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March 10th 2010, the day that Farsley Celtic were finally disbanded after over one hundred years existance. It was also the same day that Chester City were wound up after 126 years. Recent years has seen the demise of several clubs such as Telford, Halifax and Scarborough, something is clearly wrong and needs to change. It is possible that Farsley might have been rescued from oblivion if the Administrators hadn't been so unreasonable charging ridiculously large fees. But the reason why Farsley have headed towards oblivion essentially stem from the spending money that was essentially predicated on a housing development that never happened, thanks mainly to the Leeds City Council planning committee, but also the credit crunch and subsequent slow down in the property industry.
I first got taken to watch Farsley Celtic by my father in the early-mid 1990s, mainly because it was far too expensive and poor value for money to go watch Leeds United, how times haven't changed. I remember very little about watching football in those days at Throstle Nest, it was more about going to the tea hut around the back of the stand and getting cones of greasy chips, bags of penny sweets and cans of pop. The shed behind the goal offered shelter from the windy conditions (it is always windy at Throstle Nest) and it had some wooden seats that were covered in dust, and terracing that was dust. When I got a bit older at Throstle Nest, I used to take great interest in the club shop, a portakabin full of about 10% merchandise and 90% programmes, where I occasionally bought bundles of programmes for a quid or so. When my friends and I were once at the Nest, we bought our form teacher a York City programme for his leaving present, as he was a long suffering fan of the Minster Men.
Going to Throstle Nest, watching such luminaries as Robbie Whellans, Calvin Allen, Steve Learoyd and Ian Blackstone became a part of life on cold mid-late '90s Saturday afternoons. Buying 10p mixes, early '90s football league programmes and watching Unibond First Division football, followed by three hours of warming up at home in front of the Brookside omnibus, Gladiators and Noel's House Party kind of sums up mid-1990s Saturdays for me.
I grew up in Horsforth and went to school in Menston and remember trying to whip up a bit of Farsley v Guiseley fervour, when the clubs played each other in the FA Cup Qualifying rounds (I think!). At the time, Guiseley had been in a division higher than Farsley for quite a few years, indeed Guiseley were very close to getting into the Conference in the early 90s, whilst Farsley languised in the bottom half of the Unibond First Division for many seasons in the 90s. The Farsley - Guiseley fervour worked to some extent as we went to a game and had fun in the way that boisterous 14 year olds do. No one else really came back for some more though.
Other games that excited people from school to go to were friendlies against our professional neighbours. One particular game that stands out is a visit of Bradford City, probably a year or two before they got promoted to the Premier League, with the Bantam's brazilian cult hero Edinho scoring and celebrating exuberantly. I remember a later visit of Bradford where Ashley Ward missed a penalty for them. Leeds visited a few times, probably around the time of their meteoric rise and fall, as did a Celtic XI (i.e. the Scottish Celtic).
One particular memory of watching the Celtic didn't involve any football at all. Myself and a couple of friends travelled to Morecambe on a wet autumn day for an FA Cup qualifying round (it may have been the final qualifying round, I can't remember) only for the game to be called off. Still, it was a great day out for as, as young 'uns, to have a day away from home and to travel on the player's coach.
At around the turn of the millennium, I remember a couple of occasions from the clubhouse at Throstle Nest. One of these was an end of season presentation evening, where Martin Haresign's trousers split. I also saw in the new millennium in the Throstle Nest club, as a fifteen year old.
Janus, the roman god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings (so wiki tells me) and known to me as the man with two heads, who we used to hear about in Primary School when it was January. We just needed some dude with two heads, with different faces, to take our mind off December and the God of December, Santa. Janus could also refer to the star of 'Game On' and later 'Eastenders' and not forgetting 'Up and Under' (bad film about Rugby League with Neil Morrissey in it), but she's not really referred to when talking about January.
As well as being the time of new beginnings, hence the boy Janus, January is also a time for abstinence and feeling sorry for one's self in the bleak mid-winter. This January I tried to give up alcohol (lasted 2 weeks), tried to diet (didn't last) and then in the last week of the month I have started a points based diet (Slimming World, it was free because of all the fat people in Wigan, the PCT send people off to lose weight). Despite thinking that watching some football games would help me get through this torrid month, I didn't and I'm now thinking that it is looking difficult to get my last five games in, I'll have to do a few Tuesday nighters because I'm always busy at weekends now!
