Battle Royalist

If there's one opponent that most non-league football clubs fear, it's HMRC.  Over the past few weeks a couple of clubs have managed to fight off winding-up petitions from the taxman - Histon and Dorchester Town spring to mind - but last week another club announced that they, too, would be facing the dreaded fixture.  That club is Windsor & Eton, of the Southern League, Premier Division.

The Royalists have come to my notice quite a number of times in recent months.  Last year they were promoted as champions from the South & West division with 101 points, but things hadn't gone smoothly.

That promotion wasn't clinched until their final game, played after the official end to the season; 101 points was just one more than the total gained by AFC Totton, who had played their final game on the due date, two days earlier, not knowing whether they had enough points to gain automatic promotion.  Totton had to go into the playoffs, where they were eliminated by Cirencester.

Even up to then, things hadn't gone smoothly for Windsor & Eton.  LAte in the season there had been a meeting with manager and players on one side and the board on the other, called to discuss payments owing to players.

Shortly after the season's end, manager Keith Scott left and it was widely expected that he would soon find another club - and take hmany of his players with him.  Quite a number of players did leave - several going to join Hemel Hempstead - but Scott hasn't yet found a new club.  The new manager was Dave Mudge.

This is where the rumour mill took over.  It was suggested in several places that Mudge had been angling for the Windsor & Eton job for a number of months, even posting on the Royalists' forum.  For all I know those suggestions may all have come from the same person, possibly a disgruntled player.  In any event, Windsor & Eton were widely expected to struggle this season.

(Translation:  I thought they would face a fight against relegation)

They've done better than expected, on the field, currently standing 8th: just two defeats all season, and unbeaten in seven.  I should point out that 9 of their 13 games so far have been against teams now in the bottom half of the table.

At this point I should introduce a couple more characters to the drama: current chairman Peter Simpson and his predecessor Kevin Stott.  It's no secret that the two don't see eye-to-eye.  

IN the last few days,it has emerged that the club has received a winding-up petition from HMRC  while Kevin Stott has has made clear his dismay at the way the club is being run .

So the apparent situation now is this:  Simpson would like to get rid of the club, and is prepared to listen to offers; Stott would like to take over; there seems very little prospect of the two working together; Simpson
fears that Stott will bring back former manager Keith Scott.

If Simpson is so anxious to cut his ties with the club - and I don't blame him - one wonders why he is so concerned at the possible return of Keith Scott.  Indeed, he's so concerned, he's offered a two-year contract to Dave Mudge, thereby making the club less attractive to any prospective buyer.  That isn't because of any lack of skills on Mudge's part - as I wrote earlier, he's doing very well on the field. 

Offering him a contract does, however, saddle the club with another liability, and it leaves in place a manager that the most likely new owner - Stott - would clearly be uncomfortable with.

How silly it all seems.