Town Taking Shape

Saturday saw my first trip to the Shay this year (holidays getting in the way of the two earlier friendlies) and how lucky was I , it was a big game against the mighty Accrington. You realise how far you have fallen when you look up such a distance to Accy, a team who themselves are only too familiar with the task of rebuilding from ground zero.

The game was as you would expect, pretty uneventful and disjointed with both teams trying out as many players as they could fit in each of their respective dressing rooms. A 3-1 victory for our Lancastrian visitors told us very little really and didn't really reflect the game in any way. It was a pretty even, with Town taking an early lead via an unstoppable James Dean header from a well placed Mark Peers free kick. A couple of sloppy individual defensive errors proved to be the difference between the sides rather than fitness, skill or footballing genius. As they always say, the result didn't matter.

Dean is looking like a the key signing and will no doubt be a big hit in Unibond 1. In the middle Baker and Phelan continue to look good, both proving that they were obvious players to retain from the ill fated Vince era. In Peers and Whitehouse the Shaymen have two quick wide players who, if used well, will provide a solid supply line that Unibond defences will struggle to cope with. At the back it is clear that better fitness, increased mobility and a little bit more intelligence has been brought into the squad again at a skill level beyond our current league.

At this early stage it looks like Neil Aspin is building a solid, fit, organised and capable enough team. There are no obvious show ponies this time around and the consequently the workrate has visibly increased, which has to be one of the keys to improving on last season. You already get a sense that the team respect Aspin and as we found out to our cost last season, if a manager doesn't have that completely from his players they will fall apart and he will fail – no matter how decent a man he is. The slight concern I have at this very early stage is the size of the squad that he is looking to build – he is suggesting around 16 players will do the trick, but my recent experience of non league football tells me that he may be being a little optimistic. Having said that, the prospect of a settled starting line up is an appealing one so it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

There was of course another team involved in yesterday's warm up, Accrington Stanley (said in the compulsory scouse accent a la annoying 80's milk add ). Based on this showing poor old Spaccy clearly don't have a hope in hell in the coming season. It really felt that they had found their level playing against our pub league team. Their dozen or so fans (christ its only 26 miles away – Garforth brought more) draped those annoying flags all over our stand – 'Pride in the shirt not ££££ in the wallet' one banner said. What else could Stanley fans say? They are skint, they have no support and buy most of their players from Poundstretcher. If they wanted a truly honest a flag then something along the lines of 'We are ASFC and we are totally f***ed' would work better (I am sure if they ask our commercial staff nicely have some left over in our club shop from a couple of seasons back, they will just need to die them and change the name, it will only cost a few bob). You do for a moment feel for these lost souls who have so much in common with us, but then you remember they are from Lancashire (close to Burnley), which entitles you to chuckle at will.

The Day He Went to Bangor

So Ashley Stott has gone. After a single season and 22 goals the young striker has returned to Bangor, the club he left last summer to join the Shaymen. Having knocked in a few you would think his departure would be met with a degree of disappointment, oh no not here Halifax, Stott has effectively left as a 22 goal villain. Only at the Shay could we create such a thing.

A section of fans went for him from pretty early on. One particular halfwit made profession out of berating Stott, so much so that the player issued a response via a message on a T shirt during a home game. So dim was the fan that he considered this reaction to be a victory. As pointless as much of dialogue was, Ashley needed to understand that coming a big non league club with big non league wages (I remember the shiny suited agent who introduced him to JV at Alfreton) that the criticism also gets bigger when you don't deliver what is expected. The barracking didn't help his game, he should have been bigger than that.

On the field things weren't made easy for him. Without a regular strike partner he never found his niche in the team. Injuries were the main reason for this lack of stability up front, further exasperated by an unstable supply line in midfield (more to do with JV's dithering). Could he have done better under the circumstances? The supporters continue to be divided on that one.

In reality he is an average non league striker not particularly better or worse than any of the ones we saw playing for other teams in this hell hole. He could do a job for us and Perhaps we need to accept that at this level of the game that quality is not really that easy to come by.

And.......Ten of the Worst

Well we have had a look at 10 of the best so it is only fair that we look at 10 of the worst.

Worst Home Game
There are a few to choose from. ,Curzon hurt, Rossendale was simply embarrassing and Bamber was a let down. However, none of these top the debacle of losing at home to Woodley sports at a crucial point in the season, it was simply pants.

