For far too long a time football in this country had been a cause without a rebel. Then came the advent of the football fanzines, publications produced by supporters for supporters. “From Behind Your Fences” belongs to this vein; the aim is to promote honest football and our small club Boston United who we dedicatedly follow, travelling up from London for night matches at York Street and then get the 6 a.m. train the next morning to arrive back in the smoke for work.
Every Saturday we are out there on the terraces representing the frontline of decent soccer support, believing in football as the unification of men and women for a shared experience – we don’t need segregation, over policing, military installation type fences and hooliganism. As George Kerr wrote in the first programme of the season “I can’t be bothered with nutters.” That is why we object to stealing brief glimpses of play from peering through fences.
Aiming through these pages to show that real fans still attend football matches, and not just when Boston are playing, is always going to be rendered invisible in the smog of the popular press. If thirty people attend a party and only one person gets violent, then the party becomes spoiled for all thirty; the paper doesn’t report the incident the next morning as twenty-nine people behave peacefully at party.
Dismounting from our soapbox, we are not a burn-down-the-boardrooms revolutionary force – our idea of anarchy is crossing the road while the little man is still red. “From Behind Your Fences” is a non profit making-publication; in reality the cover price is well below the printing coats incurred, so don’t buy it, it’s not very good anyway. And remember, we very much retain that vital companion of football – a sense of humour.
Our aim is to amuse not abuse, stating that with particular reference to the Runcorn and Trevor Parr pieces. Hopefully we can show that it is possible to passionately support ones team, in our case following Boston all over the country, with no antagonism existing.
One factor remains, football needs decent followers more than ever, so make the York Street turnstiles click. Only 2,332 for our second home match of the season, that dangerously good 3-2 game with Macclesfield. Where are you? Gone to India to open up corner shops?
