I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked at most levels of football in one way or another, from full international and the Premier League to the lower steps of the non-league game.
Successes for my clubs have been rare, save for Derby County winning promotion to the Premier League in 2007 (let’s just gloss over what happened afterwards!) and Notts County winning the League Two title in 2010 when I was their programme editor.
But today marks the tenth anniversary of the conclusion of one of my favourite seasons involved in football – Fakenham Town winning promotion as runners-up of Division One of the Eastern Counties League.
In the spring of 2013, when I was moving to Norfolk to live with Emma, I decided to have a look at the local non-league scene, notably the ECL’s second tier which housed Downham Town, Fakenham Town and Swaffham Town, all within an easy drive of where we would be living in King’s Lynn.
I’d paid a visit to Downham and received a friendly welcome, then a couple of weeks later I took a trip to watch Fakenham on a chilly afternoon which would end with a snow-covered pitch.
I was wearing my big Derby County coat, which led to a conversation with Andy Payne, one of Fakenham’s committee members and a big Norwich City fan, the Rams having just signed Chris Martin on loan from the Canaries.
While we were nattering away and I was explaining who I was and why I was there, I saw a notice pinned up saying that the club were looking for a new programme editor and press officer for the following season.
Perfect, I thought, so I told Andy a bit more about myself and he went off to fetch the chairman, Geoff Saunders, to introduce me.
The rest, as they say, is history.
So I kicked off my role properly during pre-season ahead of the 2013/14 campaign, and what immediately struck me was how welcoming and approachable everyone around the club was right from day one.
People I hadn’t yet met made a point of introducing themselves to me at my first friendly, and I was particularly keen to spend some time with the manager, Wayne Anderson, a familiar face in the local footballing scene and someone I’d heard about from friends in the area.
“Come with me in the car on Tuesday night,” Wayne said to me, offering me a lift to the forthcoming midweek friendly. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”
That trip to AFC Sudbury, one of Wayne’s old clubs – he had once played in an FA Vase Final for the Suffolk side, in the days when they were taking place away from Wembley – proved to be a great night out, both in terms of learning more about Fakenham Town, meeting some of the players, and also finding out more about what sort of a brilliant character the Gaffer (I still call him that to this day when I see him) would be to deal with.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make the opening day, a 1-0 defeat at home to Whitton United, and the first week of the season proved to be something of a false start.
Losing to the eventual champions was followed by a 2-2 draw up the A47 at Dereham Town Reserves, then came a 4-1 FA Cup defeat at higher-level Huntingdon Town.
It was a challenging start but then things turned around quickly with back-to-back emphatic wins, beating Downham 6-0 at Clipbush Park on the Tuesday night and then topping that with an 8-0 victory against Cornard United, also on home turf.
Striker Kyle Plumb bagged four against Downham and another against Cornard, with the goals shared around against the Suffolk club, as the Ghosts played some delightful football at times.
Fakenham would be prolific goalscorers across the campaign, particularly during the first few months, and after continuing their good form over the next couple of matches they went properly goal crazy away to AFC Sudbury Reserves.
This time they went all the way to double figures as they took the young Sudbury second string apart from the first whistle, centre-half Matthew Gilchrist marking his birthday with a hat-trick, while Fakenham came close to making it 11-0 when they struck the post in stoppage time.
My knowledge of all of the finer incidents of matches isn’t quite that in-depth, by the way. I can remember this game and Gilly’s treble but I had to consult my programme archive to find out about hitting the woodwork!
There was a second league defeat of the season at the start of October, 1-0 late on away to Halstead Town, by which time Anderson’s men – and their Essex opponents – had marked themselves out as forces to be reckoned with at the top end of the table.
Fakenham had finished fifth in 2012/13, continuing their trend of improving their position each year since Anderson’s appointment in January 2010, and they were looking to kick on once again.
