Players such as Nicky Wroe and Drissa Traore were brought-in and quickly discarded despite promising displays

on the pitch. Sean Newton, a 26-yearold left back from Lincoln, was one of Derry’s last signings but Notts already had two younger, very capable leftbacks and Newton has struggled to establish himself in the XI. It summedup an illogical transfer approach that was ultimately a major factor in the manager’s departure.

There were, however, some success stories amongst Derry’s 44 signings.

Notable mentions for Jones, who the term ‘model pro’ was invented for, Vela, an under-rated player during the Great Escape who has since gone-on to establish himself in Bolton’s team and livewire winger Petrasso, whose two-goal salvo and man of the match display at Barnsley on his full debut will live long in the memory, but these are my top five Derry signings: 1. Roy Carroll In hindsight, the signing of Carroll seems like a no-brainer; a vastly experienced goalkeeper who was once Man United’s no.1 and had most recently been playing Champions League football in Greece. But there were risks attached and there were reasons that, by Carroll’s own admission, no club in this country would touch him. All of these have paled into insignificance as the Northern Irishman has been far-and-away the club’s best and most important player this season, near single-handedly winning Derry’s team points and keeping score-lines respectable throughout the campaign.

What’s more, he was a cost-effective addition, coming for a much cheaper wage than Bialakowski. Even taking into account his nine needlessly accrued yellow cards, Carroll has to be the top Derry signing for his overall importance to the club this season.

2. Jimmy Spencer Few were enamoured when Notts signed this unknown 22-year-old with an underwhelming scoring record on a short-term deal from Huddersfield but Spencer was arguably the biggest reason for the club’s great escape, the star performer amongst a team performing at its very best. We will never know what this season would have held were it not for his injury at Arnold.

3. Louis Laing Laing was drafted in on a short-term loan to replace the injured Mullins and, alongside Hollis, it was concerning to see such an inexperienced pairing at the heart of the Magpies’ defence, but the duo’s pairing coincided with the club’s outstanding period of form that saw Notts rise to third in the League One table. His return to Forest is still cited by many as the start of the downturn in the season.

disciplinary record, but taking on-pitch displays in isolation Noble has been an inspired signing, having been picked-up from relegated Carlisle. The midfielder has established himself as a key player and, if he can sort his discipline, could undoubtedly play at a higher level.

Derry and Abbott were to be found. At the end of last season and the start of this, the management duo motivated not only their squad of players but the entire club, supporters included. Not many managers who had been sacked after just four wins in five months would largely maintain the support of almost the entire squad and large sections of the fanbase, but this was the case with Derry. On motivation alone, Derry was fantastic, notably moulding academy products Hollis and Curtis Thompson into first-team regulars and drastically improving the likes of Sheehan, Campbell-Ryce and even Grealish, who all owe the manager a debt of gratitude. To the end, Derry and Abbott maintained the support of the dressing room and there is genuine sadness at their departures.

5. Garry Thompson A signing that typified the summer transfer activity and a new-found approach for the Magpies, Thompson was brought-in as a replacement for Campbell-Ryce on the right wing but this was no like-for-like swap, the 33-year-old looked to have been one of very few wingers brought in primarily for his aerial qualities. After a slow start due to injury, the former Bradford man has played primarily as a striker and has found the net an impressive 10 times, with a number of eye-catching strikes and a ‘perfect’ hat-trick in the team’s WHAT NOW? most impressive home display of the Derry’s move from the pitch straight season, a 5-3 success over Crawley. into the top job was a rare one and he may now opt to join a bigger club Worst signing: Countless forgettable closer to his London home in a ‘lesser’ loanees have passed through the doors coaching capacity. The former Crystal during this season in particular, but Palace and QPR captain is very highly the worst of the lot has to be a player thought of at both of those clubs and who started only two games and made could probably walk into jobs within a total of three appearances. Bolton’s their set-up. His time as a no.1 will Hayden White may yet go on to have come again, and is more likely to arrive a decent career in the game, but few via this route where he can continue to who saw his shambolic display in the develop as a coach and as a manager.

January 2-1 defeat to Peterborough will Abbott is an experienced, believe it if/when he does. knowledgeable coach at this level and he won’t be short of offers on the His signing was even more perplexing coaching and scouting side of things. given that he replaced Mustapha Dumbuya in the XI, who had been FAVOURITE MOMENT one of the team’s most consistent Oldham. It has to be Oldham. performers up to that point (and whose Derry shed tears and hugged his confidence promptly led to a drop in backroom staff, players, journalists form thereafter). Ironically, White was and supporters as his ‘Great Escape’ the first to stick the boot into Derry via mission was completed and it genuinely Twitter when the news of his dismissal felt that Notts had a manager who was broke. both capable and willing to be in it for

TACTICS

Derry always appeared to be more of a motivator as opposed to a tactician and, with Abbott probably falling under the same category, this was arguably a major issue. Derry’s earlytime at Notts saw the attacking trio of Campbell-Ryce, McGregor and Grealish play behind a lone striker, but the emergence of the Murray and Spencer pairing saw the Magpies’ revert to a direct style of play in an orthodox 4-42 system which worked wonders at the time but, following Spencer’s injury, the side struggled to find their identity and often changed their formation and personnel in a bid to combat the strengths of the opposition. Derry arguably tinkered with his team far too much and has named an unchanged team only twice this season, while the 37-year-old was also often too reluctant to use his substitutes.

4. Liam Noble A controversial MOTIVATION selection owing to his horrendous This is where the real strengths of

MARCH 2015 : PAGE 26

the long-term. An unforgettable day.

WORST MOMENT

The 2-1 defeat at home to Rochdale last Tuesday proved the final straw for a number of supporters and, in all probability, the Chairman who had remain united behind Derry until that point. Derry’s decision to name an unchanged team in an unfamiliar 3-41-2 system seemed bizarre given the lacklustre display three days previously.

Tellingly, there were just 3,000 home fans in attendance for the team’s 11th home defeat of the season, much less than the number who had travelled to Oldham in May for the completion of the Great Escape.

The ‘one of our own’ chants were now conspicuously absent and, for a Notts County supporter who just months earlier had looked like managerial hot property, it was a sad way to end his time in-front of Meadow Lane supporters.

LuSam

Photography -Wedding-Portraiture-Nature-Architecture07446 118177 facebook.com/lusamphotography I also sell framed photos of the Meadow Lane Stadium, with 10% discount for Notts Co. fans (just quote Black&White when ordering)

Wishing both Notts County FC and Black & White all the best and hoping they take us the way to extra time and penalties this year!

e l e c t r i c a l o p t i o n s . c o . u k

NOTTS COUNTY GOLF SOCIETY

We play eight qualifying games a season – one per month - beginning in March and playing through until October. Playing at eight courses throughout the Notts area, games alternate from a Sunday in the first month, to a Wednesday the next and so on. We start with tee times in the morning moving over to after lunch in the Summer then back to mornings.Games are played In the Stableford format with only the best five scores to count from the eight games. All scoring and handicapping is done online via HandicapMaster which you can log in and view anytime. By the end of the season, the member with the most points is the 1862 Champion for the season, also a singles competition is also held throughout the season.

Anyone wishing to join irrespective of your handicap is most welcome, all details on our web site.

www.nottscountygolfsociety.co.uk

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