Cambridge Match

[Jeff]

Agreed. The music is terrible.

And they should bring back 'Cheer Cheer'.

[Nagasaki]

Well I think that we all learnt something today. With arguably 3 first picks not available the squad kicked in and what a great job they did, it is very hard to pick a mom as everybody played to a high level, I know that it took a penalty to get started but it was no more than Fleet deserved on the day.

 

With yet more key games to come against Burton (A) Woking (H) Morecambe (A) and Oxford (H) it was important to get results today and Tuesday against Stafford, the boys did it for me today, excellent stuff.

 

Roll on Tuesday for the next encounter.

 

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applaus.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applaus.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applaus.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applaus.gif" alt="" />

 

 

_________________

Dont you think - Lifes just great

[jc]

Quote:

gnfc superb said:Slatter looked back to his best

Really? He struggled in the first half, with a lot of misplaced passes. That said, his mainly excellent set-pieces in the second half, and the shot that Crichton superbly tipped over, meant he did improve as the game went on.

Credit must go to Sodje for the taking his goal so well, after his missed opportunities in previous matches (e.g. Exeter at the end, Weymouth). His pace clearly scared the Cambridge defence.

A comfortable win in the end, with Cambridge probably the worst side we've played this season aside from Tamworth.

Oh, and DarrenGNFC: an excellent post regarding the crowd situation. Let's hope your hypotheses are correct. If the 300 or so home supporters who went to the Dagenham game but stayed away today were all doing so because of the England match, then they are morons.

[mikefleet]

Quote:

jc said:
If the 300 or so home supporters who went to the Dagenham game but stayed away today were all doing so because of the England match, then they are morons.

its the battle of club v country again

[Slartibartfast]

Your club needs your support, your country doesn't give a toss whether you sit in front of the telly or not.

Well done to the Cambridge fans who were prepared to travel to an away game on an England match day to cheer on a pretty poor side, they deserve better.

The apathy of our fans ceased to surprise me years ago, our team deseve better.

[Bill Kent]

Quote:

Harry J Allstars said:

Your not football supporters, your pathetic idiotic morons

This sort of remark does not help the cause Harry.

I would imagine that the guys who read this forum and are keen supporters were at the match Saturday. Two fans that I know were unable to be there due to working shift commitments.

As I have said before, take along a friend each, and we will double our gate.

I have managed to take four, two of which are now regular supporters. It may be that they may introduce a friend or two sometime in the future.

I'm sorry Harry, but with your kind of attitude you must be pretty friendless.

I'll shall be there on Monday together with my morons.

[FleetFanatic]

Quote:

Harry J Allstars said:
The only dissapointing things is the attendance, I've tried to keep my opinions to myself on this but then why should I? What have the club got to do invite people in for free? You put posters up post leaflets and still they don't want to come. It's not just the people that will be swarming round us like flies round sh*t should we get a decent cup run but last week we had 1,500 1,200 of which were home fans. Today we had 800 home fans, so a third of our support against Dagenham were missing just so they could watch England on TV? Your not football supporters, your pathetic idiotic morons who are happy to vote Labour because they're told to by The Sun, watch every televised match because they are told to by Sky Sports and wouldn't dare step out of line because they might be to be letting down the flag of St George.

I vote conservative, as most people know.
I have a job which includes the unsocial hours & weekends.
It means I saw neither the Fleet match nor the England match.
I have sky sports but have watched just one match this season & that was the Weymouth match.

As secretary of The Fleet Trust, should you REALLY be calling potential spectators, fairweather or not, morons?

[Harry J Allstars]

Quote:

Bill Kent said:

This sort of remark does not help the cause Harry.

I would imagine that the guys who read this forum and are keen supporters were at the match Saturday. Two fans that I know were unable to be there due to working shift commitments.

As I have said before, take along a friend each, and we will double our gate.

I have managed to take four, two of which are now regular supporters. It may be that they may introduce a friend or two sometime in the future.

I'm sorry Harry, but with your kind of attitude you must be pretty friendless.

I'll shall be there on Monday together with my morons.

Quote:

FleetFanatic said:
I vote conservative, as most people know.
I have a job which includes the unsocial hours & weekends.
It means I saw neither the Fleet match nor the England match.
I have sky sports but have watched just one match this season & that was the Weymouth match.

As secretary of The Fleet Trust, should you REALLY be calling potential spectators, fairweather or not, morons?

Well done for taking my comments out of context, you must have really tried hard to do that.

When did I say that if you work shifts and therefore can't come it is your fault? I did not say that.

Now go back and read my post again.

I was having a go at the poeple that chose England over the Fleet even though, as Slarti says, your country don't care if you watch or not.

