Time for the introductions
If it’s good enough for the likes of legendary commentator Clive Tyldesley, expert writer Henry Winter and Jonathan Wilson, then it’s good enough for me.
It seems like everyone has a substack account at the minute, it’s certainly the in thing at the moment for media folk, writers, bloggers and people who just want to sound off a few thoughts, so as someone who likes to use all different types of media then I thought I would jump on the fastest rolling bandwagon.
But I guess you all want to know who I am.
Well as the title of the substack suggests I’m called Richard. I’ve been watching non-league football for 21 years (14th February 2004 was my first non-league game) as Chorley took on Witton Albion in the Unibond Northern Premier League first division. I was the mascot that afternoon as these two sides played out a 1-1 draw as Danny Queeley equalised for the Magpies just two minutes after Witton had gone ahead.
Since then, I was hooked on the non-league game as I watched Chorley on a Saturday afternoon, despite the Lancashire club having some really awful seasons.
Things did get better under former Blackburn Rovers captain Garry Flitcroft who took over as manager in 2010.
It was about that time as well that I launched my first ever blog RedCardReco that talked first about Chorley and then as I went to University and discovered other non-league clubs had their own stories to tell and I attempted to do that.
Since graduating in 2014 I have been fortunate to write for the likes of the Non-League Paper, Non-League Pitchero, When Saturday Comes, goalkeeper.com, the non-league magazine and write angle media all about the non-league game. I’ve also headed up the media team at Kidsgrove Athletic and Nantwich Town FC. It was during my time that I penned my first book- When Nantwich Turned The Vase Green, which celebrated the Dabbers winning the Vase back in 2006.
These days you will mainly find me on Moorlands Radio where I cover games as a reporter or deputise as lead commentator on non-league matches.
So why set up a substack account?
Well, that is a good question. In all my time as a journalist, I’ve always done news pieces or interview-based features, never have I written a regular column giving my opinions on events so that is why we are here.
For now, it will be non-league columns (occasionally we might go above the National League), but the future of Substack excites me so maybe one day it will be where all my work is done- interviews, features etc.
As I mentioned above, I’ve never been a regular columnist for a publication so I hope you can come with me on this journey into the unknown, or certainly the unknown for me.
So welcome to the good ship that is Richard Recorder and please spread the word to encourage your friends to check it out.
Looking forward to reading this Rich. Good luck with it, you'll be great.
Welcome to the Substack family!