In 1989 my family and I moved to a small town in Rutland called Uppingham. It was a quite a sleepy place so if you wanted something other than a tea room or an antique shop then you had to venture further afield, normally to Leicester or Peterborough. About six miles south of Uppingham, however, was Corby. Corby is an industrial town which even today has strong links to Scotland, forged mainly thanks to the Glasgow based Stewart and Lloyds Steelworks. Without delving too deep in the British economy of the 1960s and 1970s, the down turn in fortunes of the Clyde Valley based Scottish steel industry saw thousands of unemployed men and their families migrate to Corby in search of work at the Stewart and Lloyds owned Corby Works. Shortly after Stewart and Lloyds’ new workforce travelled south to Corby it was estimated that over 70% of Corby’s population were of Scottish descent.
When I lived in the area Corby had moved on a generation or two so first generation Scots were probably in the minority. What was noticeable though was the Scots influenced Corby accent (described by many people as sounding Glaswegian). In the early 90s I remember the place being awash with Old Firm shirts. Scotland shirts and tracksuits would hang side England football merchandise in Corby’s sports shops and seemingly sell in comparable number.
At school, I found that most people tended to favour Leicester City, although there was support for a number of different clubs with Leicester, Peterborough, Forest and Derby all being within fairly easy access. Strictly speaking though, the nearest club was Corby Town FC. I regularly got taken to Corby to go shopping or swimming, so Corby Town were a non-league team I that was aware of, but it was only when I joined a local army cadet group that I learnt about them to any great degree. For some reason, most of the guys who ran this group were from Corby but there was one guy in particular who was absolutely obsessed with the town's football club (who at that point, were a pretty mediocre side with an almost non existent support). This guy, Dale, would give the group regular updates on Corby’s fortunes (or misfortunes) regardless of whether the kids cared or not and took equal opportunity to give us a rendition the latest song or chants he’d come up with. Normally these centred on Kettering fans having dubious relationships with sheep!
To give some basic history, Corby Town FC were formed in 1948 after it was decided that the town had grown big enough to warrant it own independent football club (it has previously been represented by the Stewart and Lloyds works side in the United Counties League). Corby initially played at Occupation Road until 1985 when they switched to the multi purpose Rockingham Triangle Sports Ground. The club played in the United Counties League and the Midland Football League before switching to the Southern League in 1957 and made a few unsuccessful applications for football league membership around the same time.
Thanks to Dale I always kept at least half an eye on Corby Town’s results, something I still do about 16 years later. In recent seasons, primarily since Peter Mallinger took control of the club, Corby Town have enjoyed a spell of real success. They now play at Conference North level having been promoted to the Southern League Premier Division in 2006 and subsequently winning promotion again in 2009 to the second tier of English non-league football.
Corby's fans though relatively small in number and despite having little to cheer prior to their recent spell of success, have a reputation for creating a great atmosphere at home and away games. You only need to look on YouTube to get a picture of the kind of banter a Corby game offers. With that in mind I thought it would be good to make contact with some Corby fans via their forum and see if any of them might be up for answering a few questions on their team and football in the town.
Thankfully Dan Douglas was good enough to step forward.
The questions are below. Dan’s answers are in Blue (their away colours)
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Corby Town have really progressed in recent years. How far can the club go? Do you see the conference national as the pinnacle or do you think the club could go even further than that?
The progression of Corby Town FC over the past 5 years has been superb. We’ve gone from a team fighting relegation in the British Gas Leagues to a team who’s right up their challenging in the Blue Square North. The Conference Premier has been the aim since Peter Mallinger and Co took over the club. I’m sure at the time they pledged to transform Corby into a Conference Premier club within five years, so they’re on course to do that hopefully with another promotion this year. To be a club in the Conference Premier club would be unreal! A lot of the sides in the league have played in the Football League and the standard of the Conference Premier is probably the same as League 2 football. To be playing in the top tier of Non League Football would be the pinnacle for me. It would be a massive achievement considering where we have come from. The Foundations were put down by the likes of Mark Pengelly, Rob Dunion (ex manager) and Jimmy Kane and Graham Drury. Peter Mallinger and co will hopefully carry on taking us forward.
