The End - Guest Post from Roger Ramone

The End - Guest Post from Roger Ramone. As I'm sure most of you know Roger has been an important part of The Terrors Social Media output and a long time supporter. 

 So its finally over. After 67 seasons and 2663 games in the Isthmian League we have been relegated to the county leagues at step 5 of the football pyramid. For a team that was once amongst the top 10 non league clubs in the country with a couple of football league scalps in the FA Cup under the belt, this represents a disastrous fall down the leagues. 

 From my personal point of view, I have been watching Tooting for 49 of those seasons. And there are plenty of fans who have been going longer than that. I have had various voluntary roles in that time from groundsman to match reports to social media to website work – and other times just as a supporter behind the goal. Its not just relegation though. Virtually every team in the country has a relegation from time to time – its part of the supporter’s experience to suffer every now and again. It does make successes taste all the sweeter. In fact, in my time we have gone down four times previously but there just wasn’t the same sense of despair from the terraces as we are experiencing this season. 

 This drop seems so much worse. Apart from leaving the league that we have been members of since Elvis first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, this relegation has been signposted to us (well, the fans at least) for two years. And again, from the fans’ perspective, we have just been sleepwalking towards the precipice – seemingly without taking any action until a few weeks ago when I’m afraid it was too late. Its all the more frustrating for the rank and file supporter as this season hasn’t come out of the blue. After the brilliant week in May 2021 when we won the semi final and final of the London Senior Cup in amazing circumstances its just been flop after flop starting with the FA Cup defeat to Erith & Belvedere from the division below us. It became clear to the manager that some of our more senior players weren’t performing so players like Jelley, Coleman and Wedgeworth were released. But the trouble was that we didn’t replace them. At least not with equal or better players. And that is the ongoing theme that has led us to this point. Admittedly there were some things that were probably out of the manager’s hands such as the departure of top scorer Danny Williams and the long term unavailability of the likes of Ahkeem Belford and Jake Rose. 

 However, these are issues that all managers face at our level and they have to be dealt with. But by and large, none of the players who came in last season performed to the required level. All 59 of them. And I don’t blame the players. I presume they gave their best and worked their hardest. But if the quality isn’t there, it isn’t there. And selecting the right players is the manager’s job. Now, as I’ve said earlier, I can take relegations as part of football supporting. I can take bad seasons. It comes with the territory. A look at the final 2021/2022 table shows we escaped relegation by 13 points. The reality was that we were in serious danger of going down until the last couple of games – and part of that was down to a few clubs folding and a number of Step 5 clubs not meeting the requirements for promotion. We were lucky. It was the worst season in our 90 year history. We had the warning – and it needed to be heeded. Over the summer we lost the services of our best player – Mark Waters and a long term stalwart – Dean Hamlin. But in my opinion we failed to replace these players with equal or better. In fact our whole summer player acquisition filled me with trepidation. As far as I could see it looked like we had signed either untried players and our level or youngsters with some potential. 

 In the SLiB&W “Spaces” meeting in pre season I expressed my worries. And I suggested that we would be in the bottom 6 all season. I wasn’t prepared to be so wrong. And I know you can’t normally read too much into pre season games but our results and performances were pretty bad. But we were comforted by various players who were kind enough to engage with supporters at that time. But things didn’t improve. And 9 games later we were in the relegation zone. And out of all the cups. I think it was about now that Ashley Bosah’s credit ran out amongst a lot of fans. Me included. Now, I am not a “sacker”. I have very rarely campaigned for a manager to be sacked. I stuck with Frank Wilson in our relegation season and I even backed The Magician in his short stay in the “season of 3 managers”. But I felt that the manager has shown himself unable to sign good players. When I say good players – of course most of our players are good – I mean players with a proven track record in step 4 and step 3. This is a season where there are 4 relegation places. The bottom 2 are relegated automatically whereas the next 2 have a safety net of a playoff. After 9 games we were in the bottom 4. We started slipping further and further from safety – but there were still 2 teams adrift at the bottom – Guernsey and Merstham. So although in an awful position we still looked like we would still be in a playoff to save our season. But January saw us lose our 1st 6 games of the year and plummet to the bottom. But we still had a game in hand and still had to play a couple of the rubbish teams. But we couldn’t beat them either. Suddenly we were bottom by more than 3 points. We needed a win from somewhere. It was early February when the club acted at long last. But I’m afraid it was a fudge. 

