Time to Back The Players Again

This has been a turbulent week for Ravens fans as the club did what some considered unthinkable and sacked Chris Bass, a man who just months ago led the club to promotion and its first cup, but it’s time to get behind the team again.

Paul Jones has replaced Bassy on an interim basis until the end of the season when the club plans to appoint a permanent replacement.

Today of course sees Jones take full charge for the first time of the team in a competitive game as the Ravens travel to Holker Old Boys, which despite just being about an hour away from Heysham is not easy to get to, trust me I tried.

In one sense, having two away games could be a good thing for Jones and his team, while the Bowl has never been what you could call hostile, other than the occasional boo for a bad performance, playing away gives them a chance to bring a bit of feel good factor to what is a club having its first major wobble.

This week’s decision by the board no doubt took some of the shine off the club, Bass is after all the man who delivered St George’s their decade of dominance over Manx football before he took up the reins of the Ravens, to many he is The Man in Manx football.

During an interview with Energy FM this week, Bassy talked about injuries to key players, this wasn’t some sort of Jurgen Klopp there’s wind on the pitch excuse, he has a very valid point.

How could anyone have honestly replaced the goals of Sean Doyle, while expecting the club to step up and delivery at a higher level, Lee Gale, Dan Simpson, Alex Maitland, Matty Quirk and Mikey Williams have all also had spells on Ian Kell’s physio table.

But, you knew there had to be a but, while you could never doubt Bassy’s passion or commitment, the club has made its decision and everyone has to move on and get behind the team.

During his Energy FM interview, Bassy said: ‘We thrive on getting people through the gate so it doesn’t matter who’s in charge of the team – it’s important that the community back the team and the only way that’s going to happen is by the players responding likewise. 

‘The football club has to survive – whatever they do, they must make this club survive because there’s hundreds of kids down there every week that want to play for that team and I wouldn’t want to rob them of that opportunity. So it’s important that the players that go on the pitch for Paul [Jones], everybody always gives their best.’

And that is the most vital bit, getting behind the players and making sure there is a club to support.

Jones is going to benefit from some of the injured lads becoming available again in the coming weeks, when the Ravens play their next home game at the end of the month against Charnock Richard, who beat them 5-1 earlier this season, it will be interesting to see the turnout and the response.

Argentina v Mexico in the World Cup may scream excitement, but it doesn’t have Manx lads plying their trade under the lights on Saturday nights, it doesn’t have Bovril sold at a very reasonable price and it doesn’t have shaky iPhone footage of Furo Davies scoring last minute goals with Rob Pritchard shouting his name in the background as Furo runs into the waiting arms of a grown man dressed as a Raven.

Yes, it is sad Bassy has gone, yes, there will be people who will be angry about it and yes I know there are still people who aren’t happy about the ticket prices, but whatever has gone on behind the scenes, the players are the ones who need the support.

As for this weekend, well it’s all a bit 2005 as we treat Twitter like Teletext and nervously reload the page every 20 seconds, but it’s the FA Vase, it’s FC Isle of Man, it’s always going to be a rollercoaster.