SUB PLEASEP a g e | 1 REF MAY EDITION 2021 P a g e | 2 WELCOME TO SUB PLEASE REF ISSUE 3 MAY 2021 Welcome to the third edition of ‘Sub Please On this month’s edition of ‘Sub Please Ref’, Ref’. we speak to Hashtag United superfan Alfie and Welsh Futsal International Chris Bright. We hope you are all keeping well at this time. Some of you may have been able to get Alfie is just one of an ever-growing fanbase back into stadiums to watch live football that are continuing to follow the rise of recently, and so we hope you enjoyed that – Hashtag United, a team that may well have you lucky devils! started out on YouTube, but a side that are now well-engrained into the furniture of the Of course, the 2020-21 season is nearing the non-league pyramid. Alfie has done virtually conclusion, with the league seasons having every job imaginable with The Tags, and he come to a close, and all that is left is for the talks to us about how his love affair with final promotion spots to be sorted at the Hashtag United started, ambitions for the home of football; with Brentford facing football club and looking ahead to next year. Swansea City bidding for a spot in the Premier League, Blackpool looking to extend We also spoke to Welsh Futsal International their impressive play-off record as they face Chris Bright. Chris is one of the many Lincoln City in the League One final, and two fantastic advocates in raising awareness of defeated sides from yesteryear looking to go Diabetes within football, and we spoke to one better this time around as Morecambe him about the work that he has done to face Newport County. continue raising the awareness of Diabetes, how he aims to continue his efforts going While the season may have drawn to a close, forward, and also provides us with a unique there is no let up to the drama and the action, insight into how having Diabetes has affected and we are as busy as ever at Off The Line his career. HQ. We also bring you a feature looking at the Over the last week or so, we have brought career of four legends of the EFL, all of which you our round-ups of the long list of free have decided to bring to an end to their agents from throughout the EFL, and careers. speculate as to where they may end up. On top of this, we look back at the EFL Signings are also starting to be made, and so season, reviewing each league and look over the next few weeks we will begin to ahead to the EFL Play-Off Finals that take bring you our reaction to these signings and place this weekend. assess whether we think they are good additions. We also look ahead to the final weekend of action in the National League, and the play- We will also bring to a close our review of offs that will take place over the course of the the 2020-21 season by assessing each sides next month. performance this term, comparing this to our predictions made at the start of the season, Contents highlighting which sides have superseded Pages 3-8 – Hashtag Super Fan Alfie our expectations and those which have failed Interview to hit the mark and underachieved. Pages 11-12 – Chris Bright Interview P a g e | 3 HASHTAG UNITED SUPERFAN ALFIE ON HIS LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE TAGS “It has always been part of Spencer’s big plan to be sustainable. I don’t mind where we are in five years, but I just want us to still be here in 50 years – that has always been his motto.” Q: How did you get involved in but genuinely everyone that I have come Hashtag United? across at Hashtag United is a really nice person. For all of its global reach, it is A: I think it is the same sort of way that still a non-league club, and you can feel you get into the YouTube side of things, that when you get to the gates. in starting to follow Spencer through his Fifa Player days, and then as that All the players are still as engaging as transitioned into Spencer FC and then you see on screen, and all the staff are so Hashtag United – all of this on the relaxed. You definitely get the non- Spencer channel. Then, the team league atmosphere, despite it being migrated over to the Hashtag United broadcast on a global stage. channel and I followed over and Q: The fact that Hashtag United have continued watching on that. started out at its conception as a YouTube side and then have So, I have been watching them online transitioned into non-league with ever since they started, but the first time perhaps more backing than most, do that I saw them live was their first non- you think it has shown Hashtag United league game. in the wrong light perhaps? A: I think that some of the stuff that comes along with the big backing is unfair. There is this presumption that there is a lot of money being splashed around the club, but that is not true. There is more money coming in, but also more money going out. All of the money that comes in from Figure 1 All Hashtag United games are recorded and videos and sponsors almost all goes uploaded onto their YouTube channel [Photo Credit: back out on making the videos and Hashtag United] investing in the content. We have two Q: What was the transition like in full-time camera crew, and so there a lot watching them on YouTube to then of staff running the back end. So, it does travelling to games and seeing them run as a non-league club first and in the flesh? foremost. Q: At the time of recording, we have A: There is always the logic of don’t meet just had one of the Esports your heroes, and I wasn’t sure how they competitions and had a Hashtag would translate from on-screen United representative. How special personality to meeting them in person, and unique is that as a non-league P a g e | 4 club to have an Esports set-up as scratch, and that was a deliberate thing. impressive as Hashtag United do? He could have gone and founded his own women’s and youth set-ups, but in A: It is definitely different. On one side both cases, there was no reason to. With you have the team playing at Step 5 or the youth team, for example, Forest so, and then you have the Esports side Glade has been an established side that are operating right at the top of the playing football for a long time, with game. Yesterday, you had Tom great coaches and a great set-up. representing Tottenham Hotspur, and he is one of, if not the best Esports players It was the same with the women’s side there is. too. However, both were in need of a little extra funding. That meant that we The world of Esports is tough, and I have weren’t starting from scratch, but instead followed it right from the beginning, in were supporting somebody already fact before I started really following established and just in need of that little football. Things such as the game extra backing and support, and so it academy and Harry Hesketh. It is really made perfect sense to take those over. interesting, and it has come on leaps and bounds. Hashtag United are looking to I think it is a critical step, but importantly diversify out into other Esports, such as for the fans. I haven’t been able to go Gfinity and Call of Duty. and watch as many of the women’s games as I would have hoped to, and I I do feel for the Esports a bit, as they are think that is great that whatever part of judged on that really big stage all the the sport you go to, there will be a time, and Fifa can be so unrelenting and Hashtag United representative in there. cruel at times, and so from a club perspective it is very different. No club at our step certainly doesn’t have that. It brings in a new set of fans to support Hashtag United, and that can only be a positive. Q: You had the men’s team and the Esports team, but this summer also took on the women’s team and also a youth set-up as well. How important Figure 2 Hashtag United celebrating in the Wembley Cup was that in order for Hashtag United to [Photo Credit: The FA] function as a viable and inclusive club? Q: Not many sides in non-league get the chance to go to Wembley, but A: I think that it is massive. It has always Hashtag United have been there a been part of Spencer’s big plan to be number of times with the Wembley sustainable. I don’t mind where we are Cup. How special and rewarding is it in five years, but I just want us to still be to follow a club that gets the chance to here in 50 years – that has always been play at Wembley so often? his motto. It is about putting the roots down in not only the men’s and Esports A: Unfortunately, I think that is probably sides, but also then with the women’s the last time that the Wembley Cup takes and youth sides.