 We brought in Andy Hunt – but retained Ashley Bosah to work together as co-managers. Whether the club were actively looking for a new co-manager for a while or whether Ashley Bosah selected the new man - its never been made clear. But with only 15 or 16 games to turn things around I feel the new man was on a hiding to nothing. We desperately needed a lot of new faces, but at the same time, most football people know that you can’t just ship in 11 new players and expect them to perform as a team straight away. And that is what panned out. Yes, the co-manager brought in a lot of players but with a couple of exceptions they weren’t players who had proved themselves at our level. And of course, with the exception of the surprise win against Binfield, the results didn’t improve. We failed to beat relegation rivals Bedfont Sports and Merstham. We were now 6 or 7 points adrift at the bottom as all of the other relegation candidates were picking up the odd wins and draws whereas we went on another 4 game losing streak. As March petered out there was an exodus of our most senior and experienced players for unknown reasons. It left us to play 2nd bottom Sutton Common Rovers in really our last chance to get a little boost to maybe set up a Great Escape. But we succumbed to a 5th straight defeat with a bit of a whimper. The mathematics might not have said so yet, but we were gone. With still half a dozen games left to endure. It was eventually the 1-1 draw with Chipstead which finally delivered the coup de grace. 

 Although you can’t really compare today’s football pyramid with the league structure of yesteryear, the last time we were playing at the 5th level of non league football was in 1909 as Tooting Graveney when we won the Southern Suburban League Division One. Now, in 2023/2024 we are back – probably in the Combined Counties League. What will life be like in that league I don’t know. Crowds will be a lot less, the quality of the players will probably be lower, and the standard of officiating – well lets not go there. Will we come straight back up? Well as far as I can tell, most relegated teams take time to readjust. Some clubs have returned a couple of seasons later but a few have just languished in that league for years – or worse. So I am not confident. All in all its been an awful couple of years for the club – the worst ever in fact. The whole management structure from the owner down to the team managers have failed badly. And failed to react when the warning signs were flashing large. Failed to react when supporters expressed their worries. Failed to react when the results and the tables were showing very clearly there were problems. The only people who have come out of this relegation with any credit are the supporters and the matchday volunteers who have somehow continued to keep the football club going and supporting the team. And will again next season.

 Roger Ramone 

 Very wise words. A big Thanks to Roger for sending this in

This is the end....

Well, the mighty Toots finally confirmed their relegation during the Easter period. Little sign of any type of fight back or intervention from the Football Gods who obliviously decided they had finally had enough of us and banished TMUFC to whatever step five league we get placed in. Such a sad end for the supporters and volunteers who have helped so much this season.

