AFC Telford Win Promotion To Blue Square Premier!

It's been a long seven years but finally AFC Telford are back where they started in the non league premier division.

Telford are one of the UK's biggest towns without a football league club. A little known fact, but then again Telford is one of the UK's fastest growing towns.

Seven years ago Telford United FC was bought by Andy Shaw, a local businessman who wanted to make his mark on the town and so he set about building a nice shiny stadium for the football club. However things turned pear shaped when his building company went to the wall and the club was plunged into administration.

Why otherwise clever and smart business people think football clubs are a good investment is a modern day mystery. Think Portsmouth, West Ham, Luton.

Subsequently the club has to start in the northern league division one and over the next seven years gain promotion to the northern premier, and then the conference north, missing out on promotion via the play offs for the conference premier an agonising three times.

So here we are again for the fourth time trying to regain entry to the pinnacle of non league football - the blue square conference premier.

On Sunday I  left the house early with my youngest son and we walked down to the ground for about 1.30pm.

The game was a 3pm kick off so we gave it plenty of time and good job too because when we started looking for seats they were already becoming scarce and by 2pm the ground was filling up quick.

My eldest son texted me that he  just got into the ground in time and by 2.30 the turnstiles were closing and the ground was rocking. A couple of my sons mates left it too late and were unlucky to be turned away but we did tell them to give it plenty of time. Kid's eh? What can you do!

Nearly 5,500 people are crammed into the ground in the hope of watching the phoenix rise from the ashes.

Why do we watch sport? And why are we so enthralled by 22 men kicking a ball about a patch of grass?

Lower league football or "grassroots" football as they snobbily sneer is the heart of the community. As more and more pubs go to the wall there are fewer and fewer places for the community to come together.

In Telford we live on the old A5 which was built by the Romans as the main route from south east to north west so the closure of the "inn" or "travellers rest" is no more keenly felt than here.

When they used to rest the horses every mile or so on the long run to London or back what became known as the public house was the mainstay of the local community.

Not any more, now they are being turned into indian restaurants faster than you can say "onion bhaji". In many cases they are simply razed to the ground to provide another block of flats.

And anyway the relationship between parents and their children is becoming more and more fractured every day with the communication revolution and so using sport or football as an opportunity to do some bonding is the ideal tonic.

Put your mobile phones away, leave the laptop at home, put the ipad back in it's case and give the xbox a breather. Do something that doesn't involve staring at a screen.

Now, of course if you have been brought up in the world of the instant replay, not having a screen to look at gives you serious withdrawal symptoms. Everytime there is a goal scored or a contentious decision the conditioned screen watcher automatically looks for the replay screen and is left having to think for themselves when they can't find it. Was it or wasn't it?. Goal line technology, microphones... the march of technology is forever onwards permeating more and more of our conscious lives.

So football is the community coming together. It's a tribal thing that goes back to the days when we used to hunt for food. After Telford scored a penalty in the early stages of the match we delighted in taunting the visiting fans with chants of "your not singing anymore" when of course the reality is that the visiting fans could just as easily be working in your same office space such has been the pace of the commuting revolution.

Just as thoughts were turning to a tray of chips smothered in tomato sauce and a stodgy pie Telford managed to give away a soft penalty with just seconds to the half time whistle. 1-1.

Half time had us entertained with a ball juggling freestyler and before you knew it we were back in the thick of the action.

Telford were caught cold after the restart and at 2-1 down with 43 minutes to go we were already beginning to fear the worst.

And so it was that I had to sit through an uncomfortable twenty minutes with my 11 year old son keep chirping that we were going to lose and me saying that it wasn't over till the fat lady sings when on 80 minutes Telford equalised and the roar of relief could be heard a mile away.

Cue 10 minutes of frantic action as each team tried to kill the other off.

Guiseley made the mistake of trying to play for extra time and that was their undoing.

In the final minute of extra time up pops Phil Trainer to deliver a fantastic header and cue wild celebrations at the bucks head. AFC Telford are back in the conference premier!

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