SLOUGH TOWN v MAIDSTONE UNITED - four days to go

[Shredding Green]

On 09/03/2022 at 10:43, Reading Rebel said:

Massive game for Maidstone not so massive for the Rebels.

My attendance forecast is 1,400.

 

 

And you stated elsewhere that "This prediction lark is easy peasy"!

[Shredding Green]

On 09/03/2022 at 12:58, Shredding Green said:

Saturday will reveal the true figure but at this moment of time Glen, I feel that you simply have not got your finger on the pulse.

I expect the Arbour Park crowd to be at least somewhat more than the season's best of 1,106 against Oxford City. 

The only competition was 16,984 at Brentford 2 Burnley 0 and 5,742 at Wycombe Wanderers 0 Rotherham United 0.

I was anticipating that quite a few casual football supporters would look at the day's fixtures and choose Slough Town v Maidstone United. But not even that happened. 

I doubt whether the 82,000 at England 15 Ireland 32 had very much affect on our dire attendance. It's a different game.

[Reading Rebel]

43 minutes ago, Shredding Green said:

And you stated elsewhere that "This prediction lark is easy peasy"!

Said tongue in cheek Shredding.

46 minutes ago, Shredding Green said:

Sadly Glen, I have to offer you my congratulations on the crowd of 883 being within your forecast range of 800-900. And I mean sadly on behalf of Slough Town FC.

This is terrible support for our club. As he knows my friend Atma, my ex next-door neighbour Paul did drive up from Ross-on-Wye solely for the match. My friend Atma and his match mascot grandson Gavin were covered by the match mascot package but four other members of their family purchased tickets and came over from Hounslow. 

As for the hoards who never came ... what a match they missed!!!

Did they have a good time and enjoy the match and excellent win for the Rebels?

Edited March 13, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

59 minutes ago, Shredding Green said:

The only competition was 16,984 at Brentford 2 Burnley 0 and 5,742 at Wycombe Wanderers 0 Rotherham United 0.

I was anticipating that quite a few casual football supporters would look at the day's fixtures and choose Slough Town v Maidstone United. But not even that happened. 

I doubt whether the 82,000 at England 15 Ireland 32 had very much affect on our dire attendance. It's a different game.

I think it's mainly a sign of the times Shredding.

It's only my opinion but with the cost of living rising to god knows what level a lot of people are either currently feeling the pinch or are fearful of what's to come and tightening their belts and only shelling out if necessary.

Having said that I'm sure if we were fighting it out at the top end of the table yesterday's attendance would of been a lot higher.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[Shredding Green]

19 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Said tongue in cheek Shredding.

Did they have a good time and enjoy the match and excellent win for the Rebels?

Oh yes, they certainly did. Despite this being the very first football match for Atma's 78 years old wife, his younger son (who's not really into football), his daughter-in-law and 14 years old granddaughter. They are a closeknit family so all came to support 8 years old Gavin being the match mascot ... and they all enjoyed the match as well as the occasion.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Shredding Green

[Reading Rebel]

2 minutes ago, Shredding Green said:

Oh yes, they certainly did. Despite this being the very first football match for Atma's 78 years old wife, his younger son (who's not really into football), his daughter-in-law and
14 years old granddaughter. They are a closeknit family so all came to support 8 years old Gavin being the match mascot ... and they all enjoyed the match as well as the occasion.

Good to hear.

Hopefully they've got the bug and are now Rebels supporters or at least followers.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[GlenSTFC]

1 hour ago, Shredding Green said:

Sadly Glen, I have to offer you my congratulations on the crowd of 883 being within your forecast range of 800-900. And I mean sadly on behalf of Slough Town FC.

This is terrible support for our club. As he knows my friend Atma, my ex next-door neighbour Paul did drive up from Ross-on-Wye solely for the match. My friend Atma and his match mascot grandson Gavin were covered by the match mascot package but four other members of their family purchased tickets and came over from Hounslow. 

As for the hoards who never came ... what a match they missed!!!

It gives me no pleasure in being right in this occasion SG… I guess there were between 600-650 Slough fans which for a mid table side isn’t a disgrace but on the other hand won’t improve our playing budget!

[Shredding Green]

On 09/03/2022 at 14:27, GlenSTFC said:

His crowd predictions have taken a drastic dip, glad he’s not our finance director! It depends on how many Maidstone bring plus the weather. As I said I doubt we’d have much more than 600, so I think 2-300 away fans is realistic for a near 2 hour journey.

Glen, this post by you was inappropriate for a number of reasons.

  i) You did not read my post of 12th February carefully enough and made your post based on wrong assumptions. My post of 12th February read :- 

"Promote the match to all your friends. I know, just as the club does, that it's hard nowadays to get Slough people through the turnstiles but if every Slough Town regular supporter living in Slough could just get two people along to this massive match, a crowd of more than 2,457 is within our reach.

