Post by otleybard on Jul 21, 2008 18:18:04 GMT 1
Our Unibond Premier Rivals...
No. 7 FC UNITED OF MANCHESTER
The Facts:
Where they play: c/o Bury FC, Gigg Lane, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 9HR (44 miles from Nethermoor)
Admission 2008-09: £7.50, Concessions £5.00, Under-18s £2.00
When do we play them? Sat. November 15th at Nethermoor, Sat. January 31st at Gigg Lane
Final league position last season: Runners-up and Playoff Winners, Unibond Division One North
Odds at Coral’s: 14/1
Home Kit: Red Shirts with Red Collar and Cuffs, White Shorts
Change Kit: All Blue
Manager: Karl Marginson
Highest home / away attendance last season: 3,348 / 2,257
Lowest home / away attendance last season: 1,558 / 297
Average home / away attendance last season: 2,125 / 1,080
Home gate v Guiseley last season: N/A
Result at Gigg Lane: N/A
Result at Guiseley: N/A
Website: www.fc-utd.co.uk
Glossy and informative, but - whisper it - a little bit corporate and lacking in the essential Mancunian quirkiness that defines the club. A history section would have been useful.
Forum: www.fcumforum.org.uk
Wow. A membership that reflects the size of the support, and they all seem to have something to say. Excellent.
Last few games v Guiseley: None
News from the close season:
Nothing earth-shattering, unless you count the sale of last season’s strike force, Rory Patterson and Stuart Rudd, to their fellow promotees Avenue. Rather than forking out shedloads of cash like some of this year’s Premier teams, FCUM seem happy to rely on attracting talent from the Greater Manchester area and husbanding resources towards a ground of their own. Given their playing record so far, it’d take a brave man to say they’re wrong.
Who are we likely to recognize?
Nobody who’s played for us, and no one-last-payday famous ex-pros. Skipper Dave Chadwick played at Prescot, Simon Carden and Assistant Manager Phil Power were at Radcliffe and Rob Nugent spent some time at Ossett Town.
What we do think of them and/or how much do they annoy us?
An interesting one.
Since the abolition of the maximum wage, we are told, football has acquired a distinct line between the haves and have-nots. More recently another line has been drawn, between the wants and want-nots. Located somewhere about the halfway point of the Blue Square North and South, it separates those clubs who aspire to a place on the high-speed gravy train of the Premiership and Football League and those who are happy to plod along on the slow track, providing low-cost football, vicarious drama and social bonhomie to their local residents. Several clubs - often propelled by a well-heeled benefactor - have hoisted themselves above this line, and a fair proportion of them have overreached and toppled back.
Manchester United, of course, have always been near the top of the top section. Since the War, an alchemic combination of astute management, attractive football, star players, emotion and tragedy ensured they became the club of choice for perhaps millions all over the world. Quite a few people grew rich off the back of it, and quite a few more aspired to grow richer, until the fan on the (by now non-existent) terraces became at best a marketing unit and at worst a bloody nuisance.
That, then, was the background to the formation of Football Club United of Manchester. With the prototype example of AFC Wimbledon, a ‘fans’ team’ formed to continue the name and presence of their appropriated heroes, a group of staunch Man U supporters got together to recreate the heady ambience of the pre-prawn sandwich Old Trafford.
And they’ve done it. From their initial season in the lower reaches of the North-West Counties League to their arrival in the Unibond Premier alongside Bradford Park Avenue (destined, one suspects, to become their first serious enemies) they’ve been carried along on a wave of support previously unseen at those levels. One up for the little guys.
But of course it was never going to be that uncomplicated. As hordes of red-and-white clad fanatics descended on grounds one step above parks pitches, as games were moved, as treasurers celebrated an unexpected payday, and as their teams were more often than not rolled over, opposing fans’ views were varied. Okay, the FCUM crowd were in the main a friendly and high-spirited bunch and the cash was welcome, but it was difficult to avoid an air of condescension, of being seen merely as stepping-stones on the way to better things. The sort of attitude, in fact, that had made Manchester United, outside their fanbase, the most disliked club in the country before Roman Abramovich usurped the title.
So, to get back to the question at last, who knows. They’ll certainly bring useful funds and a frisson of excitement to Nethermoor, and I’m sure we’d all rather they won the League than Avenue. Let’s hope it’s a good game, that our fans are roused to offer comparable vocal support - and that we win it, of course!
Likely prospects this season:
Almost alone among the UPL’s newcomers, they seem to be talking down their chances, with the predominant expressions being ‘consolidation’ and ‘own ground’. If true, it’ll be a novel experience for those of their fans raised on a constant race for honours following either FCUM or post-1990 Man U. With their constitutionally-enshrined policy to avoid the excesses of the 21st-century football hierarchy, there’ll come a point where further progress would be unwelcome. Last season brought one flashpoint, when a clash with the Unibond over TV kick-off changes resulted in a fans’ boycott of their game at Curzon Ashton, and should they reach the Blue Square and the vicinity of ‘the second line’ others would undoubtedly follow. It could then become like those schoolyard games of attack-and-defence, where having won the ball all a defender can do is welly it as far as possible, and that would surely be unsatisfactory for all concerned. FCFCUM, anyone? One thing’s for certain: some high-profile afternoons and evenings are in store.
Our own Forum members’ views: add your own views, comments and predictions below...
