The day in the life of a Halifax fan going to Gravesend

[Hxtownfan]

Well having set off at 5:30am to play in in the supporters game, we ended up in a really nice sports centre.

A warm up followed and within minutes of this the gravesend captian was calling us Fu*king C**nts for not hurry up and getting the game started.

For the 1st 15 mins a lot of the gravesend fans wanted to kick off with the Halifax players instead of trying to play football.

Halifax went onto win 6-3 and to be honest we were glad to get away from them mupperts (not all but a few of them)

Then onto the pub outside the ground, not 2 bad few games of pool and into the ground. First impression was rubbish (there are worst words but not for a message board)

Into the away end and no cover, best view in the ground and no cover???? why????? There should be a rule where all sides of the ground should be under cover. Its 2007 not 1965.

First Half Halifax were the better side as we all know. Deserved to be 2-1 and lets be honest if this game was completed Halifax would of won as Gravesend were having an off day.

Half time comes along and its raining, you are 2-1 down and surprise surprise no one is working on the wet field. A few people could of got some folk's into the wet areas trying to drain some of the water away.

2nd half started and with the extra rain and no groundsman trying to help get rid of it i agree it was un playable.

What annoyed the Halifax fans is that you were losing and not one person tried to get the water off the pitch. If this was at the shay we would of had 2 people trying to get some of the water off.

 

Final thoughts -

 

People are rude, swear a lot, not friendley and not respectful to us.

Ground - personally not good enough i think the conference should be having a word, we are looking to be the 5th div in England and having grounds like yours dont help.

Groundsman - Was he sacked? If not he should be

Ref - made the correct decesion but why wait 15 mins and then not make someone work on the pitch, he lied as soon as them players went off the pitch they were never coming back on.

 

Overall -

 

Halifax Fans should get free travel and entry to the ground paid for out of your groundsman's pocket.

Still glad im a Halifax fan and not a gravesend one

[Hempstead Gaz]

Could you not have sat in the stand. That was dry (if a little decrepit).

The whole pitch was flooded by a monsoon of biblical proportions.

A man with a fork wouldn't have actually been a lot of use.

The ref tried his best, hoping the rain would relent, which it didn't.As for your fans, who IS that cretin who openly admits to getting regularly thrown out BEFORE a game for jumping the turnstiles.

If proof were needed that at least one of your supporters is a indeed thick northern ba****ds, then this was it.

 

[Hxtownfan]

One fan doesnt count for the rest of us.

 

As for been called Fu*king C**nts and been almost fought with during the supports game how would you describe them? out of interest.

[Hempstead Gaz]

From the reports of our supporters games so far, we couldn't actually fight our way out of a paper bag.

My understanding is that the matches were meant to be a fun social event.

 

Perhaps Halifax were trying to emulate their stars in the first team with similar brutal tackling?

[Hxtownfan]

So having called one of our fans a Northern muppet you then defend people who call us cu*nts for not kicking off a football match when they want to.

 

The first team were playing you guys off the pitch before your grounds man went awol.

 

Accept that people who not only work on your gates but fans of your club have let them selfs down and i agree the lad that got kicked out from the Halifax end let himself down aswell.

 

 

[Harry J Allstars]

Happy Birthday CG.

 

You make some good points but do yourself no favours by suggesting we should have had people on the pitch forking the pitch. We possibly have the best pitch in the conference, if not then we are up there somewhere. Our grounds man does a very good job so I'm not going to sit here and let you slag him off. Just ask the ressies teams of Charlton, Chelsea and Aston Villa how good they think our pitch is.

 

So you've emailed the conference? All they'll tell you is that the refs decision is final as I doubt anyone was there that can comment. Your better off emailing the Horticulture society who will tell you forking the pitch in torrential conditions will do you no good. Ask Rushden and Grays how poor the weather has been and how much our pitch has taken a battering. We played the Rushden game in worse conditions than we played you, and away at Grays (only a few miles away as the crow flies) on Wednesday the rain was terrible as it has been all week. Our pitch has taken a battering recently and yesterday it just gave way. Games get called off/abandoned all the time, get over it.