The emergence of teenagers Josh Youngs, Danny Williams, Ashley Jarvis, Shane Akers and Jake Wiseman from the club’s youth ranks had been a real plus, allied to the arrivals of Matty Franks and Matty Dye from Downham and the team developing generally.
And the capture in the summer of experienced striker Robbie Harris had been a big coup. I had seen Harris play a few times for King’s Lynn Town a couple of years previously and he stood out then, so I was hoping that he would show that form in a Fakenham shirt.
He did that and then some, helping to elevate the other members of the squad, particularly his strike partner Plumb, who was visibly benefitting from Harris’s support.
The goals continued with a 5-0 win at Downham and a 4-4 draw at home to Braintree Town Reserves, the latter swinging one way then the other with Fakenham 2-0 up, 3-2 down, 4-3 in front, and then conceding an equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
The following week saw another down-then-up encounter, this time at Haverhill Borough, which saw the home side 2-0 up early on with the wind at their backs before Robbie Harris got one back ahead of half-time.
Jake Wiseman’s 20-yarder levelled it up ten minutes from the end, and with time almost up Fakenham got a corner on the left, perfect for a James Page in-swinger with his right foot.
James’s dad Mike, the vice-chairman, turned to me and said: “With this wind behind him he could score this!” It wasn’t an entirely serious suggestion, but James did exactly that to put the seal on a comeback of great character against gritty opposition.
A few days later came a stunning performance in the League Cup, travelling to Eastern Counties Premier Division side Diss Town and knocking them out on their own turf with a 5-2 win after extra time.
Five teenagers started at Diss, according to my programme report, with six on the pitch by the end with the debut as a substitute of 16-year-old Dion Frary.
The League Cup run ended in the next round, going down 5-0 at Kirkley & Pakefield – another Premier Division side.
That tie came three days after a prestige home fixture in the Norfolk Senior Cup against Norwich City’s under-21 team.
Kyle Plumb put Fakenham in front in the first half but the young Canaries quickly equalised through Cameron McGeehan, who has gone on to have a long career in the professional game, appearing as high as the Championship with Barnsley and currently in League Two with Colchester United at the time of writing.
Norwich went in front ten minutes from time with a freak own goal and then wrapped it up on the break late on through Shaquille McDonald, who signed for Derby County’s under-21 squad the following year.
The programme squad list for Norwich that day lists a few interesting names, notably: goalkeeper Remi Matthews, who made a substitute appearance in the Premier League for Crystal Palace against Liverpool in December 2023; Harry Toffolo, a regular in the top flight for Nottingham Forest until receiving a lengthy ban in the summer of 2023 for breaching betting regulations; twin brothers Jacob and Josh Murphy, who have both played regularly in the Premier League and Championship; and striker Carlton Morris, currently leading the line in Luton Town’s bid to retain their Premier League place.
The arrival of December brought with it some challenging fixtures, a sequence the Ghosts managed to negotiate pretty well on the whole, starting with Kyle Plumb’s wonderful winner and a few top-class saves from goalkeeper Tommy Rix to earn a 1-0 success at Team Bury.
Then came a top-of-the-table clash at Whitton, who had maintained their place at the summit for near enough the whole campaign up to this point and were looking to consolidate their advantage against Fakenham.
Whitton went into an early lead but the visitors were on terms almost immediately through Robbie Harris, before going on to have by far the better of the first half.
The crucial goal came early in the second period and it went to Whitton, although once more Fakenham dominated from that point onwards but they couldn’t find the equaliser they deserved.
I remember thinking after the match that the Whitton celebrations were almost as if they had actually won the league, so jubilant they were at doing the double over one of their promotion rivals.
As things turned out, had just one of those two results against the team from just outside of Ipswich been reversed, it would have been Fakenham ending up as champions instead.
Once more, however, Fakenham bounced back well, ending the year with two successive home victories during a period which provided me with some challenges on a personal note.