Next: Yeadoner on Frickley Athletic
No. 7 FC UNITED OF MANCHESTER
The Facts:
Where they play: c/o Bury FC, Gigg Lane, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 9HR (44 miles from Nethermoor)
Admission 2008-09: £7.50, Concessions £5.00, Under-18s £2.00
When do we play them? Sat. November 15th at Nethermoor, Sat. January 31st at Gigg Lane
Final league position last season: Runners-up and Playoff Winners, Unibond Division One North
Odds at Coral’s: 14/1
Home Kit: Red Shirts with Red Collar and Cuffs, White Shorts
Change Kit: All Blue
Manager: Karl Marginson
Highest home / away attendance last season: 3,348 / 2,257
Lowest home / away attendance last season: 1,558 / 297
Average home / away attendance last season: 2,125 / 1,080
Home gate v Guiseley last season: N/A
Result at Gigg Lane: N/A
Result at Guiseley: N/A
Website: www.fc-utd.co.uk
Glossy and informative, but - whisper it - a little bit corporate and lacking in the essential Mancunian quirkiness that defines the club. A history section would have been useful.
Forum: www.fcumforum.org.uk
Wow. A membership that reflects the size of the support, and they all seem to have something to say. Excellent.
Last few games v Guiseley: None
News from the close season:
Nothing earth-shattering, unless you count the sale of last season’s strike force, Rory Patterson and Stuart Rudd, to their fellow promotees Avenue. Rather than forking out shedloads of cash like some of this year’s Premier teams, FCUM seem happy to rely on attracting talent from the Greater Manchester area and husbanding resources towards a ground of their own. Given their playing record so far, it’d take a brave man to say they’re wrong.
Who are we likely to recognize?
Nobody who’s played for us, and no one-last-payday famous ex-pros. Skipper Dave Chadwick played at Prescot, Simon Carden and Assistant Manager Phil Power were at Radcliffe and Rob Nugent spent some time at Ossett Town.
What we do think of them and/or how much do they annoy us?
An interesting one.
Since the abolition of the maximum wage, we are told, football has acquired a distinct line between the haves and have-nots. More recently another line has been drawn, between the wants and want-nots. Located somewhere about the halfway point of the Blue Square North and South, it separates those clubs who aspire to a place on the high-speed gravy train of the Premiership and Football League and those who are happy to plod along on the slow track, providing low-cost football, vicarious drama and social bonhomie to their local residents. Several clubs - often propelled by a well-heeled benefactor - have hoisted themselves above this line, and a fair proportion of them have overreached and toppled back.
Manchester United, of course, have always been near the top of the top section. Since the War, an alchemic combination of astute management, attractive football, star players, emotion and tragedy ensured they became the club of choice for perhaps millions all over the world. Quite a few people grew rich off the back of it, and quite a few more aspired to grow richer, until the fan on the (by now non-existent) terraces became at best a marketing unit and at worst a bloody nuisance.
That, then, was the background to the formation of Football Club United of Manchester. With the prototype example of AFC Wimbledon, a ‘fans’ team’ formed to continue the name and presence of their appropriated heroes, a group of staunch Man U supporters got together to recreate the heady ambience of the pre-prawn sandwich Old Trafford.
And they’ve done it. From their initial season in the lower reaches of the North-West Counties League to their arrival in the Unibond Premier alongside Bradford Park Avenue (destined, one suspects, to become their first serious enemies) they’ve been carried along on a wave of support previously unseen at those levels. One up for the little guys.
But of course it was never going to be that uncomplicated. As hordes of red-and-white clad fanatics descended on grounds one step above parks pitches, as games were moved, as treasurers celebrated an unexpected payday, and as their teams were more often than not rolled over, opposing fans’ views were varied. Okay, the FCUM crowd were in the main a friendly and high-spirited bunch and the cash was welcome, but it was difficult to avoid an air of condescension, of being seen merely as stepping-stones on the way to better things. The sort of attitude, in fact, that had made Manchester United, outside their fanbase, the most disliked club in the country before Roman Abramovich usurped the title.
So, to get back to the question at last, who knows. They’ll certainly bring useful funds and a frisson of excitement to Nethermoor, and I’m sure we’d all rather they won the League than Avenue. Let’s hope it’s a good game, that our fans are roused to offer comparable vocal support - and that we win it, of course!
Likely prospects this season:
Almost alone among the UPL’s newcomers, they seem to be talking down their chances, with the predominant expressions being ‘consolidation’ and ‘own ground’. If true, it’ll be a novel experience for those of their fans raised on a constant race for honours following either FCUM or post-1990 Man U. With their constitutionally-enshrined policy to avoid the excesses of the 21st-century football hierarchy, there’ll come a point where further progress would be unwelcome. Last season brought one flashpoint, when a clash with the Unibond over TV kick-off changes resulted in a fans’ boycott of their game at Curzon Ashton, and should they reach the Blue Square and the vicinity of ‘the second line’ others would undoubtedly follow. It could then become like those schoolyard games of attack-and-defence, where having won the ball all a defender can do is welly it as far as possible, and that would surely be unsatisfactory for all concerned. FCFCUM, anyone? One thing’s for certain: some high-profile afternoons and evenings are in store.
Our own Forum members’ views: add your own views, comments and predictions below...
Next: Yeadoner on Frickley Athletic