Finnaldo

There’s no guarantee he’d want to (or that his employers would allow him to) but could be a lot worse than trying to get Jason in as a spokesperson. Well known locally through his time at RL, good communication links and media network and clearly aligned to the thinking on this issue. Would offer a great platform to organise off of and any attempt to silence him as they do with the common rabble either on here or via stadium bans would be massively amplified and showcase the despotic nature that’s kept out the mainstream eye.

Was called off ten minutes after I walked in Had a good winter walk down Barwell Lane into Hinckley and a catch up with a mate in cafe there so not a wasted trip at least!

The inevitable slew of postponements today, Hinckley’s short trip to Leicester Nirvana is off. May make the trip out to the Barwell v Bromsgrove game…

333 is a good start, the demotion was so sudden it’s brutal to piece things back together and get supporters attending when they know you’re stuck in step 6 for at least two seasons. 250-300 average gates next season would be great, even 200 for that level. Nice to see your lot stringing some results together now. My question is do you know if the budget is looking? I’d understand if it had been somewhat limited this season to get things together, and I can’t see a whole lot of money in that league from my (admittedly very limited) understanding, so you’d hope if they can get something half decent together then they’ll be odds on next season. Would be nice in a few years to see Hinckley, Coalville and Nuneaton all in step 4! (Probably the limit all three clubs can manage in their current forms).

As I understand there’s a history with Leicester and the aforementioned HLRFC directors CosbehFox mentioned where Leicester have said they’ll never play a game at that stadium again. Goes back to the United days.

This is quite interesting actually as I have the same being from Hinckley way which is also categorised a ‘rugby town’. Which it probably is, alongside Harborough, just not in the way we’d consider the definition. For one I refuse to believe in modern England, outside perhaps some very specific communities for very specific reasons (parts of the industrial north for League and perhaps Cornwall for Union) that there’s many regions where rugby is outright more popular than football, especially across the Midlands. Hinckley and Harborough might have higher rugby followings compared to other comparable towns or areas, but it won’t be the premier sport. Maybe once upon a time in a much more localised world 40+ years ago, but no way in the 21st century. Football as a spectator sport is so accessible and so dominating in British sporting culture now I find it very hard to see otherwise unless is very specific examples as previously mentioned. If I was to guess, I imagine it’s an illusion carried by a couple things: 1) previously mentioned, historically a higher rate of support in an area that’s more likely to pass on. 2) the local rugby set-up is a lot more efficient, successful and has been consistently for so long that’s there’s a local reputation that it’s the team, and therefore sport to send your kids to almost as a status item. I can’t speak for Harb, but Hinckley RFC has produced enough Tigers and England players in that regard that if you’re a local mum or dad who aren’t too sports-inclined sending your kid to a local sports team, why wouldn’t you the most successful, well-ran one? Rugby tends to have a better vets culture to get ex-players to stick around too. But to my point, most the rugby lads I knew then also were or ended up being football supporters, be it casually or not. A hardcore may have kept playing and may actively watch it but a load I see on social media either packed it in for football or watch both. This has been long and meandering, but the point is I think that ‘rugby town’ is generally just an excuse where local football clubs has historically floundered and rugby clubs have been very well-run outfits, I’m sure that’s helped by demographics to an extent but if we look at the two towns in footballing terms: Harborough only started 50 years ago, were a county league outfit until 2010. Their progress has been mental in three years (backed by money but seems relatively sustainable so little room for complaints). Despite that they’re averaging 467 in the league, which is bang in the middle of the pack in that league despite a lacklustre league campaign. Coalville were higher attendances yes but their build-up was more gradual and they were competing the other end of the table. Personally I think that’s a fantastic start by the club at this level. If anything it defies the idea of a rugby town. Hinckley football has been plagued by a history of split clubs and financial disaster. 20th century was Athletic and Town, the former with the support and latter with the money and connections, a brief golden age with United in the 2000s before the realities of that golden age came crashing down. Now mirroring the past with two clubs, one with the support but homeless and one with the (extremely neglected and crumbling) ground but little more than a man with his dog which is ironically neighboured by the consistently successful and ever-expanding rugby club. Those two probably showcase the myth a bit. One has got its act together and if it’s carries on (SUSTAINABLY, I’ll add) will far surpass the local rugby scene within ten years. Meanwhile the other is locked in a cycle it badly needs to break out of, which continues to limit any progress for local football to which the rugby club benefits (even physically, seeing as they now own the old United 3G as well). I think things can change in Hinckley, AFC needs its own ground at least in the boundaries of town (seeing as any change of an inner-town ground died with Middlefield Lane) and we need to be better as community and inter-sport networking locally. There’s no reason a Hinckley side in the current AFC format couldn’t compete at step 4 with 400+ crowns with its own ground, but that’s for us as a club to realise I think.