 91 years of History and Tradition now gone. I believe the club had one of the longest runs in the Isthmian League and now the supporters can look forward to going to grounds were most of the crowds will be in double figures. The huge effect on match day income and sponsorship will mean less money coming into to fund the team. Imagine being involved with arranging sponsorship from local businesses after the last two seasons we have had. Now try and imagine being the poor sod who has to run the Official Twitter page and other social media platforms. Tooting and Mitcham are often mentioned as being “Sleeping Giants” in the world of Non-League Football. One that can be better described as being in a coma after sniffing glue and doing LSD for a couple of decades. It could be rightly said the club has been in decline for many years but the drop down into Step 5 of the Footballing Pyramid is a new low for the club. My last game of this season was the home defeat to Leatherhead. Once big rivals and games to look forward to when the fixtures come out. They had an awful start to the season, but they made changes and bought new people in early enough to make a difference and finished just outside the play off places. Leatherhead supporters making up most of the crowd at Fortress Imperial as much of our support have given up on this campaign and stayed away. I personally have missed more games this season than in the past 12 since I first started coming regularly. I had far too many weekends ruined by results and bad performances to put myself and Mrs H through much more. She is the one who has to put up with mine and Ants miserable faces and deserved a break. I said way back in October last year that the club had major problems. Concerns were raised by the Supporters Club in the form of an open letter put out in November. I know people involved with the Members Club spoke up and of course not forgetting the fans who watch games from the stands and terraces who also voiced their opinions. Emails were sent and supporters spoke to those in charge in person and by phone. All seemingly to be ignored by those who could have changed things earlier on in the same way Leatherhead did. Official and unofficial social media accounts and WhatsApp groups are full of in fighting. Many rightly questioning the direction or more to the point, lack of direction the club is taking. The police were at the ground for the Leatherhead game. I take it, thinking there would be protests and possible crowd trouble but apart from two banners and the Bog End Choir vocally calling for change the afternoon was peaceful…. Which is more than could be said for the social media side of things as Ex Players, Supporters, Academy Pupils and Club Officials fought keyboard battles with each other. A number of Ex-Players are in contact with our supporters and are often speak with them. In other words, many of us in the stands and on the terraces possibly know far more than the Club thinks we do. I have had a number of conversations with various people telling me that “We” (The Supporters) need to work together with those in charge and that “We” (The Supporters) need to get more involved and that “We” (The Supporters) voices are important and are valued. If this is the case…. Why were “We” (The Supporters) totally ignored, and our views disregarded. I also know a number of fans who have stated they have had enough and will not bother going to games until there is a radical shake up behind the scenes. We’ve lost enough fans as it is over the last few years. To lose even more when things could have been avoided if action had been taken will have a huge effect on match days. TMUFC seem to take their supporters loyalty for granted as if fans will turn up on matter what. I think they are in for a shock next season and of course only have themselves to blame. If we go into next seasons campaign with the same naivety, stupidity, and total contempt for everything and everybody at Fortress Imperial, we will be in for a very hard time ahead. Of course, the aim will be to come straight back up, but don’t be like many I’ve spoken to, daft enough to think that we will have an easy ride in Step Five. The Combined Counties have some very strong sides who will take a great deal of pleasure and local pride in putting one over on a club like Tooting and Mitcham. I’ve seen a few Raynes Park Vale games and it looks as if they will swap places with us to become the big Non-League club in Merton. Their opposition in the games I’ve watched have looked more than capable of handling games in Step 4 and more than capable of giving us problems. Lots of very physical sides and frankly dreadful match officials. Plus look at resent cup fixtures against teams below us in the Footballing pyramid and check out the results…. Not good is it. Something to think about when we’re walking along side the busy A3 as lorries and fast cars go hurtling past to go and watch as play at Colliers Wood ground or walking through the dark dangerous cemetery as we make our way to see games at AFC Croydon’s ground, or waiting at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere waiting for a strange, coloured bus to drop us off 3 miles away from somewhere that makes South Parks ground look like Wembley Stadium. What has happened has happened. You can’t change history, although, it is possible to re write it years after the event. But I doubt if anyone will be able to put a spin the 2022 – 23 season into anything other than a total balls up. You can however learn from history. This is the lesson those in charge will need to take onboard if they want the club to regroup, rebuild and grow. We deserved to go down, no ifs or buts. A handful of good games far outweighed by some frankly embarrassing matches. I’ve said many times that our last relegation from the Isthmian Premiership down into the South-Central galvanised fans into helping out and we were able to turn things around off the pitch and make the most of a bad situation possibly turned out to be a good thing. But many of the fans who jumped in and volunteered back then have gone. Social Media accounts started up, now gone. Interest in the team locally now gone. Interest from local news groups gone. All of it was avoidable. The paragraph below is taken from a previous blog…. “There are people at the club who must now look at themselves in the mirror and look at their own role in this car crash of a season. Do they fully understand the part they themselves have played in the club’s demise. Is their lack of self-awareness of the dreadful situation that was allowed to take place on their watch gone straight over their heads. Supporters’ concerns raised earlier on dismissed as if their views were not important. People spoken to as if they were employees not fans. If we were shareholders in a company going through such a dreadful spell, would they still be in a job”. In truth, this is my third taste of relegation since following Tooting. The first season I started taking Anthony to games was when he was six years old, and they dropped down into the Isthmian South League back in the dark days of 2012. I remember walking out of the ground on many occasions with him in floods of tears and trying to explain about the highs and lows of supporting any football team. After bad performances on the pitch, we would walk up towards either the tram stop or up to the Cricket Green to catch a bus, stopping of in one of the local shops to by a Twix bar which we would share as we continued our journey home. A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Now I not saying that has anything to do with Tooting and Mitcham’s home form over the last few seasons but, it is rather a coincidence. 

 Up The Fucking Terrors !!!!!!!

Non League Paper Article 16th April 2023

Below is taken from the Non League Paper from Sunday 16th April 2023.

TOOTING & Mitcham United fans have slammed club chiefs for presiding over a demise which has seen their famous old club relegated to the lowest  level of football they have  ever played.

