Season with the Honest Men , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Gerry Ferrara

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131 pages

English

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Behind the scenes at Scottish League One side, Ayr United - in the manager's office, on the team bus and into the dressing rooms of every club they visit. Player pranks, dressing-room bust-ups, flaring tempers and flying missiles encapsulate the range of emotions as the lads aim for promotion. Team talks, motivational speeches and post-mortems are all part of the matchday experience in a rollercoaster season. Illegal betting charges against striker Michael Moffat and the outrageous behaviour of kit man Alan Kerr are just two of the season's sideshows - while manager Mark Roberts provides a wonderful insight into the loneliest job in football. Tension mounts as the business end of the season approaches. Will the Honest Men pull it off and experience the glory that comes with promotion? Or will the campaign end in failure, consigning the club to yet another season in the lower reaches of Scottish football?

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	01 août 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781909626850
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2014
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
GERRY FERRARA, 2014
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978 1-90962-671-3
eBook ISBN: 978-1-909626-85-0
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Ebook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Baptism of Fire For The New Boss
A New Beginning
Joining The Team
The Manager s Perspective
Tempers Flare in Dressing Room Bust-Up
On The Road With The Honest Men
Warriors Run Amok In The Dressing Room
We re On Our Way To...Parkhead?
Back To The Bread and Butter
Betting Crisis Overshadows Recovery Efforts
The Festive Season Sees Optimism Return
Post-Mortem Provokes a Knee-Jerk Reaction
Moff Is On Trial
Security Of Steel As Sargent Snaps
No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk
Trouble Flares In The Gayfield Gales
Moffat Loses Out in David v Goliath Challenge
Suspensions Leave A Vacuum In The Ayr Squad
Revenge Is Sweet As Slump Ends
Red Hot Roberts Creates A 35-Year Record
Revenge Of The Kit Man
Football Management - A Lonely Place
Shoestring Budget Proves A Distraction
Two Cup Finals - Then Four More?
Mission Accomplished
The Final Push For Promotion
Photographs
Acknowledgements
T HERE are a number of people to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude for the encouragement, personal support and practical help generously afforded me throughout the duration of my project, which went ahead thanks to the goodwill of Lachlan Cameron and Mark Roberts.
My wife, Marilyn, provided unstinting support of my writing in the form of praise and constructive criticism. The feedback and encouragement I received from my children Nicholas, Madeleine and Ben was extremely useful as was their enthusiasm for what I was trying to achieve. My brother Tony was always available for advice and his general encouragement was invaluable. In my frequent periods of uncertainty, Alistair Aird, a successful author and friend, kept me on track by sharing his knowledge, offering advice and patiently answering my constant questions.
The generosity of Ayr United club photographer and lifelong fan David Sargent in contributing the excellent images for the book is very much appreciated. The Ayr United first-team squad could not have been more welcoming and co-operative as I pestered them for their thoughts and feelings throughout the League 1 campaign. I feel very privileged to have been allowed to accompany them in their season-long journey and what a terrific group of people they are.
The courtesy, respect and knowledge provided by Lewis Grant, Davie White, Andy Millen, Andy Goram, Stevie McGuire and Peter Barr made my job so much easier. Alan Kerr merits a thank-you all to himself as a professional and now as a friend. As a troublemaker, prankster and wind-up merchant he contributes more than he will ever realise to the spirit in the Ayr United dressing room. He is the life and soul of the club and it should be noted that he is also the third-best kit man in the whole of Somerset Park.
Finally, Mark Roberts supported my project from day one and no matter how much pressure he was under, he always made time to speak to me and share his thoughts during a very challenging season. Without his contribution this book would not have been written. I wish him every success in the season ahead and in his career in football management.
Introduction
A YR United fans are no different to any other group of passionate supporters; following their team through thick and thin, willing their favourites to score the goals that will win three points or see the team progress through the rounds of national cup competitions.
The ultimate goal in any season is for our captain to hold high above his head a league championship trophy, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup or even the Scottish Challenge Cup. There is also relative glory to be welcomed in the shape of promotion to a higher division and to be frank there is even a certain amount of satisfaction, if not pleasure, in avoiding relegation when things have not gone so well over the course of a campaign. If we achieve nothing in any given season, well, there s always next season.
