Didcot Town FC

I travelled to Didcot for the first time on 13 April 2013. It was an easy drive down the M4 although it rained for virtually the whole trip. As you probably know, it is only a few mile north off the M4 and for me, it was an 80 mile drive, but took no more than 1.5 hours. For those without cars, it’s pretty close to the railway station. The club’s nick name of “The Railwayman” is obviously very appropriate!

As you can see, it is a pretty new building and is not that far away from a rather well-known landmark. I’m not sure when the power station is being demolished, but it was in the process of being decommissioned on my visit.

Inside is a very functional clubhouse with lots of shirts and pictures displayed on the walls. As I arrived quite early, I was one of the first in and found the bar to be a bit cold and dampish. It’s also quite a dark place with very few windows and lighting that I didn’t think was up to scratch. Perhaps I’m being picky.

The Directors room was very functional and easy access straight into the main stand

Boardroom

Everyone at the club that I came across were super friendly and during the match, good banter was had in the main stand. During the reverse game earlier in the season, a Mangotsfield player suffered a badly broken leg and the match had to be abandoned early in the 2nd half. Didcot had a fund-raiser for our player that raised £300. What a fantastic gesture from a lovely bunch of people.

On the football side, it was a wet game on a wet pitch that did not look that great to me. I later found out that their groundsman died in 2011 (?) and since then the pitch has not been in as gooder shape. Despite falling behind to a goal in the 16th minute, the Mangotsfield players kept going strong throughout the game. Didcot faded in the 2nd half and lost 2-3 in the end. The winning goal was a cracking move from the half way line right out on the touch-line. Fabulous 35 yard pass, dribble, pass and shot drilled in, all in the 90th minute. That meant Mangotsfield had won 3 successive away games in just 5 days. Super job!

Mangotsfield playing in their away yellow kit:

FA, refs etc

As a Director of a non league club team able to go to talks about behind the scenes stuff. This article is mostly about a presentation by FA staff on refs. I hope you find it interesting.

Marking of officials

After every game the officials are marked by both the home team and the away team. Marks generally vary between 60 and 80. According to the FA, an 80 mark a standard satisfactory performance. And I quote “this is based on the average employee in a job who performs to 80% of capability most days”.  Who else thinks this is odd? I work for myself, so if I did 80% of a job I would be sued and bankrupt in no time. A mate is responsible for putting chemicals on a plane, thankfully he hasn’t blown one up yet!

If a ref is marked below 60, a detailed report has to be made giving reasons. Sadly, a number of clubs mark 61 so ducking the issue. Honestly, these clubs don’t really help themselves do they?

In the 12/13 season, 7 refs have been marked less than 60 by Southern League clubs. My club is responsible for two of them. We decide to make a report when the four directors and the secretary all agree. That way it isn’t just one persons view.

Training refs

In 2005/06 the training budget was virtually non-existent. I cannot remember the amount for the current year, but its a decent amount and bears no resemblance to 05/06. The FA are proud of this as it shows their commitment to the officials.

In my view the standards have dropped since 05/06, so I say the money is being wasted. In 05/06 I criticised about two refs a year and about 6 linesmen. Today most linesman are poor. And I saw 6 men in the middle have a shocker by November this season.

Chucking money at something does not bring success. You must spend it wisely.

Assessors

On average an assessor is at every other game. The assessor always makes his visit known to the officials as soon as he arrives at the ground. This is done following legal advice! Apparently every assessment is in fact an employee appraisal. Therefore it cannot be done anonymously. So, how many people do you know are appraised pretty much every week? None? Me neither!

At the end of every year (runs to end of February) officials are then promoted, demoted etc to other levels, or left where they are. This takes effect at the start of the next season. So, they have a weekly appraisal and an annual appraisal. Heaven forbid anyone to suggest that the weekly assessor is only providing on the job guidance or training! We just cannot have anonymous reports done can we?

