Please help Slough Town FC Return Home

[Mark44]

Hello All

 

I was wondering if you could take just two minutes of your time to help out Slough Town FC

As I am sure you know we have been playing outside of our town for 10 seasons now. We have put a lot of hard work and money into a site in the last 5 years to return home.

 

However, that is now under threat as the Department of Education have written to our council demanding the site be used for a new Sikh school who already had another site planned but had strong rejection from local residents who didnt want their village ruined.

 

We are not against the school but think that they should work with the council to find another site.

 

Please sign our petition and help Slough Town FC return home, it takes just two minutes although you will be sent a link by e-mail and will need to confirm your signature

 

Thankyou in advance

 

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/47176

[fatboyatmfc]

After seeing the attitude of some of your fans at our ground, which apparently is "a shit hole" and the behaviour of your captain on twitter where he slagged of Barton Rovers and ridiculed what they pay their players, I will be signing nothing.

[Keith B]

My Jury is out at the moment, given the above.

 

I have always had a "soft spot" for Slough Town FC, but some people take it too far when commenting on Clubs such as ours at Ashford.

 

We are a family Club and don't pretend to live or act above our means, whilst providing facilities that hundreds of young people enjoy every week.

 

In my naievity some years ago, I attempted to take my 3 lads to an away game at Slough not realising Slough had been forced to relocate to Windsor (I think). I wish Slough well in Sikhing a location for a new ground, but the Sikh reference is unhelpful and hints at racism, if not intended. Today's buzzwords (and hopefully intentions) are to be inclusive and not promote divisions on racial or other grounds.

 

Perhaps there is a message along the lines of not being "Mr Billy Big Bo****ks", before you've earned the right, and welcome the smaller Clubs in your perceived bigger league, as well as having a more informed website.

 

Good luck for the season, anyway.

[Beano]

Well, while I respect the views of both Fatboy and Keith, I have signed the petition.

 

I wasn't at the home game, but I will say that while *some* Slough fans may have been overly critical of the ground, I have encountered plenty - both in person and online - who respect our club and the people who make it what it is, and enjoy coming to the RPS.

 

Similarly, while I take Keith's point, again, I don't think there's a racist undertone to either the petition or the original post. The people attempting to build the school didn't identify the proposed site of Slough Town's new ground as where they wanted to be. As I understand it, it is because of residents' objections to their proposed site that other agencies are attempting to place them somewhere they don't want to be. The way I read the post was that the school is being objected to by residents of Stoke Poges. Whether the good people of that parish would be so opposed to a Church of England school or a Catholic school is something I don't know, but if you do believe there is potentially a racist slant to this debate, that might be a useful question to ask.

 

I have a certain sympathy for the Rebels here, because its not as if they ran up enormous debts and sold Wexham Park for housing - their old ground is still there, derelict and unloved. If my memory serves me correctly, a former chairman of the club also owned the Golf Centre next door and wanted to develop the whole complex, to the benefit of the Golf Centre. Permission was refused, the ex-chairman relinquished control of the club (but not the ground) and eventually evicted the club. With the site in private ownership, what are the alternatives?

 

I wonder what we would do if our ground were under threat? Slough are a big club in non-league terms, certainly historically, and even after a decade in exile get very good crowds for this level. It is to be expected that some of that crowd will be less enlightened than some of their fellow fans, who have seen Slough suffer far worse than a trip to our gaff! It is for those fans, the decent, long term supporters who have respect for their opponents, that I have signed.

[Keith B]

For the avoidance of doubt, I did not mean to say that a racist comment had been made, but just wondered why the reference to the proposal in the original post had to mention that it was a Sikh school. There are many people (sadly) still around who do have covert and overt racist views, and would possibly welcome a school generally, but object if it was identified in this way.

 

Like many other white British people, I abhor racism and have picked up my family members if they ever make inappropriate comments (which they rarely do, I hasten to add), and having worked for a number of multi-cultural public authorities for 38 years I recognise the wider picture.

 

By the way, my rates are competitive (one pint of London Pride per 30 minutes) and my lessons recommended (by me).

[readingrebel]

After seeing the attitude of some of your fans at our ground, which apparently is "a shit hole" and the behaviour of your captain on twitter where he slagged of Barton Rovers and ridiculed what they pay their players, I will be signing nothing.

 

 

fatboy,

 

Sorry to see that you've taken umbridge to the views of a very small minority of Slough fans (every club has them) because I know the vast majority of our fans think you're a great friendly club.

 

Also of the opinion on Twitter of one of our players and not the views of our fans.

 

BTW he's not our captain and if you read his twitter account he's pretty blunt and forthright about most things.

[manurgrate]

I didn't realsie that we had issues with Slough supporters. I have always been pleased that they have turned up in numbers at Short Lane to support their team and spend their money. This is in contrast to nearly every other club in this league.

 

There is no future in ground sharing, every football club needs its own home It took us 20 years to before we secured our own ground and therefore can understand the frustration of everyone associated at Slough as they have been homeless for many years and the reasons for them leaving Wexham Park were mysterious.

 

Good luck with the petition, I will certainly sign it.

[fatboyatmfc]

Reading rebel,

I understand that every club has an element of unsavoury characters and take your point.

 

The twitter incident where one of your players promised to break a Barton players leg, should have, in my opinion, led to the dismissal of the player ( I thought it was you skipper, apologies for that) I also heard that the same guy is handy with a shovel! Anyway that's your clubs business.

 

I hope that the decent fans get what they desire and return to a ground in Slough and if you don't manage promotion I will of course welcome you to The RPS next season .

[Mark44]

Hello all. Firstly, thankyou for signing.

 

Just to clarify I was not trying to come across racist in my original post. There are plenty of Sikh people in slough who are at the heart of all communities in the area, I believe they need the school. The issue comes when the government image intervening and trying to stick them in our ground site because they cannot possibly stick the school in its preferred site in stoke poges.