THE GAFFER

@NonLeagueNorth Non League Yorkshire www.nonleagueyorkshire.com

James Grayson is “The Gaffer”

Most football supporters will admit that they regularly say that they could do a better job than the manager of their particular club.

It is the dream of every user of the computer game Football Manager to actually stand in the dugout in a real life scenario.

Well at the end of August, I got thrown in the deep end as I was given the task of running the Garforth Town Legends team for a Bank Holiday Sunday fixture, which was to raise money for the Yorkshire Cancer Centre Appeal, in memory of Garforth supporter Ralph Backhouse.

Now obviously running a Legends side for a charity game is not as intense as the job that Lee Ashforth had at Harrogate Railway, along with every semi-professional manager out there.

But there is still more to it than 90 minutes and it is no easy task.

Getting players is the hardest part and the task was made even more difficult by the fact that any Evo Stik players that wanted to play were ruled out because they were playing Saturday and Monday on the Bank Holiday weekend.

Initially some of those Evo Stik lads were going to do 15/20 minutes, but their clubs put a stop on that idea.

At one point I had 26 players coming along. That figure soon dropped. Players realised that they had double-booked or they were on holiday and had forgotten when they agreed to play. Every-time my mobile rang or beeped in the weeks leading up to the game I thought it was a player dropping out - something I am sure that a lot of managers of NCEL, local Saturday leagues and Sunday league sides have similar visions of each week.

Fortunately, I actively looked for players, even when I didn’t need to.

A few of the current Garforth first team players were recruited,

along with three of the under 21s so when the day came around we ended up with 18 lads - not bad for a charity game and it was more than the opposition had.

All pictures in this article by Mark Gledhill Photographs

The game came around and I won’t deny that I didn’t have much sleep, due to the worry about players dropping out. I got to the ground earlier than I needed to and it was long wait until 1pm when the players finally started arriving. From there, the afternoon flew by.

It was an emotional one too. Ralph was a major part of the club and his passing in February was so sudden that it has taken a long time for the club to get over it.

Ralph was always positive. Even when the opportunity to be negative was there, he wasn’t. As along players gave 100% he was happy.

This was the message I relayed to the players prior to kick off and there’s no doubt that we got more than that.

The 11-2 victory was nice, but it was the reaction of the crowd that I got a buzz out of. The picture of Lee Connor running to the crowd after scoring a worldly sums the day up for me as everyone has a smile on their face, including Ralph’s brother-inlaw Royce.

The effort from the players was phenomenal. The game could have been played at a lethargic speed. Instead we got one that was played at 100mph. Despite the score-line, Bird in Hand Rangers gave everything they had. It was a fitting tribute to Ralph from start to finish.

All the worry and hard work to get a team out was worth it, in the end…but I won’t be applying for any manager jobs any time soon though! James Grayson