The Terrors saw their  long-standing association  with the Isthmian League  come to a end after Monday’s 1-1 home draw with  Chipstead confirmed their  relegation from the South  Central division.  In their proud 91-year  history, the club have never played as low as Step 5  but are staring demotion  to either the Combined  Counties League or Southern Counties East League  in the face following a disastrous campaign.

The team’s  last win was  against Binfield  in February, 11  games ago, and  since then they  have seen a  group of senior  players including wily keeper  James Shaw leave Imperial  Fields, disillusioned with  the club’s direction on and  off the field. Supporters club member Steve Harrold, a prominent voice on social media  as ‘Hackbridge Harry’, believes chairman Tony Cox  should shoulder the majority of responsibility. “It’s been the perfect  storm,” he told The NLP.

“The players are not doing  it on the pitch and the people who run the club don’t  seem to understand what it  takes to do that. They seem  to think ‘we’re a big club,  we’ll stay up’ but the truth  is we have been sleepwalking towards disaster and  they only tried to change  things when it was too late. “You can accept a bad  season but there are problems that have just been  ignored and now it’s too far  gone to make a difference.

“It would be wrong to  pick on one person when  it’s fair to say everyone  takes responsibility. I’ve  been going to watch for  about 16 years and this is  by far the worst period I’ve  experienced as a supporter. “We’re in a right state  and I’m very concerned  about supporter morale. It  all seems to be going terribly wrong and the chairman has allowed it to do so  through naivety. “If there is somewhere  to lay the blame, I’d pretty much put it there but  the players have to look at  themselves too.” Another fan, Anthony  Harrold, says he can even  see Tooting going to the wall  with the club  now competing  at Step 5. “We haven’t  been listened  to,” he said.

 “It’s as if the  club have just  seen supporters  as being there  to be negative and cause  problems. All we want to  do is help the club. I’m disillusioned and many feel  the same. It’s gone too far.  It wouldn’t shock me if the  club folded.” But first-team joint manager Ashley Bosah insists  the club can rise again  next term.

 “There is a disappointment from a management perspective in the  expectations we set out for  this season and where we  are now,” he said. “We have to look at what  we could have done better,  on reflection, like the recruitment. But there is a  lot of support inside the  club, they believe in what  I do although it is challenging mentally. “There is a plan in place  for next season for rebuilding and restructuring and  for us starting to go forward again.”

Yes, Surrender....

Sutton Common Rovers, a relegation six pointer with everyting resting on it's outcome..... And yet it was a total capitulation. A game that should have seen our players fighting for survival against the club above us in the league, a chance to claw back points and self pride. Instead we witnessed a game that seemed more like a pre season friendly or a end of season mid table clash between two clubs just seeing out the last few matches. Sutton Common Rovers have not had a good season, however they have done the double over Tooting in what probably were their easiest matches of this campaign. 



Tooting have lost a large number of senior players over the last few weeks. Were they pushed or did they jump. Who really knows. A number of them turned up to watch from the stands along with ex managers and coaching staff. What must they have thought ? The new players drafted in made no difference what so ever. They played with no passion perhaps knowing they weren't going to be here for too long before the end of the season and the relegation for which we now need miracles of almost Biblical proportions to avoid. Bringing so many new players in so late in the season who have no idea about the club and have no relationship with the fans looks to many watching as a pointless exercise. One of our ex-players now banging in goals left, right and centre at Farnham just rubbing salt into some very open wounds, while we struggle to even trouble opposition keepers.

There are people at the club who must now look at themselves in the mirror and look at their own role in this car crash of a season. Do they fully understand the part they themselves have played in the clubs demise. Is their lack of self awareness of the dreadful situation that was allowed to take place on their watch gone straight over their heads. Supporters concerns raised earlier on dismissed as if their views were not important. People spoken to as if they were employees not fans. If we were shareholders in a company going through such a dreadful spell would they still be in a job.

No matter where we end up next season and even if we do hopefully avoid the drop, this will take years to sort out on the pitch, behind the scenes and on the terraces and stands. It will take far more than inspirational twitter posts and hash tags to win our missing fans back 

Clubs at all levels take supporters loyalty for granted, but Tooting, seem simply naive to the fact that our fan base is shrinking with every game. The large away support that followed the club now getting smaller with each trip. A crowd of over 200 at the SCR game made up of many who travelled down the A217, and supporters from other clubs whose games had been postponed. Very few standing on the Bog End. Possibly the quitest they have ever been. Our normal vocal support resigned to yet another awful home performance. Morale crushed yet again as relegation seems a mere formality. 