Have you noticed an increase in attendances since promotion from the Southern League? What kind of attendances are you getting nowadays?
I’ve attended games were their have been 43 people, years ago attendances were so poor it was unreal, the ground would be like a complete ghost time and even from 8 lanes away (across the running track) you could hear every word the players were saying to each other. As we have progressed so have crowds. We have gone from averaging 80 odd to 480 crowds have been on the up in the past 5 seasons and doesn’t look like stopping. In our first season in the Blue Square North crowds were up 12% on the previous year, let’s hope for another 12% increase for the season coming. When it matters the people of Corby come. During our promotion games we’ve had crowds off 700 to 1969. There’s no reason why we can’t constantly be getting these numbers through the gates.
Corby has a noisy and dedicated core of supporters but it seems the club have maybe struggled to get people through the gates in recent years. Why do you think this is? Are there simply too many competing clubs in the surrounding area?
In my opinion competing clubs in the area make very little difference to our support. Our biggest threat to our fan-base are the two Glasgow Clubs, the following in Corby of both Glasgow sides is huge and thousands of people make the journey up the road to Parkhead and Ibrox instead of the short trip to the Rockingham Triangle every week which is a shame. I believe ultimately the main reason the club have struggled to get fans through the gates is because of our ground. We play at an Athletics stadium and 8 lanes of running track do not help the view. Away fans don’t like coming here and many home fans feel the same way. The ground isn’t that accessible as there is no transport links that go directly to the ground. It’s a good 30 minutes walk from the town centre and rail station, basically it’s out of the way. If I’m being completely honest and critical I believe the club themselves don’t do enough in terms of advertising and getting the word out about the football club, people need to be told and informed about upcoming games and events and currently it just doesn’t happen. Corby is one of the fastest growing towns in the UK with a population of 90,000 inhabitants but only 480 turn up every game, which is not good stats to read.
Traditionally, due to the influx of Scottish steel workers in the 60s there has been a strong connection between Corby and Scotland, is this still in evidence today and do you still get instances of Corby fans supporting Scotland over England? (I remember a guy who you'd see at Scotland games home and away with a 'Corby Boy' flag).
Its common place in Corby, obviously now the world cup is on there are as many Scotland shirts about as England shirts, in the pubs/clubs etc there will be people cheering who ever England are playing. The Scottish are ever present in Corby, our local ASDA even have a Scottish range of food and drink and our local ASDA sells 17 times more Irn-Bru than any other branch in England. The Corby accent even has a hint of Scottish. I've had been asked at University if I was Scottish despite being English and having no Scottish relations…. the Scottish connection has diseased Corby.
In terms of Corby folk supporting other clubs, I've read that Corby has the biggest Rangers supporters club outside of Scotland and Northern Ireland. Are the Glasgow clubs the most popular teas in the town or are they eclipsed by the big four for the English Premier league?
Corby does have the biggest following of Glasgow Rangers outside of Scotland. The Glasgow clubs by a country mile are much more popular than the big four in England. For instance during pre season in 2007 when we played Glasgow Rangers at the Rockingham Triangle, 2300 turned up for the occasion at least 2000 if not more were supporting Rangers.
Back to Corby Town....Do you still get opposition fans calling you 'plastic jocks'?
All the time, when you start singing, ‘small town in Scotland, were just a small town in Scotland’ and other Scotland related songs it’s bound to happen. After all, the majority of fans ARE plastic. Probably 90% of our fans were born here in England.
Corby fans have a reputation for creating a good atmosphere, with their songs and their displays of flags and banners at games. You've even done the odd fancy dress theme for some big matches. How did this come about, do you have a couple of people who unofficially organise that side of things?
