Page 8 - The Deal Roundup - February 2019

penalty which helped secure a share of the spoils against Bromley at the Proact Stadium
also means the club are unbeaten in 12 games – their best run of form for 12 years.
Such a strange sequence will naturally draw both positive and negative reactions but does
express how fine lines can determine the short-term future of both club and individual. If
the Spireites could have turned just
four of those nine draws into wins
they would have turned their 20-point
haul from 22 matches into a top-
ten place and play-off contention.
Allen was dismissed on December
27th with the club lying third
from bottom in the National
Martin Allen (left) departing Chesterfield manager
League table. It’s interesting and John Sheridan (right) who took over in January.
to note though that no-one in
the know is writing off the Spireites just yet. You need only look back to see Tranmere
Rovers turn a struggling start into promotion back to the elite 92 and with the
top seven competing for promotion places these days, anything can happen.
And let’s face it, who would want to face Chesterfield in a knock-out encounter at the Proact in
front of 8,000 roaring home supporters. Chesterfield re-appointed John Sheridan as manager,
who previously held the post in 2012, to replace Allen in January, after he resigned as Carlisle
manager after seven months in charge of the Cumbrians.
We Can All Help To Kick Racism Out Of Sport - By Ian Ridley
WE all thought we’d made progress since those dark and distant days when bananas were
thrown at black players. Not so, it would seem, given the Spurs fan who launched a banana
skin towards Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang recently.
Following that, the whole issue of race and prejudice in sport became a national topic of
discussion recently when a group of Chelsea supporters were alleged
to have racially abused England international Raheem Sterling during
a Premier League clash against Manchester City.
The deplorable footage captured by Sky cameras have given football,
not just in England, an opportunity for introspection in how sleights
against Black Asian and Minority Ethnic, (BAME), players or coaches
is still so clear to the surface of football – and how racism can be
tackled.
And if you wonder what that has got to do with the Non-League
game, I would suggest you might be a little complacent about
potential racism at our levels.
Recently, an Eastleigh fan was convicted of directing racist abuse
at the end of last season towards the Ebbsfleet United goalkeeper
Nathan Ashmore, who was also verbally abused at Boreham Wood
this season, though Wood deny it was racially motivated. That
incident, which saw Ashmore leap into the crowd to protest, is now being investigated by
the FA. The encouraging thing about the Eastleigh episode is that fans around the offender
reported him to the police, who took action in prosecuting, and the club acted decisively in
banning him and condemning his behaviour. Fair play to all.
My experience is that there still remains an issue with (BAME) people in the game. They
need representation in positions of influence, that would erode further lingering racism,
subconscious or overt. Interviewing the Burton Albion chairman Ben Robinson recently for
the Non-League Paper, it occurred to me again just how few BAME people there are in board
rooms.

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