Perspective

Elton Vale  4  Moorside Rangers  2

Manchester Football League – First Division

It’s really hard to get my head around the fact I may well have just watched my last football game of the season, in March!

I may be wrong, and I hope I’m wrong, but in reality, unless the relenting leagues continue with their stance going into the midweek and next weekend, I’m afraid that could well be it.

Look, enough has been said, and, will continue to be said about who’s right and who’s wrong in this, but my view is simple. I don’t think the FA have been strong enough, by passing responsibility onto leagues to make decisions, but then again, if the league does decide to play having made an informed decision, then clubs should do so. 

The trouble by then allowing clubs to cancel games on health grounds turns it into a farce. I’m not saying a club would take advantage of the situation, but it did seem bizarre on Friday that a National League club announced, just around the time the competition was declaring games on, that they had four members of staff self-isolating, and they wanted the game they were playing in that evening calling off? More clubs followed suit and that is well documented.

Financial, that’s what it all boils down to. The National League and the Northern Premier League in my view have been put under pressure by certain clubs to allow games to take place, threatened maybe, whereby someone was going to have to pick up the tab for their contract players at a time when they were not getting any revenue. South Shields v FC United of Manchester for example, attracted over 3,000 on Saturday, and had the league called it off, I can imagine the conversations that would have taken place……

Anyway, it is what it is, us mere spectators and lovers of the game had got a very small window where we could make a choice, and I suspect the bulk of us did make the choice to attend a game, raised attendances across non-league football would suggest that. Was I not going to attend football on Saturday, on health grounds? No chance, if I could find a game I was going, and let’s be honest, Government advice is not suggesting, at this stage, we should do anything differently, sport in general has made that decision contrary to the health and science professionals.

So, had it all gone to plan, on Friday night I would have been in the North of Ireland, watching Derry City play Sligo Rovers, and then on Saturday I was going to be in Belfast watching Dundela take on Portadown. I chose on Thursday to cancel my trip because the games were called off, so it meant a Plan B.

The Manchester League and the Cheshire League’s were playing, and it did seem that unlike the more senior leagues, where the self isolation situation was then getting games called off despite it being ‘game on’, they were cracking on regardless. Maybe COVID 19 doesn’t impact below Step 6, but anyway……?

I had a few choices, but decided to plump for Elton Vale who were riding high in the First Division and looking a good bet for promotion to the top flight. By the time I made my decision I was a bit tight for time and didn’t arrive at the West of Bury location until fifteen minutes before kick off.

A team called Elton Fold joined the Manchester League in 1995, and by 2002 they had changed their name to Elton Vale. Over the years they’ve jumped between the leagues top two divisions, and as I say, this time around they look a good bet for getting back to the top flight, if of course we actually finish the season.

The ground is smart and tidy. Located down Elton Vale Road, the entrance to Elton Vale Sports Club takes you past the cricket ground on the right, and then just as the car park opens out in front of you, the large clubhouse is on the right hand side, with tennis courts set behind it.

The football pitch is at the end of the complex and sits on a plateau. It’s fully railed off with dugouts on either side, while the playing surface was in superb condition despite the heavy overnight rain. The areas around the pitch though were waterlogged, and you didn’t have to stand for long before you started to sink!

The clubhouse incorporated the dressing rooms, while the bar area was quite busy, with plenty of banter and gallows humour around the current crisis that engulfs the World.

I’m not sure how many Elton Vale get watching them every week, but I would have estimated the crowd was around the fifty mark, and that may well have been slightly higher than normal. Those that did turn up on a cold and wet day were treated to a very entertaining game of football.

The mid-table visitors took the lead in the first half, and for a period the high flying hosts were all at sea and could easily have conceded a second goal. However, Vale regained their composure and by half time they had flipped the score line on it’s head and went in with a 2-1 lead.

Vale got a third early in the second period but then Moorside rallied and pulled a goal back, putting the hosts under pressure, but a clear penalty for Vale last in the game sealed the points and saw them jump to the top of the table. For the record, Jack Alderson netted a brace for the hosts, while Adam Plimley and Declan Guy also netted. The Moorside goals came via Callum McNichol and Lewis Russell.

It was so weird driving back, no Sport on Five, no Classified Football Results, nothing. Selfishly, my thoughts turned to midweek, and next Saturday, would I be watching football? Can I make plans, can I look forward to the run in to the season? I have to be realistic and say ‘no’, and I know the health of the population is more important than any football match, of course it is and I get that, but at the same time, a big part of me feels very empty, and almost cheated. Surely it simply cannot end now, it would be like reading a book and then finding someone has ripped the last chapter out, it’s like someone taping over the final scenes of a film.

Null and void? Does that mean that what’s gone before is wiped from the record books? Did that amazing day watching Belper Town at Notts County in the FA Cup not happen? Did those Champions League games in Dortmund and Leverkusen not exist. Have I not completed the 92 after all?

Of course, they happened, and of course they will remain in the records, but the fact is, they may have all been for nothing, but that is no one’s fault.

It’s unprecedented, and in a couple of days we will know more, but right now, let’s just reflect on those chilling words of our Prime Minister on Thursday evening.

“Many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”

Maybe we all need a sense of perspective, even selfish old me, and maybe the FA will grow a pair on Monday and make a big decision, either way, because that's why they run the game, from top to bottom, to make big decisions. Don't pass the buck to the volunteers, that's simply not fair to ask people far less qualified and informed to make decisions that could impact upon lives.

That said, if anything is on, I'll be going............