Category Archives: Vanarama National League

Motorama to take over as National League title sponsor

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Motorama, sister company of FWA partner Vanarama, will take over the title sponsorship of the National League from the start of next season.

This new agreement will build on the success of the Autorama Group’s previous work with the National League through Vanarama as National League title sponsors since 2013. The sponsorship, along with support for the FWA through our annual Golf Day and regular National League columns, propelled Vanarama into the homes of millions of people around the UK, driving huge engagement with the brand and the wider football community.

Motorama (a new car leasing company) will take the naming rights from the start of the 2019/2020 season – to encourage real football fans to STOP buying cars and to START leasing them with Motorama.

The growth of car leasing has been huge in the last three years and is expected to grow exponentially as customers become less interested in show rooms, and more comfortable with online purchases. In fact, 67% of customers that lease with Motorama don’t test drive the vehicle they choose to lease. Drivers are now leaning towards car ‘usership’, rather than ownership – making getting a car as simple as getting a mobile phone, with the same opportunity to upgrade every couple of years.

Autorama’s extension of the existing partnership with the National League under the Motorama brand will ensure that along with the National League they can take the competition to the next level. It signifies Autorama’s commitment to remain firmly at the heart of football – and engage football’s most committed fans. The Motorama National League will continue to receive incredible exposure, with BT Sport broadcasting live matches and highlights for the next three years – allowing even more opportunity for Motorama’s leasing proposition to outstrip tired and dated traditional car-buying.

Andy Alderson, Autorama Group CEO, said:  “We’re delighted to be continuing our relationship with The National League. With cars making up 88% of new registrations in the UK, the new sponsorship will appeal to a wider audience within the followers of National League football and provide a great opportunity to elevate and scale the partnership we currently enjoy with the National League. It will allow Motorama to enjoy the prestige of being title sponsor of one of the UK’s most popular football leagues and get its message that people CAN lease the cars they want – rather than settle for something they can find on a used dealer’s forecourt – to an engaged audience of enthusiastic fans.”

Previous title sponsor Vanarama found title sponsorship of the National League a game-changing decision, with customer engagement and intent-to-use the commercial vehicle leasing brand sky rocketing as a result. Vanarama now has the highest awareness in its market, thanks largely to the Vanarama / National league partnership which has reached a peak of cooperation and mutual benefit most sponsorship partnerships can only dream of.

Michael Tattersall said:  “Following five seasons as the Vanarama National League, we are delighted to be signing up for a further three seasons as the Motorama National League. Our relationship with the Autorama Group goes from strength to strength and is a classic case of football sponsorship delivering value and helping to create a leading consumer brand.”

For more on Motorama please visit: https://www.motorama.com/

Vanrama Column – Attendances

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The Vanarama column – Attendances, by Glenn Moore

It was the crowd for Truro City’s ‘home match’ against Torquay United that caught the BBC’s attention. Not many matches in the Vanarama National League South attract 2,760 ‘away’ fans – or 62 ‘home’ ones.  The reason was not hard to discern. Truro have been playing in exile in Devon with their Treyew Road ground, 100 miles to the west across the Tamar, earmarked for redevelopment. Those plans have been put on ice, so Truro will soon return to their real home, but in the meantime they groundshare with Torquay whom they ‘hosted’ on New Year’s Day. Thus the huge imbalance between what was technically the home and away support.

Less notice, however, was paid to the remarkable attendance for the Boxing Day match between the teams, 3,863. There was another 3,000+ attendance on December 29 when the Gulls beat Gloucester City. Indeed, since  Gary Johnson took over at Plainmoor in September Torquay have averaged 2,430, comfortably their highest gates since dropping out of the Football League in 2014.

Obviously it helps that the Gulls lead Vanarama National League South after a club record nine successive victories, but they are by no means the only club in the sixth tier division packing in the crowds. Woking, two points behind, drew a combined 4,540 for their brace of Holiday fixtures while Dulwich Hamlet, celebrating their return to Champion Hill, pulled in 5,900 for their pair of matches.

In Vanarama National League North eight of the 11 matches on both Boxing Day and December 30 drew four-figure gates with Stockport County’s two games bringing in 8,333 combined and Altrincham, Hereford and York City registering 3,000-plus gates over the Christmas/New Year period.

