Attack of the Red Squirrels

Bath City lost to Thurrock 3-1 on Saturday. After nearly a month without any matches at all, I suppose I should just be thankful that the season is back underway. That would be a lie, of course. It's impossible for a loss to be preferable to anything else.

The match was almost postponed in fact. It snowed here in England a few days before the match, and although the weather was warming and rain was on the way, there was still some doubt about whether or not the match would be thawed yet. Reportedly, Thurrock contacted Bath City two days before the match to suggest the match be postponed until the following Tuesday. The proposal was thankfully declined (the City players are part-time, so they need more notice to clear their schedules, and also Thurrock is a long way away for an evening match). Rather bizarrely, the next morning the Thurrock website sported a moving banner declaring that the pitch had passed an inspection and the match was on. Although this volte face had a whiff of gamesmanship, it is more likely the run-of-the-mill administrative chaos that one comes across regularly when following a non-league club (I mean, all clubs except Bath City).

Once the game was definitely going ahead, the question in everyone's mind was, 'would three weeks off have a detrimental effect on the performance of the City Boys?' Adie Britton did not mention this in his post match interview, but I can't help but suspect it did.

The reason I say that is this: against Thurrock, City played very well for most of the match. Some observers have said that except for a ten minutes spell in the first half City were arguably the better side. The problem was that City allowed Thurrock to score three times in that ten minutes. After this, even though the game was almost beyond reach, City fought bravely. They managed to get a goal back on a penalty from Kaid Mohamed in the closing minutes of the match.

Other than a few details, this is almost the same story as what happened to City earlier in the year on another trip to Essex. This was at Chelmsford, where City started strong for ten minutes before allowing four goals in fifteen minutes. Despite the overwhelming odds against a successful fight back, City fought back anyway. They went into the half 4-2, and managed a third in the second half before, rather tragically it seemed, finishing the game with no points. This was the first match of the season. The Thurrock match wasn't the first match of the season, of course, but after such a long break it sort of felt like it.

The parallels between the two matches are not exact. The goals allowed in the Chelmsford match were mostly the fault of on-loan keeper Will Puddy. The three goals against Thurrock were all for different reasons. The goals in both games were still down to a short period of defensive collapse, for whatever reason.

I suppose I should be really worried about the rest of the season now. I'm not, though. It may not be rational, but I'm going to just ignore that result come Saturday when I will be going to Twerton to see City take on Bishop's Stortford.

I wish I could just ignore Thurrock altogether, to be honest. That's not just because they are a team that for no fathomable reason City don't seem to be able to beat. They are a manifestation of a strange and rather unpleasant phenomenon in non-league football: clubs with no supporters.

Okay, I'm being harsh. There are some Thurrock supporters. Their supporters are not like the Loch Ness Monster, or Bigfoot where you wonder if they exist at all. No, instead they are like the British red squirrel: rare, and easily to overestimate in number. Although the published attendance for Saturday's match was 275, Bath City supporters report that there were at most 175 in attendance. The difference in the two figures is possible explained by counting season ticket holders who did not come (or maybe counting the passengers in any planes that overflew the match on the way to London City Airport?).

Seeing as how Bath City only draw around 600 spectators (600 actual, live, breathing human beings) at Twerton Park, I'm in no position to get cocky about crowd size. What I can say, with confidence, is that Thurrock's average attendance of 326 is not enough to sustain a club at this level of non-league football (especially when it appears the genuine attendance average may be much lower).

Despite the lack of a mass following, Thurrock appear to be flush with cash. The cash, apparently, is being flushed down from the chairman, local businessman, Tommy South. After selling the adjacent Thurrock Hotel in 2007 he devoted himself (and his wallet) to running his club full-time. He's been fairly successful at it, considering that Thurrock did not even exist until 1985. To have reached step-2 of the non-league pyramid is pretty impressive.

It's not very nice, though, for the other clubs in step-2. It means that there are fewer away fans to come to your home matches. It means an away match with very little atmosphere. Tiny attendance figures also make the whole league look more, well, non-league.

I don't blame Mr South for spending his money as he sees fit. I do wonder why on earth he does it. If it is legitimate to ask if a tree falling in an empty forest makes a sound, it is fair to ask a similar question about Thurrock. If Thurrock win the league, who will celebrate the victory? It's not like there aren't a hundred well-established non-league clubs in the London area crying out for investment. Clubs where Mr South would be feted as a hero by more people than can fit into a phone booth.

Still, it appears to suit Mr South's fancy for Thurrock to punch well above the weight of its support. Step-2 is a curious level, where tiny chairman-financed clubs like Thurrock and Weston-super-Mare rub along with relatively huge clubs like Woking and Newport County. In an ideal world, Adie Britton and his team will put Saturday's defeat behind them and win promotion to the Conference National, and leave these red squirrels behind!