3pm and 43 seconds
April 28, 2018. 3pm and 43 seconds.
People can tell you where they were when they heard President Kennedy had been assasinated. What they were doing when they heard that man had stepped foot on the moon. I can tell you where I was at 3pm on the 28th April 2018. I was at Imber Court watching Tooting and Mitcham take on Met Police in the "Must Win" season finale. A game Toots had to win to stand any chance of staying in the Rymans Premier Divison, in front of the baying home crowd of Daily Mail readers and members of No Plods playing staff. The players of Tooting and Mitcham marched onto the pitch like gladiators ready for battle. The mass ranks of the travelling Bogend sang their tribal songs and cheered their stripy black and white clad heroes onto certain victory and the chance for the players to write themselves into the pages of Toots’ glorious history. At 43 seconds past 3 it was all over. One nil down and even the most optimistic Terrors knew it was the end. I watched travelling Toots fans leave the ground and head home before the game kicked off again after the goal. Bog End Ant was in bits... I was gutted. Everyone just looking at each other, lost for words.
Yes, the team had been unlucky and had played some good games but the Football Gods had it in for us that season. We deserved to go down. Harsh on the players that played that season and I felt really sorry for Frank Wilson but the results and final table did not lie.
Relegation. Another bloody relegation and the club had problems, on and off the pitch. Supporters morale was at rock bottom. Many of those following the club at the time called it a day as we headed towards the new restructured lower division. The Bostik South Central. A division with no historical or regional rivals. All the other local clubs had been promoted, all been successful. It was going to be a hard season. It was looking like it was going to be a hard future for both the club and fans.
But- even though it was a bad time for the club and in truth there was really nothing to look forward to- from the beginning of the 18/19 season, things were to change. I now honestly think that getting relegated turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. Sometimes, like life for all of us, you need to hit the rock bottom before you can move forward. Off the pitch, we had to learn from other clubs and supporters groups. With this in mind, I had been along to both Sutton and Dulwich games during the end of the season to listen and speak to people there and hear what they had done. Dulwich, who at the time were ground sharing at Fortress Imperial, were very helpful and I've been able to learn a lot from them. Their use of social media is second to none. The club and its support, even though going through some very dark times, had rallied together and grown from strengh to strength. Sutton, too, had really come on in leaps and bounds off the pitch and again their supporters offered loads of help and advice. Again, use of social media and various unoffical groups at Gander Green Lane had shown the way forward. We were simply at a stage that if we were not prepared to listen what both of our rivals had done to change things, we really deserved to slowly and painfully fade away.
A few of us chatted, got together and bounced some ideas about.The Tooting Tuesday get together started up again. Some thought it was to be a protest group, which was never the intention. It was a chance for people to discuss ideas and to see if there was anyway to boost the profile of the club. For many years the only real social media the club had was Paul Piggotts brilliant web page and of course the fantastic Roger Ramone Twitter account which was often viewed as the offical clubs account. The various forums, all set up with the best of intentions had become negative and in some parts toxic and were to show the club both on and off the pitch in a very bad light.
First thing we had to say was that we couldn’t change what had gone on in the past. We were where we where for a reason and had to move forward from that point. We needed to band together and get to know each other better. If people had smart phones etc they were asked to help spread the word about the club and what was happening at Fortress Imperial. A WhatsApp group started up which again helped unite fans and was a good way for fans to get to know each other. Loads of people came up with ideas and slowly and surely things started to grow and the people able and willing to help out started to join together in various projects. Would this have happened if we'd stayed up on the last game at Met Police, or would things have remained the same? I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that.
On the pitch, things were changing. After a shaky start to the 2018/19 season, the team got into gear and it became obvious that changes were happening behind the scenes. The management and coaching staff’s hard work and ideas were starting to come good and pay off. We finished 6th place in 2018/19 and were beaten finalists in the Surrey Senior Cup... Bloody Met Police again. But the club had changed so much during the course of the season. 2019/20 saw a vast improment. Yes, still capable of bad games and losing matches- but thats football. We saw some fantastic games and brilliant victories. This year was to end due to Covid. I think we would have made the play offs if the season had not come to an end so quickly and if there was to be a promotion, I think the team would have been in a far better place to move forward.
A number of players have moved onto bigger clubs but again, this has put what Ashley, Cornelius and the rest of the management and coaching staff have achived firmly in the spotlight and means so many talented young players now want to put on the Black and White shirt on and see the club as an important stepping stone in their football careers. Yes, we will lose some great players, but to see so many talented young players come through is great. We now have scouts from a number of clubs at home games.
We don't know when the 2020/21 season will start or how it will be strucured. But I do know that this club is in a really good place. The club now has an active and interesting social media, and has had a number of great write ups in the press. Just recently an article was in the Sunday Times, a couple of years ago we didn't even get write ups in the local papers.
If and when the club needs help or volunteers on match days there is always help offered by supporters when, in truth, a couple of years ago any plea for help would have been meet with a sea of blank, uninterested faces. We now have merch from both the supporters club and the SLIBAW team which has meant that money can go back into the club and help buy more training equipment. People have helped and paid for things out of their own pockets to help raise funds. We have a really great set of supporters helping out with ideas and projects. So much has changed. The recent crowd funding page raised over 10 grand to help with funds to cover costs during the COVID 19 pandemic. Supporters from many other clubs chipped into help. Duwich Hamlet fans again in partiular helping with donations which, despite the rivalry, will always be remembered by us at Toots. Links with various groups and organisations have been forged and grown in strength. A number of companies have come on board and help with sponsorship.
But to me, the most important thing is TMUFC is a far friendlier place than it has been in the past. More kids on the terraces. More new comers watching our games. Families turning up at home games and we have so many new faces now in the stands and on the terraces. There are far too many people to thank and in truth I always worry that I will forget someone. But anyone has has helped out in any way, anyone who has donated time and effort, anyone who has bought any club merchandise, anyone who has donated money and all who have helped spread the word about this fantastic club... I thank everyone of you. x
Up The Terrors !!!!