Sitting in the bar after the game with the supporters of this great club, all looking stunned and at a loss to explain what was allowed to happen. As I said in my last blog. We are a community on the terraces and stands, united by their support of The Terrors. The club prides itself on it's work with local communities. Yet, we seem to have been forgotten. 

We Go Again... and again and again and.....

Well, just as you think things are starting to turn around and just as you think that there is light at the end of the tunnel, reality jumps up and kicks you straight in the nuts. 

In the world of Footballing quotes and sayings you can honestly say that Tooting and Mitcham have trumped anything “Spursy” that Tottenham Hotspur can do. But “We go again” at the next game (Spoiler Alert, we never do). The “club of progression” is firmly anchored at the foot of the league, seeming happy that the progression is into either the Combined Counties League or some other crappy Kent based division where there will be even less rivalries that in the division we have ended up in now. I’m as “sick as a parrot” which really does not tell the absolute story of how bad I feel watching our club sink faster down the footballing pyramid. 

The truth is. It doesn’t matter they we have played well against W&H or Basingstoke this season. We have still lost. When you look at the league table there is not a separate column saying, “Played Well” or another column saying, “we go again”. There is just a glorified spread sheet showing the simple fact is that we seem unable to win games, score goals or fight our way up the table. The changes made by bringing Andy Hunt in to work alongside Ashley is beginning to look, as many of us have said, too little and too late. If the club knew that Ashley needed help and support, why wait so long to bring it in. As I have said on Twitter and other Blogs the writing was on the wall after the away fixture at SCR. 

At the time of writing, we have 10 games to save ourselves. Not impossible but with our form and inability to get any form of run of results going…. Well, it doesn’t bear thinking about. 

The club is fond of bringing up it’s links with the various communities in and around South London and Surrey. But there is one community that seems to have been forgotten in all of this. It’s the community of people that follow the club both home and away. The community that watches games from the stands and terraces at Fortress Imperial. The community that in some cases travels to games from deepest Essex and Hertfordshire to watch Tooting. People within the community that also travel up from Surrey and Sussex for games, as well as those who live nearby. The community that has donated so generously to collections for the ongoing war in the Ukraine, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and closer to home, local food banks and children’s hospitals., St Georges Hospital, the MS Society, and other local charities. The community have has volunteered to help out at match days. The community that has put their hard earnt money into the club. The community that has helped the social media profile of the club grow over the last few years. The community that helps run web pages, Twitter and Facebook accounts and other online platforms. A community of people for whom watching Tooting and Mitcham is an important part of their social life. A chance to meet up and chat to friends. A place to have a drink and watch football. A chance to support local issues. A community of people from across Europe who have come together at games to support The Terrors and developed friendships with others whom without this (our) club may not have ever met. For a few, being a part of this community is the only social life they have. 

To the hierarchy at Tooting and Mitcham. Don’t ignore these people or disregard their views, Don’t just treat them as an endless supply of cash. Don’t just class them as an endless supply of unpaid volunteers. Don’t treat them as idiots who don’t deserve to be told what is happening behind the scenes….. because if we do get relegated. You are going to need these people, this community more than you’ve ever needed them before. 

Come On You Terrors !!!!!!

Another day in paradise.....

Well due to ill health and work commitments, I’ve not seen us play since the Uxbridge game at home in November, no bad thing you may think and perhaps you’re right. 

At the time of writing, this once proud Non-League Club sit rock bottom of the league and seemingly without any idea of how to change things. 



I care about this club, and it really upsets me the way the club has imploded so badly since the London Senior Cup victory and then failed to build on the crowds and new supporters we were getting that short time ago. The club missed a massive chance to build on the interest shown by newcomers. Covid hit the club badly, to lose two seasons including the income from the other interests at the ground would have had a huge effect on things. In many respects the ground is far too big for us. The facilities, rates, insurance, and maintenance must be a huge drain on finances. 

I don’t believe the club was set up to fail but I do think that at this moment of the club’s history it is failing dramatically. With Steve Adkins stepping away from things, Tony Cox has stepped in to oversee what’s going on. Although, to his credit he makes himself available to fans at games. But he seems totally oblivious to their feelings and worries about the club. Talking to people as if they were employees and not supporters who have been regulars at Tooting games for many years and therefore don’t understand or need to be told what has happened and why it has gone so disasterly wrong. 

