As I wonder what to write about for my first proper 90minutesonline article, I find myself clicking through the “Sports” feeds on my Google Reader for inspiration. It becomes apparent, however, that most stories are either too ugly, too fictional or too cricket to bother reporting on. That, and professional journalists have already beaten me to it.
And so I turn my attention to Altrincham FC, from the town in which I grew up. I’ve noticed in the last week that their start to this season’s Blue Square Premier (Conference to you and I) is rather better than usual. Ten points from their first four games, and second only on goal difference, may go some way towards avoiding the usual last-day escape from relegation.
I quickly learn two interesting facts: Alty fans drink Merlot, and this weekend their team are playing AFC Wimbledon at home. AFC Wimbledon, you’ll remember, were founded in 2002 by dissident fans when the old Wimbledon FC moved to Milton Keynes. Since then they’ve set about repeating the meteoric rise that made the original Wimbledon so special.
They started life in the Combined Counties league and in their seven years have moved up four divisions. This will be their first season appearing regularly on BBC Final Score, and so far they’ve made a pretty good fist of it. They lie three points from the top of the table, and are probably the first real test for Alty, none of whose previous opponents stand any higher than 14th.
Although I’ve never been a proper fan (Altrincham being in Trafford, I’m a Dirty Red) it would be nice to see them near the top of the Conference again. In fact they won the Alliance Premier League, as it was then known, in it’s first two ever seasons: 1979-80 and 1980-81, the latter just a few months before my birth.
Sadly, these were the days when the Football League was a closed shop, and entry was still by popularity contest. These two most successful seasons would prove the closest the club ever came to achieving league status.
In the 1996-97 season, after which I moved away, Alty’s then owner and main shirt sponsor, decided to give the fans an ultimatum: Buy the club off me, or I’m putting it into liquidation. There was a big (and ultimately successful) local campaign to find the money, but that wouldn’t stop them being relegated to the Northern Premier.
They’ve been up and down a couple of times since then, and have stayed in the Conference National division by the skin of their teeth the last four years. Far from being hard done to, they can count themselves extremely lucky - in three of those seasons they finished inside the relegation zone, only to be reprieved on each occasion by virtue of some other club’s administrative or financial foul-ups.
Two clubs with fascinating histories meet at Moss Lane, on Saturday 22nd August at 3pm. I’ll be paying attention.
*****
Spare a thought for Durham City AFC, of the Northern Premier, one division below the Conference North. Like Wimbledon, they have also been working their way up the divisions, but have recently hit a brick ceiling.
The Conference have told them in no uncertain terms that their artificial playing surface would not be welcome should they finish in a promotion place this season. As a result their main sponsors have walked and, faced with the prospect of financial disaster, the club have made their entire squad available for transfer.
If you live in the Durham area, and you’re pretty handy with a pig’s bladder, I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.