Previous generations of fans were exposed only to the matchday experience, what they read in newspapers and highlights of matches on Sportscene on a Saturday evening or Scotsport on Sunday afternoon. In the 1960s and 70s we did have the occasional live match on TV which was considered a real treat but the modern-day football fan has access to wall-to-wall football, seven days a week.
For example, live matches are on Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC, ITV and BBC Alba. Highlights can be found on a variety of TV channels throughout the day and night with programmes like Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2 . The list is endless. Constant updates with breaking news can be found at the end of a remote control giving us all Sky Sports News s Evening Report , Through the Night and a host of other programmes to satisfy the addiction of football fans everywhere. Transfer deadline day coverage ensures that no fan will miss the latest comings and goings in world football.
As a result, supporters have a wealth of information about what is going on at every football club in the country and what is more, we can all have our say. The phenomenon that is the internet has not only provided us with up-to-date information and news, instant results and commentary from players, managers, pundits and media journalists, it has opened up channels of communication for all.
Fans, who could previously only vent their spleen from the terraces, can now engage with like-minded people through internet forums. Whether it is a discussion among a group of Ayr United supporters on The Honest Page or wider debates with opposition fans on Pie and Bovril, the popular national website and fans forum, everyone can have their say. Facebook and Twitter are two more of the sites that allow people to engage in debate, discussion, banter and in some cases abuse of one another. The fact is that you can attend a match, watch it live on TV or do neither but still air your views.
A good example of this followed the almost catastrophic recent events at Ibrox. In February 2012, a topic named Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread was established on the Pie and Bovril website and to date the number of pages runs to over 5,000. It shows the enthusiasm football fans have for engaging in debate about any aspect of our national game.
There are, of course, pros and cons to the introduction of the technology that has paved the way for fans to become involved in the game. Slow-motion replays from all angles have undoubtedly helped in bringing the action closer to paying spectators, settling arguments about what actually happened. However, this has placed enormous pressure on match officials as criticism of referees and their assistants has grown, with the expectation that they should get every decision correct, despite the fact that most of us have difficulty in reaching our conclusions after three or four replays of incidents.
The actions of managers, coaches and players can be scrutinised by staff at the club to plan and prepare for upcoming matches but at the same time the footage is being examined by some fans who then use the debating forums to criticise and abuse the very people they claim to support.
I have read disparaging claims about almost every staff member at Ayr United and I have to say, it usually has no basis in fact at all. The vitriol reserved for the manager, Mark Roberts, since he took the helm in 2012 has been both personal and offensive. The negative remarks made about his assistant, Davie White, have been made by people who know nothing about his contribution to the club. Then, of course, there is the biggest target of all, the chairman, Lachlan Cameron, who has been accused of everything from embezzlement to grand larceny.
Thankfully, it is a very small minority of people who engage in the campaign of abuse. The question is, how much do these people really know about the workings of Ayr United? How much do any of us know about what goes on at Tryfield Place?
Every Honest Man would love to know what really goes on behind the scenes at Somerset Park. We would all love to question decisions made by the manager. We would like to ask players about particular incidents. We want to know if the latest rumour is true. Are we going to make a new signing? Will our star player be sold in the next transfer window? Does the chairman have big plans for the club? Will the manager be given more money to spend on players? Is the club in financial peril? We can only guess and some people do just that.
In my 47 years as an Ayr United supporter, I ve often wondered what it would be like to experience the atmosphere in the dressing room before a match, what it would be like to rub shoulders with the players, to hear the manager s team talk, to witness the reaction of the team to a win, draw or defeat.
So, to follow up on my first published book, One Honest Man, Four Different Perspectives , I sought and received the approval of the club to go behind the scenes, to engage with the chairman, the manager, his staff and players to hear their views and witness incidents in their efforts to b