Clubs across Berkshire held minutes silences’ over the weekend and on Tuesday night for Christian Rowe, the young footballer who died last week.
Rowe’s club, Slough Town held a silence prior to their game with Billericay Town at Arbour Park on Tuesday night and manager Jon Underwood spoke about the defender in his post-match interview.
Underwood said: “It’s been really hard. Just a desperately sad situation. All our thoughts have been with the family. As a parent myself I can’t begin to imagine what they are going through. I understand they were here tonight and hopefully, they could take something from seeing the love from the club for Christian. He was a player we thought an awful lot of, he went to Binfield to get some senior experience, was doing really well and the situation with Guy [Hollis] leaving, he was going to be back involved here.”
Over the weekends, silences were held by Binfield’s junior teams ahead of their matches while Wokingham & Emmbrook held one before their Combined Counties League game and Bracknell Town held a silence prior to training
Bracknell boss Bobby Wilkinson spoke of his shock at the news. He said: “This news hit me hard. It’s a shock for sure. I’ve got kids myself who are coming up to learning to drive and it’s frightening.
“This has hit our community. He’s was a young lad playing in our footballing community and you can see the effect it’s had from all the tributes I’ve read, you can see the effect he had and what a promising young player he was. He was playing for Binfield, our neighbours who are in the same division. We have to be careful, look after each other, this doesn’t just hit Slough or Binfield, it’s had a shockwave effect across our football community.
“If there’s anything I, or my club can do I want Christian’s family to know we’ll offer any help or support we can. We’re all thinking of his family at this time.”
Slough Town fan Warren Carter, wrote on the Slough Town Soapbox blog: “This was going to be a positive piece on our fantastic away support at York, the return of Manny Williams and ongoing success of our U23s. But now a dark cloud hangs over the club with the death of one of our young players. 19-year-old Christian Rowe was tragically killed in a car traffic accident and our game against Braintree was called off as a mark of respect.
“It’s every parent’s worse nightmare and football seems so meaningless at times like these. And yet the outpouring support – how being part of a community – is exactly what’s needed in times like these.”
Both Slough Town and Binfield have posted statements on the tragic events which you can read here, while tributes have been shared from teammates and high-profile members of Berkshire’s football community on social media.