I’m not sure were it came from. Basically the fancy dress idea started at Bedford Away, it was our last game of the season so someone decide we should go fancy dress a lot of the lads went dressed as Rab C Nesbitt. I didn’t fancy that myself so went as MR T. During the Christmas period of the southern premier promotion season I wore a Santa outfit to every game home and away until the suits got destroyed. More recently at Telford away last season my friend and I went as Batman and Robin just for the laugh and a few others went in fancy dress. I might add that we haven’t lost a game yet which we have all went in fancy dress, so long may that continue. There’s a good hardcore of fans that all know each other so when the word gets across its fancy dress everyone gets involved.
Some of the clips of Corby fans on YouTube are brilliant. What's your favourite memory involving a day out supporting Corby?
I’ve got 2 favourites that really stick out.
In 2005-2006 we played Barking and Eastham Away towards the end of the season, we were in fine form and looking to carry on winning with hope of winning the league. Barking were in contention for the play offs so there was a lot on the line for both teams. From the moment the whistle blew we were under massive pressure, Barking battered the goal with shot after shot but the ball just wouldn’t go in. About ten minutes into the game we got a penalty but our top scorer stepped up and missed!
The game carried on as it had been with Barking on top, with 5 minutes to go Corby broke and Jamie Clarke scored the winner! The 7 fans that day who had travelled on the team coach celebrated like there was no tomorrow, it was an unreal moment andone that sticks out more than any other.
How is Corby's new stadium project progressing?
The new stadium is starting to take shape. The steel framework for the main stand has been erected, the new pitch has been laid, the car park and floodlights have been completed everything is going to plan, so roll on November.
You have a very strong rivalry with Kettering, is this purely about football or do other issues come into it? Do you think the rivalry is equally fierce from Kettering's point of view, or do they take a bit of an arrogant view and look more towards the likes of Rushden and Northampton?
Firstly the rivalry is all one sided (Corby), many people in Corby don’t like Kettering folk, it’s a traditional sort of thing. There are plenty of stories about fights, trouble and incidents that have happened between Kettering and Corby people, not to mention the infamous Kettering man having sexual relations with a sheep. Football for me doesn’t come into it, in my time of watching Corby I’ve seen one Corby vs. Kettering game, a game Corby won I may add. They’re not in our league meaning we don’t play them regularly so for now I don’t consider them football rivals but hopefully in the not so near future the football rivalry will become a reality. Kettering claim not to care about Corby but their fans talk about us enough through various forums so it doesn’t come across that they don’t care, they just need to remember that we’re right behind them now compared to five years ago when we were numerous leagues away.
Who’s the biggest Kettering hater in the Corby ranks? I remember when I was living in Uppingham, I was at Cadets and I let it slip that I'd once (once!!) gone to a game at Rockingham Road (think it was a friendly against a bigger team). Big Dale called me sheep shagger for about the next 6 months!
Leopards don’t change their spots!
What would you like to see Corby achieve within the next 5 years, both on and off the pitch?
I’ve dreamed this many a time here it goes…
Becoming an established team in the Conference Premier would be high up on that list, playing in the top flight on non league football would be a dream considering where we have come from. As we progress, crowds are on the up so within five years averaging over 1000+ a week would be a huge achievement. A few FA Cups run, Manchester United at home would do nicely also a nice little trip to Wembley to see us lift the FA Trophy. Off the pitch id like to see the new ground actually being used, plenty going on, everything being well publicised, things being done properly. The football club have a great opportunity to get the people of Corby on board with the football club becoming a major part of Corby people’s life. That would be fantastic.
Finally who's your tip for the world cup this summer?
Being an Englishman my heart says England but if I’m going with what my head says id have to say England again.
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Thanks to Dan for the information and taking the time to give such good answers. Despite the last answer (..well he is only a plastic jock!) he seems like a sound guy and a good example of someone who is dedicated to their team despite that team maybe not being the biggest or the best in the land.
If anyone is around the Corby area, check the club fixtures and go along and say hello. I’m sure you’ll be made welcome. Good luck to Corby Town for the coming season, I hope they can get promotion to the Blue Square Premier, if nothing else, it would annoy the elitist folk of Kettering!
Photos from google images.
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