A few days after the Whitton match, I had a clumsy fall at home and managed to break my foot, necessitating a month in plaster and on crutches.
Sympathy (well, mocking!) was forthcoming from Wayne Anderson and others, but what I said earlier about being made welcome really rang true during this time.
It was always ensured that I was sorted out for transport, for away matches as well as those at Clipbush Park, and people went out of their way to make sure I was safe and comfortable, even when we visited other clubs.
Although the incident didn’t go without the usual mocking you would expect from a football club. Wayne once offered (and, knowing him, probably tried) to give me a piggy-back ride from the social club, while one day we were sat in the stand on the far side of the ground in front of a couple of the unavailable players.
It had taken me a little while to get around there and about midway through the first half, I can’t remember if it was Sam Garner or Lee Day – certainly one of those two as they were present – a voice shouted down to ask me if I was having a cup of tea at half-time.
I replied that I was, and was told: “Well you’d best start going now then, it took you so long to get around here!”
January provided two more wins, home and away against Long Melford, but then the bad weather really kicked in and led to five successive Saturday fixtures being called off.
It was a frustrating period for everyone involved with the club, supporters and players finding themselves with little to do on their Saturday afternoons, and the Ghosts wouldn’t be back in action until 8 March.
A rusty 0-0 draw at home to Haverhill Borough was followed by a 1-0 defeat at Needham Market Reserves, the two results setting nerves jangling a bit among the coaching staff.
I remember talking with Wayne, assistant manager Neil Jarvis, and goalkeeping coach David Martin about the state of play around this time.
Wayne seemed like he was feeling a bit twitchy, even if he didn’t admit as such, but I remained convinced that as long as we could get back on form quickly – I use ‘we’ as I really felt a full part of the club by this point – we would finish second.
Whitton were looking pretty much uncatchable at the top with their relentless form, while behind them the other two promotion places were heading for a battle between Fakenham, Saffron Walden Town, Halstead, Ipswich Wanderers and Swaffham.
Two draws had already been secured in the local derbies against Swaffham, plus another point in December at home to Saffron Walden, while we still had the visit to Essex to come, along with both matches against Ipswich and then a home meeting with Halstead on the final day.
It was all still up for grabs.
I mentioned earlier about dealing with Wayne from a media perspective – he was absolutely first-class, never more so than after the Needham Market game.
I wasn’t able to go, and when that would happen Wayne and I would normally catch up on the Sunday to go over the necessary.
This time we knew in advance that our schedules wouldn’t align as he was busy too, so he said he would call my voicemail on the Sunday morning and tell me everything I needed to know.
True to his word, he did just that – six solid minutes of him talking, completely unprompted, and filling my notebook for the rest of the week!
I’ll never claim to be the most tactically astute watcher of football, but Wayne, Jarvo and ‘Digit’ (I never did get to the bottom of that nickname!) were always happy to talk with me about the finer points of the game, and to get my thoughts.
Wayne couldn’t make a home match with Debenham LC in late March so left his able coaches in charge, but then spent most of the afternoon on the phone to me for updates and observations.
We won that one 2-1, not that I had any input, although I did offer something that led to a couple of goals in the away visit to Saffron Walden in April.
Wayne and I would often sit in the dugout before matches, talking through the day, watching warm-ups, and he would regularly ask me if I’d spotted anything with the opposition.
I did at Saffron Walden – I’d noticed that their goalkeeper was dropping everything during crossing practice, and was just looking jittery with the ball coming into the box, even under no pressure, so fed this back to the Gaffer.
We had gone in front early on only to be pegged back before half-time, then we trailed 3-1 before the hour.
And then came the upping of the crossing barrage, which paid dividends as home stopper Paul Wood fumbled Ashley Jarvis’s header over the line, before Josh Youngs quickly levelled it up from another delivery into the box.
Unfortunately we fell behind in the first minute of stoppage time, then Lee Day saw his penalty saved in the tenth added-on minute of a dramatic afternoon, but in the final equation the defeat wouldn’t prove costly.