I’ve spoken to Steve Adkins on a number of occasions about the club and his hopes for it. I don’t believe for one minute he is happy with the way things are going. Why would anyone want a business to go so badly wrong? Maybe it’s time for a fresh pairs of eyes and a knowledge of running sports events etc to take a look at the current business plan and advise on moving forward. I wonder if the links with the Members Club and running of the club as it stands holds things back. A bit of honesty wouldn’t go a miss…. Caroline McRoyal leaving also had a big effect. She has not been replaced and we miss her influence at the club. 

The Members club although providing match day volunteers, helping raise funds though events and sponsorship needs a major shakeup. The mantra seems to be “We’ll get a volunteer to do it” or “We’ll get supporters to pay for it” seems to be the answer to everything, forgetting that a large part of our fan base will have very little time or disposable income to help out with. Well, good luck with changing that that with the drop in crowds and interest in the club goes elsewhere. Their reply to the open letter written on behalf of the supporter’s clubs raising concerns about supporter morale seemed to be ignored and not taken seriously. I get the feeling that the fact of that losing games, no matter how well the team have played will wear down support so much that people will stop going to matches, they simply don’t seem to understand. 



I have spoken to other fans at games and socially who have also said that unless there is a rapid change in fortune, they will also stop coming to matches. A large number of our regular support has already stopped. Many of these are long term Tooting and Mitcham United fans who have followed the club for decades who watched from the stands and terraces of Sandy Lane. This is not due to any coordinated boycott from fans or any hidden agenda from any groups, this is simply that many supporters are feeling less and less involved with the club and feel the club has lost its way. Many of the people I meet and spoke with when I first started coming to games, people who welcomed me into the Terrors Family are no longer seen at any of our fixtures. For the club to succeed we need to get big crowds. The bigger the crowds the more income comes into the place. The bigger the crowds the more people will volunteer to help. The bigger the crowds the more interest on social media and local media outlets. All aspects of our supporter based social media has dropped away to nothing. No posts, No Blogs, Nothing from fans on Twitter apart from doom and gloom. Supporter morale is at an all-time low, which is quite a statement when you look back over resent history. You need success on the pitch, winning teams will bring the fans back and attract new fans along. Relying on Supporters loyalty to turn up no matter how badly the team is doing is very naïve and does not work. 

On the pitch. A very stop start season with games getting postponed and called off for a number of reasons. Plus, the dreadful run in all of the cup competitions means the team has not had the chance to play together continually for any period. The coaching staff have brought in a number of new faces, but lack of game time means the team often seems to play as if they don’t know each other. 

I like Ashley, I’ve always got on well with him and personally I think he is a great bloke. Do I think he should still be the manager; well results are hard to argue with and at most other clubs he would have been replaced by now. But are the links between the Academy and the running of the first team so intwined that it is impossible to run things differently. One thing I don’t want to happen is that if things get worse and we do end up getting relegated, that Ashley is not thrown under the bus so to speak and blamed for everything that happened. I spoke to him after the Supporters Club letter went out. Spending some time at the ground watching him working and interacting with the pupils and staff there. We spoke about the team, playing budgets at Tooting and some of the playing budgets that other teams in our division are working with. This is a very difficult league with some clubs able to work with huge budgets. Is he good for the academy? Absolutely 100% … I want the Academy to work. I want to see pupils get something from their time at the club with Ashley and his team. Being a father, I want to see kids given a chance to build their knowledge and confidence. I know people at St Matthews Project, who know him and have worked with him. All saying what a difference he has made to peoples lives though working there and at Tooting and Mitcham. 

But… I also want the team to do well, and I believe the vast majority of our support feels the same. Are we a football team with an academy or are we an academy with a football team? What is the long-term plan? Is there a long-term plan? Will we the supporters ever get any form of answer. 

Come On You Terrors !!!!!!

Bin Fire at Binfield

“If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs…. You obviously don’t understand the seriousness of the situation”. 

