by Robert Mann
Within ten minutes it was all over. The pub was theirs! A Country Firm calling card was put into the till as they celebrated by helping themselves to free pints. Outside of the pub a small crowd had gathered attracted by the loud singing of the Redbourne anthem from inside the pub. The good name of the football club was once again tarnished. All of the action since they had entered the pub Rick had recorded on a high tech camera. The camera operated via the pair of designer sunglasses he was wearing, it was linked to a wireless receiver on his belt. He had recently purchased it on the internet. He was very proud of his new image despite it being an act but he was lucky his sunglasses hadn’t been knocked off during the fierce fight!
With police sirens getting louder Oliver gave the order
"Leg it lads!"
Some went out of the front of the pub scattering curious bystanders and Oliver, James and Rick went out the back way jumping over a low wall to reach a back alley. They left behind a wrecked pub and one unconscious local. Outside of the pub a furious landlord and surly bar maid waited for the police. An hour later with kick off approaching police activity around the away end at Wilbutts Lane was frenetic. The incident had percolated through to the travelling Redbourne fans who were uneasy knowing that something had gone on in town before the game but did not know exactly what. All sorts of rumours were flying around!
Away support was keeping up well for Redbourne even on these long northern trips with fans enjoying the novelty of visiting new league grounds and also the stunning start to the season that the club had had in the football league. About six hundred had made the trip up to Spotland and were in full voice as kick off approached. Having met up in the concourse under the away end The Country Firm members that had travelled were now reassembled on the terraces at the back of the away end. Although they had drifted through the terraces in ones and twos trying not to bring attention to themselves police spotters at the game from the Gloucestershire force had identified three faces from the crowd trouble at Hartlepool. One of these was Oliver who was already on their records for a racist attack in Birmingham.
It was estimated that the crowd in Spotland would not be over three thousand with Rochdale having made a mediocre start to the season but despite this twenty minutes into the game with the match still goalless four coach loads of riot police drew up outside the away end. The authorities were taking no chances after the debacle at Hartlepool!
Just before half time a brilliant move started by the iconic Terry Pauls saw Angelo Mizuel put clean through on goal in his first full match back since injury. He finished with aplomb into the far corner of the net sending the away end into a mass of celebrating red and black. The officer in charge of the game from Great Manchester Police heaved a sigh of relief-perhaps there would be no more trouble with the away team leading. Back in the Redbourne end the chant started up for the first time with the season nearly two months old
“We are going up say we are going up”
The Country Firm members joined in. They were drawing enough suspicious glances from “shirts” standing near them with their attire and haircuts and it was their team they reasoned despite their predilection to fight rather than support. Back in the control room a decision had been made to arrest the three faces that had been identified outside the ground after the final whistle. Even if they couldn’t make anything stick on them figured the officer in charge, at least it might make them a bit more careful about future activities!
The second half was a superb footballing display by Redbourne Rovers. Rochdale after a short spell in the first ten minutes or so in which they forced a string of four corners in succession which came to nothing hardly got out of their own half again. Two goals in quick succession by the team in red and black stripes from south east Gloucestershire sealed the win sending The Countrymen top of the table. The first was a brilliant opportunist strike by Dwight Edwards a lob from thirty yards or so when he saw the Rochdale keeper off his line. The second and Redbourne’s third of the afternoon was from their captain Jock Mcleish from the penalty spot and it sent the home fans heading for the exits in droves as the travelling supporters celebrated wildly!
At the end of the game Jock led his team down to acknowledge the superb support that they had received from the traveling Redbourne fans. Even Oliver and the small group of hooligans that had travelled were caught up in the moment of mutual respect and admiration between fans and players. On leaving the away end it was clear to all the away fans that the police were after someone. A line of police awaited all the Redbourne fans as they made their way to cars and coaches and some back to the railway station in the centre of town. A police helicopter hovered about a hundred foot over Wilbutts Lane adding to the oppressive atmosphere Rick walked out with Oliver and James. As they attempted to pass through the police lines a tap came on the shoulder of Oliver
“Excuse me Sir we would like to have a word with you concerning a disturbance in town before the game”
Rick expected Oliver to kick off or make a run for it. However he was coolness personified unlike a couple of his foot soldiers also stopped who went mad flailing out with fists and boots until they went under submerged by a sea of blue! Oliver smiled innocently at the officer who spoke to him and replied
“I will do all I can to help you officer”
Rick decided to follow the example of James who was not at all fazed by his colleague being taken in for questioning. His only words on the subject as they made their way back to Manchester Piccadilly Station for a Virgin service down south was
“I am not wasting a Saturday night waiting for Oliver to be released. He knows the score!”
An hour later they were aboard a cross country service full of celebrating Redbourne fans intent on drinking the train as dry as they could before they all got off at Cheltenham!
