Tag: Maidstone United
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Tales of a Non-League Chairman – part 2 – The away game
The welcome in the boardroom was warm. The lovely ladies who were looking after us, once I had managed to convince them I was chairman, quipped I must be the money man as I didn’t look like a former player. We were wined (well tea’d) and dined (biscuited) and then it was kick off time.…
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On the twelfth day of TBIR Christmas – The best things about football in 2014
I came very close to being in Brazil. Very close in an all-expenses paid trip to Sao Paolo to write about it, sort of way, but passed up the opportunity and Rookery Mike went instead. We haven’t spoken since. Due to my travelling schedule I spent nearly the whole of the tournament in various corners…
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A rolling Stone gathers all the moss
“I never thought of losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life. ” A quote that sums up the afternoon but not from Garry Wilson or Danny Bloor but from…
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The bigger they come, the harder they fall
Maidstone may be at home on their synthetic utopia at The Gallagher Stadium, but on the patched up Lewes pitch they struggled to impose their physical superiority against another hard working Rooks side. And for the second time in a row it was thanks to a goalkeeping blunder than gave us all three points. The…
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Artificial Intelligence
The ground was buzzing when I arrived at 2.15pm. The bar was rammed with people enjoying the Arsenal thrashing on the TV and the number of fans with various other club’s coats, hats and scarves suggested that once again this was the last cab on the Non-League rank. Whilst our cupboards have been bare for…
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Rain men
At full time, a huge cheer went up from the 70 or so Lewes fans congregated behind the goal. The torrential rain had left us soaked but our spirit wasn’t dampened. This was an excellent rear-guard performance from a team that is building in confidence in every game they play. Five games in and just…
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On the ninth day of TBIR Christmas – The best new ground visited
In 2012 we went to 45 new grounds (not new builds, but new to us) on our trek around the European leagues. Some were good, some were bad (see the fifth day for our worst three) and some were simply in the middle. But there were a few that were simply outstanding. These were ground…
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On the first day of TBIR Christmas – The best Non League Away Day
We love Non League Football here at TBIR Towers. It annoys me when commentators talk about “the beautiful game” when describing our sanitised, pampered Premier League game. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our beautiful game takes place in hundreds of grounds up and down far away from the Porsche’s, the WAGS and the…
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Twenty four years of hurt
For once it wasn’t about the result or the performance for Maidstone today – it was about enjoying the day. 2,226 fans went home happy from the Gallagher Stadium. For those supporting Brighton it was good to see the full squad kick off their pre-season with a comfortable win, and the circumstance of the occasion…
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Happiness is a warm blanket
In twenty years time my grandchildren will ask me about this day I am sure. The day that a new football club was reborn. And I can say I was there when history was made. This was no Liverpool/Everton Anfield situation, nor was it as groundshaking as how Inernazionale came to be wearing the Nerazzuri…
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Bring the Stones back home!
In the 2002 Only Fools and Horses episode, Strangers on the Shore, Denzil and Trigger are sitting in a lorry in France, waiting for Del and Rodney and are chatting about life and woman. Denzil asks Trigger about why he hasn’t got married. “I have always had this image of my perfect woman, my dream…
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A rolling stone has no home
In In the second week of December another football club in the non-leagues unfortunately bit the dust. Kings Lynn FC, formerly of the Northern Premier League simply could not cope in the modern world after their relegation last season from the Blue Square North and their one hundred year plus history was as irrelevant as…
The Ball is Round 