I disagree entirely. We did some rough maths and we reckon the money they’ll earn from this increase will be roughly an extra three weeks worth of wages or so, I think it’s more than just a ‘shame’ that a loyal supporter, who have been there for years or turned to it recently with the rising costs/apathy of league football, would have to stump up £93 at cheapest cost for themselves, a teenager and an young’un, this close to Christmas. This might seem a bit deep over football but these sorts of clubs have been community asset for generations. It’s an increasing trend that what should be protected community institutions are seen only at their commercial value, and yes whilst they should be as financially efficient as possible to be sustainable, a short term stunt like this, in quite a poor and underdeveloped part of the country, is exactly the opposite of that what a club like a Tamworth should be against. A few weeks wages on top of hundreds of thousands of pounds they’ve deservedly gained on this run is not worth pricing out the community you’re anchored in. I could say the same thing of pubs with the extortion that breweries and holding companies put on rent and stock purchase restrictions of landlords, as well as the shocking cost of showing live sport etc., but that’s less relevant here. Football, especially non-league, should be an escape from the drudgery and ills of normal life and society yet increasingly we see this kind of rug-pulling on supporters that just three years ago they were relying on at step 3, and we wonder why society becomes more skeptical, polarised and bitter as more and more what we thought was sacred become a cynical money-grab. I’ll end this on a positive note: there’s plenty clubs in lower non-league, far closer to the breadline than the likes of Tamworth are that still go above and beyond to cater to their community, and hard-working volunteers who ensure that remains the case. As much as football is under siege from the cynicism of greater society there’s still plenty holdouts for affordable football that gives communities that has had its identity stripped or eroded over the last few decades something to rally around.

Higher in the pyramid, Tamworth catching a lot of flak for some eye-watering prices in their FA Cup game:

Couple Christmas shockers in the UCL South- both title contenders St Neots and Aylestone Park losing 2-5 to Eynesbury on Boxing Day (in front of a fantastic 1k+ crowd) and 1-3 to Leicester Nirvana today respectively, play off hopefuls Daventry Town lost to struggling Easington. That leaves Rugby an opportunity to go top with their game in hand and the chasing pack for the play offs (including Hinckley) scrapping for the last two play off spots…

I’d say so, much better experience enjoying a pint pitchside, and it doesn’t take long to be on a first name basis with players, playing staff and club officials. Particularly with the way Leicester are ran currently it’s refreshing to have that transparency and accountability all the way through a club. Much easier to get involved and make a difference too, especially it’s supporter-owned (as Hinckley are). Leicester just feels depressing at the moment whereas AFC there’s plenty of potential ahead and you aren’t treated like a mug for bothering.

This is exactly the issue though, he’s no interest in running it and left it to the only people he knows to run it. They’ve shown to be grossly incompetent and even on getting us relegated they were essentially allowed to review themselves and find no issue. If he wasn’t going to realise then when is he going to cotton onto it? This all points to bad ownership, I struggle to see how not being bothered and leaving it in the hands of incompetents shows any level of competency on his behalf. Even if he ‘realises’ now it’s too late and years of damage going back to the PL win have already set us back massively. This appears to me as years of poor senior management and ownership come home to roost, it’s not an out-the-blue shock. People seem afraid to say it but Vichai wasn’t all that much better in that regard, Rudkin had several massive operational failures under him too (the Andre Silva fiasco to note one). A lot of very good fortune and the perfect storm in 15/16 brought a lot of time and goodwill that some seem shackled to today.

A pint of Elgood’s Blackberry Porter followed swiftly by Titanic Plum Porter at the Shilton Vaults in Earl Shilton, superb.

They’re in the United Counties League Premier South, which is one level below Northern Premier League Midlands Division (Corby) and two below Southern League Premier Central (Harborough). In terms of the Non-League Pyramid, first you have the National League (step 1) and then the National League North & South (step 2). Below that the Northern Premier League, Southern League and Isthmian League collectively make up what’s known as ‘the trident leagues’, each of them have multiple ‘first’ (step 3) and ‘second’ (step 4) divisions which are split broadly in regions. Below that you then have a dozen or so regional leagues, for example the Midland Football League (which is currently mostly the central and northern parts of the West Midlands region and Leicestershire) and United Counties League (which is Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, the South Midlands and a couple Leicestershire teams), they also have their own first (step 5) and second (step 6) divisions. Beyond that you get into your county leagues like the Leicestershire Senior League.