I never once said that if you can't go because of shift work then you're a moron. Well done though for using that comment to attack me the pair of you

I have no doubt that you two do what you can for the club, but no no well done for taking my comments completely out of context though.

[Slartibartfast]

Putting having a go at each other to one side for a moment and returning to Saturdays game, I think we were all pretty concerned beforehand about how we would cope with the number of players out injured so I am surprised that Peter Hawkins hasn't had a mention on here, maybe one mistake in the second half letting a long ball bounce but other than that hardly put a foot wrong. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applaus.gif" alt="" />

[StuThompson]

I saw both games yesterday. The England game I watched in the bar afterwards and to be honest I can't remember much of it 'cause I spent most of the England game talking 'cause it was so boring.

[Fleet boys]

"Gravesend & Northfleet boss Liam Daish praises striker Luke Moore's performance in midfield in the 2-1 win over Cambridge." another muck up from the bbc sport website

[John Pearce]

Quote:

DarrenGNFC said:
Well, alright, I suppose the price of £12 to watch us play is not an easy one to decipher as to whether it is high, low or just about right. Comparisons seem to be the logical way of figuring this out but even they are not consistent enough and vary a fair bit within each division.

I think just looking at why people aren't coming to see us will be easier to figure out, although that's open to debate.

Personally, I believe it's largely to do with how we have performed in recent memory plus the transitional phase we have gone through from the day we took our first steps towards going full-time. In three of the last four seasons (2003-2004 excluded), we have started well and been in a good position within the top-half for at least a few months or so (give or take a few yo-yos...) only to fall down the table towards the end of the season. Perhaps in the eyes and minds of many casual fans, a slip is inevitably on its way at some point. Therefore, keeping up this good form and maintaining a good position within the top half is the main way to get more fans through the turnstyles.

The other is simply to keep hold of a lot of our players for at least a couple of years. The full-time switch saw lots of personnel changes which saw a lot of fan favourites leave and arguably had an adverse effect on some of our performances last season. I think it also has had quite an effect on our attendances. When my casual friends/acquaintances would mention the Fleet, it seemed almost compulsory to follow it with the name Jimmy Jackson, even if it was only in a sentence that went something like "Gravesend and Northfleet...The Fleet....Jimmy Jackson, and all that." I once spoke to an old school friend who said he'd been to see Gravesend once in his life and I asked him if he could remember which players he saw and he said "oh, the one that everyone knows..." "Jimmy Jackson?" "That's the one!". His departure, aswell as that of Skinner, Drury, Protheroe, Skinner, McKimm and Saunders may have signalled a massive change in the eyes of the casual fans, far greater than a statement such as "We are now full-time. We will be taking this football lark a bit more seriously now." That collection of players is largely comprised of long-term players and fan favourites (in some way or another...)...and now they are all gone and what we're left with is a group of players who at most have only been here about a year and even then, were seen largely last season in rather uninspiring matches and/or on the wrong end of the results (It should be noted here that our home record in the last nine games was W2 D2 L5 when, if I recall correctly, Daish was trying to put out mainly full-time sides at the expense of some superior part-time players...so it was a very transitional phase at the Fleet, but even in some of the games we won, we were quite dull - Altrincham, Morecambe.. ) and arguably the best player - or at least the player who you're most likely to go away remembering the name of - Charlie MacDonald was out injured for a lot of this. The other main contender for the honour of being our best player, Ross Smith, a defender, was mainly seen getting beaten or being in a defence that concede a fair few goals. So I think the casual fans can be excused or at least understood for feeling a little apathetic to this squad of largely unknown players who in the long-run are unproven.

What I think we need is to keep up the good work, stay in a similar position and have a more settled side, then when people return to Stonebridge Road then at least some sort of continuity between the fan and the club will exist, rather than having to nearly start again with a long list of new names on each visit.

If by Christmas, or perhaps late Winter, attendances are at the same level, then maybe it's time to panic. At the moment though, I think if we keep up stability in all areas then hopefully it won't take too long to see the results.

Also, I think most people prefer to go to the football with other people, but there were so many uninspiring/dull performances last year that it may be harder for people to convince others to come with them and they don't want to go alone and so end up not going.

Keeping up the good work should eventually eradicate a lot of this.



Right, that'll do. I wrote out a reply before this one and then accidently deleted it so I don't think all I wanted to say was said in this one. Oh well. There's always tomorrow. It's quite late, so hopefully my post wasn't entirely incomprehensible.

