Off to Margate FC

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I thought I’d post a quick update about changes in my footballing circumstances. If nothing else it may explain why I now refer to my club as “Margate FC” rather than “Whitstable Town”, as I used to.

Shortly after my last blog post I made an appearance on Whitstable Town’s Belmont Banter podcast. I got to talk about my experience of starting out as an opposition scout.

Tony Rouse was kind enough to invite me on and it was a lot of fun to do. Tony talks to anyone connected with Whitstable Town, so on that front, I qualified.

If you’re interested you can read about how I started here, or even better give the podcast a listen. It’s about 30 minutes long and you can skip the bits at the start where I talk about being a high school goalkeeper. Unlike the 15-year-old version of me, you won’t miss anything.

That was all a couple of days after the Whitstable Town manager stepped down. So at the same time as talking about how great it was helping Whitstable things were a bit up in the air. I was trying to work out whether I worked for Whitstable Town, or whether I worked for the manager.

And if it was the latter (which in hindsight is more accurate) it meant I was without a club. Which is a worrying position for someone obsessed (dependent?) on watching football every Saturday.

Thankfully I wasn’t in limbo for long.

A couple of weeks later, through some obvious connections I won’t go into here, I was lucky enough to get an offer from Margate FC. That’s where I am now.

Margate FC home shirt
Almost certainly the best football shirt in non-league, if not the world. And a great band too.

Margate is a Step 3 club, which to anyone in the professional game, or even to general football fans, might not seem like much.

But to me it’s like joining Manchester City. Overnight I became a Vance Bola fan, a Libertines fan, and a Margate-the-place fan. Even now, 11 reports later, I’m still thrilled.

Perhaps I’ll get into the differences at Step 4 and Step 3 at some point. For now I’ve redesigned my colour-coded spreadsheet and am on the road every weekend watching teams like Worthing, Hornchurch, and Cheshunt. Which is apparently pronounced “Chezzunt”.

So that’s how things stand right now. Up the Gate, as we Margate fans like to say.