Went St Neots with Hinckley as a train day, disappointed with the town as a pub crawl but super impressed with the ground. Can’t be understated what a bit of concrete and a three step terrace behind the goal can do for atmosphere, easily one of my favourite grounds I’ve been to with Hinckley. As you say the perfect example of a modern non-league ground.

Much like wider journalism, sports journalism has been so discredited over the years with a name over substance approach on punditry and quantity over quality with the advent of clickbait and ‘fast news’, and that’s just exacerbated by the alternative provided being teenagers on TikTok with the loudest, most outrageous brain rot they can game the algorithm with, or professional contrarians spewing a minute of unsupported nonsense. It’s the KSI FIFA revisionism writ-large, Vardy is just a better regarded example of the treatment Heskey got 12 or 13 years ago.

A lot of clubs seem to put in place some advances ticketing/booking systems they don’t fully understand/have the mean to operate fully, and in the case of Banbury it seems to come down to either being unable or being unwilling to deal with the unpleasant elements of their supporter base.

On a similar note: Hinckley’s Christmas fixture kicks off at 2pm with kids go free and free mulled wine and Christmas snacks!

This Syrian offensive would have been 100% Turkey-backed and I suspect they’d have let some players, including Israel, in on it behind the curtain. I imagine there’s promises of moderation in the government and if HTS steps out of line then Turkey will step in and sort it out. It, however, a very bad time to be the SDF/Rojava right now I imagine.

Hinckley stormbusters overcame Darragh to get their fourth win in a row. Wasn’t there but it sounded like a very disciplined performance from the lads over a decent Eynesbury side to repeat the 3-1 score line from our opening day reverse fixture. Very difficult midweek trip to Rugby Borough on Wednesday, get out of that with a positive result and an unbeaten December looks a very real possibility.

Third win on the spin yesterday for Hinckley, 1-4 against Northampton ON Chenecks, they started the afternoon in fifth so that’s back-to-back decisive wins against play off teams. Looks to be coming together but another hard game against Rugby Borough coming up Wednesday after next in the middle of two winnable games at home vs Eynesbury on the 7th and Godmanchester on the 21st.

That was a very good episode, enjoyed the Marcus Law one they’ve just released as well. They’re probably the best produced for Midlands Non-League content by a margin in terms of what I’ve found, although the hosts seem to struggle outside their particular areas (roughly A5 corridor teams). Out of their stuff I’d recommend Gaz Dean, Jas Singh, Dean Gill, Kyle Storer, Mark Noon, Gez Murphy and Ivor Green. Either played/managed a good level or have quite an interesting insight into the game even if it’s slightly lower. I’ve struggled to find decent and consistent Non League content, but if I do find anything I’ll make sure to post!

Anyone know what they’ve put in the water at Darlaston? I know they’re not exactly urchins but from what I’ve heard and listening to Dean Gill on the Non-League Treatment Room it didn’t sound like they had a particularly big budget even at step 5, currently occupying the play off spots at step 4…

Great club Halesowen, need to make a trip over to the Grove. That small area is a mental hotbed for non-league, Halesowen, Bromsgrove and Stourbridge all well supported, Alvechurch & Redditch not far away either. Hinckley finally, finally finding some consistency with back-to-back wins for the first time this season with a good win at home to March. Conceded first within a minute but a fantastic second half meant a good value 3-1 win, not far off play offs now but with a tough run including 4th place Chenecks away Saturday we’re going to need to build off of good performances lately.

‘Football is cyclical’ is the biggest cop-out for accepting poor; near-negligent running of the club by a crumbling regime out of ideas and completely unable to reform or reorganise itself on any serious level. Even if you accept whatever pseudoscience is to determine the size of football supporter base, the fact we’re comfortably in the top 25 suggests we can then easily maintain Premier League football. The fact we’re eight/nine years removed from a Premier League title and three years removed from a series of European football runs shows it’s not a cyclical decline but a terminal spiral by utterly incompetent upper management. This all started with “Of course we won’t go down under Brendan!” because it was decided that the ownership and ‘their manager’ could do no wrong despite failing top four objectives twice by way of two unbelievable collapses. Since then we’ve seen often the same crowd erode expectations to “Going back to 2005/06 Leicester is just life”. Simply accepting and even defending worsening outcomes creates even worse results. This is an observable pattern at this club over the last five seasons but some will never bring themselves to accept how poorly ran we are from the very top.

I’m unbothered about Trump winning and find the Democrat-style Liberalism very tired and what they’ve got is what they deserved etc…. ….but didn’t the Trump lot storm a government building last time they lost? I think they’ve got some catching up to do to be the biggest gang of mentalists across the pond