An uninspiring 0-0 draw at home is the kind of result which can send pre-season optimism floating away for another year. For around 300 Wealdstone supporters who saw the Isthmian League side make an underwhelming start to their campaign in English football's seventh tier on Saturday, the novelty of having a home ground to play on at all should mean August's euphoria lingers at least until the leaves start turning.
Following the sale of their Lower Mead home to Tesco in 1991, Wealdstone – alma mater of Stuart Pearce, Vinnie Jones and Leeds hitman Jermaine Beckford – endured 17 years of ground sharing. The club survived this purgatory thanks to a committed hardcore of supporters and, in a time when non-league clubs run the extinction gauntlet like never before, has emerged from its exile with the unlikely prize of a new stadium.
In 1985 Wealdstone won an unprecedented Conference and FA Trophy double, two tantalising years before automatic promotion to the Football League was introduced. A spectacular decline followed this Icarian flight. Boardroom impropriety meant the club never received the full proceeds from selling its ground. What money it did get went into a disastrous sharing arrangement with Watford. By the time the Stones limped away from Vicarage Road in the mid-1990s, they were insolvent and had suffered several relegations.
At this low ebb the club passed into the hands of its fans. In the absence of any home ground to generate income, supporters subconsciously adopted their bête noire's 'every little helps' slogan and sponsored walks, race nights, bucket collections and golden goal competitions have helped keep the Stones alive ever since. Wealdstone's nomadic status often saw them dubbed the Rolling Stones and they certainly share a healthy aversion to death with the sexagenarian rockers.
An opportunity to come in from the cold unexpectedly presented itself late last year when the debt-ridden leaseholders of Grosvenor Vale, home to Spartan League side Ruislip Manor, approached Wealdstone desperate for investment. A consortium swiftly purchased a majority shareholding in the site and, suddenly, a football club in need of a ground had acquired one.
Most football fans spend the summer months learning to recognise wives and daughters again but the Wealdstone faithful devoted the close season to getting their new home up to Isthmian League standards: from painting, weeding and removing rubbish to repairing terracing, seating and turnstiles; replacing the PA system; digging drainage ditches and building new dugouts.
A remarkable effort was directed by two long-term supporters Don Cross and Mike Kane and it wasn't the first time Cross had answered an SOS from the club. In 1988 he was plucked from the terraces to play for the first team when, embarrassingly, they couldn't put a full side out for an away game. "This work was more significant for the club because anybody could have stepped in and taken my place on the pitch that day but this was about moving forward," says Cross. "I played for Wealdstone as a supporter and I still support them now. That's what this club's about, a lot of people from a long time ago still find it important."
This renaissance is both an inspirational and cautionary tale. Wealdstone maintain Ruislip Manor were offered a fair deal to share with their new landlords but the smaller club refused and relocated, changing their name in the process. There may be some irony in the Stones' involvement in another club's exile from a traditional home but, having suffered more than their fair share of misfortune, Stones supporters tend to reserve sentimentality for their own team.
Margins are tight when you can't even guarantee 300 spectators and several other north London non-league clubs are currently in financial difficulty. Stones chairman Howard Krais recognises that pragmatism is the only appropriate mindset in the semi-professional game. "There are too many clubs in this area, all at a relatively similar level and all swimming against the tide," he says. "Only the healthiest clubs will survive, those that have financial investment and are well-run as football clubs and community organisations."
Supporters hope recent graduate Jermaine Beckford's Leeds exploits will eventually provide a healthy cash injection thanks to a sell-on clause but adding bodies to the home gate will prove a more enduring windfall. Their supporter profile mirrors that of the average non-league fan: a middle-aged man who started following his local team in the 1960s or 1970s, pre-Premier League and pre-saturation TV coverage. Wealdstone have taken steps in the right direction, building links with existing junior sides in the area and offering free tickets to youngsters in the hope that a new generation of supporters will grow with the club.
There's no disguising Grosvenor Vale is a modest premises, even by the standards of some of the other Isthmian League teams. This is a level of football where crows sometimes out-sing the supporters and criticism of players can echo cruelly around a near-empty ground. The club aspires to return to the Conference one day but that gap currently feels as wide as the one between the Premier League and League Two. But what Wealdstone's tenacious supporters have done is give their club a chance to increase support and revenue; an invigorating move in stark contrast to the moribund atmosphere of some non-league teams.
So the players may not have risen to the occasion on Saturday, failing to put Tonbridge Angels to the sword despite the opposition keeper getting sent off in the first half, but maybe just for once the result was secondary. As Mike Kane, one of those who toiled all summer, put it: "I think some people thought we were just going for another ground-share but the catalytic moment was when the main stand was painted blue. People came in and saw they were our colours. Knowing it's your friends who have grafted make you realise that you're part of this club."
