Denied FC

Swallownest  1  Armthorpe Welfare  1

Northern Counties East League – First Division

It was Tuesday morning and I was sat on the sofa sipping on a cup of coffee before setting off for work.

The time was 6.50am and I was already thinking ahead about football that evening, I had a few messy bits and pieces to get through at work but to be honest I was looking for something to take my mind off of that, so letting my thoughts drift towards Swallownest was not a bad thing to be doing at that point in time.

Since I’ve been writing my blog I’ve always tried to keep an open mind about the angle I take in terms of writing a story about a football club, but from time to time I'll go to a game with something of a pre-determined agenda, because there is already a story I want to tell, irrespective of what happens on the field when I arrive.

The Business End

I’d not really got any pre-conceived ideas about Swallownest, I’d been a few times before when they were a County Senior League, but otherwise I was struggling for inspiration and was hoping something would hit me later that evening.

As I turned to leave the coffee mug on the mat next to the bookshelf, my eyes caught a work that I bought some years ago now by esteemed writer and football historian Dave Twydall.

‘Denied FC’ the story of the clubs that had tried and failed over the years to gain access to the Football League, clubs like Altrincham, Bedford Town, Kettering Town and Chelmsford City to name but a few. The ‘closed shop’ approach adopted by Football League Chairmen up until the introduction of automatic promotion was staggering. Wigan Athletic and Wimbledon got in during the mid-seventies, while Hereford United also found their way in the early Seventies, but other than that the likes of Rochdale, Hartlepool United, Halifax Town and Crewe Alexandra were generally speaking safe, Barrow, Workington and Southport were not so lucky, the North West coastline was not a secure place to be.

The train of thought had begun, Swallownest had been on the receiving end of a few setbacks over recent seasons, and if being denied promotion was worthy of being included in a book, then theirs is a story to be told.

The Out Of Bounds Terracing

Swallownext Miners Welfare were a big club back in the Sixties and Seventies, a strong County League outfit playing behind the Welfare on Rotherham Road. As the pits closed and times got tough, the club dipped in both fortunes and status, but during the 2014-15 season they felt the time was right to move the club forward. Lights went up and an application was submitted to join the Northern Counties East League.

The ground grading took place and the club believed they had passed it, a move upwards looked inevitable, but then came the bombshell news that they had actually failed the grading. An appeal was heard but ultimately it was unsuccessful. A third place finish in the County League had been achieved in that season, but with restrictions on league positions being relaxed for the following season due to the need for more clubs to be promoted, it seemed all Swallownest (as they were now called, having dropped the Miners Welfare) needed to do was pass the grading.

They finished seventh in 2015-16, which was presumably fine, and they passed the ground grading. But when the Northern Counties East League constitution was revealed, they weren’t in it…..

From what I can gather, it was simply a case of the FA selecting other clubs ahead of them for promotion, on the basis they had received a significant number of applications from suitable clubs. Maybe league position did come into the equation after all, I can’t really say and whether Swallownest did find out the real reason I’m not sure, but from an outsider looking in it did seem a bit strange, surely if the FA needed more clubs at Step 6, they would have shuffled things around to accommodate them?

The Welfare In The Far Corner

Anyway, 2016-17 beckoned, still a County League club, had they got the desire to go for it again after two seasons of disappointment? On the field they certainly weren’t affected adversely, they went on to win it, but would they get the promotion that surely they deserved?

They did, and you could forgive the club for not shouting from the rooftops until the constitutions were unveiled, but, they were finally a Step 6 club.

Midweek games have been a bit scarce this season at the Miners Welfare, but with it being a mere five minutes from my nearest office, it was time to go and have a look at how both the ground and the team has developed.

The Miners Welfare building is an enormous place, with numerous spacious rooms, a legacy of the days when coal was King in this part of the Country. It still gets busy, but back in the day I can imagine the place was an absolute mass of activity as families gathered of a weekend after several grueling shifts by the patriarch.

The football ground is to the rear of the Welfare and is accessed via a smart turnstile block behind the goal that has been built since my last visit. To the right of this are the changing rooms, while to the left is a tea bar and a small area of covered terracing. Sadly, the old crumbling terraces of the Sixties and Seventies that run

along the Southern touchline is now out of bounds, as is the far goal. The only other area spectators can stand in is along the North touchline. The pitch is in excellent condition which is the norm with Miners Welfare’s, they do take pride in the playing surfaces.

Lush Surface

They’ve done the required work to get to Step 6 and clearly it’s a work in progress, but to move any further I suspect they’ll need to install more cover and seats.

On the field they sat in the bottom six of the table after a mixed start to the season which included a change of manager, while visiting Armthorpe Welfare sat in a mid-table berth. It was a very competitive game, one which the officials struggled with at times, albeit of their own making to be fair. The hosts took the lead in the 26^th minute when Alex Lill found the net, but within ten minutes Luke Williams used his pace to grab an equaliser for the away side.

The second half saw no further goals, but Swallownest will probably be the more disappointed side at gaining just a point after creating numerous chances on the back of good possession. The ball would neither fall right, or Welfare would manage to get something in the way of anything goal bound, it was one of those kind of nights.

A very decent crowd of 128 turned up though which is hugely encouraging for the club, and if they can harness that sort of support then that can only be a good thing going forward.

It’s been a long time coming for the club that refused to be denied, I reckon there could be a book in that somewhere……….

Under The Moon......