There were even bigger crowds in the fifth tier Vanarama National League. Wrexham drew 8,283 for their Boxing Day match with Salford, and more than 4,000 attended the return. Leaders Leyton Orient pulled in 6,000-plus against Dagenham & Redbridge – and 4,755 for the visit of Chesterfield on the traditionally poorly-attended weekend before Christmas. Chesterfield fans, despite their hugely disappointing season, posted holiday programme attendances above 4,700, Hartlepool and Maidstone, two other teams struggling to meet expectations, drew nearly 3,000-plus and string of clubs either with no Football League heritage to draw on, or one in the dim-and-distant past, pulled in more than 2,000 fans: Barrow, Dover, Sutton, Harrogate, Gateshead and Fylde.

Accepted this was a holiday programme and most matches were relatively local derbies, but these figures underline one of the unique elements of English club football. Arguably the most remarkable aspect of the nation’s devotion to football is not the global reach of the Premier League powerhouse at the apex but the depth of support further down the pyramid. Nowhere else in Europe do teams at the fifth and sixth tier attract such attendances. To take a random weekend in Spain earlier this season, the regional third tier Segunda B had a 26-match programme. Half of those failed to attract 1,000 fans and only three exceeded 2,000. Meanwhile, in England, on the last Saturday of 2018, more than 50,000 fans paid an estimated half-a-million pounds plus to watch Vanarama League football.

For more on the Vanarama National League visit: http://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/

For great deals on car and van leasing visit: https://www.vanarama.com/

Vanarama National League column – Managers

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Who’d be a manager?  by Glenn Moore

There was major news on the managerial merry-go-round on Tuesday as one of the leading clubs made a change. Wrexham, arguably the Vanarama National League’s biggest name (though Leyton Orient and Chesterfield might disagree) appointed Graham Barrow, former manager of Wigan, Chester and Bury.

The decision went under the radar – another managerial move that day, in Manchester, absorbed the media’s attention – but it meant seven of the 24 Vanarama National League clubs now have a different boss to the one they began the season with. If speculation linking Aldershot’s Gary Waddock to Bristol Rovers proves correct it will be a third of the division. Indeed, add in the summer changes and already less than half the clubs retain the manager they ended last season with. Not so much a merry-go-round as a set of fast-revolving doors.

The spotlight may be smaller in non-League, but the expectation can be big. The Vanarama National League is like the Championship; the promotion prize is so great clubs are desperate to succeed, sometimes over-reach, and tend to react quickly. The vacancy at Wrexham arose because Sam Ricketts quit to join Shrewsbury, similarly Andy Hessenthaler left Eastleigh in October to take over at Dover Athletic, but the other five managers were pushed rather than jumped.

Hartlepool, anxious to regain their league status, are now on their third manager since being relegated in 2017, Richard Money this month replacing Matthew Bates who took over from Craig Harrison last season. The other four clubs making a change have never played in the Football League, but are ambitious to do so: Ebbsfleet, Dover, Braintree and Maidstone (whose namesake predecessors briefly played in the league before folding in 1992). Progress has slowed so, albeit with heavy hearts, each parted company with the men who had taken them into the top flight, Daryl McMahon, Chris Kinnear, Brad Quinton and Jay Saunders respectively.

However, there is a coterie of Vanarama National League managers who are part of the furniture. Paul Doswell has chalked up a decade at Sutton United, a feat Harrogate’s Simon Weaver will match at the end of the season. At Fylde Dave Challinor has been in place since late 2011 while Havant & Waterlooville, having seen off interest in Lee Bradbury from Hartlepool, have just completed six years with him at the helm. In each case longevity has bred prosperity.

So far Hessenthaler has had the most dramatic impact of the new men. Dover were bottom when he arrived and while they remain in the relegation zone the trajectory is upwards.  Going full-time has helped, though that is a tricky change to implement mid-season and has meant a turnaround of personnel.

Ebbsfleet’s results have also picked up, those of Braintree and Maidstone less so. Chairmen will wonder whether they were right to make a change so soon in the season, or whether they should have acted earlier. They will never know. While many would argue managers need time there are many factors involved and, when even hiring a multiple-Champions League-winning manager fails, no guarantees.

For more on the Vanarama National League visit: http://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/

For great deals on car and van leasing visit: https://www.vanarama.com/

 

Vanarama Column – Salford

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Vanarama Column December 6th – Salford City, by Glenn Moore

Since automatic promotion was introduced 31 years ago no club has won back-to-back promotions into the Football League. Even meteors such as Fleetwood and AFC Wimbledon required a season acclimatising to the fifth tier before climbing out of non-League. This season Salford aim to break the mould.

