Non-League and Academy football writer

Nicholas Wigmore is the co-founder and director of football at step 7 Middlesex County Football League Premier Division side Camden & Islington United. A club who were founded by Nicholas Wigmore, Kat Craig and Joel Williams, in 2019, Camden & Islington United have achieved some great things as a club across their various teams (both on and off the pitch), in that time. I recently spoke to Nicholas Wigmore, about a bit of the journey of the club, so far, their current season and also about their hopes for the future, as a club.

Could you talk me through a bit of your background in football?

Nicholas: I’ve probably worked in football for about 20 years. I got my level one in coaching in 2002. My uncle lived out in America, and so I went out there for the summer, and worked with him on some summer football camps, and that’s where I got my love for coaching. I’d always played the game at amateur level to quite a decent level as a youngster, but despite being good, I wasn’t as good as some of the other players who ended up doing well. In my mid 20s I started working for a club called Regents Park FC, and I also did some coaching schools as well. It was when I was about 26/27, that was when I realised that I wanted to do that full-time.

I worked in a number of freelance roles, with universities and grassroots clubs. Also, I set up my own Sunday team with a group of old school friends. And then I was about 27/28, I went back to America, this time working in the PDL over there, which is for the elite college football players over the summer. I got to be a player-coach over there, which was a great experience for me to see both sides of it. I was really close to all of the players and coaches as well, and I got to play with and coach some players who would go onto play for their countries. Having learned a lot on the coaching side over there, when I did come back to the UK I became more serious about my coaching. From there I worked at a school in Pimlico, called Pimlico Academy, as a football coach.

I was working full-time at the academy, coaching and also working pastorally at the school. So that was another really good experience, and there were people who were at that school, such as Billy Doyle, who now actually play for Camden & Islington United. My wife (Kat Craig) and I have a sport and social impact consultancy, and so we work with athletes and sporting organisations on sports philanthropy and human rights (Kat Craig is a human rights lawyer by trade), I was designing sport and social and emotional learning programmes for various charities. This would kind of lead to the idea of CANDI. For a year I had worked as the assistant manager at London Tigers, when they were in the Spartan League. We actually ended up getting relegated during that season, which wasn’t good.

In our second last game of the season at London Tigers, two of our players had a disagreement/fight in the car park, at the end of the match, and me and Kat tried to separate the players. As were driving home that day we thought that there must be a way in men’s football in particular, where you can have a club who are doing great things, but without this toxic environment that leads to footballers fighting in the car park after a game. And that wasn’t the fault of anyone at the club (London Tigers), it was about the way that football is. So when we set-up our own club a year later, we tried to work out how we could create a club where things like that don’t happen. So we wanted to approach things differently and improve things, so that players don’t end up in a position where they’ve got to fight each other. 

The main aim for setting up CANDI was to provide an environment where people feel safe and valued, so that they wouldn’t act in certain ways, especially in men’s football.

Could you talk me through a bit of the history of Camden & Islington United, as a club?

Nicholas: We started off as a club under the Middlesex League, for the 2019/20 season. The men’s senior team struggled a bit at the start, because a number of players were out with injury. We actually went onto win six of our last seven league games of that season, and it was quite a small league at the time, because a couple of teams had dropped out. So we played around 16 league games, and we finished third in the league that season. We were actually the only team who had finished all of their league games, and we had one last game of the season, before the lockdown started, a week later. So no one else had finished the season, which was pretty much null and void. We had a massive period of uncertainty, and we didn’t play or train again from March, until September of 2020. We tried to support the players with Zoom calls, and just trying to keep people in contact as much as possible. 

We came back in 2020, and played three games before the next lockdown happened. Then after another three months of lockdown, we played three more games before another lockdown happened. And so the league just cancelled that season. This went right the way up until the summer of 2021, and during that time we started a women’s team, with the first training sessions happening then. The men’s team also came back for the start of that season, and they did quite well, finishing second in their league that season. Although we got offered the opportunity to go up to step 7 at the end of that season, we didn’t really deserve it. We didn’t feel ready to go up to that next level, and so we wanted to wait another year to build on what we had as a group. 

So after remaining at step 8 for the 2022/23 season, we brought in a coach called James Goldsmith, and Kat Craig then became the assistant manager of the men’s senior team, which is a really great thing. During the first year of James and Kat being in charge of the team, the team got promoted to step 7, winning their respective league, and also winning 19 out of their 22 league games, only losing one league game all season. That takes us all of the way up to the current 2023/24 season, by which point we now have a Sunday team, who won two cups last year, and the women’s team has grown. We merged and took over New London Lionesses, who were folding. We appointed Joel Williams as the head of women’s football at the club, and as well as having a women’s team who play in tier 6, we’ve also got a women’s development team, who finished second in their league and got promoted. 

We also have a women’s seven-a-side football team, and then on the men’s side we have the development team who play at step 8, the first team who play at step 7, and also the men’s Sunday team as well. So we’ve grown from one team (in five years) to a club that has 150 players.

Could you talk me through what it’s like to be the director of football of a non-League football club at step seven?

Nicholas: I work as what you would call as a director of football, and so I oversee all of the teams and coaches, and I do the kind of day to day things. It’s a really interesting and all encompassing lifestyle, and so anyone who does this role will know that you do a lot of the behind the scenes, that no one sees. Things that included washing the kit, booking pitches and also making sure that all of the players get all of the right information. I also work on the financial side of the club, as well. So I’ve kind of gone from someone who runs football teams, to someone who runs what is essentially a small business, and so there’s a lot that goes into it that people don’t see. Like with all of your match reports and interviews that you do in non-League football, it’s all of those kind of things that make football what it is. And so it’s the same as those people who do run these clubs, and for the love of it as well.

