Forest Green chairman Dale Vince has been stirring a hornet’s nest once again, lashing out at Tranmere Rovers fans who may be relegated this season.
There is little love lost between the two clubs, who have twice met in play-off matches. In their first encounter, Forest Green snatched a late win and Football League status. A year later, Tranmere joined them in League Two and the pair met again in the play-offs, this time Tranmere emerging victorious.
Whilst petty football rivalries do seem to be trivial right now, Vince has perhaps lost sight of what is important and responded to Tranmere’s recent memory match on Twitter. They were offering fans a chance to watch the play-off victory again, in a similar event to many other teams replaying big games for fans.
That prompted Vince to post a response, saying; ‘Happy anniversary guys, looks like we’ll meet again in the League next season’ with a smiley face at the end. Naturally, with many clubs facing uncertain futures and staff being laid off, it prompted a huge backlash from supporters across football, not just at Prenton Park.
Lower league football is, too all intents and purposes, a big family and as Port Vale’s Carol Shanahan showed yesterday, having class and dignity is not hard when you’re amongst clubs who feel the same way. Forest Green are the wayward son, the one with the exterior of being holier than thou with their vegan and green ethos, but at heart missing the whole point of lower league football and the camaraderie that should exist.
That’s certainly the opinion of these fans who have let the Ecotricity owner known exactly what they think.
https://twitter.com/ValentinoMossy/status/1260947854249594882
https://twitter.com/lincslass86/status/1260618875932217347
https://twitter.com/LukeyRoberts/status/1260515227415785476
https://twitter.com/colinread59/status/1260618069635891203
https://twitter.com/davis887/status/1260619314966802434
https://twitter.com/ChrisCourt83/status/1260548068052742144
https://twitter.com/ron55679052/status/1260908777089519618
