SOFTLY SOFTLY MAKES A LOT MORE SENSE

By Howard Borrell

Two weeks ago the fans of Cambridge United organised a Fans United day at the Abbey Stadium to help raise money for their impoverished football club. Wrexham held the previous such event. Both clubs face a huge fight to not just stave off relegation but to continue to exist. Our visitors today know all about administration and its effects and recently recognised the efforts of their supporters last Summer when £250,000 was raised to help ensure the club's survival.

Phillip Marshall, acting Chair of the Bradford City Trust stated "The fantastic efforts of many people during the summer of 2004 demonstrates that Bradford City Football Club means an awful lot to people up and down the country. I am delighted that the Football Club, and in particular Julian Rhodes, has agreed to support this commemorative plaque. Efforts such as this should never be forgotten and are an important part of the Club's history and, hopefully, the plaque will serve as a reminder for generations to come".

Plaque or no plaque those involved everywhere will never forget the toil involved in working to achieve safety, stability comes later. On the same day as the rallying event at Cambridge we visited Brentford. They also provide a few lessons to learn. Despite ensuring the club came through their initial crisis the Supporters Trust that effectively runs the club is, not surprisingly finding it difficult to make any inroads into the accumulated debt. The Bees are overdrawn to the tune of £4.5m and have to meet interest payments of £300,000 a year. Brentford Executive Director, John McGlashan recently admitted "that in order to make progress, the Club need to develop Griffin Park and ultimately move to a new stadium".

McGlashan believes the important thing is keeping the club alive until all these problems can be resolved, and is pleased with the change in atmosphere around the club. "I've seen people with smiles on their faces this season," he said. "People have told me the change here in the last year is unbelievable, it sort of creeps up on you. I think that's the best thing we can do - put smiles on people's faces."

We're trying to do just the same thing here at Chesterfield in a sensible and structured way. It's just it's hard to keep people enthused when things seem to be slow moving but, now that the new local plan has been published, and the dream inches towards reality, maybe the fans will start to believe that our club can move forward. Just recently - and our poor home form from November to the Huddersfield game didn't help - there's been a lot of cynicism around. Many fans seem to feel we have a divine right to be in the top half of this division and that our inherited problems can be put to one side. They can't! We have to work through them. It seems like yesterday when Sam Hammam took over Cardiff City and promised the long suffering Welsh fans the world. Maybe comparatively similar to what we were promised five years ago. The Bluebirds fans will now regret that welcome. The same genial fellow that sold Wimbledon (the real version) down the river and pocketed over £30m in the process, having first sold the club to a group of Norwegians and then Plough Lane to Safeway, has now managed to preside over a £30m debt at Ninian Park. Not exactly first class stewardship but sometimes you just want to believe in a dream however implausible it is.

Staff are unpaid and the new stadium plans on hold as Cardiff City Council is still "waiting for assurances that the club has shortfall funding to enable the scheme to go ahead. We have yet to see a viable business plan and, if the club has financial problems, it could affect its ability to secure the finance" explained a council spokesman.The last Cardiff accounts showed a loss of over £8m but a dividend payment to Hammam of £235,000 and interest on his loans of 10.75%. Quite legal but how reprehensible!

It's easy to be impatient and critical but this article highlights the frailties that still abound in our crazy football world where common sense is at a premium and pragmatsim is just as rare.We'll keep plugging away and maybe someday soon our patience will be rewarded. In the meantime you can help by cheering when you may be tempted to jeer and also to make supportive comments on the new local plan (comments welcomed right up until Thursday 14 April) that will aid our relocation and give a new pride to not just just fans of Chesterfield FC but the whole town. Even better why not bring a friend to the next home game against Bournemouth and help boost the club's finances because without sustained and improved support our ambitions become so much harder to achieve.