Since being taken over by the five former Manchester United players from the ‘Class of 92’, as their youth team generation has become known, Salford City have raced from the eighth to fifth tier. As the busy Christmas programme approaches in the Vanarama National League they sit a point and a place off the summit and the promotion spot it brings. This after a slow start in which they took eight points from their opening six matches leaving them in the bottom half of the table.

“We are delighted with where we are,” said Gary Neville, co-owner and in many respects the driving force behind the project. “At present we’re maybe slightly ahead of expectations. We expected a tough start but with the investment we have made, and the managerial appointment [former Scunthorpe manager and Scotland international Graham Alexander] we thought we would be up there challenging.  Our approach has always been to be in contention going into the New Year. We have a tough run of fixtures coming up and if we’re in touching distance in mid-January we’re on course.”

Neville added: “We are well ahead of our initial plans. We have won three promotions in four years, we thought it would be one every two years. The initial aspiration was to get into the Football League because the original idea was to have an academy, to give young players a chance. We realised we needed a team for them to move into, and to have a proper academy you need to be a Football League club.”

Thus the rush, which has provoked resentment from less well-funded clubs. Besides Neville, his brother Phil, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes Salford are also owned by Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim. Neville points out “until this season we’ve matched Peter 50-50, we’ve put millions into the club. We could have used that money to buy houses, or cars, or leave it in the bank, we didn’t need to do it. We chose to come into Salford. We could have gone into a League One or League Two club, but we wanted to stay close to our roots. I find it hard to understand the negativity about ex-footballers using their own money to invest in a football club.”

Salford have formed an academy, a women’s team and are developing community and education programmes. Moor Lane has been transformed into a covered 5,000-capacity venue. Crowds have gone from 220 to 2,000+ with an emphasis on making it an affordable fun day out – Neville said his family recently chose  a match at the Peninsula Stadium rather than Old Trafford.

The former England international added: “We have retained the original people who ran the club, who made sacrifices and subsidised it. We have the cheapest tickets [£10] and season-tickets, we bring interest to the league and to games, we’re respectful of opponents. How is that ruining non-League?”

Sir Alex Ferguson unveils a plaque to commemorate the announcement that Salford City’s new stadium is named The Peninsula Stadium with Payl Scholes (left), Gary Neville (2nd left) Ryan Giggs (3rd left) and Peter Done (right) Pic PA images.

Vanarama column – Torquay

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Vanarama column:  Torquay United, By Glenn Moore

Gary Johnson’s wife was still pondering where they could take a rare holiday following the veteran manager’s departure from Cheltenham Town when his phone rang. Torquay United, slumbering in the sixth tier of English football, were on the line. Would Johnson, who had not worked that far down the pyramid since managing Newmarket Town 30 years ago, be interested in taking over at Plainmoor?

Johnson figured he had nothing to lose by meeting the club’s owner, Clarke Osborne, and business partner George Edwards. “Their outlook was positive, it seemed exciting,” he said. “They are a big fish in a small pond. I have done a lot of firefighting over the years, been at clubs that were not expected to be successful, this was a nice project.

“I haven’t got to manage Manchester United any more, if you see what I mean. So I looked at the players they had and thought, ‘they are only a couple of wins from the play-offs and not a million miles away from being promoted’.

“The supporters’ response had been ‘we won’t get him’, not ‘we don’t want him’, which was positive. It’s a nice stadium. It looked a good future if they could turn the results around. I thought I could go in there and use my experience to pick it up. I just tried to put my personality and philosophy on everything, help the players gain confidence. It helped we won the first match at Hungerford and we’ve been on a good run.”

They have indeed. Torquay were 14th with 12 points and five goals from nine games when Johnson arrived. They are unbeaten in his eight Vanarama National League South matches taking 18 points, scoring 23 goals. The Gulls have soared into the play-off places and lie fourth, four points behind leaders Woking.

Johnson has won five promotions as a manager, taking Yeovil from the Conference to the Championship (over two spells), Bristol City from League One to the Premier League play-off final, and, two years ago, Cheltenham back into the Football League. This matches Torquay’s record since joining the Football League in 1928 with four promotions from the fourth tier and one from the Conference following their first relegation in 2007. They bounced back then within two years but recovering from relegation in 2014 has proved harder with further relegation last May.