Worst Away Game
There are even more to choose from here! Lets cut to the chase - Harrogate Railway in the league was a totally gutless performance against shocking opponents. On top of this it was in front of a massive away following who had bothered to venture out on cold, cold winters day at the end of the festive season. It felt like Town were disprespecting us.

Worst Player to Wear a Town Shirt
I can't actually remember all the ones who have had the pleasure over the past few months but right at the start we were so desparate to field a team that we went far lower than we should have done in the search for players. The easily forgotten Dorryl Proffit stands out, a nice guy by all accounts and someone with fine history that had seen him play at Man City & star for England youth. In his brief stint with us he didn't beat a man or put a cross in - major failings for a winger.

Worst Ground: Alsager was pretty ropey but that was preseason and they were doing us a favour. Lets get back to the mighty Unibond, I'd go for Warrington, totally appalling in every way. It was never good even when it was first built.

Worst Tackle: Too many to mention but Ossett Albion certainly delivered the highest proportion of of appalling challenges per game.

Worst Food: Well I couldn't eat at Harrogate on New Years Day because the 'catering manager' at the posh end of Yorkshire under ordered the pies and everything else. Ten minutes in it was Kit Kats or nothing. Similarly, I gave up trying at Rossendale. Tin pot!

Worst Manager (not including ours): The obvious target here is Simon Clifford of Garforth Town. He remains the strongest example I have seen yet of a person who's self belief spectacularly exceeds their ability, he is a total fantasist, a supreme Walter Mitty. He was supposed to be taking over Newcastle.....like they really need him now.

Worst Referee: This is a lot easier than finding the best one! I don't want to mention the name of this one incase I inflame 'matters' further. We all know who it was, Easter, a small town near Wakefield - in three decades of watching football I have never seen an official as bad as this. There is no excuse and there is no reason for him to ever take the field again. He will also cost us in some way. Disgusting.

Most Annoying Aspect of our First Season: Injuries, plastic pitches, split dressing rooms.............None of the above, just the fact that we should have been much, much better than we were. We will be.

Worst Opposing Supporters: What opposing supporters?

Ten of the Best

It's been a season of firsts for FCHT, I thought I would take a moment to pull out a top 10 from the long list of happenings.



Game: Bamber Bridge away, total dominance against a team who 8 weeks earlier had spoilt our big day. Revenge at a coasting and convincing 5-2 was very sweet.

Player:Tom Baker got all the votes in every poll, but even he had his ups and downs. How do you pick out a player from a team who never never really settled?

Goal: Gedders at Ratcliffe was a great team goal with a lovely finish, gets my vote.

Comeback: There weren't really that many to speak of! Newcastle Blue Star at home stands out but it has to go to Garforth away because it was night we came to life.

Free Kick: Tom Baker at home to NBS, made it look so easy and it felt very nice at the time.

Ground: Well that's toughie! Curzon is better than many in the Conference and supported by an on site bakers, decent car park and a proper welcome.

Day Out: Durham, like Newcastle but nice. Great performance too, we deserved all 3 points, but what the hey.

Best Song: We are JimVinceable (proved to be a factually inaccurate ditty)

Best Food: Alfreton Town away in preseason, they did this belly buster type thing that took up a whole catering size tray and included pie chips, gravy, peas and possibly some sort of mixed grill. Jemmo had one whilst he was waiting for the team to arrive (true I saw him), he mustn't have had his tea that day.

Best Referee: The one at home against Trafford, at least he created a moment of true Mickey Mouse comedy by forcing somebody from the crowd to take over.

Bored with Boards

It seems ages now since the FCHT official message went down due to technical difficulties – its almost like waiting for an update on ShaymenOnline (or should that be off line). Its been clear for some time that the club were uncomfortable with the existence of free expression being directly connected with them.

Whilst this feels wrong you can sort of (only sort of) see their point of view. The Punibond seem to hate us and are always on the look out for a reason to have a go – criticism of them on the board wasn't ever welcome and remember the Youtube debacle? Also, too many posters simply made things up, possibly leading to accusations of libel (although very unlikely). And of course some of the content was simply damaging and demotivating for the sake of it. In short, it is easy to see why the club would struggle to see it as a great PR vehicle and why up to its withdrawal content was regularly being removed. Strange though how so many other clubs around the country manage online communities without the need for such fuss.

