Sheffield FC: The people want Non-League

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Tom Reed

Shot on film and digital where stated.

Sheffield FC are serving up an alternative to “modern football” and that’s why a record league crowd gathered to watch them on Non-League Day.

There’s no perfection here, no succinct curves developed in high-end architectural practices.

These Luddites of English sport, not comparable to the 19th century textile frame breakers through any sense of spite but because they aren’t part of a machine and know the power of community creativity.

The Luddites were right, of course, on themes of skill, self-determination and facing the future fairly, while Sheffield FC are doing football the right way, weaving their people together and making everyone count.

The world’s oldest club has a pub right next door called the Coach and Horses, in the English football tradition, meaning you aren’t left drinking Sauvignon Blanc amidst bemused Las Iguanas diners as in various out of town bowl stadia in this country.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Queue for Sheffield FC vs Tadcaster Albion. Non-League Day. Digital.

There’s a Mastermind leather chair sitting randomly near the turnstile, perhaps used for quizzing on specialist subjects or maybe slung out of the boardroom for being too corporate.

You’d hope they’d be sitting on spartan chairs up there, discussing how great this club is and how it’s going to be there for the massed ranks who are sliding into Sheffield FC like drips down the side of a beer, whose pint poureth over.

“The Home of Football” is emblazoned over various parts of the ground, and rightly so, the club brought together in 1857 when Lord Palmerston was Prime Minister, the link to history is palpable and you can imagine there will be some blood-line connections to those 19th Century folk who drew up the “Sheffield Rules” that heavily influenced the age played today.

Without Sheffield FC and its code for making the game more playable, there’d be no corners or free-kicks and this has been a club that has always thought on the diagonal as well as front to back.

At the Coach and Horses, there’s a contingent from Athletic Club in Bilbao, the Basque giants with the innate sense of a decent footballing ecosystem.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Athletic Club director Gorka Cubes with members of Mr Pentland Club. Digital.

Instead of lingering in the warmth of the “cathedral of football” San Mames, Athletic Club’s director Gorka Cubes has come over to meet new friends at Sheffield FC, where 10 seasons worth of weather comes and goes over the course of an afternoon.

Alongside him are the Mr Pentland Club, Athletic’s London supporter group, named after a Mr Fred Pentland, the Englishman who became the most successful manager of the Spanish pre-civil war period.

Pentland used to wear a bowler hat and smoke during matches and you would think he’d have taken a good drag and smiled at the cracking attendance of 1172 which is an increase of 177.1% from the usual turnout.

The queues stretched down the road, past the Coach and Horses and the supporters prepared to play the waiting game and nurse the last sips of April beer before making their way past the Mastermind chair.

Jon McClure is about, frontman in all sense of the word, new Chairman of Sheffield FC and never stopping still for more than a minute. The Reverend and the Makers singer has a can do-attitude and has time for anyone that wants to contribute to making a family club.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Sheffield FC. On film.

On the sidelines, an early goal from opponents Tadcaster barely registers with the huddled Sheffield supporters who are too busy catching up and having a craic to worry about a mere goal against this outfit who have been going for 158 years.

And this is where Sheffield FC and other non-league clubs have one over the top-tier teams who have constructed mega-stadia with rows of seats pointing at the pitch.

Football is too much about the football at the highest levels in England, with armies of busy stewards directing fans to get in their seats and watch the bloody football.

At Sheffield FC, the moments of real skill draw the eyes, they are deserving of attention and an exhalation of held breath.

Stories of Sunday family gatherings and Fats Domino 45’s are as worthy as the first touch of a midfielder with a bit about him.