Non-League Day: Frickley Athletic's community character the cure for football's commercialism

Protests against owners feel more frequent, and anti-Sky Sports chants have soundtracked kick-offs which have been all over the place – Sheffield United and Bradford City sent to Plymouth Argyle and Swindon Town for 12.30pm Saturday kick-offs, Leeds United in Portsmouth at noon on a Sunday to name but three. It has been the first season of European competitions so bloated as to be morbidly obese, and a Football League TV deal which has sold out match-going supporters to armchair fans.

There is an alternative, and Saturday's Non-League Day is here to showcase it. Set up as a social media experiment in 2010, it encourages fans to explore a local ground (or two) whilst Leeds, Sheffields United and Wednesday, Hull City, Middlesbrough, Huddersfield Town, Rotherham United and Doncaster Rovers are all off.

Frickley Athletic cordially invite you to their North Counties East Premier League game against Parkgate. It starts at 12.30pm, not to suit television, but to give fans a chance to get another game in at 3pm.

If you pay your £5 (£3 concessions, £1 under-16s), the chances are you will meet Ella and Josh, Chris, Michael and Alex, Neil and nine-year-old Travis, just some of those who keep the 117-year-old club going.

Travis' dad, interim chairman Phil Cooper, would certainly like to chat to you.

This is football stripped back, swapping technical ability – the only clubs below Frickley are the two who have already been relegated – for a sense of community impossible for clubs as big as Leeds, the Sheffield giants or League Two Bradford.

“I'm a Barnsley fan,” explains Phil. “My first game at Oakwell I was six months-old when my dad took me but I am so discontented with professional football at the moment it's unbelievable. I'd rather watch Frickley and take my nine-year-old.

“He enjoys watching Frickley more than Barnsley. His words to me were: 'Professional football's boring.' You sit in your seat for 90 minutes, then go.

“He disappears at 12 o'clock and the only time I see him again until six is if he wants some money for a drink or he's hungry. He's playing with other kids, walking around talking to supporters.

“We have a director's box but I choose not to sit in it. I'd rather walk around the ground and speak to supporters. If anyone asks us questions, we're honest.

“We've got a good core of Leeds United fans who will come when Leeds United are not playing. The bonus for us is Leeds very rarely play on a Saturday at three o'clock.

“A lot of Barnsley fans I've known for years who followed them home and away come to our games now. I've got a good friend who'd not missed a game for 15, 20 years but now I see him rocking up at Frickley when Barnsley are playing Northampton away or Bristol Rovers away because he's sick of travelling to watch them get beaten.”

They could not survive without them. Frickley made it through Covid-19, now the cost of living crisis is giving them a kicking.

“Our utility bills have more than quadrupled and you can't quadruple gate prices,” says Phil.

“You try to keep prices reasonable but the price of beer's going up, gas and electricity, insurance is sky high.

“With the Premier League Stadium Fund and the Football Foundation there's some really good funding options to improve your facilities.

"We're going through the process now to have our floodlights changed from the old-style bulbs to LED but as a small football club with no multi-millionaire pumping money into it, everything that comes in is through sponsorship, gate receipts, shirt sales and the like.

“We only get 70 per cent of the cost in grants. I think there should be some leniency for smaller clubs improving facilities, grants knocking on 90-95 per cent.

“If the club needs help, we put war cries out. Frickley's done it before when they've been struggling financially and the supporters have come up trumps.

“Three supporters (Chris Medwell, Michael Holmes and Alex Hewitt) walked from our ground to Goole when we played Goole away to raise money for the floodlights. We need to raise £7,500.

“We have a family who started coming to watch probably last year. They're all over supporting the football club, Ella and Josh. Ella and her mum did a bake sale which raised £220 for the club. It doesn't sound a lot but for us it's a massive amount.”

Even Travis plays his part.

“He does his own raffles sometimes,” says Phil, proudly. “A couple of years ago a player broke his leg and my lad went out of his way to create a little poster to raise money for him. He raised about £200.”

When you are dealing with numbers like that, attendances really matter.

“We're 10 per cent down year on year, averaging 195,” explains Phil. “When we played Rossington during Storm Darragh in December we got just above 100, which kills our stats.

“We'd love to see a 400-plus crowd for Non-League Day. We're kicking off at 12.30pm because teams like Pontefract are kicking off at three o'clock so a few groundhoppers can go and watch us and get two games in the space of four or five hours.”

The hope is always that a casual visitor might fall in love like the Coopers did.

“Non-league football is very time-consuming for nothing,” says Phil. “Everybody apart from the players are volunteers.

“Neil Howden got groundsman of the year last year from the Sheffield FA. He's self-employed, he'll cut the pitch, run the bar, clear the lines. He'll work a full day then come at night to prepare the pitch for Saturday. He's phenomenal.

“On a normal Saturday most of the directors and volunteers arrive at 12 or one o'clock and won't leave until 7 or 7.30.

“I always wanted to get involved in a football club and I've always regarded Frickley as one of the biggest non-league clubs in the area. They're always on the tip of people's tongues when you mention non-league. If we can get it back on track and get the right people in, it can be a household name again within non-league. I didn't know what I was getting involved in. I just wanted to get involved in a football club and they were looking for a chairman.

“I spoke to the directors and told them I was 100 per cent not ready to be a chairman at a football club at non-league level because I didn't have a clue what I was doing. But I've learnt my trade for three years.

“Our outgoing chairman, Richard (Norman), stepped down in September and I took it over on an interim basis.”

For all the rough-and-readiness, there is a desire do things properly, from youth up.

“At this level there are a lot of loyal players but also a lot who will leave for another football club for £10 a week more even though it's 30 miles away and they have to go three times a week,” says Phil.

“But we've got a good core of local lads who live within the village – Zav Elkin Sheppard, Charlie Clegg and Lewis Binns, who's been helping out with the management since he did his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), a really good Under-23s and a really good standard youth section.

“There's going to be a really big focus on that next season, developing young talent to get them into our first team and hopefully progress them. Nothing would satisfy me more than getting an 18-year-old who's been with Frickley since he was nine or 10 playing for the first team and then them getting a move to Conference, Conference North, or even higher. That's our aim.

“Next season our Under-23s will be solely players registered to Frickley. At the minute we've got lads coming in from all over, which is not benefitting us. We're hoping to have two Under-18s and an Under-17s team, and a team in the FA Youth Cup. They will be the sole players for our Under-23s.

“The manager, Tom (Claisse, an ex-Bradford player), is very committed to it. He played for the Under-23s this week just to get a feel for the players in a game situation.

“If we can find that one gem and sell him on for a transfer fee, that could be massive.

“Look at the likes of Jack Shepherd, who Barnsley signed from Pontefract and is now on loan at Bradford. It shows there are players good enough, it's all about us nurturing them and giving them as much professionalism as we can at our level so if a higher club comes in, they're ready for it.”

You will find Phil and Travises, Neils, Josh and Ellas, Chris, Michael and Alexes at every non-league ground – not that it makes them any less special. If you are really lucky, you might find a Shepherd too.

If the pro game is starting to leave you cold, there will be a non-league club like Frickley keen to know your name this Saturday, and a community delighted to welcome another member.