Darren, whilst you raise many very important and valid points, I think that you are overlooking probably the one main reason as to why the club struggle to attract larger attendances, that is unfortunately 'Stonebridge Road' ie the ground itself. We all hope that in the medium term that is to be addressed, but the reality is that the place is probably the, or one of the, most univiting grounds in the Conference (I have to say at this point however that I have not been to all of them, so I stand to be corrected on that!).

Firstly parking is a problem, certainly in a what is a perceived as a 'safe' place. Access to the ground can be difficult, certainly when only 1 or 2 turnstiles are open. When in the ground you are faced with virtually nowhere to buy decent food, or even a cup of tea, toilets that are a health hazard, stands where you get showered with rust if the ball just happens to hit it, weeds growing through the terraces etc. etc. etc. The whole place just gives an overwhelming impression of decline. Decline which unfortunately has been going on for years. The ground has suffered from lack of investment for as long as I can remember, for fully understandable reasons mostly, and the reality is now coming home to roost.

Yes, £12 to get into the place does seem to be expensive, particularly when you look around at the facilities available. The reality is that football these days, is not just about what happens in the 90 odd minutes over which a game lasts.

It really is sad to think that the current squad, which is probably the best squad of players assembled under the name of Gravesend and Northfleet for many years, probably playing on one of the best playing surfaces ever seen at Stonebridge Road, are being ignored by the majority of people in Gravesham just because of the state of the ground in which they play their home games.

The move to a new ground cannot come soon enough, certainly if the club is to realise its full potential going forward.

[Slartibartfast]

Quote:

Quecerasaha said:
It really is sad to think that the current squad, which is probably the best squad of players assembled under the name of Gravesend and Northfleet for many years,

I'd like to hear W.V.N.'s opinion on that statement. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif" alt="" />

[John Pearce]

Quote:

Slartibartfast said:

Quote:

Quecerasaha said:
It really is sad to think that the current squad, which is probably the best squad of players assembled under the name of Gravesend and Northfleet for many years,

I'd like to hear W.V.N.'s opinion on that statement. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif" alt="" />

I've just checked with my mate W.V.N. and he is in agreement!

[BustaGut]

I agree that the parking must put lots off, in saying that is there a stadium that it,s not a problem!!!!!

The food problem with only one van,and the choice of sausage or burger or burger and sausage all with chips may put some off, The food thing I only see as a problem as I feel that we should feel morally obliged to give the away supporters there own faciliets. They can only use the home one if they know it's there, and dont feel intimidated to go amongst the home supporters and use theres.but i still believe they should have there own.

[Stu M]

Maybe we should get Jamie Oliver down there... he'll be looking for something new to get his teeth into (no pun intended) once the schools thing has finished... how about improving the food at non-league footy grounds?

[Hirsty]

Why do people need to eat at the ground ? and, if they need to, why would that put them off attending ? I have something to eat before I leave home & then have something else to eat when I return home ! As long as the bar is open then that's the main thing !! Or are you expecting GNFC Stonebridge Road to feature in Kent's Good Food Guide ?

 

A personal opinion, so no point in having a go at me.

 

Cheers,

 

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/elephant.gif" alt="" />

[Stu M]

Quote:

Hirsty said:
Or are you expecting GNFC Stonebridge Road to feature in Kent's Good Food Guide ?

Oh bleedin hell, Hirsty, come on, I mean-...

Quote:

Hirsty said:
A personal opinion, so no point in having a go at me.

Oh..., damn. Spoiled my fun there.

[KShep]

I know we've tried so many times before, with posters and offers and god-knows-what, but could we release a new bath of posters that elects new fans-favourites? Posters with Charlie, Ross and Sodje on them, maybe DeBolla and Keeling too, all of them shown in a good light? DeBolla's freekicks, Keeling's trickery, Charlie and Sodje celebrating a goal, Ross putting in an excellent last-ditch tackle? And then a picture of the revamped Plough End to silence the 'Stonebridge Road is a shed' crowd? I know it's all been done before, but ideas can't hurt! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Nagasaki]

Quote:

Slartibartfast said:
Putting having a go at each other to one side for a moment and returning to Saturdays game, I think we were all pretty concerned beforehand about how we would cope with the number of players out injured so I am surprised that Peter Hawkins hasn't had a mention on here, maybe one mistake in the second half letting a long ball bounce but other than that hardly put a foot wrong. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applaus.gif" alt="" />

Once again we are singing from the same hymn book.

However small one makes of the squad, everytime we need a recruit the player that comes in plays his socks off, Peter Hawkins and Liam Coleman are prime examples.

Mr Ekoku may be the fly in the ointment but a young lad with time to put the record straight.

With respect to Saturday is there anybody that played badly?

I dont think so.

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/jump.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/jump.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/jump.gif" alt="" />