Another massive factor in achieving that is that hardly any of the London and local teams from Southern League Premier Division South and above are at home on Saturday 12th March : just Brentford v Burnley and Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United."

That was not a forecast crowd by me of 2,457 but a few points raised to achieve a bumper crowd. Sadly, all turned out to be a miserable failure for the club except that the performance was deserving of a bumper crowd.

 ii) I made that post a fortnight before the Dorking Wanderers v Maidstone United match.

Dorking Wanderers first passed two 2,000 at Meadowbank on Boxing Day 2021 wih 2,048 against Havant & Waterlooville. The record attendance was broken again on 
22nd January with 2,142 against Ebbsfleet United and again on 26th February with 2,898 against Maidstone United.

I was anticipating a similar build up to yesterday's Slough Town v Maidstone United match.
 

iv) You did not read my post of 9th March carefully enough and made your post based on wrong assumptions. My post of 9th March read :- 

"I expect the Arbour Park crowd to be at least somewhat more than the season's best of 1,106 against Oxford City." 

That was not a forecast crowd by me of 1,106. I certainly hoped that the attendance would be a lot higher than that but it turned out to be a lot lower. For a town with a population of over 166,000 and a football club who seem to attract a substantial part of their support from outside of the town, 883 for a major match is a big problem for the club. But at least they saw a match to go home and tell every one about.

[Shredding Green]

5 hours ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

"Agree with you,SR1965" - must be the shock of us beating Maidstone!

My final post of the weekend!!! Now I'll sit back and look forward to the rest of the season, which I consider to be far from over.???

One town where the fans are really flocking to their local football stadium is Macclesfield. The big attraction yesterday was the visit of Ashton Athletic ... and I had not even heard of them! Beat them and Macclesfield FC would be North West Counties League Champions. And 4,604 turned up at Moss Rose to see Macclesfield FC do just that!

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Shredding Green said:

Glen, this post by you was inappropriate for a number of reasons.

  i) You did not read my post of 12th February carefully enough and made your post based on wrong assumptions. My post of 12th February read :- 

"Promote the match to all your friends. I know, just as the club does, that it's hard nowadays to get Slough people through the turnstiles but if every Slough Town regular supporter living in Slough could just get two people along to this massive match, a crowd of more than 2,457 is within our reach.

Another massive factor in achieving that is that hardly any of the London and local teams from Southern League Premier Division South and above are at home on Saturday 12th March : just Brentford v Burnley and Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United."

That was not a forecast crowd by me of 2,457 but a few points raised to achieve a bumper crowd. Sadly, all turned out to be a miserable failure for the club except that the performance was deserving of a bumper crowd.

 ii) I made that post a fortnight before the Dorking Wanderers v Maidstone United match.

Dorking Wanderers first passed two 2,000 at Meadowbank on Boxing Day 2021 wih 2,048 against Havant & Waterlooville. The record attendance was broken again on 
22nd January with 2,142 against Ebbsfleet United and again on 26th February with 2,898 against Maidstone United.

I was anticipating a similar build up to yesterday's Slough Town v Maidstone United match.
 

iv) You did not read my post of 9th March carefully enough and made your post based on wrong assumptions. My post of 9th March read :- 

"I expect the Arbour Park crowd to be at least somewhat more than the season's best of 1,106 against Oxford City." 

That was not a forecast crowd by me of 1,106. I certainly hoped that the attendance would be a lot higher than that but it turned out to be a lot lower. For a town with a population of over 166,000 and a football club who seem to attract a substantial part of their support from outside of the town, 883 for a major match is a big problem for the club. But at least they saw a match to go home and tell every one about.

With the changing demographics of Slough over the years to what it is today I'm really not sure having a population of 166,000 holds a great deal of credence when it comes to attendances. As you say a large % of our support travel from outside of town.

Unless it's a really big match or local derby I think we are stuck with 600/700 for the foreseable future.

 

[rebelade]

With reference to the attendance you just have to look at other teams in our league, Dulwich only had 2,700 compared to usual sellout, Dorking had 1,400 and Chippenham under 500. It’s clear at the moment that cost of living is starting to affect crowds.

We were told to expect 400-500 away fans, hence food and alcohol bar on far side, but clearly it was around 200-250 as people prioritise their expenditure 

[Curtis]

1 hour ago, rebelade said:

 It’s clear at the moment that cost of living is starting to affect crowds.

If that’s the real reason how do we explain 40,000+ at Chelsea, 60,000+ at Arsenal & 80,000+ at Twickenham yesterday?
We’ve struggled with attendances all this season, and I think we need to figure out the real reason & not resort to easy excuses.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Curtis said:

If that’s the real reason how do we explain 40,000+ at Chelsea, 60,000+ at Arsenal & 80,000+ at Twickenham yesterday?
We’ve struggled with attendances all this season, and I think we need to figure out the real reason & not resort to easy excuses.