It’s been a really worthwhile and rewarding experience at the club, so far, and hopefully in the next five years of the club, we can kick it onto the next level, and be in an even stronger position as a club.

What have you made of the current 2023/24 season (so far), for Camden & Islington United?

Nicholas: The men’s first team have done brilliantly this season, and some of those players have been with us for all five years of the club’s journey. They’ve been phenomenal, after being excellent at step 8 last season, they’ve taken their football to an even better level this season. The coaches (James Goldsmith and Kat Craig) have done an incredible job at helping the players step up from step 8 to step 7. Also, they’ve kept the footballing philosophy the same, and also the values of the club the same, as well. Those club values that we have are so important to us. The men’s teams are doing tremendously well this season, and they are also a young team. So we’ve got five or six regular players in the first team, who are under 21. So we have a young side, with only a couple of players who are over 25, and so they’ve done really well to maintain their form this season.

The men’s first team will be up there fighting for the league at the end of this season, and I think that they’ll only continue to get better as a squad, with the more experience that they get at the level of football that they are currently playing at.

Who has been in your opinion the toughest team that Camden & Islington United have played this season?

Nicholas: I haven’t been to all of the men’s first team games, because I go to see the other teams at the club, as well. But from what I’ve seen, Shepherds Bush obviously have some very good players, and both of our games against them were incredibly difficult. You have to also credit Pitshanger, for how well that they’ve done this season, and they don’t really have any weaknesses in their team. Both games that I’ve seen us play against them, to me they just have a very strong team. I think that it also shows the quality of the league, that there’s four or five teams up there who could still win the league this season. But to answer your question, I would say that Pitshanger Dynamo have been the standout team that we have played this season. 

Could you talk me through a bit about the work that Camden & Islington United do as a club, off the pitch?

Nicholas: Our work off the pitch has always been at the heart of what we do as a club, and credit to our players, who all want to help in our community. The players are always willing to offer their time off the pitch. We run free local football sessions in Camden, every week, which caters for youngsters of any ability or background who want to play football and enjoy the game. We also have links with a couple of food banks in the area, and the players help to deliver local food packages to people who are in need of extra support, and who can’t go out of their house to go to the food bank, to collect the food. We’ve also run some other community stuff, like know your rights workshops. That’s to help improve education for things like stop and search, and how to have more positive interactions, if you are stopped by the police.

There was an incident during this season with our Sunday team, where there was misogynistic stuff produced by one of our opponents. Our players chose to make a stand, by not playing against them until the issue had been dealt with, and then subsequently it was dealt with by the FA, after being reported by us to the FA. So that was dealt with, and in the end the team had to change their name, which had a misogynistic connotation. The players also wore T-shirts to support a more inclusive game, and also the rights of women. We’ve also always had a very close relationship with Stonewall FC, and in one of our games with their reserves last season there was some homophobic language used about them, from a team on the next pitch. Stonewall stopped the game, and we said to them that we’d be willing to walk off the pitch with them in solidarity, if that was what they wanted. So our players were at the front of that. 

As a club we’ll always support a more inclusive game, and although we want to have a really successful football club, we care even more about people, and society. Any sacrifices that we can make, to make society and football a more welcoming place, that is something that we will always continue to do.

For those who haven’t seen Camden & Islington United play, could you describe to me what style of football they like to play?

Nicholas: In all of our teams we try and play good, passing football. We try and keep the ball down, and play fast attacking football, moving the ball quickly and trying to get forward and do good/exciting things with the ball. We also want to play football where we can adapt to different games/situations, especially in amateur football, where you always need to adapt in certain games and situations. In all of our teams we always say to our players that is our philosophy and that is how we want to play, but sometimes that isn’t possible, and so you have to then try and adapt to the situation. I think that anyone who comes to watch us will see an exciting game of football, but will also see a team that has a good sense of unity, and who will alway fight for each other.

Over the course of a 32 game season in the Middlesex Premier League, you aren’t going to always have things your own way. Overall though, if you can play to your footballing philosophy 75/80% of the time, then I think that you’ll be successful In what you do. And we as a club have always said that if you do things the right way, then the score will take care of itself. 

What are some of your standout memories of your time with Camden & Islington United, so far?

Nicholas: I think that my standout memories were the men’s first team winning their league and getting promoted to step 7, last season. That was a fantastic achievement. Also, our women’s team winning their first ever FA Cup game in the club’s history this season, that is something that is fantastic for the club, and also something that no one can ever take away from them. I think that beating Equinoccial at Regents Park (a couple of year ago) in the London Cup, was also another great day/memory. And I would also say that when we played our first ever home game at Market Road, in front of about 75 people, that was incredible for step 8. It also really showed me that there was an appetite for this club to be in this area, and for people to want to support us. More recently, winning the London Junior Cup with the last kick of the game was a special night for everyone involved.

What are some of your personal hopes/aims for the future for Camden & Islington United? And where do you see the club being in 10 years time?

Nicholas: The dream of the club was always to build/find a facility where we can develop it in the Camden/Islington area. So what I’d personally love, is for both our men’s and women’s team to play at a really good standard of football, regardless of what league that is in, and also to build a good fanbase. We’d love to potentially develop a facility in the local area where we could have a couple of hundred people coming along to watch our teams. So it’s more about how we can build a club/teams that people want to come and watch games at, if you’re not an Arsenal or Tottenham fan, rather than what level we actually play at. I think that over the next five or ten years, that we want to take the fanbase to around 200/300 every week, who are coming to our games.

We want to also continue to develop our community work, to help other people in the area, as social problems get worse, and the world gets a more divided place, football can really be a place where you can unite communities. That’s something that I hope that we can build on, and be a place where the love of football and also our pride in our community all come together.