In fact, it proved to be our final defeat of the season, coming in game five of a run of six successive away fixtures.
The sequence had been started by a hard-fought goalless draw at Ipswich Wanderers, the Ghosts doing superbly well to nullify the division’s leading scorer – home striker Remi Garrett.
Wins at Debenham and Cornard followed, and in the car on the way to the latter I pointed out to Wayne that we needed five goals to bring up 100 for the season in all competitions.
We decided that, should the game be secure and a late penalty come our way, responsibility for bringing up the century would be handed to Danny Williams – the young midfielder, who had yet to score for the first team.
Somehow, that was exactly what happened. Up stepped the 18-year-old only to fire wide from 12 yards, not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things. And Danny did eventually get his goal the following season with an excellent shimmy and finish in a memorable 2-0 win at Hadleigh United, the back-to-back Premier Division champions.
That result at Cornard left us in second, crucially with a five-point lead over fourth-placed Ipswich.
The run on the road concluded with a 3-0 win at Braintree Town Reserves and then it was time for the final three matches as the promotion race reached an exciting conclusion.
It began with the Easter period and a potentially crucial home game with Ipswich Wanderers on the Saturday.
If the first meeting between the two had been tight, this encounter proved far more open with both teams having good chances, although it once again ended with a goalless draw.
The big moment went the visitors’ way in the first half, but Tommy Rix produced a superb save from Remi Garrett’s penalty.
It was a game that could have gone either way, but in the end the result suited the Ghosts quite nicely given events elsewhere and we knew that wins from the final two matches would see us over the promotion line.
Just 48 hours later we were on the road to Great Yarmouth Town for Easter Monday by the seaside where, if everything went our way, we could essentially wrap up second spot, such was our goal difference.
Matthew Gilchrist opened the scoring with his tenth goal of the season, a brilliant return for a defender, and although we were pegged back by Josh Youngs’s own goal we were back in front before the break thanks to a stunner by Robbie Harris, his 25th of the campaign.
The second half was more of an attritional battle and Tommy Rix came up trumps against a penalty once again, producing a fine save just after the hour, and six minutes from time his stop from a glancing header was right out of the top drawer to preserve the lead.
That was my cue to wander around to the dugouts. Wayne had said to me before the match that if promotion was on late on then I was to go over and keep him updated.
Halstead were only drawing at Saffron Walden, that match finishing level with the final whistle blowing while we still had a couple of minutes to play, which meant that only Haverhill Borough from outside the top three could match our points tally – but as our goal difference was around 30 better than theirs, it would have been effectively all over.
We got the result, sparking some great scenes of celebration as the players lapped up the moment they knew that they had secured a Premier Division place.
All that was left was 26 April 2014 – the final day at home to Halstead – and although we had dropped to third in midweek thanks to Ipswich Wanderers winning their game in hand there was never any danger of us not finishing in one of those coveted promotion spots.
The visiting players had given Fakenham a guard of honour as the boys entered the pitch, and what was in the end a comfortable three points was secured through Jake Wiseman in the first half and Robbie Harris in the second.
Ipswich’s defeat at Saffron Walden saw us go back above them to finish second, and the celebrations really started at the ground before continuing in Norwich later that evening.
I couldn’t afford to go to Norwich but to once again show just how accommodating everyone had been to me, it was decided that my drinks could be funded by the players’ fines kitty.
It wasn’t something that I had requested or indeed expected, but I was grateful, and a brilliant night out was had by all. It was great to relax and unwind with the boys, and to talk to them away from a matchday environment as a hard slog of a season was marked in style.
My involvement with Fakenham continued through to the end of the following season, during which we comfortably held on to our place in the Premier Division without ever being in danger of relegation, before I had to step back due to increasing time commitments in other areas of my personal and professional life.