I haven't given up and I will get to these five games and maybe more! The mighty Farsley Celtic may not have long left. The main backer has pulled out of the club, then came back again this week. This week it seems that the Celts are having a winding-up order served on their ass. The club's success in the Conference last year was bank-rolled with a view that some of their land would be sold for housing, as it happened the Council refused them planning permission (at committee, the qualified planning professional said yes) and then the housing market went tits up shortly after. It could end up like a smaller scale version of Ridsdale's fuck up at Elland Road, but lets hope not.
Last Tuesday, December 16th, Farsley drew their FA Trophy First Round game away at Burton Albion. When I saw the result in the paper on Wednesday, I was pleasantly surprised. I hadn't really given the game much thought until then, which either shows how poor a supporter of Farsley I am, or how far Farsley have come in the previous years, I'd rather go with the latter.
Now Farsley are playing in Blue Square North (Conference North), following a one season adventure in the Conference (or Blue Square Premier), I'm starting to regret not going to those away games in the Conference last season. I made it to two away games, Altrincham and Droylesden, that's one current Conference North team and one team who should be in the Conference North, but were lucky to escape.
I
missed local derbies away at recent ex-football league neighbours York and Halifax. The home game versus Halifax on Boxing Day was magnificent and saw a 3-0 win before 1,501 supporters. The result against York City was pretty poor but the experience of the game was stupendous. The largest crowd of the season (1,603) and the biggest away support I've ever seen down at the Nest, not only that, it was on the Television, with the huge trucks from Setanta Sports parked up behind the Shed. There was also a whole lot of West Yorkshire Police there and it was just quite surreal, when a couple of years earlier a clash with near-neighbours Ossett Town had yielded less than a tenth of that night's attendance. It is now sad to see that Halifax Town are no more and a reformed club are playing in a division below the mighty Ossett Town. (and I mean absolutely no disrespect to Ossett Town, I am just using them as a point of measurement on the football pyramid).
Speaking of points of measurement on the football pyramid, 1998/9 or 9 seasons before Farsley made the Conference, Farsley were five divisions below Oxford United and last season they played in the same league. I was disappointed to miss Farsley's 5-1 loss at the Kassam Stadium in April, the result was terrible yes, but a chance to see Farsley play a league game before 4,000 in a football league style stadium and a time in the season when Farsley still had a faint hope of staying up. I also missed the away victory at Torquay, Torquay who were in the football league a year before, also Farsley's last win of the season and when the Celts had a real hope of staying up (they lost the last six games after that).
So, what did I actually see then? Aside from the aforementioned Manchester away games and home local derbies, other highlights were beating Cambridge United at home, nearly giving run-away winners of the league Aldershot a good game at the Nest, seeing the bald eagle Jim Smith's Oxford side narrowly beat Farsley and the opening day of the season's victory over Stafford Rangers.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, Farsley held Burton away and face them tomorrow at the Nest (December 23rd). Burton are now 8 points clear at the top of the Conference, so what a good result for Farsley and the chance of the classic upset. Had this been two or three years ago I would have been coming home for Christmas 
early, but now I'm confident we can get a result and maybe I'll go watch the Celts take on Salisbury in the second round. The fact that I can probably count on one had the amount of times Farsley have been in the FA Trophy on one hand, still doesn't mean much to me, after last season's exploits.
If Farsley can have a strong second half to the season and get into the play-offs, it is unlikely that they will be as fortuitous to get promoted, but if they do it again, it won't be as special as the first time but I will make a much better effort to get to some away games. I should make more of an effort to get to games in Conference North, but I don't think it'll ever be the same!
pic 1: Farsley v Halifax on Boxing Day
pic 2: Farsley at the Kassam Stadium (from Oxford United site)
pic 3: Cambridge United at Throstle Nest (from Cambridge United site)
pic 4: Farsley v Aldershot
The first day of the intrepid adventure thrust itself upon me and I thrust myself upon the Moon Under Water, the Wigan Wetherspoons pub. I went to line my stomach ahead of the day's transpennine trip and because a Wetherspoons breakfast is always good when one is slightly hungover.
I didn't think that I endeared myself to the punters in there very well. Coffee and a vegetarian breakfast isn't exactly de rigueur, when everyone else is drinking pints at 9:20 in the morning, on their own. I stopped short of buying a 'quality' newspaper though, buying one later.
