‘The Joys of being a Non-League Fan’

The Hand of Blog's first guest contributor, David Richardson, describes the joys of being a non-league fan and amongst other things; why it is infinitely better than watching football on your TV. Follow him on Twitter @RiiCKO

Kingfield - Home of the Cards

I’ve been supporting my local non-league team, Woking, for 2 seasons now and when it comes to the weekend there is nothing I feel more excited about than watching the Cards (nickname originated from ‘The Cardinals’). It’s become an addiction, albeit possibly a good one (?). I’ve never really truly supported a football team before.  I say ‘supported’ by which I mean going every week, home and away to watch a team. I don’t consider people ‘supporters’ for seeing two games a year of their chosen team when, if they were honest, could attend a lot more . The WFC addiction has come about from playing for their ‘Centre of Excellence’. From then on I started going to some games and I was hooked on the drug that is non-league football. Anyway, that’s enough of my background; here are my favourite two ‘joys of being a non-league fan’…..

Personally, the main satisfaction of following Woking and the non-league as a whole is being a ‘regular’. By this I mean going every week, home and away, and seeing the same faces. The average attendance for Woking’s home games is around 1100. It’s the highest average in the Blue Square Bet South and being part of the 1100 WFC fans at home games and the 200-700 away following feels so special. I feel part of the club. Supporting the Manchester United’s, Chelsea’s and Arsenal’s is fine in my opinion and why shouldn’t it be? But do you really feel part of the club along with the other millions of fans worldwide? Can you go into the clubhouse after the game, have a beer, and speak to Carlo Ancelotti about the players, the reason behind the 4-2-1-3 formation and why that expensive striker still hasn’t scored? Well you can at Woking and at other non-league clubs and that’s why I feel part of my club.

The second joy of being a non-league fan is being able to say, “Yeah I support my local team”. The chances are that many of you non-league fans would have had the following conversation at some point:

"Which team do you support?"
"Woking"
"Woking? That's Non-league?"
"Yeah"
"Oh right, so which is your first team?"
"Woking"
"No, I mean Premier League?"
"Woking, I only support Woking"
"Really? Well that's good I suppose, sticking with your local side and all..."

And that’s what I like. A fair few of the football-conscious people I know don’t support their local team. They would rather sit in front of their SKY+ HD 3D super TV (AND ITS LIVE!) and watch their ‘team’ from 50 miles away. I believe that every supporter at non-league level really does love their club. They will sweat blood singing their hearts out for every single one of the 90 minutes on a cold January night at Chelmsford to see their team win 1-0 in the last minute. So if you’re ever bored of the live noon kick-off on SKY pop down to see your local team and you never know, you might even enjoy it!