Aided by loan signings from Bristol City where his son Lee is manager – “everyone has someone they can call on, a mate in the game, in my case it’s my son” – Johnson is now aiming for automatic promotion. The club are still full-time which helps attract hungry players to this football outpost. “We pay OK. Players might get more [elsewhere] if they have a job and are part-time, but my players are young and want a full-time pro career, they want to improve. Being full time we can work with them on the training field and do extra things off it like video analysis, psychology and evaluation.”

So everyone’s happy, but what about that lost holiday? “Torquay’s a holiday place,” said Johnson. “I’ve taken my wife to the English Riviera instead of the French one.”

ENDS

Vanarama Column – Dover Athletic

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The Vanarama National League column – Hessenthaler’s Return, by Glenn Moore

From the outside it was not the most obvious move. Andy Hessenthaler was doing well at Eastleigh, stabilising a club which had been through a change of ownership and five managers in two years. The Vanarama National League play-offs beckoned. Then the league’s bottom club called.

His head might have balked, but his heart had no qualms. Hessenthaler had unfinished business at Dover, having won two promotions with them from 2007-2010 to take them into the National League set up.  He also had his family home in Kent.

Dartford-born-and-bred, a legend at Gillingham, for whom he played more than 300 matches as a driving midfielder, then returned to manage another 300-plus, the 53-year-old is part of the white horse county’s football furniture.

“It wasn’t easy to leave Eastleigh, he said of the switch, “but it’s great to be back and the biggest issue for me was family. I’ve got a young granddaughter and a grandson on the way so it played a big part in my decision.”

There was, however, logic too. Dover may be bottom of the Vanarama National League but the season has plenty of mileage yet and there is pedigree at a club which has usually been in-and-around the play-off places since returning to the division in 2014. Each year they have tended to run out of steam, then had to rebuild as their better players were lured away. But then, it is not easy being a part-time club in a largely full-time league.

That, though, is changing. Hessenthaler’s first act, in conjunction with chairman and main backer Jim Parmenter, was to take the club full-time. Several players were already on full-time contracts, but only training two nights a week. Now everyone is doing four days’ training, plus matches.

“We’ve got to do it,” said Hessenthaler. “It’s a tough league, most teams [are full-time] and to compete in this league it is the only way. We need to climb the table. We need to get these players on the training ground on a regular basis as a group and individually –  we have a lot of young players we need to make better.” 

Parmenter felt the change was ‘absolutely essential’. The chairman said: “Watching games the [difference in] full-time training and part-time training is showing.”

The move meant the loss of defender Connor Essam, who could not fit the new schedule around work commitments, but Hessenthaler has brought in several new faces, notably Maidstone’s Stuart Lewis, with more to follow.

Dover have invested heavily in recent years to bring their ground up to Football League standard and the long-term aim is to bring league football to East Kent for the first time. But first there is an escape act to pull off.

Last weekend brought the first league win under Hessenthaler, a 2-0 defeat of Maidenhead that ended a 14-match winless streak stretching back to August 14. “We won’t get carried away, we have a lot of work to do,” said the manager, “but if they keep showing that desire, hunger and quality I believe we can stay in this division.”

For more on Dover Athletic visit: http://www.doverathletic.com/

For more on the Vanarama National League visit: http://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/ 

For great deals on cars and vans see: http://www.vanarama.co.uk/ 

Vanarama Column – Chorley

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Vanarama Column October 25 – Chorley, by Glenn Moore

From a trio of Dutchmen in Rinus Michels, Louis van Gaal and Guus Hiddink, to the Scots Andy Roxburgh and Craig Brown, to England’s Roy Hodgson and Howard Wilkinson, the list of teachers turned football coaches is long and illustrious. Indeed, the highly-regarded Cowley brothers, Danny and Nicky, of Lincoln City are football’s latest alumni of the education sector.

Jamie Vermiglio, however, is a teacher-manager with a difference. The majority of the aforementioned were PE teachers, Vermiglio is a headmaster. The 36-year-old combines running Locking Stumps primary school in Birchwood, Warrington, with managing Vanarama National League North front-runners Chorley.

The Magpies have had an extraordinary start to the season, 15 matches unbeaten taking them five points clear with a game in hand and, after a 3-2 win from 2-0 down against Vanarama National League Barrow on Saturday, into the FA Cup first round.

