You're No Fun Any More

Watching Glossop North End yesterday, and then the aftermath at the match and online, I was reminded of the line repeated often in an episode of the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus - 'You're no fun anymore'.

Everything seems so tense at Surrey Street at the moment, on and off the pitch. On the fans side of the barriers there is a displeasure with results that bubbles under the surface based (I think) on a resentment that no Glossop manager has ever had it so good, and on the playing surface a lack of confidence is hampering decision making and leading to mistakes & defeats, perhaps based on the pressure that comes from the knowledge that the club has never had it so good. For all parties there is a frustration that a squad that looks to have all the right components in theory to comfortably finish in the top ten of the league continues to under-perform as a collective.

This malaise sees the club turning in ever decreasing circles. The players get more tense and play more poorly, the crowd gets more tense and angry, the players sense this and get more tense....etcetera, etcetera.

I think maybe it's time we took a step back and realised that football is supposed to be fun. We've been hamstrung by what Steve Young & Terry Hincks achieved in their first two seasons. It's time we lowered our expectations. And I mean fans, management, directors...everyone. Let's start having fun on Saturday afternoons again.

The Hillmen had been for years a rag tag outfit living hand to mouth and Chris Nicholson's only brief when he was in charge was to keep us in the division, and he achieved this with aplomb, improving the side each season.

The one thing his sides had, as did the sides in the Young era until recently, was an amazing team spirit. They wanted to play for Glossop and they gave everything they had. It often wasn't enough, but we accepted that and appreciated the effort warmly.

I'm not saying that the current side isn't trying because they patently are. I just think there is spark of team spirit missing. Players seem less willing to trust their team mates, and instead try and do something themselves. Of course, if that comes off, brilliant, but eight times from ten it will fail, and the opposition have the ball back.

How do you get that magic mix? Well that is the million dollar question*. Maybe the fans, directors, management and players just need to all go out and get pissed together? We can make a start by not being so angry with everyone; the referee, the players, the manager, the fans, and start enjoying ourselves. There is plenty going on off the pitch to be happy about and we know that the squad and the manager has the talent to mould a winning side - they've proved it. Maybe if we were all a little less uptight it might come naturally. And maybe, given recent events at Rossendale & Alsager we should be glad to have a club at all. Or as Python also said - 'Look on the Bright Side of Life'.











* - OK, so I can't get away with it so easily. We all have an opinion about how things on the pitch could be better and for what it's worth, which is probably not a lot, here's mine.

In 2008-09 we had a brilliant team playing 4-5-1. And all the time they were succeeding, we were thinking 'what if we had a proper big lad up front who was a natural goalscoring centre forward - how good would we be then?'. Now we've got one in Garry, we've not tried 4-5-1 and I'd give that a go.

But what do I know?