UK Decay

[D]

http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,,2225711,00.html

"While randomly trawling the web this afternoon I discovered that a Norwich-based club called Gothic FC existed in the 1960s and 70s," muses Pete Green. "Presumably they didn't all wear black, but does anyone know why they were called that or anything else about them?"

You've got us stumped on Gothic FC Pete - we can't tell you anything beyond the fact non-league Norwich United borrowed their Heartsease Lane ground for a stint while looking for a new ground in the late 1980s. We're guessing they must have had a fondness for pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. We did, however, stumble across the appalling Real Goth FC, a team of goth musicians, who play a team of locals twice a year in the sunny seaside resort of Whitby, home to Europe's largest biannual goth festival. And yes, the kit is all black, the club crest is inspired by the Sisters of Mercy logo, though make-up is generally removed before kick-off.

According to Philip Oltermann's article in the Guardian's Weekend magazine, "the match tradition started in 2004, when Mike Uwins, guitarist for Manuskript, got talking to a reporter from the Whitby Gazette. With their white face paint and bolted belts, Uwins admits, goths might have looked intimidating to the residents of Whitby - football changed that. 'The first match was a horribly drunken performance on our behalf. We lost 1-10, but once you've kicked lumps out of each other on the pitch, it's much easier to start a conversation.' Nowadays pubs in Whitby carry signs reading 'Goths Welcome'.

"In April 2004, however, relations between goths and locals suffered a minor setback. Jim Moyle remembers: 'One of our players, Geoff, went for a high ball and clashed heads with the Whitby player. He left two teeth in his opponent's forehead. Given Whitby's Dracula connection, you can imagine the headlines.'"

The goths won a seven-goal thriller 4-3 in this year's October fixture, though from pictures of the event there seems to be a disappointing lack of hair, tattoos and piercings, and a rather unwieldy 22-man Real Goth squad. They must have a rotation policy.