Chorley, a Lancashire town squeezed between the established clubs of Manchester, Preston and Blackburn, briefly reached the Conference (now Vanarama National League) in 1988 but survived only two years. By 2007 the Magpies had dropped to the eighth tier, Northern Premier League Division One North. The club has steadily risen since, despite a financial crisis in 2011 after two officials were jailed for stealing £70,000.

Garry Flitcroft, the former Blackburn Rovers midfielder, led the club back to the National League North.  Both he and his successor, another noted Rover, Matt Jansen, reached the promotion play-off final, but that final step was elusive.

Jansen left in the summer and some raised eyebrows when Vermiglio was entrusted with the job. A midfielder who spent nine years at the club in two spells before moving onto the coaching staff in 2014 Vermaglio was steeped in Chorley, but it was still a bold move.

It has paid off spectacularly. Vermiglio has retained the bulk of the players but adopted a more attacking style. “We’ve kept the heart of the formation the same but have changed the set-up and get more crosses in and shots on goal,” he said.

Should Chorley maintain their form which, said Vermaglio, will depend on “being consistently up for it, not taking our foot of the gas, even if it’s been a tough week at work”, he may have a tough decision to make.

As the reference to a ‘tough week at work’ intimates, Chorley are part-time. The majority of the Vanarama National League are full-time but Vermaglio, whose school has a Good rating from Ofsted, has no intention of quitting teaching. “It is my career. It’s stable and I have a mortgage. That’s the priority,” he said. The similarities between the roles are most notable, he said, in terms of leadership and preparation.

Vermaglio also has two young children of his own. The juggling act works due to having ‘good people around me’, be that ‘a wife who does everything’ or supportive staff at school and football. “I’ve been involved at Chorley a long time and I want what is best for the club,” he added. “It is difficult to compete at that level part-time.” One possibility is he stays part-time while other staff go full-time. First, however, Chorley have to keep their feet on the gas win promotion.

For more on Chorley FC go to http://www.chorleyfc.com/

For more on Vanarama National League North : http://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/news/general/division-42248

Vanarama column – Dagenham & Redbridge

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October 10: Dagenham & Redbridge – By Glenn Moore

The cavalry are coming, the only question is whether they have arrived at Victoria Road in time. A fourth successive Vanarama National League defeat on Saturday, by 2-0 at Gateshead, left Dagenham & Redbridge 22nd, already four points from safety.

Relegated from League Two in 2016 the Daggers have had a tumultuous period back in non-League, twice facing financial difficulties and now twice rescued. Local car dealer Glyn Hopkin kept them afloat for a year, during which John Still’s team missed out on an instant return when they lost to Forest Green Rovers in the play-offs. However, amid disputes with supporters Hopkins ceased covering the losses midway through last season prompting a firesale of players and the dissipation of a promotion bid.

At the end of the campaign the veteran Still, having said it was his hardest season in management, quit to join Barnet. The peripatetic Peter Taylor, once an England manager, five times a Football League promotion winner, took over.

The popular Taylor has had some tough jobs but few like this. The budget was cut by a third meaning fixtures like Saturday’s 560-mile round-trip to Gateshead are done without an overnight stay and the players packing their own lunch. For the next away game, at Dover, players will be driving themselves.

“People think I am mad doing this at my age,” said Taylor, now 65. “but I love the challenge. The only frustrating part is matchdays. We have a very young team – we did not have the budget to bring in players with experience at this level – and this is a tough league. They are getting better but they make mistakes.”

However, there is hope on the horizon. Somewhat improbably the Daggers have been acquired by an American consortium fronted by Tim Howard, the former Everton, Manchester United and United States goalkeeper. While the focus is on Howard the key figures are Peter B Freund and Craig Unger. Each have a record of investing in sports franchises with both involved with Memphis 901, a new club in the US second-tier United Soccer League, and minor league baseball team Memphis Redbirds. Freund has become executive chairman with Unger also on the board.

The pair flew over for a meet-and-greet with fans this week and have promised Taylor they will back him. There will not, however, be a quick fix. Taylor said: “They are serious and want to help but as I told the meeting, it is a shame they did not come in in June, then we could have recruited differently. The experienced players we need are either not available – or available for a reason.”