I still went to matches when I could – Fakenham Town became as much of a social activity as anything else – and I was back as part of the ‘staff’ for the final day of 2015/16.
I had travelled to Walsham-le-Willows with Geoff Saunders, and after sorting out the team sheets an hour before kick-off Geoff informed me that Wayne had decided I was to be on the bench.
Now, I should just set the scene properly here. I wasn’t about to make my debut, but instead I was there to be on top of the details of the final-day relegation shoot-out.
We began the day second from bottom, needing to win to stand any chance of survival. Even then, that would have been dependent on third-bottom Thetford Town not picking up three points in their match, while Swaffham in the first of the safety spots also needed to lose.
As I took my place in the dugout, Wayne said to me: “I want you refreshing Twitter constantly for the scores. I know you can just work it out in your head straight away, so I don’t need to worry about that!”
We were up against it, and although results elsewhere were going our way at half-time we were still goalless and needing to find a breakthrough from somewhere.
It came a few minutes into the second half, Kyle Plumb scrambling the ball over the line from a set piece – I’m not sure if it actually reached the back of the net, but they all count.
From there it was about giving nothing away on the pitch, while off it I was furiously powering through my iPhone’s battery to see what was happening in the other big matches.
Thetford were taking a heavy beating, so we had discounted them as a threat, and it was down to Swaffham, the third element of the three-way Norfolk battle to stay up.
Updates were sporadic at best but we became aware that they were drawing 2-2, so the tension was growing the longer the afternoon was going on.
Then, with not long left to play at Walsham, news broke that Swaffham had gone 3-2 behind. I quietly informed Wayne as he had requested to keep things between ourselves, rather than risk distracting the players from their primary job.
They completed their work with a 1-0 win just as we got confirmation of Thetford’s defeat, then we were in the hands of Swaffham. Would our big local rivals pull one last rabbit out of the hat?
An agonising couple of minutes followed. Wayne, Jarvo and the players took themselves to the other side of the pitch to wait together for the outcome that would decide their fate.
Then we got the result we were after. Swaffham had lost 3-2, and we were safe. The celebrations started, although not to the level of after promotion two years earlier – this time it was more relief than anything else.
As things later turned out, Swaffham and Thetford were both given reprieves from the drop by the Eastern Counties League, although I can’t recall why.
Fakenham would have ultimately stayed up regardless of events at Walsham, but that takes nothing away from the memories of another great day. We had done it on the pitch, and nobody can ever take that away from the players.
It’s a been good couple of years since I last went to see Fakenham play. Sadly I don’t get the chance to go up there very often now, but I still keep a close eye on their progress.
They have become established in the Premier Division under Andy Cunningham, who is now in charge, and they have had a couple of decent runs in the FA Vase too, including this season eliminating Newport Pagnell Town – who had beaten the Ghosts on the way to winning at Wembley in 2022, and had been runners-up in 2023.
I think it’s now only Josh Youngs and Alex Walpole still involved at first-team level from my days, but there are a good few familiar faces still around off the pitch, notably Neil Jarvis.
A word at this point for Jarvo – a man who is very much Mr Fakenham Town, having played for the club for many seasons, including winning the Norfolk Senior Cup at Carrow Road in the same team as former Watford, AC Milan and England striker Luther Blissett in the mid-1990s, before moving into coaching and management, working with the first team and leading the under-18s in various capacities since.
The father of former Norwich City players Rossi and Ryan Jarvis, Neil was in charge of Fakenham’s under-18s when they reached the first round proper of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 2014/15, losing at home to AFC Wimbledon. He is still involved at youth and senior level today, and always has time for a chat if I see him at a match. A proper Ghosts legend.
Clipbush Park is a tidy little ground, having been built as recently as the 1990s, and it is a very pleasant place to go and watch a game of football.
I really must make it my mission to return soon to a location that, spiritually at least, remains my Norfolk footballing home.
Date of upload: 26 April 2024
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