Wilderspool Causeway

From the first Berkshire Youth Development League game (throwback here: https://wilderspoolcauseway.com/2015/09/12/woodleyzebras11we2/) where there was a ‘raw blend of hairstyles, philosophies and haircuts on the Wokingham side’ to the last, today at Prospect Park, there have been huge changes to the profile of the team – with only Evan and Connor remaining from that first game – but not so much to its identity. They still obdurately play the ball out from the back, along the floor. This has led to too many perilous defensive situations to recount, as time and time again the full backs find themselves under huge pressure when receiving the ball – but, unsurprisingly, they have therefore learned to deal with the ball under pressure. Other teams may launch the ball through the air, but have players who remain uncomfortable with the ball on the ground, which isn’t ideal when the game is called ‘football.’ As Brian Clough said: ‘If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put grass up there.’ 

Wokingham also still prioritise skill and quality of play over the final score. They therefore adhere to the current F.A. guidance that players should be encouraged to take risks, make mistakes, be creative and have time on the ball. This is because historically there was/is a cultural problem in the U.K. which means that individual expression is automatically deemed selfish – in the 80’s if you had the ball at your feet for more than two seconds you would be screamed at by teammates and supporters alike to ‘get rid of it’. In my own case, the parents were best described as resembling the cast of Only Fools and Horses: one of them was even a T.V. racing pundit – so much like Boycie it was unbelievable – who would run across the pitch with his long coat and big cigar to shout at the manager or ref at any moment he needed some emotional release – the others would just shout random stuff like ‘Oi!’ and ‘Are you listening to me?’ and ‘Get Out!’ (We played a high line – so high that the defence were screamed at if they weren’t on the halfway line at all times). If you don’t have the ball, though, you can’t become very good at the game, obviously, and that is ultimately why so many other countries with similar populations have far, far surpassed England; they don’t attach any stigma to the football – they see the ball itself as a good thing and treat it accordingly.

It’s only in recent years that the F.A. have woken up to this and changed their official policies to value creativity. They’ve seen that allowing a bullying culture means that a load of thugs make it as professionals, but they then can’t deal with other national teams who are much larger part footballer and much lesser part thug. This new culture only permeates grass roots football though, if managers – i.e. parents who grew up playing in the 70’s and 80’s when you were just supposed to launch the ball anywhere and mainly fight physical rather than footballing battles – can have the vision to drop their egos, take a long term view and not worry about the scores of individual games.

This is easier said the done, but Evan’s team have been blessed with brilliant coaches, Pete Mulvaney being the constant presence over 6 years; he shows unbelievable attention to detail – but they are not the details that most people typically value. If you ask him the final score at the end of the game or who we were playing against (or even, to be honest, where we are) he will genuinely have to rack his brains to remember and will invariably get it slightly wrong – he just doesn’t remember those details. If you ask him about a particular player, though, it’s a completely different story – he will be able to give a nuanced and detailed account of how they played, picking up on all kinds of subtleties the other viewers would not have seen. He will also then project forward as to exactly how he sees that player developing, and the positions they will be taking up in 6 months, a year or even 2 or 3 years later. Despite being a prolific goalscorer himself, he doesn’t especially privilege the scoring of a goal over any other skill, and at the end of the game might give a goal the same billing as a run someone made, a position taken up, a thoughtful pass or even an intention gone awry.

To be fair to the manager, it can be quite tricky to get a grip on the identity of opponents in this league. There are 10 teams in the division, and many are named after recognisable places such as Calcot or Pangbourne, but some have names which are harder to grasp like ‘Centre Skills’ – this one is confusing; does it mean they practise skills at a centre? If so, where is the centre? Or are the skills performed in the centre of the pitch? What are the skills? The name kind of functions in an abstract way like North West Pangs of Conscience FC or Adjacent Tendonitis-on-Loddon. And Whitenights, surely, is an Estate Agents – would their supporters arrive in suits between Saturday morning viewings to see how their little leaflet droppers were doing?

They train, predictably, at the Whiteknights campus of The University of Reading – but where do they come from? What’s the vibe? Regardless of the total mystery surrounding them, they played in quite a straightforward style – well organised, nothing too flashy and lots of prodding and probing down the flanks for little reward until their centre forward managed a fantastic lob from outside the box just before half time. Wokingham generally had more of the ball but were a bit too impulsive; they needed to calm down, lift their heads up and adopt a different perspective on life, but they did come back into the game well in the second half, culminating in Connor scoring an excellent left-footed volley from a corner to win the game after he and Evan entered the fray having taking their turns on the bench in the first half. Evan took a while to settle, but then found his customary range of passing and particularly helped in quick transitions from defence to attack. This was a good game and a fitting end to the BYDL era with Connor scoring the final goal after Evan scored the first, 6 years ago. The team also secured 3rd place and now probably face dispiriting trips to places like Colnbrook for 11-a-side games next season.