Concord Rangers Season Review

Well that was fun wasn't it?  You ask any Concord Rangers supporter for their view of the 2018/2019 season, it will be "well that was a right fucking laugh."  You can look at the seats issue, not being able to play in the play-offs, points being deducted and the manager leaving at the end of the season, but all of that shouldn't hide the fact, that I've never enjoyed a season of football, or had a laugh at football matches then this season, and that's what football should all be about, shouldn't it?

Let's go right back to the start of the season, when Sammy Moore and Jack Midson brought an entire new team to our club.  Now I was initially sceptical of this approach, but was proved completely wrong in the early months.  Player's such as Sammy Blackman, Tyrone Sterling, Alex Wall and Midson himself hit the ground running.  I'm only a fan of five seasons now, but if I was asked to do my all-time Concord Rangers team, those four would be in it. We stood toe-to-toe with the best sides in the league in the opening months of the season.  We turned Thames Road into a fortress.  An undoubted highlight was watching us destroy Chelmsford in 45 minutes.  I'd never seen an opposition team mentally and physically fold on the pitch before, but Chelmsford did in that first half.  As a Concord fan it was exhilarating, but in all honesty, it was fucking hilarious. 

As the season progressed, some player's came and went.  Sean Clohessy, Billy Knott who contributed solidly to the team's good start, where effectively replaced.  That has been an issue with Concord in the past, that good player's were never really adequately replaced, but player's such as Tosan Popo, Ahmed Abdulla were brought in, and the team rolled on.  Part of this impressive run was Liam Nash, and during his 3 month loan spell, that boy left nothing on the pitch.  He was far too good to play at our level, and credit must go to the previous management team for persuading him to play at this level.  When we attacked teams with a front three of Wall, Midson and Nash we were exceptional.  We could give any team in the league a game, and we did.

Now I'm not party to what went on off the field during the season, nor do I particularly want to be.  All I care about is that when a Concord Rangers team takes the pitch, they all give 100% and enjoy the game.  Despite all the setbacks every player and coaching staff gave their all, you could tell it on the player's faces. It meant something. The 2018/2019 season meant something to all of us.  Gates increased.  Yes the same old faces, were there, but coming through the gates were younger fans.  Now Concord have always struggled to attract fans, and it's a hard one to resolve and understand.  The team always try their best, you don't get any trouble at games, there's a friendly atmosphere.  These lack of fans is always a sense of mirth to our rivals at Billericay and Chelmsford, in fact I think it winds them up more than us.  They seem to take great fun in attacking the club on social media "you've only got 3 fans" "You're never be a big club, your ground is rubbish."  The reason behind these faceless and snide attacks, is that this season they were scared of us.  Both these teams could not beat us on the pitch in the league, so they lashed out on something Concord are fully aware of. Yes, we didn't have enough seats to take place in the play-offs, but genuinely I don't think us fans particularly cared.  We had spent the season winding up these so-called bigger teams, and beaten them on the pitch.

Now I enjoyed chatting to Sammy, Jack and Darren after the matches.  It made a pleasant change from previous management, who hid away socially after the game, not wanting to chat to the people who had given up their money and time to follow the club.  Every single player who stayed after games, was happy to chat to you.  They were also happy to give up their time to chat to the youth teams, passing on their years of experience and knowledge to hopefully the next batch of Concord players. It was always nice to see Sammy and his family enjoying their time at home games, before and after games, and whatever the future holds for Sammy, I wish him all the best for the future.

I'm not sure what this review was really about to be honest, I just wanted to get something in print, to really thank the player's and the staff for a brilliant football season.  I myself had some worrying family news to deal with during the majority of the season, and those times spent at the football watching an excellent football team allowed me to enjoy the moment, and take a bit of a break from the more stressful stuff in life.  So in finishing I'd just like to say thankyou to Sam Beasant, Jed Smith, Aron Pollock, Frazer Shaw, Tosan Popo, Lee Minshull, Conor Essam, Tyrone Sterling, Ahmed Abdulla, Sam Blackman, Danny Green, Joe Gardner, Joan Luque, Taylor Mahoney, Billy Knott, Sean Clohessy, Liam Nash, Jack Midson, Alex Wall and Sam Ashford.