MORE WASTED TIME....

[Burnham Lad]

About 150 supporters of the club attended the meeting with STSA and Mr Deaner on Thursday of last week. I understand there was a meeting of the STSA Committee afterwards. The fans were asked to help, but to do what? Where does the committee stand on all the options facing us? When are they going to say something to the supporters who are not on the inside track and are sitting wondering if anything is happening at all? How do we get at the support of all the rest of the 1800 to 2000 Mr Deaner said would support a Conference Club, and probably a much bigger number than that as you probably need at least three times that number of people to come to some matches to get a crowd of that size?

 

So, are we supposed to be supporting Mr Deaner's ploy to get the council to play ball and give him the land to do his development? If so, should we not be taking action such as publishing in the press the minutes of the meetings where the council promised to find us a home, lobbying the leader of the council and his team by letters, email and phone calls, chasing the full time officials and the MP, handing out leaflets in Slough Town Centre to win support, appointing a PR committee to ensure that the press get hold of the story and run with it, and generally raising the point that Slough will not have a football team playing in the Borough next season?

 

or

 

Are we trying to influence the council to lean on the Thornes to let us have The Park back - Mr Deaner said there was a scenario where we could stay at the park,. If so should we not be lobbying the leader of the council and his team, by letters, email and phone calls, chasing the full time officials and the MP, handing out leaflets in Slough Town Centre to win support, appointing a PR committee to ensure that the press get hold of the story and run with it, and generally raising the point that Slough will not have a football team playing in the Borough next season?

 

and

 

Are we trying to make sure we get a ground set up for three years time - just look how fast the five years we just threw away have gone - if we don't have a ground set up in three years time we are out of the Ryman according to how I understand the rules and it will take at least that to get one set up. So, shouldn't we be lobbying the leader of the council and his team, etc etc!

 

and

 

Are we trying to set up a Supporters Trust so we can run the club effectively next season without Mr Deaner and potentially find some financial backers who are prepared to put up some money to get the process started? In which case, should we not be lobbying the leader of the council and his team, etc etc.

 

or

 

Are we satisfied that we have got a groundshare with Windsor and no money to run a team apart from gate money, sponsorship and advertising, and probably very much reduced home support, but hey - never mind, - we can have a park team in three years time, and none of this aggro! In which case we don't need to do anything and Slough may not have a football team playing in the Borough or anywhere else before long.

 

Contrast that with AFC Wimbledon's coverage on the TV news last night, pictures of their Bank Holiday game, interviews with the supporters, talks to officials about buying the Kingstonian Ground, pictures of them handing out leaflets at the Wimbledon home game to recruit new AFC supporters. It is said the Ryman may make them a special invitation to join the league - I wonder if they will give them our place?

 

Even Windsor have issued a statement announcing the ground share to the press and generally - we appear to have announced absolutely nothing at all of all the options above.

 

Come on - let's get our act together - time is short!

[Ofiicial]

thats a very good post Andrew.....forgive my boldness but I share your views.....proactive not reactive....

[GarySTFC]

With Martyn in charge, many people (myself included) aren't quite sure of the best direction at the club at present. My own personal feeling is that we won't be going anywhere under Martyn Deaner and given his past record, not just at STFC, these claims would appear to be justified.

 

But how then do we progress? By removing Martyn, we're removing any financial backing we currently have but we'd be back renting Wexham Park, as I believe there is an 11 year extension available on the lease of Wexham Park, but we have no alternative income which is required at this level of football to move forwards (no bar takings or any other source of continuous income outside of the football)

 

We may have to wait until June 16th, which again may be too late to do anything, but given that's the make or break date given by the council, we're stuck with it?

[Burnham Lad]

Gary,

 

I am sorry to go on about this, but having seen some of the people on the STFA committee, I cannot believe that they do not have an opinion or a vision of what they want for the club. And if we cannot do it ourselves (no cash!) then we need to influence those people who can.

 

At this stage, there are loads of fans not on the committee who really do not want to sit on their hands doing nothing for another two weeks (It’s that dreaded two weeks again!) just waiting for another council meeting!

 

Councils and business CAN be persuaded, but you need to be as professional and hardnosed as they are to do it. So has Mr Deaner handed over his evidence that the council reneged on the deal to find us a home – he said he had the minutes of the meetings? Let’s have them and start working on the Press to get them to publish it – if it is true then the council will not want the embarrassment – in fact I’ll write the letter, just give me the ammo!

 

And what about the Park? The ground was set up as the home of Slough Town Football Club – a lot of people have laboured to make it what it is – and the planning permissions were granted as STFC’s home. So why should we leave – STFC is still alive and kicking so who do we have to persuade to give us our ground back – they can’t do anything else with it and they have just renewed the planning permissions on it. WE WANT IT BACK! Is that a good enough slogan for the papers and the two councils, as well as the leaseholders? OK so we have to find some money to do that – but let’s at least see if anybody is interested, as well as supporting the planning application from Mr Deaner – it looks an idea which could raise the money the club needs.

 

But just waiting is not an option, if we want to be playing more than pub sides in three years time. Let’s make sure that the council know that there are a lot of people watching what happens next – it will be a very powerful message to the people of Slough as to where their priorities lie and what importance they attach to institutions such as Slough Town Football Club, which has brought nothing but honour and good publicity for the Borough looking at the successes of the past and even the close run match against Macclesfield and the great national publicity of the Harrogate Railway game – the Council cannot buy PR for Slough like that.

 

When I look at the efforts and loyal support shown at that meeting last week, and there were people in their 80’s who have supported Slough for 50 years or more as well as those who have only been here for five minutes, like me, we cannot let it go down with a whimper. Let’s at least let them know that there are a bunch of electors (and even those who live outside Slough often have relatives and others they can influence) who are watching their every move and have some very definite views on what should happen next. Not to let them do so is as bad as a defender bottling a tackle, and we don’t want it on the field and we should not want it off the field either!

 

I’ll shut up now!