Introduction
Maybe I should have published this before the other blog posts, but I was keen to get into the issues. Anyway, I accept that there will have been questions in the minds of readers such as ‘Who is he’? and ‘Why is he doing this’? So, I thought I had better address those questions now.
‘Who Is He’?
I have lived all my life in Sheffield. I grew up on Flower Estate and Firth Park, and have lived in S10 for 30+ years. I have been a football fan since as long as I can remember. I was brought up as a Wednesdayite, and was a season-ticket holder, away match regular, from way back when until November 2021. I was also involved in the fanzine War of the Monster Trucks and helped establish the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust.
When not watching Wednesday, I was often to be found at non-league football usually at Hallam, Stocksbridge, Dronfield (both teams!) and Worksop, and often further afield. Over the years I became increasingly alienated from much of professional football – all the stuff that you could list appertaining to money, greed, power and the interests of fans always coming second.
I walked away totally from Wednesday in November 2021 – the final straw being season tickets for the next season on sale in December, with the price increasing every week that someone delayed, despite it being one of the most expensive months of the year. I have not been to a Wednesday game since then (I gave my season ticket away) and my only visit to Hillsborough since was to watch Hallam in the County Senior Cup Final. I still say that I wish Wednesday well but I am no longer a Wednesdayite.
‘Why is he doing this’?
I have always believed that football clubs are usually in the best hands, if the hands are those of fans. The higher up the pyramid I accept it gets harder for fans to fund clubs, but even then fan influence is still important.
Since November 2021 I have become (as have the family) a committed Hallam fan, a Countryman, a Hallamite. After previous involvement in the politics of Sheffield Wednesday, and in football generally, I just wanted to be a fan again, I didn’t want the hassle etc that the politics stuff can bring. This was magnified by significant health challenges from late 2023 through to 2025, including chemotherapy and immunotherapy and a major operation.
But Hallam FC got into my system, and I want it to be the best it can be whilst retaining the community feel and connections. After attending the club AGM in September last year and the 1860 Club meeting in December I began to get nervous about the direction of the club. This was magnified by the February announcement of new investment with no details and then the financial difficulties that led to pay cuts for players. All that stuff is in the other blogs so I won’t repeat it here.
I just thought I had to try and do something to raise awareness of the issues, to get people thinking about how the club could be improved, and to support the few people who were raising issues on social media. So, given previous experience in fanzine writing/editing I concluded that a few blog posts were the easiest and best way for me to try to make contribution. And here we are!
Potential, Ambition and Choices
Hallam FC is a good community club but I think it has the potential to be a fantastic one with fans at its heart. I think it has the potential to be a really effective and competitive Step4/Step 3 non-league club.
After a long period at Step 6 and Step 5 the club has moved up and maybe what worked well for the club at lower levels might not be enough for Step 4 and Step 3? Maybe the need for a different form of organisation, new expertise and new finance are needed to help the club move forward?
The immediate challenge is to try to make sure the club does not go backwards and then is best placed to move forward. There maybe choices to be made along the way but I think the volunteers and fans should be enabled to debate the issues and influence the choices in the best interests of the club
Conclusion
I hope that helps to answer the questions posed in the title. I will improve the blog site by developing the about section and including some of this information.
I can be contacted at hallamblog1860@gmail.com or on X @S10Countryman
Steve Walmsley
1860 Blog 