Author: Alex Scott

Currently doing as much freelance journalism work as possible. Avid football fan and player currently at Penrith Academy.

Oh No, We’ve Gone Full Mingo..

Flamingos, pink smoke and a dairy cow named Lionela Bessi… 

The history behind Forward Madison Football Club isn’t a very long one with the club only founded in 2018, however, in such a short period the club has packed in so much they have a story that rivals some clubs born centuries before them.

Based out of Breese Stevens Field in Madison, we stumbled across Forward Madison on Twitter and fell into a community unlike no other. Fan interactivity is, and from the sounds of it always will be, a massive part of the club and is a giant reason why they have crushed the average attendance figures in there current league.

This desire to show just what their city and their club are about stems from the very roots of the club, so we got in contact supporters group ‘The Flock’ to find out how they do it and where they want to achieve in the future.

Find the flock here —–> https://fwdflock.com

Marketing and Social Committee lead for ‘The Flock’ Jeffery Anderson was the man to respond to us and we couldn’t think of anyone else who was more qualified to answer our series of questions.

We set off trying to find out how the club is so creative across social media and what is the secret formula for going viral across the globe on multiple occasions…

“Their Digital Content Manager, Jason Klein, is amazing at making posts that resonate with a lot of people, whether it’s because those posts are funny or because they find ways to engage with people in meaningful ways. “

As open and informative as the interviewee was about his home city and his football club, no secret formula was forthcoming when we asked about going viral and plans for the future…

“We have a lot of projects brewing at the moment. We’re looking for more ways to connect with people online as well as amplify the voices of local charitable organizations doing great things in our community.”

“Last year, we held a charity stream for various LGBTQIA+ Organizations on Twitch and we’re going to be utilizing that platform a lot more in 2021. We want to use it to highlight local artists by doing some art streams and bring supporters together with other content as well.”

Few clubs outside the MLS in America can claim to have committed fans from across the globe like the wonderful people at Forward Madison FC, and from our small amount of interactions with them, we can completely understand why. They have fan groups sprouting up in all corners of the world, known as ‘flock chapters’ and as the club continues to grow, this shows no signs of slowing down.

We will be keeping an eye out on the social media channels of Forward Madison FC and the subsequent global fan groups in the future and we cant wait to see just what they have in store for the future. We will finish this feature, with a few parting words from our very helpful interviewee Jeffery,

“These are just a few things I can speak on right now, but we have more that will be announced as the year progresses. For now, the best way to stay up-to-date is by following us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @fwdflock. We’d love to connect with other supporters of the game we all love.”

Have you seen my Nagoya Grampus shirt?

Retro football gear, from boots to shirts are being sold on a level that is unheard of before, so we took a look at well.. why?

The answer is that there a huge amount of factors that are part of it and they’ve all contributed to ensuring that this vintage renaissance isn’t simply a bubble that’s about to burst, but is something that is here to stay. Even today a huge number of new websites and businesses are set up by people looking to cash in on this boom.

The main and largest factor from what we can tell, is that people are sick of modern day shirts. With a few exceptions modern day shirts are usually based around a template, especially from the larger suppliers, and if you look at some of the older shirts the uniqueness and identity of the club is very clear to see. Some examples of this that instantly spring to mind are the 1991 Adidas Arsenal Bruised Banana shirt and the 1990 Aston Villa shirt made by Umbro.

Another reason for the popularity of vintage shirts is that it makes you feel more included by the other fans. Anybody can go down to any sports retailer and buy that seasons shirt, but if you have a retro shirt from your clubs glory days then to some fans it shows you at least have some kind of idea about the history of the club, even if your club didn’t have ‘glory days’ at least you can pick an iconic shirt.

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A Vintage shirt from J-League side Nagoya Grampus Eight

The third and final reason is not a reason we like to admit but it is a fact.. A lot of money is to be made from the reselling of old football boots, kits and training wear. Especially if they are from a successful period for the club, people can make a fortune from a kit or pair of boots they may have bought for a few quid when they were a lot younger. As much as nostalgia and memories will play a massive part for genuine fans of the club, pretty much everyone has a price, genuine fan or collector.

That’s it! We know that there’s a lot more to why the re-sale market of vintage football stuff is growing and growing and will continue to do so, but we could waffle on all day about it and who’s got the time for that!

Part two coming soon maybe?

Season Two: Episode 10 (The Finale)

A hit and miss final month with some nearly very costly draws in there. The draw against local rivals Morecambe was definitely a sickener as it could have cost us the league title. Luckily though, that point guaranteed us promotion and all we had to do on the final day thanks to our superior goal difference was not get hit for double figures by automatic promotion chasing Newport.

We played awfully on that final day, thank f*** it wasn’t a title decider or we would have been kicking ourselves. We go on a 12 game run without a loss to not turn up on the final day.

Thankfully though, we held on and that’s two promotions in two seasons!

WE ARE GOING UP!

Season Two: Episode 9 (March)

It’s every manager’s favourite time of the season.. Youth Intake Day! This was meant to be our golden generation, a few might make it but the vast amount of them I personally think won’t make our first team. The best player of the bunch by far is Dominic Towns, the young midfielder will likely play with our first team in cup games etc..

Just on the run in to the promotion play offs and Callum McManaman goes and gets injured and as our top assister since he joined hopefully we don’t miss him too much.

Finally our results have picked up! our second month unbeaten and we seem to be converting more and more chances. Quigley has found some form and our loanee striker/winger from Fulham Rasmus Weidesheim-Paul has finally found his feet and rescued us late on in the Carlisle and Tranmere games.

Results have gone our way! We are top of the League! Despite not winning all our games, somehow we are two points clear going into the final month of the season. We have the easiest run in, apart from a tight games against Newport on the final day of the season which could be decisive.

Season Two: Episode 8 (February)

A solid if not spectacular month, but most importantly we’ve maintained our title challenge and we aren’t out of touch with the title challengers.

Suddenly it seems our goalscoring has dried up, Quigley and Rooney who were our joint top goal-scorers now couldn’t hit a barn door and we are relying on goals from others to scrape though games. Its not like we aren’t creating the opportunities though, we are dominating games and creating so many chances just not converting.

There’s the league table, we are clinging onto an automatic promotion spot and while we aren’t losing games, we need to start scoring more.