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The man behind @PNEFCandBRIG lets us into the real battle that faces non league clubs with ever
increasing costs and ever dwindling money
Welcome to what is hopefully a regular look at the local non-league scene in the Preston area.
Due to the new Sky TV deal, the fortnightly Saturday 3pm pilgrimage to Deepdale is likely to be reduced to a monthly event so there’s never been a better time to take a look at what non-league football can offer.
However, be warned, what can start out as a one-off visit on the back of a cheap ticket can turn into joining another rollercoaster of hopes and dreams being shattered on an annual basis.
Read more: Broken souls and maybe an ankle: Inside Preston North End’s pre-season trip to Benidorm
Way back when, the ‘non-league’ scene in the Preston area never really took off as the likes of Preston North End and Blackburn Rovers were such giants in the game that people would rather walk the half a dozen miles to Deepdale to watch a game rather than entertain what was effectively in those days ‘park football’.
This meant that there was a void in the South Ribble area for decades which was finally filled by Bamber Bridge when they joined the North West Counties League in 1990. That entry into semi-pro football was almost a decade in the making but it had been built on very solid foundations, led by Chairman and also Preston North End fan, Arthur Jackson.
Those foundations allowed Brig to effectively win promotion four times in seven years but ultimately they were unable to take their place in the Vauxhall Conference for the 1996/97 season due to ground grading.
Since then we’ve seen the likes of Fleetwood Town and AFC Fylde emulate and surpass Brig’s early achievements thanks to the backing of their ‘ambitious’ owners but Arthur Jackson was no tycoon businessman – just an ordinary bloke, who with the help of other committee members such as Gerry Lawson, built the club from scratch with fundraising ideas such as collecting waste paper, which was then weighed in at a local paper mill.
Every penny the committee earned was invested wisely in the club and it is these investments, namely owning their own ground and clubhouse, which allows Brig to keep competing in the Northern Premier League to this day.
Officially, Bamber Bridge FC are an Unincorporated Members’ Club, which essentially means that the club is run on a not for profit basis. In more recent times, the term used for this type of ownership in football terms is “fan-owned”, however Brig are keen to emphasise the community aspect of the club in that not all of its members are football fans and the clubhouse is also used for other activities which benefit the local community.
Regardless of the terminology of the ownership structure, on a matchday, it is the fans of Bamber Bridge FC who have raised the money to fund the team and have volunteered to help out on matchday and during the week to ensure that a game takes place on a Saturday.
Whereas football at Championship level has become somewhat stale over the past decade with skilful wingers being replaced by athletes with a safety first ball retention mentality, that isn’t the same at Northern Premier League level.
As most people’s experience of a non-league team is either a pre season friendly, which is expected to end up five or six nil, or an FA Cup 1st round tie, which might produce the odd shock but normally is a comfort win for the professional side, they don’t always get to appreciate the skill level on display when two evenly matched teams go head to head.
The majority of players in the Northern Premier League started out in professional academies aged 16, meaning that they were in the top 500 players in their year group nationally. However, for various reasons they just didn’t quite make it as a pro but many, such as Brig’s Jack Baxter, haven’t given up hope on one day getting another pro-contract if the opportunity arose.
The National League is now almost exclusively home to “professional” clubs, many of whom have never played in the Football League, and even the league below, National North, now has half a dozen “full-time” clubs, with Chorley perhaps being another club who will go down that route if they find an owner willing to fund it.
Under their current ownership structure however, Brig will never be in a position to go full-time, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It gives ordinary fans the opportunity to have a say on how the club is run and allows people to take up roles such as Chairman on ability, not just on the size of their bank balance.
Brig are also a potential stepping stone club for people who want to work in football in an off-the-pitch role and theoretically a future senior club secretary, or similar role, at PNE could have started out at Brig.
While it’s easy to paint a picture on how everything is brilliant at non-league level, there are downsides too. The biggest one being the lower quality of the pitches means that they are more susceptible to the weather and there are far more postponements in non-league than there are at Championship level.
However, due to the growth of the non-league game, attendances are significantly up in the past decade for 95% of teams in Brig’s league, and organisations such as the Football Foundation that means improvements are being made to facilitates so there’s never been a better time to give non-league a try.
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