So here we are. Third from bottom, out of all the cups and it’s not even Christmas yet. My last blog was on the 19th of October, yet again another doom ladened, sad piece of literature more suited to the letters page of the Daily Mail than for fellow Terrors. But now I’m finding things seen to have gone even further backwards since fingering my keyboard back then. A deserved win against Bedfont Sports being the only highlight. Our home form is still mind blowing, we’ve lost to teams who have been shite but still managed to take all the points from us. I hate to say that some of the matches this season, have been some of the worst I’ve ever witnessed. Some very sad faces on the Bog End at full time. 

                   Happy Harry

 Away from Fortress Imperial. The game against local “Rivals” SCR was plain awful. A defeat to a team that probably won’t have an easier game all season and who I’d be very surprised would finish higher than mid table. I watched fellow supporters laughing with some kind of gallows humour to try and keep away the tears as the second half came to an end. SCR players celebrating as if they’d won the Champions League showed how much they wanted to put one over us. 

A handful of fans managed to get over to Walton and Hersham to see a much-improved side play possibly their best performance of the season so far. But too many players switched of during injury time after a quite baffling free kick was given against us and players were having a go at the match officials allowing W&H to score their winning goal in a game, we should have at least left with one point. A bitter pill to swallow after many had made the journey across Surrey on a day when the trains were on strike, some long bus trips and hefty cab fares paid out. But compared with other trips down to that neck of the woods when I’ve seen the travelling Toots outnumber the home fans on several occasions a very low turnout. 

Basingstoke, again defensive mistakes leading to in my opinion three of the four goals against us. Yes, we seemed to have two perfectly good goals disallowed and two penalty shouts turned down along with the two well taken goals scored. The heart-breaking thing was that when we got a goal back to make it 3-2 with about 5 mins to go, after getting a free kick which I think should have been played straight up field, somehow, we gave the ball away after messing around allowing Basingstoke to score from a penalty after their player was brought down…. How from an attacking option we ended up conceding another goal from a situation all of our own making? Players switching off. Last year about 70 Terrors possibly more made the trip, this year about 30 turned up. 

 Now for the bin fire at Binfield. Three goals conceded in 7 minutes when we were already 1 nil down pretty much sums up what a bin fire this season has been so far. I class myself as being lucky not to have been there and only following on social media, which dear reader was bad enough. 

 I am totally at a loss what has gone wrong. It has rightly been pointed out that we have not had a chance to build up any momentum as we have missed playing on a couple of Saturdays. Once due to a tragic accident outside the ground but the other occasions have been due to us going out of the two FA competitions leaving Saturdays free as the clubs, we were due to play progressed into the next rounds. 

A couple of wins could see us move up the table, but with our form at the moment, it’s hard to see where they will come from. A mid table finish is looking like the best option at the moment, the other option doesn’t bear thinking about. 

 My main worry and what the main part of the Blog is about is supporter morale. Along with the long-time fans of Tooting and Mitcham. We have to be honest and say, a lot of our fan base both home and away, we’ve borrowed from other clubs. Supporters from Palace, Fulham, Chelsea Arsenal, Grimsby, Lincoln, WBA, Norwich, Man City, Liverpool, Hartlepool, Newcastle, Leeds, Man United, Tottenham, West Ham and QPR can be found in the stands and on the terraces at Tooting Games. 

Many now watch us like me after becoming disillusioned with the modern game and many due to the cost of watching league football. 

Throw in the geographical nature of the local population that people simply can’t get to see their home teams after moving to South London. Tooting and Mitcham has become their new footballing home. Very easy for them to go and watch one of our many local neighbours. I’ve seen a few Terrors in the crowds at RPV and Carshalton games on the “free Saturdays” and I know of a few others who now go ground hopping for their football fix. 

One of the big reasons to go to games is to meet up with friends and have a laugh and socialise with everyone. I’m under no illusion that Toots will win every game, but it’s also about watching your team or adopted team play well, I’ve seen Tooting lose loads of games and thought that they were unlucky but at least they tried, and I’ve gone home feeling optimistic about things. These last two seasons since the London Senior Cup win have been hard to watch. It worries me that a lot of the fans who I used to see no longer turn up for games. This isn’t some organised boycott. People just can’t be bothered anymore. People talk about life in the Combined Counties and wonder if the club would still be able to get the crowds we get now. 

I’ll be at the game Saturday as I have some important Supporters Club business to deal with, but in truth, I could quite happily miss yet another crap day out watching us play. Even a win on Saturday must not allow people to think that things have changed, and we have turned a corner. Things need to change, and they need to change sooner rather than later. 

Up The Terrors !!!!