Why non-league football is thriving over lockdown

While the Premier League’s stadia sit empty, its matches played for cameras behind closed doors, the tiny London clubs at the other end of the football league are having a moment — and football-starved fans are flocking to their grounds in droves. James McMahon investigates a rare heartwarming tale in 2020
1/12
James McMahon8 October 2020

The goalposts are rusting. The painted advertising boards are peeling. The less said about the toilets the better.

But the tills on the gates of Wadham Lodge — a small football ground in Walthamstow, home to the district’s eponymously named non-league club — are chiming. Tonight the east London club host Maccabi London Lions FC, a side with Jewish heritage that hails from Chipping Barnet in north London. The two teams are competing in the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup. Thirteen games from Wembley, it’s a night to dream.

‘The club is in great shape at the moment,’ says chairman Andy Perkins, who tonight — as he does every match day and evening — is working the turnstiles and selling programmes. ‘Covid has been horrible for so many people. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to anyone who has lost someone or got ill, but…’ A pause, an awkward shuffle of the feet. ‘I can’t say that there hasn’t been some benefit to the club…’ He gestures to the swell of fans under the corrugated iron roof behind a goal. Then at the two small boys — both wearing Tottenham shirts — leaning expectantly over the pitch side wall. ‘We came back at the precise moment people couldn’t wait for football any longer.’

He’s not wrong. These are great days for Walthamstow FC, who compete in the Essex Senior League, step 5 of the National League System and nine steps below the Premier League. They’re great days for many of London’s non-league sides. While Premier League matches continue to be played in empty stadia and are viewable only on television — with bizarre, disorientating ambient crowd noise pumped in — at the bottom end of the football pyramid something remarkable is happening. Starved of live football, fans of bigger clubs are flocking to non-league grounds in their droves. Those two small Spurs fans can’t visit their team’s gleaming, 62,303 capacity stadium. But what they can do is attend Haringey Borough FC of the Isthmian Premier League at Coles Park a few hundred metres down the road.

Because clubs such as Walthamstow, Haringey Borough and many others, in contrast to their professional big brothers’ all-seater enormodomes, have grounds that are ideally suited to social distancing. Wadham Lodge could technically hold 3,500, but will rarely see anything close to that. Spectators stand or sit where they like around the perimeter of the pitch. Tonight sees 290 people through the gate. For context: last season, which ended abruptly and prematurely in March, Walthamstow’s average turnout was just 79 paying customers. Their lowest was 42. In other words the club’s attendance has more than tripled.

Ninety minutes later and Walthamstow have triumphed in a tight 3-2 victory over the visitors. Their fans, nicknamed ‘The Rabble’, break into a chorus of ‘Que Sera Sera’. They progress to the next round.

On 22 August this year, clubs at steps 3 to 6 of non-league — those below the National Leagues North and South — were given permission to fill up to 15 per cent of their stadia. It was concurrently decreed that clubs at steps 3 and 4 of the women’s game could do the same. On 31 August, this increased to 30 per cent. ‘It is a really positive step to get fans back at that level of football,’ the Football Association’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, said at the time. ‘We’d like to get fans back at all levels but for that level, it’s impossible to see it proceeding without fans, so it’s even more important.’

James Doe is the editor of The London Football Guide, which publishes a weekly interactive map showing where football can be seen across the capital. Sharing his allegiances with QPR and Harrow Borough, in 2010 he founded Non-League Day, which once a year attempts to drive fans of the big clubs to visit their local non-league side. He’s recently, reluctantly, cancelled this year’s event, though questions its relevance at the present time.

‘September has effectively been Non-League Month,’ he says. ‘Clubs from the seventh tier downwards will never have a better opportunity to get new people through the turnstiles. I took a Crystal Palace season-ticket holder to his first non-league game last weekend and he was very pleasantly impressed at the price. For admission, a pint and some snacks he paid around £12. At Palace he’d probably be looking at least £40 for the same package’.

He continues, ‘Non-league clubs are doing great work enforcing social distancing, doing temperature checks, taking your details for track and trace and keeping their grounds as hygienic as possible.’

Ffion Thomas is the assistant editor of When Saturday Comes magazine, which, since its origins in the football fanzine boom of the 1980s, has provided irreverent, sharp comment on the game. Thomas argues that Covid-19 has provided a new motivation for idle fans of clubs with shuttered gates to investigate their local non-league sides, but also that even when big stadia reopen, many may prefer to stay on the touchline of such clubs.

‘I think a lot of people feel detached from behind-closed-doors football right now,’ says Thomas, ‘and even when limited crowds return, the very different type of match-day experience — including the travel and pre-match pub situation — may not appeal to everyone. I think there’s a lot of confidence about going to watch non-league football at the moment.’ Thomas believes that it’s an opportunity to sell the benefits of the non-league experience compared with the Premier League. ‘Tickets are cheaper and you don’t have to jump through so many hoops to get them. You can be much closer to the action and, while the football is objectively of a lesser standard, an exciting game is still an exciting game’.

Matthew Badcock, editor-at-large of The Non-League Paper, warns we shouldn’t be getting too carried away. ‘Covid is having a huge negative effect on the non-league clubs that can’t allow fans in, and there are genuine fears for what the future may hold for many of them.’ Yet he concedes that the wide end of the football pyramid is making the most of a unique moment. ‘There’s a real appetite for what live football there is at a time when supporters can’t attend Premier League matches’.

The hope, says Badcock, is that they like what they see. That they’ll return and that new allegiances and habits will be forged. ‘The intimacy is attractive for many people. Non-League is a community,’ he says. ‘It feels like you’re part of something rather than on the outside looking in…’

Wadham Lodge, two weeks later; Walthamstow host Southend Manor. The attendance is 109 (and two dogs). Though gallant in attack, Walthamstow succumb to a 3-2 defeat. The attendance is a number that, at this point last season, would have seen anyone associated with the club doing cartwheels. ‘We have to keep going,’ says Walthamstow’s disappointed but energised chairman. ‘I want the very best for this club and the fans. I want the club to keep building…’

Many of London’s other non-league sides are hoping this opportune moment provides similar dividends.

Sport’s Covid Crisis: fans must be allowed back to elite sport or London’s communities will suffer. Follow our campaign at standard.co.uk/football

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT