The demise of Sandhurst Town

[duncs]

Help from a potty mouthed illiterate? That kind of help normal folk can manage without...What's with the 'we' anyway, your ignorance is yours, don't try to incorporate anyone else into it. Hiding from a lunatic seems a good idea, I'd say!

ok have it all your own way by the way my name is Paul Duncan aka Duncs and you are thevoiceofreason ha ha ha ha ha 

[thevoiceofreason]

I couldn't care less what your name is, or maybe you think you're showing off by being able to spell it? You are unimportant, as am I...but I don't have a problem with that.

[pauls]

yet again another good topic being ruined mainly

by spineless morons who wont reveal who they are??!!  it is very very sad what is going on at sandhurst and it is all the chairmans fault i should know i helped out behind the scenes for a season and half only to be treated like a lump of poo!! like many others.my name is paula watson and im not afraid to speak the truth,ive posted before asking why cant the site be set up so that to post you have to submit your email address and name it cannot be hard to set up??

[duncs]

Sorry Paula, to hear how you were treated is wrong and should not have happened to you,all i saw from you was hard work and 100% committment even going to pick up players from a long way off who were stuck for a lift.

[pauls]

hi duncs im a big girl i can look after myself,but you know the hard work that was put in at sandhurst by lots of people and surprise surprise they have all been treated badly and no longer involved!!so so sad

[Big J R]

"My Dads bigger than your Dad !"

[Jeff Hamnett TSF]

Oh dear oh dear oh dear, whats gone on with my club!! 

 

Once a friendly decent club doing well in the prem, winning trophies, a good group of local boys playing for the club rather than for the money and now what...sinking like a stone.

 

Something stinks here and I would suggest its rotten to the core....real shame as I loved playing there. Why sack the manager in September after a good start - who is the manager now and why haven't you got a result in 7!? Lost a promising crop of players who might have got you back up a league.  

 

Clubs going backwards fast and Mr Chairman the buck stops with you! Whats happened to this once great club!?! Sort yourself out - bring back the Sicilian and we'll all come back. 

 

And no I won't be giving my real name 

Always sad to see a club on the decline, looks like a familiar story, manager and players leave, club struggles, calls for the old manager and players to come back.

Well for that to happen, it needs the club to want them back, and for the manager and players to want to  go back.

Whatever the reasons were for the original split, they have to be overcome as well.

 

If the above was likely, then it would probably have already happened.

 

So the choice is to support whats happening at the club and try to help, or move on and get over it.

 

Took me  a while to realise that myself to be honest!

[Green_Fingers]

Getting back to the original point, I think there is a more deep-rooted issue as to why many Clubs at this level (Sandhurst, Cobham, Banstead & Dorking - 4 of the 6 bottom Clubs in Div 1 have all seen much better days !) are on the slippery slope downwards. Whilst there are some negligent Chairman out there, many Clubs are run by hard-working "older generation" - people in their 60's even 70's who are no doubt ready & willing to hand over the reins if only they could trust incoming custodians. But are there the ready & willing late 30's / 40 year olds in place to take over? With a few notable exceptions (e.g. Krooner / Young Vet / Weeble from this forum) how many of the "younger generation" out there even think of what they can do to help maintain Club success - let alone offer to help? It's our fault of course - in trying to give them what we didn't have we established a generation where everything is done for them. Unfortunately I don't have a solution and fear for the future of many Clubs

[duncs]

Good post GF as well as your ideas I also think some clubs (on the football side of things ) are being run by people who are way way out of their comfort zone and get into a no win situation,they try to change things that a lot of hard working people have put together and end up losing the real people of their clubs,as soon as this starts to happen then they will lose the respect that has been built up over many years by a lot of loyal members,once this happens the club (on the football side of things )can never recover and they slide down the leagues and in some cases completely dissapear.

[Non League Nigel]

At the same time there's also clubs who refuse help. Without naming names there is a div 1 club who always had a great reputation is literally on it's knees due to one person

[duncs]

One of my fears is also this youth team culture that seem to be engulfing clubs,when i played the youth teams knew their place and the 1st team was the main focus of all clubs,I know parents and relatives try to keep these teams together but it never lasts cos  the lads get to a time when football is not their main focus and they move on,a hell of a lot of these lads never make the transition from youth to senior football and can leave a club high and dry,i am all for playing youngsters but they have to be good enough, often little johnny who was the star of kids football is found wanting in mens football,i would like a pound for every time i been told how great a youth team player was only to find them below average when given a chance,we have a great scouting system in this country and the best youth players are creamed off long before they get to clubs like ours imo. 

