Friday, 29 July 2016

THE TRUE CORINTHIAN SPIRIT OF THE GAME









The major football story over the last month in-between England's abject failure at Euro 2016 and the start of the new season has been the proposed £100,000,000 transfer of Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United. Many fans are getting a tad bored reading the column inches on the move from Italy to England. 

Add to this that ticket prices in the top divisions of the English game seem to be ever increasing and now out of the reach of many loyal supporters it's beyond evident that the beautiful game at that level has lost some, if not all, of the original Corinthian Spirit it was played in.  

A great example of the costly expenditure of going to a game is the £42 Sheffield Wednesday are charging Aston Villa fans for their opening day of the season game on Sunday 7th August. The travelling supporters are planning a protest by dressing in robber's masks at the game as part of the "twenty's plenty" campaign. 

The spirit of the game  is still alive and well down the football pyramid and was on show this Tuesday evening as Corinthian of the Southern Counties East League Premier Division entertained Corinthian Casuals of the Ryman Division One (South) in a pre-season friendly. Both clubs are run on an Amateur basis and like many non-league sides play for “sportsmanship, fair play and for the love of the game". Casuals won 1-2 on the night with a late winner from Danny Dudley.

The brilliant photos, of Corinthian’s picturesque Gay Dawn Farm ground, are used courtesy of stuart.tree 

Gay Dawn Farm is near Longfeld and Hartley in Kent and looks well worth a visit.  They start their season with an FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round trip to nearby Ashford United on Saturday 6th August followed by a midweek game on Tuesday 16th August at home to Lordswood. 

Corinthian Casuals will be looking to get into the RD1(S) play-offs this season after missing out last season when points were docked when the Ryman League ruled they played an ineligible player in their 3-1 win versus Faversham Town - the club thought he had served his suspension in not playing him in a County Cup game. They start their season with a home league game against Whyteleafe on Saturday 13th August. 

Unlike the Sheffield Wednesday v Aston Villa game which has been moved to a Sunday kick-off at 4.30pm to accomodate live television coverage both the Corinthian FA Cup game and Casual's opening league game start at the traditional time of 3pm on a Saturday! 



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