by Martin Spinks
martin.spinks@thesentinel.co.uk

FOR many, Monica Hartland has long been the unofficial First Lady of football fans nationwide.

And now the exiled Stokie has been promoted to the post of president, albeit with the Football Supporters’ Federation.

A woman of relentless energy and enthusiasm, even in her 72nd year, her three-year term will doubtless feature the kind of passion with which she has so frequently and tirelessly fought the corner of downtrodden supporters anywhere and everywhere.

Speaking from her home just around the corner from Chelsea’s training ground in Chobham, deepest Surrey, she says: “In the old days we supporters were just financial fodder, but now we have a voice and I’m proud to be able to do my bit for the FSF.

“We really do put the supporter’s point of view to every level of the game now – and we do make a difference. We were in on all the decisions regarding the fit and proper persons rule for the likes of Manchester City and their ownership.

“We have regular meetings with the FA and the police. Indeed, our chairman Malcolm Clarke (another Stokie) now sits on the FA Council. I think we command the respect of all those running the game today.”

Hartland herself deploys a Thatcherite approach to all she believes in and so it comes as no surprise to hear her affirm: “I’m not the sort of person to act as a figurehead as president.

“I will be an active president, particularly in trying to get more fans to join us, and I’m certainly not in it for the glory.

“I’m the sort of person who would much rather people argue with me than just stand and take it. I can’t stand indifference. It is the enemy of progress.

“And I can’t stand those supporters of bigger clubs who don’t take an interest in wider affairs because they think it won’t ever apply to their club. Well, one day it might.”

Her love affair with Stoke City began from the moment her father walked her from Bucknall to the Victoria Ground in the late 1940,s at a time when they couldn’t afford the bus, never mind a car.

“After the war, the only luxury my father had was footballmatches. He asked me when I was at primary school if I wanted to go, but I’d never seen a proper football match because there was no television and not even any fields near us to watch games.

“When we got there, I ran ahead into the Town End stand and was soon seduced by the atmosphere. I was an unusual sight because football then was a very male and working class sport. And there was this little girl among all those cloth caps.

“I was totally addicted. I will always remember the excitement of willing a goal and of wishing away the days until the next home match.

“You never travelled to away games in those days because you couldn’t afford to, so people used to go to the Vale home games.”

She would also develop a previously hidden talent for throwing the javelin and, in 1955, the Brownhills High School pupil would become the youngest-ever British competitor in field events.

Her flair on the sporting field contributed towards a career in teaching physical education, a career she pursued first in America, then in the south east, after following husband Tony across the Atlantic and back again as he pursued his own career in physics.

And there was a time when she feared having the Medusa Touch after representing Britain in the javelin in Hungary in 1956 and West Germany in 1960 – two weeks before the Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest and four weeks before the Berlin Wall was erected.

And she had only recently vacated America shortly before JFK’s assassination in November 1963.

Her early footballing heroes were the likes of Neil Franklin, Frank Bowyer and Harry Oscroft, while the many players she would admire later in life were headed by Alan Hudson and Denis Smith.

“No-one was worshipped more than Denis,” she says. “He took us through to a League Cup final, FA Cup semi finals and scored that memorable winner against unbeaten Leeds in 1974.

“There was great excitement when a player like Alan Hudson first came, but it meant more to me because I was living down in London and we would often travel up to Stoke with his family. The only problem in those days was the fact we always seemed to be one player short of a really good side. We always have been. Back then it was a centre forward, today it’s a creative midfielder like Hudson.”

But for all those misty-eyed recollections, she says that 2008/09 stands proudest among her 60-odd seasons draped in red and white.

“This last year has been the most exciting. It’s much harder to get into the Premier League and a lot of people never thought we’d do it. We weren’t just out of the Premier League, we were in oblivion. Then we thought that finishing 17th would be wonderful enough, but to finish 12th and make so many friends along the way made for a great journey. I can’t wait for next season.

“The atmosphere was also something special. A lot of people said ‘if only we could go back to the Victoria Ground’.

"I always said there was no atmosphere at the new stadium because there was no success. Now we have that success, but even I couldn’t have imagined the noise we heard last season.”

Stories online today:
Lawrence hoping for promotion to Premier League wage packet
Fans’ chief hails Coates
Boss Pulis hails his young stars
Lifelong Stoke City fan Monica takes up new role
Olofinjana: I hope Martins chooses Stoke