 

As for our supporters team all I can do is apologise, there were one or two looking for a fight so I am sorry for that. As for the captain that called you players "F-ing c***" for not hurrying up I'm confused as to who this was. I organise all our matches so seeing how we don't have a designated captain I suppose that’s me and I can assure you I never said that. I was concerned and even apologise to your captain about how late our kit turned up so that definitely wasn't me. You'll have to be more specific about that one.

 

Also in another thread you have a go at Gavin for hiding behind his computer and not coming up to you airing his views. Isn't that what the guys in the supporters team did in which case we can't win. You may also want to take a look at your own supporter who got thrown out for sticking two fingers up at us after you scored. So you see your people swear a lot as well.

 

You also have a go at our ground saying the conference should tighten it's rules. Are you trying to get relegated? Or have you never been to your ground? We will soon be moving out, hopefully in the next three to four years. Don't get me wrong I love Stonebridge Road as it is my church but it is limited as to what we can do with it plus we don't own it so moving seems the only option. Why would we waste money if we're moving out in a few years? Why should there be a rule saying all sides should have cover? Have you never been to the Neu Camp? If you wanted the roof you could have moved round to the home end but decided not to, so the "no roof" comment makes little sense.

 

As for the clearly winning the game then you obviously didn't see out free kick that your goalkeeper fumbled. As others had said this is not his fault due to the condition of the pitch. It was worse in your area than it was in ours so all we had to do is keep throwing the ball in there. With this in mind I was quite pee'd off that the game was called off as we had perfect opportunity to win the game.

[Hempstead Gaz]

Thanks Paul.

Off to the pub with wife and kids soon. At least it will be dryer than yesterday.

Hope the pitch recovers for next week, but I've heard of some serious stormy weather coming later this week.

[mikefleet]

Happy Birthday Gary, have a good day

[Hempstead Gaz]

Cheers, Mike.

[Stu M]

Originally Posted By: Hxtownfan

Into the away end and no cover, best view in the ground and no cover???? why????? There should be a rule where all sides of the ground should be under cover.

We stood in the rain at Grays on Wedsnesday. There was no cover. I'll not be campaigning for them to be thrown out of the Conference, however. There's no cover one end at Dagenham. Or St Albans. Or sections of Aldershot. Or countless other grounds. Still, you might win the league if you throw out all the clubs with uncovered ends.

Originally Posted By: Hxtownfan

Deserved to be 2-1 and lets be honest if this game was completed Halifax would of won as Gravesend were having an off day.

Maybe, maybe not. You deserved your lead, your forwards were causing a lot of problems. But there was a third of the game left, anything could have happened and you cannot say with any authority that Halifax WOULD have won the game.

Originally Posted By: Hxtownfan

Half time comes along and its raining, you are 2-1 down and surprise surprise no one is working on the wet field. A few people could of got some folk's into the wet areas trying to drain some of the water away.

It was perfectly playable as the players went off at half-time, therefore there was no need to call a groundsman to fork the pitch. The deluge happened towards the end of half-time. I hate to break it to you, but that wasn't our fault.

Originally Posted By: Hxtownfan

What annoyed the Halifax fans is that you were losing and not one person tried to get the water off the pitch.

The only time someone could have attempted to get any water off the pitch (and how do you propose they did it? Drain it through forkholes, suck it up with a hose?) was when the referee brought the players off. Most refs would have called it off there and then as unplayable, but he left it 15mins because you were 2-1 up (our manager said so on Radio Kent) - only that your manager agreed the pitch was unplayable and they got the ref to declare it off before the 15mins was up.

If anyone's to blame, it's the referee for the indecisive 15 minutes when it was clear to everybody that a man with a fork wouldn't have helped and that the rain wasn't stopping. Had he called it off there and then, you wouldn't have your argument about the groundsman.

I'm sure if there's any question of the club 'cheating' the referee will submit it in his report to the Conference. You writing to them will make useful paper planes for their office.

[BustaGut]

I do wonder at times if I was watching the same game as the Halifax supporters, did they get out of there own half in the second half? before the game was abandoned it was being played in there penalty area ???? maybe I was at the wrong ground? they tried to attack about twice and floundered in the water, yes it is a pun as well.