Number of cards issued

The head man says that if 10 cards are issued in a game, the ref has clearly had a bad game. He also maintained that if no cards are issued, the ref has also had a bad game. Think the chap really likes his statistics to come up with that sweeping statement. If you do not know, a yellow card is a £10 fine on the player and a straight red is £30. These fines are collected by the FA and then passed over to the local FA region. My FA regional currently sits on about £1.3m of cash.

Regional FA Authorities

The FA have a set of national rules. The Southern League and equivalents also have a set of national rules. In turn, clubs have a national set of rules. Sadly each local FA authority still has its own set of rules. By and large they different all over the UK leading to very odd clashes at times. The FA has no intention of changing this set up. However, the Southern League Chairman is actively encouraging members to bring all pressure to change the situation.

Don’t you just love political; infighting. Oh, and the FA’s reluctance to change a century old rule. Oh now, we cannot have change now can we?!

Southern League Cup

Everyone is well aware that fans are voting with their feet and do not want to watch these cup games. Pretty much every game generates a loss for both clubs. Despite this, the competition will continue. The odd rules they brought in for 2012/13 will however be rescinded as they did not work.

So no one has backbone to either do away with the competition or “suspend” it till the economic position improves. That is probably because the other regions also have their cups and no one want to be the first to admit clubs financial losses should be taken into account.

Fixture back-logs

Due to the awful weather this season, there are some clubs with dreadful fixture back-logs. As expected the season will not extend into May. apparently the waterlogged pitches are basically the clubs own fault. If they invested £400k (?) into 3G pitches there would not be a problem. In fact the problem is only £200k worth as the FA will give a 50% grant in most cases.

How many clubs do you know are sat on £200k of spare cash?

A lot of what I have said above is FA people quoting legal advice and statistics. This I think was done in a way to ensure there was no major questions from the floor. In other words, they put themselves into a position to deflect comments away. All you need know about statistics is what my Uncle Phil says “if half the population are male, and half female, everyone has one bollock and one tit.” Nuff said.

Finally, all the above are my own personal views.

Chippenham Town

I travelled the short distance along the M4 to watch Mangotsfield play away to Chippenham Town on 8 September 2012. This was the First Qualifying round of the FA Cup, with £3,000 of prize money to the winners. The losers, get a handshake, and a share of the gate money.

The ground is very easy to find. Just drop down off the M4, go round the ring round and it is no more than half a mile off a roundabout. As I arrived very early, parking was a doddle. Was told that on a really big crowd, people park on the main round without any trouble.

This was my very first visit to the ground, and I found everyone very helpful and friendly. The main stand is very good, with a food outlet right as you walk in – perfect positioning. A lot of the ground has covered areas and there are a lot of advertising hoardings all the way around the ground. All in all, very nicely appointed and created the right sort of atmosphere.

View from the main stand

You may be able to spot from the photo that another sports complex is outside the ground. I am not sure if this is true, but was told the football club pay a rent, so they do not own the ground. But if you know any different, let me know!

View of the main stand on a nice sunny day

Another thing that was nice was the sign below which listed everyone who helped towards the cost of the main stand.

Chippenham Town sponsors being honoured

Whilst I did not sample any offerings from the food outlet, the price list seemed very reasonable to me. Additionally, there seemed to be an awful lot of people using it. That can only be good news for everyone visiting the ground.

Needless to say, there were some excellent characters in the Board Room and all the Mangotsfield Directors were well looked after. For me, I got totally sidetracked by Robin Townsley who is a Bluenose. Lots of reminiscing about Birmingham City FC then and initial plans hatched for an away trip together. As we all know, it’s a small world!

On the football side, it ended Chippenham Town 3 Mangotsfield United 1. I thought it was a pretty decent game, but Mangotsfield do lack fire power up front and the midfield players are too easily bundled off the ball at the moment. However, we have a very young side and it was only the 5th time they have played together.

If you are interested in seeing achieved photos of Mangotsfield United along with videos – including a video of the players warming up at this match, pop along to http://www.flickr.com/mufcphotos