this is from the dover athletic offical website

[reidy007]

MESSAGE FROM IAIN McBRIDE

 

IT'S a little known fact that Polar explorers use the Dave Shirley TV gantry at Crabble to prepare for the rigours of an Arctic winter.

 

As the wind whips in from Siberia in February, Eskimos add a layer of thermals and brass monkeys nip downstairs for the warm.

 

But the hardy souls with cameras are spared from a frozen paralysis by regular supplies of hot soup and tea from the kind ladies in the Dover Athletic kitchen. From such acts of kindness when we have filmed the Whites, a lifetime of affection for a football club is born.

 

I should point out that I’m not a sports journalist but a news hack. However, in an act of supreme folly seven years ago, Meridian asked me to “hold the fort for a couple of months” while they decided what to do about their sports coverage.

 

By ignoring emails and sitting, hidden, behind a pillar in the newsroom, I’m still doing the job.

 

It enabled me to indulge a lifelong affliction with non-league football. This stems from starting watching games in the old Southern League at the age of 10. Trips to exotic football lowspots such as Worcester, Hillingdon, Bath and Telford followed.

 

But what I discovered was this is where the real game exists. It’s not £10million transfers and chilled white wine in executive boxes. It’s chatting over a tea with rival fans, and learning they’ve also got a striker with more chance of being hit by a barn door than actually hitting it himself.

 

In recent years I remember Exeter’s first season after relegation to the Conference and talking to some Grecian supporters outside the Centre Spot (when Margate were groundsharing with Dover) after they’d driven for six hours to get to Kent. These were real fans – hundreds had travelled just to show they still loved their team.

 

As a journalist you are supposed to remain neutral but you are inevitably influenced by how you are treated, and on my visits to Crabble I have always been met with kindness and good humour by club officials, helpers and fans alike .. as well as the right amount of mickey taking – after all being paid for rambling to a camera hardly counts as hard work.

 

The tremendous efforts of fans and directors alike has ensured this club has not only survived but been reborn with a new sense of purpose.

 

Iain McBride

 

But that’s why I have a huge soft spot for the Whites. You’re not first on my list, that will forever be my hometown club in another part of the country who I’ve followed through thin and thinner. But I do always look for the Dover result, and I still find it hard to believe the club are in Ryman One.

 

Without dwelling on the pain and the reasons for it, I think one huge positive has emerged from the last couple of years. The tremendous efforts of fans and directors alike has ensured this club has not only survived but been reborn with a new sense of purpose.

 

Now that strength of spirit should carry you forward and upward. Thanks for some very happy memories – particularly the wins over Rushden (whatever happened to Billy Turley?), and the Boxing Day one at Margate.

 

I know the vast majority of ‘Gate fans are decent folk but the personal abuse I received before the game from some Neanderthals coloured my view of Hartsdown Park (Mickey taking is fine – being spat and sworn at is a different matter).

 

Even more than ever you will be the team everyone wants to beat, and I dare say there will be some bumps along the way, but I have a feeling this could be THE season you start the climb back.

 

Have a great time and spare a thought for Dave on the gantry – better still get your order in now for the promotion video.

 

Best wishes, Iain.

 

LINK:: Meridian TV (ITV LOCAL)

 

[MargateFan]

Can't see that it will change anything, we will still only get Gillingham, Charlton, Southend and Brighton ad nauseam all season, unless the hyenas scent blood and a catastrophe further down the pyramid.

[ooh!!bodyform]

I know the vast majority of ‘Gate fans are decent folk but the personal abuse I received before the game from some Neanderthals coloured my view of Hartsdown Park (Mickey taking is fine – being spat and sworn at is a different matter).

 

This does NOT reflect the fans that turn up for the gate every week, when you get a local derby you get the idiots that don't even know the way home and who could not even tell you what league margate play in, it is the same for ramsgate whos reputation as well as ours is spoiled because chavs and idiots think 'i know margate play ramsgate today lets go for the trouble' and forget that its the innocent folk that support their teams through thick and thin that are given the bad name.

Whilst i do not condone spitting and moronic behaviour people should not judge a club by 1 game, especially when its a derby when crowds are higher because of the profile of the game not because those extra fans are ACTUAL suporters but because they see it as a chance to act like pricks.

The big majority of margate,ramsgate and dover fans are very genuine fans who are passionate about their clubs as are many fans around the country. And yes you are correct footbal IS NOT about 10 million pound transfers but the grass roots from where it all stems, i find non league football as exciting or sometimes even moreso than the professional game we see on the tv every week(although i never miss a match whoever plays on the tv).

 

j.redpath (aka ooh!! bodyform)

Margate forum

 

[ooh!!bodyform]

i have sent this to mr mcbride just to put a few things straight

[ReservePlayer]

shouldn't you be raking in some chips after luring people round your house for 'straight' games

[ooh!!bodyform]

reserveplayer check your pms

 

[ooh!!bodyform]

my reply to my sent e-mail arrived very quickly thanks iain and reads:

 

Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Redpath,

 

Thanks very much for your email and as I pointed out in the article “I know the vast majority of ‘Gate fans are decent folk” but I was making the point that a person’s view of a club can be coloured by individual experiences.

 

In this case I had fought a long internal battle with the powers that be here to cover Margate’s rise up the non league and we gave them more coverage in the season they were promoted to the Conference than any other non league club in any other ITV region.

 

However at the game when they were finally promoted to be told to “F*** off”, spat at and told “you only ******* cover us because ***** we’re ***** Successful, why don’t you *** off” by three neanderthals did colour my view of the club.

 

I’m not a shrinking violet and am happy to have the mickey taken out of me; indeed I expect it. But that was overtly hostile and deeply unpleasant.

 

Best wishes for a successful season and I hope you are soon back in the Conference with a good ground.

 

Iain

 

[ooh!!bodyform]

and just out of interest this is the further e-mail in response to the above:

 

thank you for your reply iain i do appreciate it, please dont let those three individuals blacken the name of margate football club we are a very family friendly club and work hard to keep it that way but as you well know ALL clubs have a small amount of floaters who only turn up to the 'big games' and this is what spoils the outlook for those who genuinly enjoy local football!!

 

all the best

 

mr j redpath

[BlueGate Alan]

Well done Jon for posting the views of the majority of Margate supporters.

[Cookie]

Yes, well done John.

[ooh!!bodyform]

although i am a little confused...unless i'm reading it wrongly mr mcbride states in the original mail that he had abuse from margate fans at the dover ground on boxing day correct???? but in my reply he talks of abuse on the night we were promoted to the conference which if i remember rightly was a tuesday night against newport so don't want to pester him as im sure he is a busy man but are these two incidents or 1 maybe iain if your reading you could elaborate, i know its going over old ground but these are the very things we need to stamp out at our club the last thing we need to do is allow the media to judge us by a very few dickheads that attend 'crucial' matches.

[ooh!!bodyform]

i did re e-mail him again apologies iain if you were busy but again he was kind enough to respond with;

 

No the abuse that really hacked me off was the Newport game, but I didn’t want to raise that too much, and just put it down to a few lads having too much ‘falling down water’ before the match. But what I was trying to say was when it happened at the Dover game it swayed my previous impartiality..

 

Don’t take it personally though – I fully accept this was a sad minority, and that the overwhelming majority of Margate supporters are rational normal people, who I would happily share a pint with….as indeed I did during some of the meetings at Hartsdown Park in the social club when it’s future was being discussed.

 

Good luck for 07-08, and I hope it’s a promotion season ,

 

Best wishes,

 

Iain (not Mr plse – makes me feel ancient!)