Finnaldo

Did exactly did run (well, in order Cherry Tree, Castle, Black Horse then Duffy’s due shenanigans) on Saturday Considered doing a summer crawl this year, minus Duffy’s and then Ale Wagon, the Marquis and finishing off at the Old Horse.

Ref collapsed at the Aylestone Park vs Hinckley game yesterday, apparently fine/better now and has contacted both clubs but the game was abandoned. Wasn’t there at the time, thought I’d have a few beers in town and the post-Leicester traffic did us in, shame as it would have likely been a good game.

I’ve been doing this indirectly for a couple years now. Been involved in non-league since post-Covid, admittedly bought tickets last year for the Sheffield Wednesday game because I had a couple Spanish friends who were living here for a summer and wanted to see a Leicester game, otherwise if I go I borrow a mate’s ST and pay them for the match value. I don’t plan on buying a ticket again until there’s clear signs of progress. I doubt I’ll miss much in the meantime. The final form of the ‘football is akshually a business’ argument: frothing-at-the-mouth, contradictory nonsense. It’s a business: yet apparently it needs no ‘customers’ to survive despite emails begging supporters to turn up to games and extremely vague ‘pro-supporter’ overtures when we’re relegated or threatened by the prospect. It’s a business, but any ‘customer’ who criticises the ‘service’ (in this case the objectively awful running of the club on and off the pitch) is ungrateful and has no right to ‘moan’. An extremely gentle organised protest march, which is featuring several national news interviews and in which the organisers have warned off any abusive behaviour, is ‘yob/mob rule’. Poor reflection of this club’s support base (and probably the country as a whole) that we’ve become so weak-minded and submissive and there’s those willing to defend corporate interests and foreign national billionaires erode our local institutions and water down cultural interests. Especially when it’s their employees that created the success.

This is my concern, details are needed ASAP really. There’s only so much the club can do and if they try anything then A) it’s bad press and B) there’s time to reorganise and still have a presence on the day. The police are the bigger hurdle and currently the club could use the police as an easy out to get this scattered and completely sidelined.

The business the owners made their money in is essentially a localised monopoly that was secured in large parts through a very shady relationship with an extremely questionable semi-authoritarian monarchy. The business model is selling tat and crap at marked up prices to folk who have no other choice or are extremely gullible and naive. If you take that business and context behind it and apply it to the football club and supporter base, it’s quite easy to see why there’s such indignity from the hierarchy at the club now the sheen of the bread and circus has gone and there’s finally some dissent at the negligent and frankly piss-taking operation they’re running.

Fin vs the Internet and the new Fin vs History shows are both excellent, seems like Horatio is basically his understudy at this point and seems to be working for him, was looking at the Black Horse show myself. Saw Fin Taylor at the Y Theatre last year and he was superb. Only got the one booked in so far so definitely need to look at getting a couple more in!

Tell you what somehow I didn’t realise they were supporter-owned! Surprised as they’ve never been particularly well-supported either, is there a couple of big backers within the ranks? What they’ve managed with Gill is impressive regardless. Speaking to folk at Bilston last season and the season before, they were looking to go supporter-owned as well. Recently had the ground gifted to them by the council as well (which is a fantastic little non league setup in my opinion) and seem to be organising a decent youth setup as well. Never seem to be able to get their break but hope they do soon as they could be a great little non-league club if they keep trending the right way off the pitch.

Not to rub it in but a good portion of the West Midlands ground are utter holes You get the occasional good away day with the likes of Bridgnorth or a few teams that groundshare with higher level clubs but the likes of Wednesfield are the most depressing places to watch football on the planet. That said, there’s a few decent ones in that Wolves area like Cradley, and plenty are train-able journeys going out New Street so the chance for a few beers in Brum. There’s a lot more Leicestershire in there now which Hinckley rarely had in their stint in there and makes it a lot more convenient. Enjoying this league a lot more in the UCL if not for the egregious travel distances and less train away days, although a few lads do put minibuses on which are proving more popular this season. I suppose more importantly though: at least these clubs HAVE a ground! Shame to see Atherstone aren’t forecast to come over anymore: makes it a harder league but Atherstone, Nuneaton, Rugby & Hinckley all in one league should make for some good crowds.