[Smudge]

Crikey Duncs your last 2 posts,are in my opinion,your best ever.Has someone hijacked your log in

[duncs]

No mate not this time,its just that normally people come on here to have a dig at me and i respond to them, when i have my football brain in gear i am a different animal,have to say that most posters on here are very knowledgeable but there are some  who are not but make out to anyone who will listen that they are. 

[Big J R]

Getting back to the original point, I think there is a more deep-rooted issue as to why many Clubs at this level (Sandhurst, Cobham, Banstead & Dorking - 4 of the 6 bottom Clubs in Div 1 have all seen much better days !) are on the slippery slope downwards. Whilst there are some negligent Chairman out there, many Clubs are run by hard-working "older generation" - people in their 60's even 70's who are no doubt ready & willing to hand over the reins if only they could trust incoming custodians. But are there the ready & willing late 30's / 40 year olds in place to take over? With a few notable exceptions (e.g. Krooner / Young Vet / Weeble from this forum) how many of the "younger generation" out there even think of what they can do to help maintain Club success - let alone offer to help? It's our fault of course - in trying to give them what we didn't have we established a generation where everything is done for them. Unfortunately I don't have a solution and fear for the future of many Clubs

 

 

YES GF  -  A very good post.

 

Certainly as far as Dorking is concerned, the majority of the people involved WHEN Meadowbank WAS in use, were of the more senior ilk and some or most of us are ready to get involved again, if and when MVDC and Co., decide what is going to happen.  The 'ball is in their court', as it were at the moment, I'm afraid.

[Krooner]

One of my fears is also this youth team culture that seem to be engulfing clubs,when i played the youth teams knew their place and the 1st team was the main focus of all clubs,I know parents and relatives try to keep these teams together but it never lasts cos  the lads get to a time when football is not their main focus and they move on,a hell of a lot of these lads never make the transition from youth to senior football and can leave a club high and dry,i am all for playing youngsters but they have to be good enough, often little johnny who was the star of kids football is found wanting in mens football,i would like a pound for every time i been told how great a youth team player was only to find them below average when given a chance,we have a great scouting system in this country and the best youth players are creamed off long before they get to clubs like ours imo. 

Really good and interesting post and read Duncs.

 

I think a balance has to be found as you never know what may be there within the youth set up from a gem of a player or a gem of a person who becomes involved with the club as a dedicated volunteer.  It is a fine balance to be made and wouldnt disagree with a lot of your post.

[duncs]

This is what i have experienced mate could be very different for others

[LisaHPhotog]

At Knaphill, chairman David Freeman brought in a number of new faces onto the committee and it's really paid dividends. Of the new faces 3 of us are in our early/mid 40's.

 

We've brought fresh ideas to the club and it's paid off this season with revenue up and performances on the pitch also improving as our vase run showed.

 

I was asked to put my money where my mouth was after being a casual visitor to the club as photographer for the local paper and I haven't liked back.

 

I now do the programme, website, twitter, photography, run the kitchen and help as matchday secretary for first and reserve teams. Then there's all the closed season stuff too. Others that have come on board run the bar (brilliantly), do social events and other fundraising events and then there's those who go and talk to prospective sponsors.

 

It's been a lot of hard work but the difference we've made in 12 months is amazing. Long may it continue.

 

Just wish other people would get involved more with their clubs because it's very very rewarding and my weekends wouldn't be the same without it

 

Lisa

[PrideofSurrey]

Knaphill fantastic set-up and club thats going places. 

I don't know what the goal is at Sandhurst - one fella runs the show and has got rid of a lot of the decent people needed to run a good show. Long list of characters have come and gone (not including the players) - all good non league football people. 

As for playing staff - why sack a manager in September after a really positive start - look at the turnaround in players since then. The team that smashed South Park at the end of last season would have got the club up the league I am sure of it. I don't know the reason behind the sacking - not sure anyone does.

Imho having one person who is the out and out decision maker and dictates the future path of any football club is dangerous....unless the geezer is pumping shed loads of money in. He has no one to answer to. Best clubs are those with strong committees who are proper organised. Sandhurst is not one of those clubs anymore and the chairman is unfit to take the club forward

[Lewprosser84]

The youth team thing is a difficult one for me. Having played in the best youth side for our age group in the area by a mile which for reference was Frimley Green at the time I can see the attraction of a team running a youth team at this level.

 

The best players tend to all play for 1 team in the area regardless of school, friends etc. All it takes is for your team to be that team that they all happen to play for in one particular age group and you have the basis of 2-3 maybe more players for your first team.

 

I will use my own side as an example at least 3 maybe 4 from that side played for Frimley Green later on.

[TRS]

Interesting thread. I don't know the ins and outs of the Sandhurst situation, but I know there are lots of people behind the scenes at this level that quietly get on with things behind the scenes without fanfare or reward apart from the satisfaction of helping out at their clubs. As just a fan, I take my hat off to them all!