Monday night in The Crooked Flag saw Rick propping up the bar again. There was a tap on his shoulder as he sipped his Stella. Turning round it was Oliver smiling broadly at him! Oliver was brief with his words
“I have a very good lawyer!”
Rick found that this was the third time that Oliver had been taken in for questioning but the police had been unable to find anything conclusive to charge him with! Earlier that evening Rick had met with Miles Grimley and had passed on his first report on The Country Firm. The net was closing in on them but would it be on time?
11
The New Stadium
The competition to name the new stadium had finally closed with The Redbourne Gazette extending its closing date for two weeks because of the huge interest shown by the paper’s readers and the club’s fans! The number of entries had even astounded Miles Grimley. Miles and Terrance now had the somewhat daunting task of going through nearly two thousand suggestions and making up a shortlist of six. Fans could then vote for their favourite on the club website or by text or through a voting form in the local paper.
It took Miles and Terrance just over a week to make their choices. The final selections were painstakingly made late one Sunday evening at the end of September with the final six being:
Pines Road
The Country Stadium
The Citadel
Redbourne Court
Countrymen Road
The Country Fortress
Miles’ favourite was the last one where as Terrance being a bit more of a traditionalist was wavering between Pines Road or The Country Stadium. Both were secretly quite glad that the final choice would be the fans’ not theirs! The fans had four weeks to make their choice with the result being announced at one of their home games in October. Even the local bookmakers had got into the spirit of things running a book on which name would be chosen. Joint favourites were Pines Road and The Country Fortress at 2-1 with the outside choice being The Citadel at 25-1!
Construction at the new stadium site was certainly coming along now three months into the project. It didn’t quite look like a football ground yet but it was getting there slowly. The foundations on two
stands were complete and the infrastructure of the main grandstand where all the club offices would be was slowly rising in all its majesty. When complete it would host two and a half thousand people along with eight glass fronted hospitality boxes, a restaurant and supporter’s club. It was truly an exciting project that everyone in the town was watching evolve with fascination and excitement.
Such was the interest in what was going that a webcam had been set up in the middle of where the pitch would be so people could log on at the club’s website and see the progress of the construction work. Fans had also taken to appearing outside the site evenings and on Sundays to see for themselves how things were going and to take photos of the work for personal souvenirs in it’s various stages!
The Promotions Department at the club were already hard at work speaking to previous sponsors that had advertised at the old Pines Lane ready for when they moved into the new ground. They had a good reputation in the area and now even had a waiting list for advertising pitch side for the 2007-2008 season much to the delight of Miles. Six of the eight hospitality boxes had been pre booked for the whole of the season before they had even been built with deposits safely stashed away in the bank. Off the field, business for Redbourne Rovers was on the up very much mirroring their success on the field of play. The only fly in the ointment was the rising police costs of home games due to The Country Firm and the somewhat unfair reputation their fans were getting around the country because of this!
Coming up soon for Redbourne was what used to be the LDV Trophy which had a new sponsorship for the season. It was now quaintly known as the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. The draw for the first round which would be played in the middle of October had just taken place. The Countrymen had a home tie against Hereford who they were yet to play in the league but old adversaries from their days in the conference. Last year Redbourne’s first taste of this competition had seen them crash disappointingly out in the first round beaten at home by Yeovil. The bookies this year with their rampant league form had them at 8-1 third favorites to go the whole way to Cardiff for the final on April 1st!
Redbourne’s form on the pitch in October took a bit of a dip. Nobody could really explain it. They suffered their first defeat of the season in the league away at Hereford much to the disgust of Terrance and a large travelling support that trailed disconsolately home on the relatively short journey from Edgar Street. It wasn’t as if they had stopped playing well but silly errors had slipped into their game. At Hereford they had been cruising 2-1 up with fifteen minutes to go when Francis in the Countrymen goal flapped at a corner that he should have taken easily leaving Tim Sills unmarked to tap in at the far post. Worse was to follow due to what could only be called naivety. With Terrance and Steve frantically gesturing for the team to tighten up and accept the draw they pushed forward keen to avenge the Hereford equalizer and were caught on the break, an absolute letdown for all concerned in a game that they had been so on top it was travesty that they had lost!
It certainly had the required affect for the 1st round game of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy which was played on a damp October’s night in front of Redbourne’s lowest gate of the season 1808.The Countrymen cruised through 3-0 with a hat trick from Dwight Edwards. Francis in goal for the Countrymen hardly had to get his shorts dirty such was his team’s dominance. As his players came off the field Terrance was delighted shaking them all by the hand but in the dressing room afterwards thoughts were turning to the last home game of the month against fellow promotion hopefuls Yeovil. A draw along with the defeat at Hereford had seen them drop 4 points off the leaders Hartlepool. Yeovil were second and Redbourne in third. It was a huge match that they needed to win to keep their promotion drive firmly on track!