I got hooked to Leicester when I was a young lad in the mid 00s, season ticket in the Family Stand, watching a brand of football consistently below mediocre, season after season of few wins and 4-0 batterings to Wolves last game of the season, drab football with players that weren’t good enough in front of crowds of sub-25,000, but you were surrounded by supporters who were there because they loved Leicester unconditionally, there was very little attraction outside of that. I remember sat watching Stoke away in 2008 and being absolutely distraught because even though we’d not been good enough we’d battled up to the end, we had one of the better defences in the league if I remember correctly. Then Pearson came in, I started going with my stepdad in L1, and the next eight seasons I was utterly hooked. We won League One, the first time I’d seen a successful Leicester side that wasn’t on an old VHS recording of the Boro League Cup or on Premier League Years. Then we came up and I saw us properly compete in the Championship, even if we were far from the best side, and on a relative shoestring we dug out a fifth place finish, heartbreak in Cardiff, but even with what came after 2009/10 was probably my favourite season. Early teenage nostalgia and a team that was built on grit and team effort and backed by supporters who’d been through years of mediocrity and slow decline but finally realised we were on the up. We all know what happened next, but it’s depressing knowing it’ll never quite feel that way again. Part of it childhood and teenage nostalgia, part of it simply having seen the success we’d never thought we’d hit, but more importantly the club and support seemed to have changed so drastically it’s depressingly alien. Small things in the early KP days like the old frieze that wrapped round the top of the roof, with all the players from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s taken down to be replaced by… a plain blue banner of the badge and King Power. It was never anything drastic in that period but since the league win they realised the credit was near infinite with a good majority and they can do what they like. Statements on ‘legacy fans’, a general resistance to any supporter-backed reform like safe-standing, going into NFT ticketing… and now a bloc of supporters who’ll defend near enough anything, where any criticism no matter how valid is ungratefulness, where an owner, no matter how absent-mindedly or catastrophically he runs things, is always right, and if he isn’t, well you should be grateful for everything he ‘gave’ us. In the late 90s we were a club that punched above it’s weight, in the late 00s we were a club that fought and clawed for everything, in the 10s we were the great disruptor. We’re now a club who should be grateful we’re being ran into the ground. I’ve drifted away from the club since Covid, essentially locked out of tickets up until being skeptical and ultimately disillusioned abd disconnected by the running of the club. I’ve picked up non-league, love it, and felt a bit of what made those early years so special. Leicester has lost me almost entirely at this point, there’s too much history to fully let go but I’m happy to watch from a distance, or borrow a season ticket here very occasionally and avoid rewarding this regime with any money. It’s a massive shame but I retain the hope that maybe one day it’ll be different and I can take my own kid to a club that resembles what I grew to love.

Symptomatic of a supporter base that is utterly bereft of any fight or energy, with a good portion completely devoted to the leadership of the club regardless of outcome or decline. I fear we’ll see this pattern emerge again with the protest as much as I hope otherwise. I can’t complain too much, I’ve stepped away massively from the club for non-league where I feel a lot more engaged and familiar with the club I support. It’s a massive shame but that’s where we are, any change comes up against a wall of passivity and entrenched loyalty to the point I’m no longer sure even liquidation would spur people to action, we laughed at Derby’s supporter for a complete lack of energy when they were on the brink but we may be several leagues worse than that.

This is mental ‘Football is a business’ crowd have gone beyond the pale. It’s the level of libertarian thinking that’s essentially “if I’ve bought a Grade I listed heritage building, and ran a successful store in it for a couple years before it all went to shit, why can’t I just pull it down and build a shopping centre on top?” Football clubs are a tangible historical asset in their communities, with many approaching or beyond 150 years of running. The idea someone can come in, accomplish a couple trophies and it affords them the ability to decline any scrutiny no better how poorly it’s ran, and you have supporters defending them suggesting they can or should just shut doors at the hint of any dissent, is absolutely staggering. Even ‘businesses’ these folk love to refer to wouldn’t operate this way because they’d be bankrupt within half a year. A normal business cannot rely on basically holding its ’customers’ hostage because they’re in control of an asset extremely ingrained into local culture thats a multigenerational point of identity in households. Which is exactly why it’s not ‘just a business’ and why an owner can’t just shut the doors. If all the supporters left overnight there’s no club, it’s going bust or declining to an unrecognisable form. If the owner left and managed to liquidate the club purely out of spite, there’d be a Leicester City AFC set up by the supporters within a month. A club is never just its owners. If a club doesn’t have its supporters then it’s nothing. Anyone can have an opinion on whether it’s x’s fault, y’s fault or z’s fault, but the idea anyone involved in the club is above scrutiny is nonsense.

We can stay up this season and the same issues are still there. We’ll be saying the same thing next season if we stayed up, when do we put our foot down?

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.