Stuart Rayner - Fans back at football, how badly we’ve missed them

If you live in Yorkshire, the chance of you having been to a football game with fans present anytime recently is pretty slim so I do not want to rub it in but I have to tell you, seeing them back is great.
Harrogate's Brendan Kiernan with Forest Green's Jordan Moore-Taylor i nfront of the Harrogate Town fans socially distanced after being  allowed back in their stadium following Covid-19 rules being relaxed. (Picture: Tony Johnson)Harrogate's Brendan Kiernan with Forest Green's Jordan Moore-Taylor i nfront of the Harrogate Town fans socially distanced after being  allowed back in their stadium following Covid-19 rules being relaxed. (Picture: Tony Johnson)
Harrogate's Brendan Kiernan with Forest Green's Jordan Moore-Taylor i nfront of the Harrogate Town fans socially distanced after being allowed back in their stadium following Covid-19 rules being relaxed. (Picture: Tony Johnson)

Since March I have covered 50 behind-closed-doors matches for The Yorkshire Post and Harrogate Town versus Forest Green Rovers on Saturday was a lot more fun.

There are lots of hoops journalists have to jump through to attend these matches, and working conditions inside the ground are far from ideal but that is just life at the moment. So many people have it so much worse we absolutely cannot complain.

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Although I consider myself lucky to have been able to watch any of these games in the flesh it is not proper football.

Still no fans for Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)Still no fans for Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)
Still no fans for Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

The professional game, particularly in England, feeds off the passion in the stands. Without it there is a hollowness not just to the atmosphere but the game, like a training ground match, not an occasion where three points, a place in the next round or sometimes a manager’s job is on the line.

It never felt weirder than when Harrogate played for the right to appear in the Football League for the first time, at Wembley in August. I think it was the fact the game was at football’s spiritual home rather than simply the vastness of the arena that made its emptiness feel wrong.

On Saturday there were only 410 supporters allowed into Wetherby Road for Harrogate’s Tier 2 League Two game, some sat down, others on the terraces, but all on one side of the ground. It was billed as a test event, and the hope is by the time of the next home game, capacity might be 800 or 850.

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You could see when Harrogate’s players came out to warm up what the applause they were greeted with meant to them. They made a point of going over to clap the fans back at full-time. Until March that was common practice.

The good old days...... 
Leeds United's Jack Harrison takes a corner in front of the Leeds fans against Middlesbrough last season (Picture: Tony Johnson)The good old days...... 
Leeds United's Jack Harrison takes a corner in front of the Leeds fans against Middlesbrough last season (Picture: Tony Johnson)
The good old days...... Leeds United's Jack Harrison takes a corner in front of the Leeds fans against Middlesbrough last season (Picture: Tony Johnson)

Although the quality was not the best, the game felt more meaningful, more intense for fans encouraging their team, berating opponents (“Get on with it!” as a Forest Green player went down trying to win a free-kick), officials and their own manager.

Even the groans of disappointment as moves broke down were heart-warming – an audible reminder that football, for all it pales into insignificance alongside Covid-19 and its associated problems, matters.

Harrogate lost but their performance was much improved. They went into the game low on confidence, high on injuries, as the scale of the step-up they are facing this season belatedly became apparent.

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Even watching games on the television was more enjoyable for the chants and songs echoing around vast stadia.

Some people need fake background crowd noise to enjoy televised football at the moment; I prefer it without but the authentic soundtrack was great to hear.

Inevitably it was not all perfect, thanks to a few morons at Millwall and Colchester United who booed players taking a knee to support anti-racism. Whatever the defences that it was a protest against the Marxist ideology of the Black Lives Matter movement, it reminded us racism is still a scourge in our game, like our society. Full marks to Millwall and the supporters who applauded Tuesday’s anti-racism gestures for making the best of a bad situation.

All things considered, the faff and cost of getting bums back on seats was well worth it.

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Hopefully when we get back to normality supporters are treated less like cash machines and wallpaper for television screens, more for the valuable part of football they are.

The game has missed them badly.

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