Ossett away was the final straw, with with the club set to face a charge from the FA after fans intervened at the end of the game following a appalling display by the referee. Not wanting to worsen the situation, the board was pulled as a protective measure shortly after the game to stop the FA collecting ammunition in the form of continued abuse of the referee.

This leaves us with the unofficial board to post on at theshaymen.net. It's fair to say there was always some tension between this board and the official one, each community suggesting it was more relevant than the other and with the phrase 'kiddies board' being tediously overused. In theory the independent board does offer the poster more freedom to say what they feel and has no need to tow the party line. However, like the official board it too has recently had to resort to censorship following a trickle of dodgy posts from supposed rugby league fans – a mildly amusing outcome in light of the fact that this community had scorned restricting content up to that point, pot and kettle perhaps?

It does seem we are missing something right now in the midst of all of this with one board down and another hardly eager to bring refugees in. Its all a bit banterless. I wish we just had one good place to go on the net that we all felt welcome on and could exchange & develop ideas. I won't hold my breath.

08/09 Season Review - Part 1

To use the most overused of clichés, it has been a real rollercoaster ride this season down at the Shay. FC Halifax Town’s first season has seen them go from extremely bad, to decent, to average to worse than extremely bad. In amongst, the club, in keeping with its previous incarnation, has sacked its first manager just 8 months into a 2 year ‘plan’ and the first chapter ends without success - so familiar is this route, we fans could have written the script.

The club’s first challenge was to put to put a team out in time for the start of the Unibond season. This was achieved but to be fair, FCHT were only there in spirit. This was perhaps the first indicator that our management team of Jim Vince and Nigel Jemson had only a small network of contacts from which to pull favours. The reality hit home on with an uncoordinated, clueless performance that ended in a 3-0 defeat at the Shay against Bamber Bridge. Brigg were the first of many teams to come to Halifax and treat it like a cup final, not used to playing in proper stadiums on proper pitches with paying guests watching, over-celebrating like real footballers when they scored a goal.

That first month saw Town take just 4 points from 12 and draw at home in the FA cup to Silsden (a village near Keighley). September started with another defeat, this time a 3-1 mauling at Mossley who were made to look like Brazil by our weary bunch. Things then started to improve a little and the month ended with 6 wins from 8 games, however, only 2 of the victories were in the league and despite the record looking good on paper, the performances were neither entertaining nor convincing.

October was our turning point, both on the field and the terraces. Somehow one night in Gartforth a floppy haired football fop called Simon Clifford accidentally managed to unite us all together for the first time. The ex school teacher turned entrepreneur did everything in his power to niggle the supporters, players and officials of Halifax. He taunted Jim Vince, instructed his players to kick lumps out of Town (picking up a total of 6 bookings) and even pretended to have run out of footballs at one point. I don’t know to this day why he chose the route he did, although I would guess there may have been an element of jealousy in there somewhere, Here was this group of pretenders taking over his manor, more fans, better players and more potential - in short, something his money couldn’t buy.

That night Town started badly and when in the 83rd minute they found themselves 2 goals down and with little to offer in response, defeat seemed inevitable. Indeed, those less faithful fans had started to leave (more fool them). In that last 7 minutes something clicked and first up stepped Junior Brown, powerfully heading home a Damian Allen corner. Brown then linked with Chris King nodded the ball home through a crowded penalty area.

The buzz started as fans left the ground buoyed by the fact that Clifford, despite all his antics, had failed to get one over on us. At the same time, names like Phelan, Brown, Daniel, Meadowcroft, Allen and Coo, were starting to look like they were glad to be part of our mini revolution.

Has Jemmo Actually Gone?

Since the appointment of Neil Aspin as new Town manager, we are yet to have word regarding his choice of assistant. At the same time, unless I have missed something, there doesn't seem to have been any statement from the club regarding last season's coach, Nigel Jemson. We all seem to understand that he has left, but are we 100% sure?

His brief managerial stint seems to have sealed his fate. With a play-off place still possible his leadership bagged us 3 points from a possible 12 as the season died a death – 6 from 12 (requiring a win against Curzon) could have earned us a crack at promotion.