Taylor, a well-regarded coach, will thus focus on improving the youngsters he has, and adding experienced players of the right calibre if and when he can find them. “I’m used to coming into a club and aiming for promotion, but the target this year is to finish fifth from bottom. We’d take that. Then give it a real go for promotion next season.”

ends

MANarama National League column – Leyton Orient

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Leyton Orient, by Glenn Moore

On 25 May 2014 Leyton Orient were twice on the brink of reaching the second tier of English football for the first time in more than three decades. As they prepared to celebrate promotion at Wembley that day, the idea that they could be playing a league match at Braintree within four years – and coming home elated after a win – was beyond comprehension.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday night around 1,600 O’s fans made the 40-mile journey back from Essex in jubilant mood. Justin Edinburgh’s team had won 5-1 at Cressing Road to extend their lead at the summit of the MANarama National League (sponsors Vanarama have renamed the competition in support of the charity Prostate Cancer UK).

Victory eclipsed a club record set in that 2013-14 season when Russell Slade’s team began with a 12-match unbeaten run before having to settle for a play-off place. At Wembley they led Rotherham 2-0 with 35 minutes left, then led again in the penalty shoot-out.

Two failed penalties followed, and less than three years later they were relegated from League Two ending a stay in the Football League dating back to 1905. This precipitous decline, which almost concluded with the club ceasing to exist, began when long-term owner Barry Hearn sold to Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti. This proved ill-fated as Becchetti rattled through 11 managers, overseeing two relegations, a string of unhappy headlines, and the alienation of supporters. Soon after dropping out of the League the club faced a winding up order.

This, however, was staved off and the club bought by a consortium fronted by Nigel Travis, an Orient fan and former schoolmate of Hearn who had risen to head up Dunkin’ Donuts.  The bulk of the cash was provided by Texan millionaire Kent Teague whose enthusiasm has extended to watching the club’s walking football teams play.

The pair brought stability off the field and, after a brief stint by former Crewe boss Steve Davis, Edinburgh provided it on it. The former Tottenham defender arrived at Brisbane Road at a low ebb having been fired in quick succession by Gillingham and Northampton Town. However, he had good experience at non-League level having taken Rushden & Diamonds and Newport County into the National League play-off places, winning promotion with the latter.

Edinburgh banished fears of a second relegation as the Os finished mid-table. This season they began by snatching a late equaliser at Salford and have been unbeaten ever since with six wins in the last seven games. Macauley Bonne, a 22-year-old signed by Davis from Colchester United, took his O’s total to 31 goals in 57 matches with a hat-trick at Braintree. Just as influential have been the experienced Jobi McAnuff and Dean Brill, youth product Josh Koroma, East Thurrock recruit Marvin Ekpiteta, and an injury-free run that has enabled Edinburgh to name the same XI for nine successive matches.

MANarama National League is a hard one to escape. Less than half the clubs relegated from League Two in the last decade have bounced back. Orient are on course to buck the trend.

For more on Leyton Orient visit: https://www.leytonorient.com/

For more on the MANarama National League visit: https://thenationalleague.org.uk/

For great deals on cars and vans visit: http://www.vanarama.co.uk/ 

FWA to support Prostate Cancer UK

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FWA to support Prostate Cancer UK
Following the sad passing of our colleague and lifetime member Ralph Ellis, who lost his battle with prostate cancer last weekend, the FWA is proud to announce we will be supporting Prostate Cancer UK as our designated charity for the remainder of this season.

When his illness first struck, Ralph went out of his way to support PCUK including a bike ride to Amsterdam in June where he and his family and friends raised over £15,000 for the charity. Before that, a wide-reaching interview he conducted with Ray and Stephen Clemence, including words on Ray’s own diagnosis and the impact on his family, reached more than 500,000 people across Prostate Cancer UK’s channels.

This tie-in is particularly apt as Vanarama, the sponsors of the FWA Golf Day have also pledged their support and, as many of you will have seen, they have changed the name of the National League to MANarama for the remainder of September and until Non-League Day on October 13th to raise awareness of the disease while also pledging to raise £150,000.

It seemed a logical time to show the FWA’s support of the charity that was close to Ralph’s heart and we would urge all members to back the MANarama initiative throughout the next six weeks on social media by means of an RT or Like. Please feel free to contact gary.haines@prostatecancer.org if there are any stories or features that will heighten the awareness of prostate cancer and with which Vanarama can assist.

Ralph’s family have also asked us to pass on their thanks for all the kind words and tributes over the past few days but have also stressed how important it is for men to be aware of the dangers of prostate cancer. It claims the life of a man every 45minutes in the UK, and there is more information here about this terrible disease and what’s being done to counter it.

https://prostatecanceruk.org/prostate…/about-prostate-cancer
https://www.prostatecanceruk.org/football