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Chris Swailes, non league football and the ideal football day

Chris Swailes, non league football and the ideal football day

There is one question I am constantly being asked, namely why do I have such a passion and commitment for Biggleswade United in particular and lower league football in general?

I generally trot out a number of stock answers but the truth is that to put into words a feeling, a sentiment, a passion – call it what you will – is difficult, almost impossible to articulate. The truth is I love it, quite simply because I do.

In the future therefore I have decided that whenever anyone asks me again my reply will consist of just two words – Chris Swailes.

Two years ago Chris Swailes was close to death after struggling to breathe during a match for his former club, Dunston UTS. He had to have his start re-started three times and in the end four heart operations and two new valves were fitted.

It is not the only extra piece that he carries around with him ‘wearing’ as he does a pin in his foot, a bolt in his knee and a rod in his ankle which probably makes any journey he ever makes through airports’ metal detectors sound like something out of Verdi’s ‘Anvil Chorus’.

Last weekend, ‘Uncle Albert’ as he is affectionately referred to by his team mates entered the realms of footballing immortality when at the grand age of 45 he became the oldest man to score in Wembley final when he scored Morpeth Town’s equaliser on their way to their 4-1 victory over Hereford FC in the FA Vase.

Writing commitments meant I wasn’t able to attend the day but rest assured it will be the last time I don’t.

Even watching it on television afterwards, from the moment his chested effort crept over the line you sensed that this was something that was written in the stars; that nothing would deny the man who literally came back from the dead his third FA Vase final victory, 24 years after his first triumph when he was a member of the Bridlington Town squad that won it way back in 1992, probably before some of his current team mates were even born.

Hard as nails, tough as teak, yet quintessentially honourable, the man of the match award for Swailes was the icing on the cake for this lion of a man; the embodiment of everything that is so wonderful about this game that we love so much.

For the first time ever the FA decided that both minor league showpiece finals (the FA Vase and FA Trophy) would be played at Wembley on the same day. It was not a decision that met with universal approval; in the end it proved to be a masterstroke

No fewer than 46,781 made their way to the capital from as far afield as Herefordshire (Hereford), Northumberland (Morpeth Town), West Yorkshire (FC Halifax Town) and North Lincolnshire (Grimsby Town); devoted fans, families and representatives of the last four standing from the 572 clubs and communities that entered the hat for the FA Vase and the 276 placed in the draw for the FA Trophy.
Hereford sold a staggering 19,000 tickets for the final and having taken an early lead, such was their domination over the first quarter that they must have thought that it was not about ‘if’ they would win but rather about ‘how many by’.
Swailes goal and transition into record-breaking immortality put an end to that notion.
The battle they waged at Wembley, however, was nothing to the struggles suffered off the field and, metaphorically speaking at least, no one knows more about coming back from the dead than the fans of the ‘Phoenix’ club that is Hereford, formed following the winding up of Hereford United at the end of 2014.

With promotion earned from the Midland Football League Premier Division, Sunday’s 4-1 defeat on the biggest of stages will surely go on to be remembered as the day that this former football league club that should never have been allowed to die, announced to the football world that after just one season it was well and truly back
Grimsby arrived at Wembley for the second week running following their triumph over Forest Green Rovers in the play off final, the previous Sunday to face an FC Halifax in search of some consolation from what has been a wretched season that has seen them relegated from the National League.

On paper a second victory looked on the cards for the Shrimpers, but as football – particularly of the non-league variety – constantly shows us, this is a game played on grass, not paper.
Grimsby were certainly hot favourites except nobody seemed to have told Halifax or specifically Scott McManus who had other ideas and settled matters with a stunning strike three minutes into the second half to earn victory for the club that on the day simply seemed to want it more.

Next season FC Halifax will campaign a full two leagues behind their vanquished opponents. On Sunday they did enough to send out a message to their army of blue shirted fans that roared them to victory on the greatest of stages that they will surely be back.

On a wonderful day, Morpeth Town and FC Halifax Town, were worthy winners of lower league soccer’s most glittering prizes. The biggest winner however was grassroots football itself and the FA, so frequently chided and criticised by so many people for so many different things, on this occasion deserves a huge pat on the back.

This weekend, I will be one of the luckiest people in the world as I sit in the press box in Milan among the privileged few as hundreds of millions around the world watch Real Madrid and Atletico battle it out for the European club football’s bragging rights.

The achievements of Chris Swailes, Morpeth Town, Hereford FC, FC Halifax and Grimsby Town are no less meritorious or glorious and it would take a braver man than me to attempt to suggest the contrary to any of those magnificent players and fans that graced Wembley with such distinction .

And that, I guess, deep down, that is why I love non-league football so much.