[1 TOOTH]

they must of had to much rain water in there eyes

[Hxtownfan]

It was perfectly playable as the players went off at half-time, therefore there was no need to call a groundsman to fork the pitch. The deluge happened towards the end of half-time. I hate to break it to you, but that wasn't our fault.

 

 

 

If anyone's to blame, it's the referee for the indecisive 15 minutes when it was clear to everybody that a man with a fork wouldn't have helped and that the rain wasn't stopping. Had he called it off there and then, you wouldn't have your argument about the groundsman.

 

See your posts above.

 

Right everytime i go to a Halifax match at the shay, if its raining through the first half the groundsman and at least one other person is on at half time trying to sort the pitch for the 2nd half. As we see this at the shay i thought it happened at all grounds.

 

Maybe not at grounds when the home team is behind???? I am been serious why was the groundsman not on the pitch at half time? we could all see it was getting worse. If he had tried i would of said fair enough.

[EUFC FAN]

I have been to a number of conference grounds and only once seen the ground staff on the pitch at half time. If Halifax are any good then they will win the replay. Though league postion seem to suggest otherwise!

[Andy Y. (G&NFC)]

Bloody good this coming from a supporter of a club that when it was in the League had a succession of managers who used to sign potential players in a hotel in the middle of Town rather than let them see the ground!

 

If I could point people in the direction of Simon Inglis' excellent "Football Grounds of England, Wales and Scotland," his comments on the old Shay make interesting reading!

 

I'm not having a go at the excellent job Halifax have made of (nearly) making an excellent stadium from a cows behind of a club. But people who have lived in glasshouses really shouldnt throw stones!

[Halifaxfan]

Originally Posted By: Andy Y. (G&NFC)

Bloody good this coming from a supporter of a club that when it was in the League had a succession of managers who used to sign potential players in a hotel in the middle of Town rather than let them see the ground!

If I could point people in the direction of Simon Inglis' excellent "Football Grounds of England, Wales and Scotland," his comments on the old Shay make interesting reading!

I'm not having a go at the excellent job Halifax have made of (nearly) making an excellent stadium from a cows behind of a club. But people who have lived in glasshouses really shouldnt throw stones!

So what you're saying Andy, is compare Stonebridge now with how the Shay used to be 5 or 6 years ago!How's that any defence?

That's like us saying that the Shay is the same as Oxfords Kassam stadium becuse the Manor ground was a dump.

[Stu M]

Originally Posted By: Hxtownfan

Right everytime i go to a Halifax match at the shay, if its raining through the first half the groundsman and at least one other person is on at half time trying to sort the pitch for the 2nd half. As we see this at the shay i thought it happened at all grounds.

I've not seen it at many other grounds. Perhaps The Shay hasn't got particularly good drainage (I'm only assuming here, so feel free to correct me), but we had our pitch relaid a few seasons back and the drainage improved no end, so I doubt there's ever any cause for us to need a groundsman at half-time unless an absolute rip-roarer of a storm occurs...and it didn't look like occurring at the start of half-time.

[Richard C]

can we ban halifax fan he is boring me soooo much now.

[1 TOOTH]

here here, i agree , he is getting boring.

[Halifaxfan]

No the Shay doesn't drain particularly well, I think there's a strip of clay under the surface which holds water.

 

Also;

Towards the end of the season the egg chasers are on it as well. I actually think the ground staff do a great job, and we all get used to seeing near perfect surfaces now, either live or on TV.

 

People want to see the footage of games in the 70's Ronnie Radford scoring against Newcastle and Hendrie scoring for Halifax in the FA cup against Man city. These games wouldn't stand a chance of starting now.

 

Clearly, all the Hx fans are annoyed at having the game abandoned, especially being 2-1 up and It was developing into an interesting game. What's really irked us is no one, not the ref, managers, or ground staff did anything at all, No inspection. Clearly the pitch was unplayable, There was no where for the water to go as there was standing water all round the pitch perimeter.

 

Surely the best thing to of done, once both managers and the Ref agreed, was to bring the players off and call it off then, rather than have the 15 min wait. At that the crowd would have just gone home and alot of the unpleasent rubbish we're seeing wouldn't of happened.