Telford at home on Saturday.
Once upon a time such a statement would have been common or garden. Telford? Again? Yawn.
Four years down the line from our "fall", teams like Telford have a acquired a sheen of glamour way beyond what their standing as a club deserves. For the past half dozen years they have cemented their position as the 25th best team in non-league. Too good for Conference North, but not good enough for Conference National. They have been yo-yoing happily until this season, which finds them currently rock bottom of Conference North, behind such footballing Titans as Chorley and Curzon Ashton.
Nevertheless, for a club of our reduced circumstances, Saturday's game represents a big day for us. We all feared it would prove to be a big day for Mr Plod, but thankfully they seem to have either decided not to demand saturation policing, or have simply forgotten us. It also represents for Telford their first view of Latimer Park and a salutary lesson what can happen to clubs when their stadium is stolen away by circumstances and third rate businessmen.
AFC Telford, along with numerous other "AFC's" and other reconstituted clubs have had the enormous good fortune to be able to walk straight back into their grounds when they have started again. Sure, re-starting a club is probably difficult. We certainly know that keeping a club going is hard enough. But the job is undoubtedly made a lot easier when your stadium remains available to you from Day One. Take a look around. Before you gird your loins for the first chant of "Shit ground..." had your old ground not been available, this could have been you. An awful lot in football comes down to luck.
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