Postscript.....

‘Look I understand, Aldershot are back in the Football League. I know you are really pleased. But don’t you think I have suffered enough. Your trips, to goodness knows where, every Saturday. Business meetings in Carlisle on a Friday night. So, no. The ‘Clubcall’ board is not going up on the wall of our house. And no, it will not be erected at the entrance to our drive.’

‘Ok, what about developing a sculpture garden? I could tuck the board away somewhere discreet’, I ventured, knowing what would come next.

‘No.’

It’s funny how confident my wife can be on matters over which she has no knowledge whatsoever. An irresistible determination displayed by someone who has never been to a game of football.

And I wouldn’t say that Rugby was her passion, that is reserved for all things equestrian. But she has been to the odd game over the years. She was born in Leicester, so when the Tigers got to the European Cup Final in Cardiff a few years ago, I used a bit of influence and got tickets for her and Uncle Doug in the VIP block. I guess she knew all along that this was part of my master plan to get the ‘board’ up on the wall.

The loss of our Club in 1992 affected so many people. And when the last few bits and pieces were sold at auction, in the summer of that year, I was far away. With no interest in the sale, just getting on with a new life in Wales.

And isn’t it strange how the aftershock of an event, that took place just 18 days before we kicked off away to Burnley, in our last season in the Football League, can still be felt in our house today.

August 6 1991 was the day that links to the fledgling computer code for the www went world wide. And of course in no time at all eBay was born.

It seemed a bargain at the time. The old Clubcall board was a piece of Aldershot history that needed conserving. Just what I needed to add to my burgeoning collection of Shots memorabilia. Long gone the sadness over the loss of our club. The future was one wrapped up in optimism. Promotion came on top of promotion. Perhaps the return of League status could be achieved.

So without any thought of how I would get the board back to Wales from Aldershot, in my car. And without the courage to let my wife know what I had bought off eBay. The deal was done. The board was mine.

‘Can I have your car on Saturday?’, was never going to be a question answered with a simple, ‘Yes.‘ So I hired a big car and collected the sign before the next ‘home’ game.

To say that my wife was excited by my purchase would be a line that only the Government could utter in such circumstances. Truth and statement being linked only by the fact that the statement was untrue.

‘Put it in the cellar. It is too big. Too ugly. Too…..well just too football’. My wife seemed determined to conserve the sign for future generations by protecting it from the Welsh weather.

And in the cellar it has been for many years.

Aldershot Town FC Blue Square Premier - Champions 2008. ‘So to celebrate what about granting just temporary ‘consent’. For a few months of the year?’

‘No’.

Have I got old news for you......

Alistair Darling is an inspiration…….

I’ve been putting off writing this ‘end of season blog’ for weeks. ‘I will put some thoughts down after the play-off semis’, I pledged as we travelled back from Rushden, on April 26th. ‘No, perhaps I will wait until after the FA Trophy Final. No, why not hang on until we see who comes out on top in the battle of the also-rans. Yes, wait until after the Blue Square Premier Play-off Final.’

But then this morning Alistair delivered an infusion of adrenaline that resulted in a powerful feeling, similar to the one created by ‘the Scott Davies goal in the last minute at Torquay.’

All season we have ‘ignored the rest.’ So no more prevarication, here is my quick look back at the winners and losers from our championship winning year.

But I can’t start the review without first, putting Alistair to one side. After all it was his grey tones on Radio 4 this morning that got me going.

What a great idea. Borrow £2.7bn to give those on low and middle income an extra £120 this year.

Now I worry about Alistair. A trip to the cash point. Two cards in his wallet. He needs cash….£120, to buy a birthday present for his wife. One card says VISA Debit, the other VISA. Gosh, ‘I think one of these is a credit card. And if I use it, I will be paying off the interest for years’ Credit…Debit. ‘Oh, this is so confusing’, Alistair pauses, waiting for advice from Number 10, then uses his credit card.

Droylsden, Farsley and Stafford were poor sides that were never going to be good enough to compete with so many full-time teams, in the Conference. And as I wrote way back in September, after our 5v0 win, Northwich would be relegated ‘unless some miracle occurs between now and their last game….’ Dino Maamria, was appointed manager at the end of September 2007. Perhaps not a miracle worker….more an advocate of discipline and hard work.

The season came to a close with Altrincham, yet again, filling one of the relegation berths. Only to survive with the sad demise of Halifax Town. A situation that will only serve to remind Oxford Utd that it was a just a bit arrogant to write in their programme notes, ‘the thing is, Altrincham still are plucky non-leaguers, and last Saturday they were as plucky as a chicken on the run from Bernard Matthews.’ No doubt Oxford supporters will feel more at home in the comfortable surroundings of the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham and Field Mill, Mansfield…..in another season of non-league football.

Northern Rock, now they were massive winners. They mess up big time. And we all give them £50bn. Simple, and it makes Alistair’s £2.7bn tax give away look like sound economics.

Sir Menzies (Ming) Campbell went without any obvious aftershock and Peter Hain disappeared with a flurry of, ‘it’s absurd.’ Yes, I know that keeping track of political donations can be hard work. So, yes it is quite absurd to consider that a man who failed to keep tabs on £103,000 could be in any way involved in the management of a £50bn underwriting of Northern Rock.

Aldershot Town’s season started to take shape in September. A 1v1 draw at the Abbey Stadium, Cambridge, evidence for the first time of the ‘passion and pace’ that would lead to 31 victories and 101 points. ‘And the obvious difference between this season and the previous two…..all of the players want(ed) to play.’

Jack Dromey…..what a loser he turned out to be. I bet he felt so clever when he called Boris Johnson a ‘tufty toff from Eton’ at the Labour Party Conference. Now I haven’t seen Boris on the TV lately….perhaps the Mayor of London is a full-time job, Jack.

Torquay came to the Recreation Ground in August, hit long balls forward and won 3v0. Then in March 2008 the Shots went to Plainmoor and won 2v1. ‘The explosion of emotion in the away end powerful and beyond control. The silence on two sides of the ground, a shroud for the pain felt by 3500 Torquay supporters.’

Aldershot Town were going up as Champions……

A squad of young players bound together by a common and genuine desire to be successful. Power and pace nurtured so beautifully by the management team, proved to be just too good for the rest.

And the biggest winner this season? Now that is something for you to determine.

And as we all prepare for next season, we must promise to never forget the pain of 1992; perhaps ameliorating the thoughts with flashbacks of the welcome extended to all Shots supporters in so many social clubs across the country.

‘No Club has a ‘right’ to membership of the Football League. And our place, somewhere closer to the ‘top table’ has been achieved not by the outstanding goalkeeping of Nikki Bull or indeed the youthful exuberance of our young squad, but it has been achieved through the combined emotional power of so many people over the period 1992-2008.’

Not every game next season will be,’ another game …three points’, so be prepared to recall the power of our celebration when we lost to Shrewsbury in the 2004 Conference Play-off Final.

We have enjoyed 16 years of corporate growth, illuminated by promotion...promotion.…promotion…..promotion and promotion.

But I’m not ready to check the best route to Latvia, for a first round Intertoto Cup game against Skonto Riga….Bury will do me just fine, for now.

The point gained at Exeter, on April 15th 2008, just a moment in a lifetime of emotion.

A Shot from Wales is now on holiday……see you next season.