Add that young Nige seems to have been the butt of accusations and damaging hearsay for sometime now. Ridiculed for kissing the club badge, many fans believe that he contributed to a split the dressing room -with unconfirmed rumours from various sources driving the speculation. But that is all it is, speculation.

Despite the absence of hard facts, fan opinion was united in rejecting Jemmo as a candidate to replace Vince on a full time basis. Sifting through a collection of Messageboard polls and postings, its hard to find a single comment in favour of Nigel. His case wasn't helped by his eagerness to rubbish the team in his small run of post match comments. His words included such gems (no pun intended) as ' I've had to work with my hands tied behind my back and I've got a group of players that aren't mine' and 'I want to play football the right way and the lads here aren't used to that.' These statements don't feel like the words of a leader, or indeed, a person who we would want to be connected to our club again.

The thing we do know is that Jemson was part of something that failed in some way. On the pitch things were not right for some time. He was the coach. These are facts. Lets hope that the assumption he won't be back is a correct one – besides, Neil Aspin looks a lot harder than JV.

What's the Story - Moron Glory?

The 2008/09 season was a successful one for a a trio of North East non league teams, with Durham, Newcastle Blue Star and Gateshead all claiming promotion. However, in the case of two of these, one has to ask – will promotion come at a higher price than they first thought?

Durham appear to be the sensible ones from the group – winning the Unibond with ease using a squad made up of local lads that have had continued success in recent seasons without the slightest whiff of any spending. Whether their happy band will cut the mustard at the next level remains to be seen, but what ever happens 'the boys done good'.

There was a complete contrast up at Kingston Park, home of grass viruses and posh rugby. Here Newcastle Blue Star spent the season building a financial time bomb. It was always obvious that their few dozen fans couldn't pay for a squad made of decent ex league players in addition to the cost of travelling 100+ miles every other weekend. OK, they may have looked like the best team in the league but this was real fur coat and no knickers stuff.

At the centre of it was a 'credible' chairman Bob Morton and his mate Dave Thompson, both fully committed to putting NBS on the football map, yeah right. Now they have shuffled away and a row over a £65,000 grant looks set to to kill the club off. The grant feels like a bit of a red herring, it was obvious on the first day of the season that this club was built on sand and would be lucky to make it to the end of the campaign. It may have been an enjoyable ride for the NBS die hards, but sadly for them it may leave them with nothing – and we all know how that feels.

Near neighbours Gateshead look to have bought a similar sort of promotion. Their chairman, 64 year old Graham Wood, previously head honcho at Sunderland, is ready to take Gateshead back to their, erm... 'glory days'. With 2 successive promotions since he arrived, a new 6,000 capacity stadium is being planned. But how have they done it? Gate money? Your having a laugh! They have already gone bust once back in 1973, you'd think they would know better really.

The Conference ditched their salary cap fiasco, however, the scheme may return soon and be accompanied by a rule seeing clubs who go into administration being rewarded with automatic relegation. It feels like time for caution, with core attendances of between three and four hundred they simply don't have enough fans to keep a club alive at the top of the non league. Mind you there does seem to be a pattern recently of whipping boys being promoted up to highest point of the pyramid, a bit like the football equivalent of day trippers (cue St Albans, Stafford, Lewes etc.)

One senses that the 300 or so hardcore supporters will still be their long after Graham's cash has gone back into his purse. Wonder what his motivation is, he made his money making central heating boilers, perhaps he has friends in the building trade? I know a story like that one, but lets not go there! We hope for the sake of the fans that this one doesn't end in another football fatality.

We're Still Here

For us supporters it has been a frustratingly addictive season. So much so that nearly 1,200 of us have ‘kept the faith’ throughout the peaks and troughs. If there is a success story in FCHT’s first season it is this. To know that this loyalty exists, that this passion continues to be there against all the odds, to know above all that you can‘t knock a good man down. The last 50 years of the club has seen little in the way of success but much in the way of failure - perhaps to the extent that we could even describe it as spectacular.

After the final insult that saw the house of cards collapse and club old expire one would have thought that even the die hards might have died. But for some reason and despite all that common sense tells us, this team are regularly capable of stirring up such emotions and energy beyond almost anything else in our lives. It shouldn’t be that way but it is. Sure, as we go into 2009/10 a few will tail off but most of us will stay and with that bunch I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder, proud to be a Shayman.