Away from the bright lights...

Having been involved with my local team Forest Green Rovers for over a year now, I’ve become engrossed in the world of non-league football. From the high volume of transfer dealings that happen all the time, to the financial troubles clubs face on a daily basis, it’s more real and you learn so much about what the football industry is really about.

Over the last 12 months I’ve found myself reading everything I can about the plight of the clubs that sit lower on the football pyramid - whether it’s about Kettering Town and if they going to be in existence anymore or whether Gloucester City will ever move back to the city they came from. These are stories that affect people’s livelihoods up and down the country yet our sporting media is packed full of stories like Gary Cahill wanting 50k, 80k or 100k a week to play football for Chelsea - that is of little interest to me anymore. The big clubs have become marketing machines with millions of pounds being spent on each club year in year out. As a nation we have become obsessed with grand occasions like Champions League finals and players such as Rooney and Ronaldo gracing the hallowed turf at our favourite clubs.

Yet, if I stopped supporting my beloved Newcastle United tomorrow nothing would change. The club wouldn’t miss me, I won’t get a letter in the post asking where I’ve been and I’m sure they could deal with one less shirt sale a year.  Of course, having been through the ups and downs of relegation and promotion I’m not going to throw all that away and forget about them, I’ll continue to support them but perhaps on a lesser scale. Gone are the days where I’ll spend my free time rifling through waves of online transfer rumours for the latest news on the Magpies. I’d much rather read about Cromer Town’s battle with a deceased Norwegian King (check it out, it’s mental), I find it much more interesting.

Let’s bring things back to basics though – the football itself. There are loads of benefits to watching your local non-league team over the clubs at the top of the English game.

For a start, it’s a lot cheaper. Taking prices from a top team like Liverpool, the cheapest ticket to watch a class A match is £45. At my local club, FGR, that equates to 3 full paying adults which I think is a much better return for £45 in today's economy.

Also, you are much closer to the action. For your £45 at Anfield I imagine it may be easier to watch the match through binoculars. In comparison, at any non-league ground you can hear what the players are saying to each other, you can see the expressions on their faces when things go right and wrong and when you shout out encouragement, you feel like it actually makes a difference to the players on the pitch. The whole experience is completely different to standing with 40,000 other fans in a massive stadium where the spectacle can sometimes feel more like theatre than a game of football.

Away from the matches, the lower league clubs don’t just want your support, they need it.

We’ve recently seen Darlington FC falling foul to financial problems and going into administration; it’s anyone’s guess as to whether they will still be competing come the end of the season. Talks are on-going to see if anything can be salvaged but it seems like a plan that was always doomed to fail considering they can barely fill 10% of their multi million pound ground. However it raises a valid point. The population of Darlington is just under 100,000 and currently their average attendance is around 2000, so approximately 2% of the population. If they were able to push this up to 3 or 4% and potentially double their gate receipts this would make a massive difference to their survival chances and long term aims. Whereas in comparison an extra 2000 people watching a match at St James Park, sorry, the Sports Direct Arena (I’ll talk about that another time) would only line the pockets of Mike Ashley furthermore.

You may think that going to watch a non-league match won’t help. But it will. Not only is it a great (cheaper) day out than going to watch a Premiership game but the money from your match ticket and any refreshments or merchandise you buy will genuinely help clubs in leagues such as the Blue Square Premier and beyond keep the lights on and the doors open.

Every little helps.