The train journey from Wigan to Leeds, via Piccadilly was largely uneventful apart from realising I'd left my glasses at home when I was halfway between Wigan and Hindley, getting molested by an Alsatian was another event. I then returned to my family home in Horsforth, before travelling by car to the ground. I'd like to think that this will be the last bit of car travel that any other visits to games will see, its more fun/challenging/interesting using public transport.
And so to the game and the mighty Throstle Nest. I find it hard to make observations about the Nest, cos I've been attending games there for about 15 years. From being an annoying 9 year old, to becoming a discernible football follower. There was both groups of people there and all kinds of people inbetween. I went to the game with my dad, his friend Stuart and my ladyfriend Sara. Sara has grown to accept that a day out at a non-league football game is a very romantic event. I also met Graham from my work who is a Stalybridge Celtic fan, he opted for the changing ends option so I didn't see him when the game was in place. We stood with a small enclave of Farsley fans by the half-way line and the cage from where the players emerge. Most of these blokes are aged 50 upwards, seem to have seen so much down at the Nest and have some excellent things to shout at the referee and opposition players, I think every non-league ground has such people.
Despite the deluge of rain that come the night before, the pitch was looking good and most of the game was played in sunshine. Observations on the opposition were that they were sponsered by a hand sanitizer (a festival essential) and their no.6 reminded me of Tony Adams, I think it was the haircut or perhaps the fact that my glasses were sat at home in Wigan. The Tony Adams bloke, took a knock in the eye in the first half, telling a Farsley fan it was an eyelash in his eye. Another highlight was Stalybridge's no.3 throwing a tantrum 'fuck off, its our ball ref!'. He got booked for that and also got the home fans giving him what for (me included).
Stalybridge's first goal, came from Farsley been at sixes and sevens but Andy Campbell leveled it a bit later. I was talking at the time and I was surprised to see how the goal was scored, I think it took some deflection or other. I suck at watching football. I read a description of Andy Campbell on an internet messageboard: 'that Ginner who played for Boro and fell out of the ugly tree hitting every branch on the way down', I did spot him from that description I must say. He may not be the most handsome bloke in the well, but he does kick some arse out on the park.
Our second half vantage point was from behind the goal, so my dad could sit down because of his new ankle. There's some strange seats behind the goal that are a legacy from meeting Conference Ground regs, although I think anyone over 4 foot tall would struggle to sit in the seats behind the front row. Another legacy from Farsley's conference spell last season is the segregation fence which separated the Farsley bootboys from the likes of York, Aldershot and Oxford fans.
One of the best things at Farsley is the tannoy man shouting 'GOOOOOAAALLLL' when the home team take the lead. This became 'GOOOOAALLL... WOOOAH...WHAT???', when Farsley had a potential late winner ruled out. Before that though, Walshaw put Farsley ahead after about 55 minutes, coolly slotting the ball under 'bridge's keeper. Stalybridge's equaliser came from a scramble and then their winner came at the death in controversial circumstances. Straight after the aforementioned ruled out goal, 'bridge's goal came from a free kick, which baffled the hoardes of Farsley fans behind the goal. Jubilant scenes amongst the healthy (in terms of amount, obviously) travelling support, not so much for the home fans, who's team are finding it difficult to readjust back down at this level.
I would normally write a conclusion here, but I can't find much to say about a ground I am so familiar with. Having said all that, pictures would have done the job better:
So, I have decided that this football season, I am going to watch a game at every level of the English Pyramid from the Premiership down to the lower echelons of the North West Counties/Northern/Northern Counties East League.
I currently live in Wigan, which for all its faults, is blessed with its proximity to teams at every level. I am also a Farsley Celtic fan and no stranger to the joys of non-league football. I've wanted to go to a shitload of football games and write about them since I read 'The Far Corner' by Harry Pearson, which is a rather great book. Pearson travels around the North East of England watching matches from the Northern League, all the way up to the Premier League, in 1993/4. Newcastle still had terracing at the Gallowgate end and Sunderland and Middlesbrough were rocking Roker and Ayresome respectively.
I am beginning my football adventure this saturday, at Farsley, which means adventure is a bit of a misnomer as I have been going to Throstle Nest for about 15 years! Also, I don't think I'll go to too many games in Yorkshire either. I'm planning to go to games when I've got nothing to do in Wigan on a saturday afternoon or tuesday night.
So, from Preston to Prescot, Wigan Athletic to Wigan Robin Park, Atherton Colleries to Atherton Laburnum Rovers... I'm gonna do this!
