PAUL FOOT: Football is let down by poor attitude

Tuesday night’s league game at Farsley turned out to be a massively frustrating one for us.

We were happy with the battling point, but the attitude of the Farsley players and management team was very disappointing.

Me and Bryan (Hughes) have turned our team around this year because we were getting bullied by teams like Darlington, Northwich and Spennymoor.

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We have introduced this physicality to the squad, but you won’t find us moaning if one of our players gets smashed in a good clean tackle.

We have a number of players, like Ben Middleton, Jimmy Beadle, Paul Robson and others, who just love a tackle.

This is something that is an art-form, like taking a free-kick or putting the ball in the net.

So when you see Farsley’s management team shouting to get our players booked for winning the ball, it is really letting the game of football down.

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There were cases when their players were rolling around on the floor and going down easily, which just isn’t for me.

The best part of some players’ games is to break up play and pass it on, if that is the case then you have to get stuck in.

You have to let your opponents know that they are going to be in a game. You have to tell them that this isn’t going to be nice.

As a player I knew that if I made my mark early on then the player wouldn’t come back. The beauty of it is that at the end of the game you could shake hands.

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This was something that a number of Farsley players refused to do after the game, which is very strange behaviour.

Hull City’s Alex Bruce spoke to the media at the weekend and criticised the Premier League for the fact that you can’t tackle anymore.

Maybe referees are watching the Premier League and bringing it down to our level.

Gone are the days where you can go in two or three times in a tackle. Now its one bad challenge and you are booked.

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Since we have taken over at the club we have had to learn about man management, which is something that a few referees need to address.

Some refs do talk to you and occasionally admit that they got this and that wrong. Others just completely ignore you.

Big tackles are a huge part of football because they can excite the fans and really get them going.

The first halves of our recent home games against Lancaster and Radcliffe were poor from our point of view and our supporters were very quiet.

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Then in both games Ben Middleton made a big tackle and it really livened things up.

Our fans at Farsley were unbelievable. They sensed that this was a game we couldn’t lose and they really bought into it.

That has been the case with so many away games this season, but in contrast there have been a few home games where we haven’t been able to hear them until they move into the shed in the second half.

We have the pay what you can game on Saturday against Bamber Bridge and then who wouldn’t want to see us tackling Salford City at home with all of their Manchester United connections.

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The input of our fans is massive for us and our players. It means so much to them.

When the club was in the NCEL a couple of years ago they averaged gates of around 500 or 600.

We are now in a very exciting time for Scarborough Athletic, so if the fans can come together and make the noise for us over the next few weeks then it would be so important.