Miles was still getting regular reports from Rick about The Country Firm. He had spoken to Inspector Morrison after the pub was wrecked at Rochdale and had told him he had a private investigator on the inside of the hooligan firm. The Inspector looked at the footage from inside of the pub with interest. They could have nicked all concerned for affray and criminal damage but that wouldn’t get Oliver or James off the streets for any period of time and thus remove the leaders of The Country Firm from circulation. That was the important thing he explained for the football club and for the police. They needed proof of them arranging trouble and inciting violence with another club’s hooligans. Then they would move and bring them in!
Another draw followed away at Notts County in a game that Redbourne dominated for long periods but were unable to get the killer second goal to see the match off. A hotly disputed penalty in the last minute of normal time gave County an undeserved draw and to add insult to injury Jock Mcleish was sent off for dissent for protesting too long and too hard to the ref before the kick was converted. He would now miss three games in which they could ill afford to be without their captain. Jock’s last game before his suspension kicked in would be in the 2nd Round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy away to Bristol Rovers on the Tuesday night after the Yeovil game.
In the days running up to the Yeovil game Oliver and James vanished from their normal nightly abode in the Crooked Flag. Rick was convinced that something was being arranged for the coming Saturday for the home game to Yeovil at Whaddon Road. It would not take place at the ground, that he was sure; the policing would be too tight. Miles had received reports through Inspector Morrison from his counterpart in Avon and Somerset police that there would be a serious number of known troublemakers travelling from the Yeovil area. Tension was mounting among club officials, the last thing the club needed was another serious hooligan incident!
Rick had stopped working at the meat processing plant, it was pointless now and besides he hated the work when he had been there. A couple of Oliver’s foot soldiers that he had seen at Rochdale worked there and they did not know how or did not want to tell him how to get hold of Oliver or James. It seemed they were not very generous with their mobile phone numbers! Then on the Thursday evening after the team had completed its final training session and Miles had worked himself up into a state of near apoplexy about the whereabouts of the seeming two ring leaders of The Country Firm they were back propping up the bar of The Crooked Flag like they had never been away!
Oliver turned to Ricky with his familiar lopsided grin and uttered the words Ricky had been praying he would say
“Fancy a bit of action on Saturday Ricky boy?
Friday lunchtime found Ricky tearing down the M5 with Oliver in his Porsche. James was unavoidably busy elsewhere. They were going to meet the leader of the Yeovil hooligans to arrange a meeting for Saturday. Just north of Bristol they pulled into the southbound Michael Wood services and waited. After about ten minutes a biker turned up and stopped by the driver’s door of the Porsche. Ricky who was still wearing his designer shades with the video recorder built in activated the recorder. The biker raised his visor as he spoke
“Alright posh boy how many are you bringing on Saturday?”
Oliver eyed him up and down condescendingly before replying
“A hundred but the cider down your way must have addled your brain if you think any of you will see the match after we have finished with you”
The biker roared with laughter before replying
“Twelve o clock Saturday at the north bound services over the road in the lorry park. Don’t be late now we want to see our team take the three points home after we have taken you!”
Almost before he had finished speaking, he revved his engine and was gone like he had not even been there. Oliver his face taut with anger looked at Rick
“He’s mine on Saturday no one else touches him. Don’t forget that!”
12
A Top Of The Table Clash
Yeovil had very unluckily been relegated on the final day of the season when Redbourne had been celebrating their Conference Championship. They had thus been installed as pre season favourites by the bookies to bounce straight back up after significantly strengthening their squad over the su
mmer. So far they were living up to the bookies expectations. Redbourne were exceeding them having been 16-1 outsiders before a ball was kicked in anger.
Saturday was the first home game of the season where it was a sell out, Whaddon Road’s capacity being 7066. The last home tickets had been sold to grateful fans on the Wednesday. Yeovil had been given the Carlsberg Stand which housed 1100 fans. They could have sold treble that number of tickets alone and several times in the run up to the game Miles wished that they could fast forward time and be in their new stadium! Appeals had been made by Yeovil Football Club in their local press and on radio and from the police in the Yeovil area
“If you do not have a ticket please do not travel you will not get in!”
Early on Saturday morning from a pre arranged pick up point on the outskirts of Yeovil a hundred or so lads boarded two rickety old coaches that looked like they had definitely seen better days. The biker who had met Oliver a couple of days before had been unable to find better transport, all reputable coach transport having been booked up to take the club’s genuine fans on the short journey up to Cheltenham’s Whaddon Road. The drivers had been paid well by the biker and turned a blind eye to the veritable armoury of knives, knuckledusters, crowbars and a plentiful supply of strong lager and cider that were stored aboard!
