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An incompetent ticket office, PR opportunities squandered, rip-off season ticket price increases, a manager who may well be out of his depth, an article bemoaning a spineless surrender to local rivals in a derby game. No, it’s not FF but is in fact the first new fanzine I got my grubby mitts on: issue 105 of Wolves’ excellent ‘A Load of Bull.’ Being a Rangers fan, I always look for a connection between a team whose fanzine I happen to be reading and my own. In recent years Andy Gray, Kenny Miller and Alex Rae have played for both teams and there’s also the famous 1961 ECWC semi between the two teams, the game that gave birth to the song, ‘When The Rangers Came toWolverhamptonTown.’ There the links end but this is a very accessible fanzine to folk who aren’t Wolves fans and well worth the £1.50 for the 36 pages it costs. Even if you’re not a fan of one of English football’s perennial under achievers, most of the articles contained within it will bear some resemblance to what’s going on at your own Club.
Nowhere in the fanzine do you get the feeling that it’s pointless reading it; it looks very much as if it’s been designed to appeal to fans of all other teams while obviously concentrating on Wolves. There’s a superb article on Wolves’ Championship winning side of 1954 and a quick look at the record books show something of a golden era for Wolves fans with their Club finishing 3rd, 1st, 2nd and 3rd in consecutive seasons. What made 1954 more special for the Wolves fans of the day was that the league race developed between another West Midlands Club,West Brom.
The fanzine, like many others, makes a lot of valid points with regard to how the fans are treated by their Club. The issue under discussion here was in fact released at the tail end of last season when Wolves were looking like certainties for relegation but were still mathematically in with a shout of survival. Despite the situation, though, over 17,000 people showed enough faith in their team to invest in a season ticket scheme for the following season despite being relatively unsure of what division they’d be in. The Club rightly get it in the neck for adding a fiver on to the price for what they called ‘administration purposes.’ Sound familiar?
Like a Club with a better past than present, the fanzine has a few historical articles in it with reflections by fans on memories of early games, a feature on the 1974 League Cup win and a rather surreal piece on the history of international caps with the author managing to combine references to school uniforms, sideburns and the Hungarian national team of the 1950s into an entertaining article.
If you’re into the idea of fanzines and reading about how fans of other Clubs are treated and what ideas they have then this particular publication is highly recommended. £2 to ALOB,PO Box 3483,Birmingham,B17 9SFwith cheques made out to A Load of Bull will see the latest issue sent to you. Well worth it.
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Moving up north a wee bit, we arrive at Port Vale’s ‘The Vale Park Beano.’ I have to admit, I know next to nothing about Port Vale and the only Rangers link I can think of is that they once let a 4-0 lead slip to a John Spencer-inspired QPR. Other than seeing them the odd time on Sky, my knowledge of them is pretty limited.
In saying that, their fanzine is very interesting and well put together and not without humour as well, especially a bizarre piece by a guy called ‘Mad House’ who has found a reason to hate every other team in Vale’s division.
What should be of interest to most football fans, though, is an interview with a Port Vale fan who started up something like a Trust, got on the Board of the Club as his organisation – Valiant 2001 – actually took over thee running of the Club then got voted off at an EGM. Obviously the names of the other individuals involved won’t be familiar to many outside Port Vale FC but it’s a lesson to us all in what supporters can achieve.
Another piece that’ll be of interest to most other fans is a piece called ‘The Cannot be Serious, Can They?’ in which the writer expresses legitimate concerns at the plans to empower Stewards at the games to impose fines on people who are deemed to have broken the law. That should get the alarms bells ringing everywhere.
Elsewhere in the fanzine there’s - coincidentally with the Wolves fanzine – a look back at season 1954 where Port Vale got to the semi finals of the FA Cup, losing to the team Wolves pipped in the league, WBA. For the record, Port Vale won the old 3rd Division North by 11 points fromBarnsleythat season.
Elsewhere there’s moans about refereeing standards, a few digs atStokeCityand an interview with an ex-player who regrets leaving forPlymouthdue to their fans blaming him for them not getting promoted while he was a Port Vale player. Such are the weird and wonderful philosophies of football fans………
Again, worth a quid and an A5 SAE for a welcome insight into a Club that exist outside the top flight but maintain a healthy and active supporters’ base to The Beano, PO Box 485, Kidsgrove, ST7 3BZ.
AYRSHIRE BILLY BOY