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FANZINE ISSUES

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In the last issue of TTP you may have noticed a trailer for a publication entitled “Survival of the Fattest” and Dave Espley’s commendation of it. It’s a review of last season on a club by club basis by fanzine editors the length and breadth of the land and gives the supporters eye view of happenings on and off the pitch at their clubs. Roaming through the contributions from last season’s 2^nd division clubs is quite illuminating –  in many cases we find out what others think about us. But its real value is in seeing how the hopes and aspirations were met or otherwise, how triumphs were enjoyed and how failure was borne.

It’s amazing how many of the themes which ran through the pages of TTP over the season seemed to be mirrored elsewhere – we are clearly not our own in our triumphs, trials and tribulations. To give you an idea of the type of contribution the extract below from the Plymouth fanzine “Rub of the Greens” not only tells us what they thought about Shilton but also gives an insight into their view of the value of Richard London. I’m sure we all wondered in the summer why Dave Jones was prepared to face the minefield of a Tribunal for a player who had hardly turned out for Plymouth. Thus far this year we haven’t been able to judge but the following is quite enlightening.

Argyle already had a striker with a better than a goal every other full moon record but they weren’t playing him. Well that’s not quite true, he did play the odd game and as a result was leading scorer with 4 goals from 9 games. Compare that with Graham Shaw who notched none in 6 games, Mickey Ross who notched zilch in 11, Phil Gee who got nothing in 7,  not forgetting Kevin Nugent who didn’t score until his 20th start of the season. All the strikers were preferred to Richard Landon. Why?

The stated reason was that London and Nugent were too similar in style. This was possibly half true except that while Landon was a goal scorer Nugent wouldn’t recognise the far post if it fell on him mainly because he seemed to think that the penalty area was mined. No, the real reason was that Landon was signed on assistant manager John McGovern’s say-so. And Shilton and McGovern had had a big falling out.  You probably saw the story in the tabloids about Shilton borrowing money from McGovern and not paying it back. Shilton was also squeezing McGovern out of the action. In truth McGovern was never in it and what galled him was he knew Shilton was ******* useless and could do nothing about it. So Richard Landon was out of the team more than he was in while the others – Shilton’s men – were played.

Moving on from others views of our players, there’s a highly illuminating piece on what other fans think of County supporters-  this time from Wrexham’s offering “The Sheeping Giant”.

Hungover and well stuffed, with turkey), the Christmas programme saw us heading for ‘team with attitude’, (well their supporters anyway), Stockport County. Naturally with such fun-loving happy-go-lucky fans Benno is a big rave there too. So 0-1 down and time running out a desperate situation naturally called for desperate measures – enter Gary Bennett. Tearing into the County area the Wrexham no. 7 was felled by a crude challenge from a blade of grass; the referee disagreed however and ridiculously pointed to the spot awarding us a penalty. Bennett had no option but to strike the ball home with some aplomb. To annoy the natives further a County striker broke away minutes later leaving only the Wrexham keeper to beat. Spotting the danger Marriott raced off his line, stood up… stood up… stood up and SPLAT! the dozy County striker ran straight into him. The ref agreed, no professional foul here but amid howls of ‘off’ and ‘cheat’ and any other words your above average County supporter could come up with he gave a penalty anyway. Seconds later the away end fell about laughing as Marriott had the audacity to save the penalty. Ah the joys of footy!

Because the book is written by fans for fans it’s something we can all relate to, and whilst individual fanzines can sometimes be incomprehensible to followers of other clubs the very fact that the book contains 111 articles covering 83 clubs shows the strength of the movement. Fans want to have a voice and the broad range of publications which are covered in the book certainly gives them that – whether it’s to capture the humour of the terraces or to get involved in serious campaigning issues. All in all it’s well worth a read whether you invest in it or just browse next time you’re in Sportspages!

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October 1995