Not sure you can pick out games in the premiership in affluent places like London and Twickenham as examples of attendances holding up.

Wales v France in the rugby on Friday was about 15,000 down when they would normally be guaranteed a full house even on a weekday. 

Curtis, do you think it's got nothing to do with the break due to covid, covid itself and the rising cost of living or it's something else entirely?

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on why you think we are experiencing lower attendances this season. 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[rebelade]

Curtis 

Are you seriously comparing 3 matches that are all pre-booked, would sell probably twice the amount if stadiums were big enough and an event that happens once every 2 years to a match at our levels. Yes our attendance is lower this year but just comparing yesterday’s attendances across mid table non league teams, lots had smaller figures than their average 

[Shredding Green]

On 12/03/2022 at 17:59, Sir Rebel1965 said:

A very good performance from Slough with the young attacking line causing all sorts of problems to Maidstone, and the defence holding firm.

 

6 points from one of the top teams?

 

Have to say that if I was Joe Ellul (No.4) I would be embarrassed by that performance - falling over every time a player half his size got near him!

 

Comfortably mid table now so safe.

Joe Ellul does not normally play like that :-

Maidstone United defender Joe Ellul has been named National League South player-of-the-month for January 2022.

Ellul, 33, was part of a Stones defence who conceded only two goals in five league games during January.

It’s the latest accolade for the popular centre-half, who signed a new contract last week, having won
back-to-back player-of-the-month awards from Stones fans.

Maidstone United haven’t lost a league game this season with Ellul in the side* and while he appreciates the personal awards, he’d swap them all for team glory.

“It’s not something you often see, a centre-half winning player-of-the-month from the league,” said Ellul.

“It’s a massive boost for me to be winning an award like that.

“It’s a big award in non-league, it’s beautiful, it’s lovely, it will look nice on my sideboard indoors, but it doesn’t win us anything as a team.

*They have now!!!

“I’ll take it, I’m happy with it, I’m grateful that I won it, but I’d trade it all in to lift the league trophy at the end of the season.”

[Shredding Green]

On 09/03/2022 at 14:27, GlenSTFC said:

His crowd predictions have taken a drastic dip, glad he’s not our finance director! It depends on how many Maidstone bring plus the weather. As I said I doubt we’d have much more than 600, so I think 2-300 away fans is realistic for a near 2 hour journey.

Glen, whilst I was writing my reply to this post, I received two messages saying that the website was unavailable due to maintenance. There were also some sentences advising me what to do to complete my post but although I could read them, I couldn't work out what to do.

I noticed later that my point iii) was missing. That read :-

iii) You did not read my posts of 12th February and 9th March accurately but you questioned my professional pedigree.
That is unacceptable.

However, it is no easy matter for the person in charge of the club's finances when even Maidstone United see only half of the away support that they expected the day before the match actually turn up on the day.    

 

[GlenSTFC]

52 minutes ago, Shredding Green said:

Glen, whilst I was writing my reply to this post, I received two messages saying that the website was unavailable due to maintenance. There were also some sentences advising me what to do to complete my post but although I could read them, I couldn't work out what to do.

I noticed later that my point iii) was missing. That read :-

iii) You did not read my posts of 12th February and 9th March accurately but you questioned my professional pedigree.
That is unacceptable.

However, it is no easy matter for the person in charge of the club's finances when even Maidstone United see only half of the away support that they expected the day before the match actually turn up on the day.    

 

What are you babbling on about SG! Saying what I wrote is unacceptable and questioning your professional pedigree is laughable! Could you not tell it was light banter?

[Curtis]

Rebelade,

What I was saying is that our struggle with attendances is nothing new, and if people enjoy & are passionate about going to watch a sporting event they go to it, it isn’t on the top of their list if they are looking to make cost of living savings.

[Sir Rebel1965]

The reason gates are down is simple - we went out of the FA cup in the first round we played, and we are mid-table with nothing to play for.

Both the FA cup and playing for the playoffs/top brings people in.

That on top of Covid and prices going up will see a drop in attendance.

So how many bought season tickets? - am I right in thinking the price of season tickets went up this year?

So how many thought I will wait and see how Covid goes and then not having a season ticket now dont bother?

[Jon Underwood]

Personally I don’t think the on-pitch efforts / results / league position should be seen as a major factor in the decline.

Bath and Billericay both had 1000+ crowds the other week despite both being in the bottom 3 and having seasons well below their expectations. Also we’ve lost once at home since October (beating teams like Dorking, Maidstone and Havant at AP in that time) so it’s not like fans are coming down and seeing us get beaten week in week out. 

My personal view, which I don’t mind sharing on here, is that we as a club need to do more in the community and online to engage new fans and this is something that is currently being discussed within the club. This is not me having a go at anyone at the club, as we have limited people willing and able to help on this front but I believe we can all do better on this and I fully believe we will do so moving forward.