forget the play-offs, they're boring!

[maccawozzagod]

Please bear with me on this post as it might just ramble a bit!

Over the last few months and years many people whose blood runs the Red and White of Stanley have ceased many of their activities. This might have been Supporters Club meetings, Gold Bond participation, sponsorships, drinking in The Crown or the clubhouse, making extra purchases at the ground or even attending matches themselves. I for one had ceased doing all of the above at some time or all times. The reasons for these actions would have been varied and particular but all of them boiled to the fact that not one of us could condone the actions of those charged with looking after the finances at our club.

That gloom has lifted now. Could anybody in or around the club accuse Ilyas Khan of being there to line his own pocket? Could anybody doubt the involvement of the man and question his motives? No. The Trust is back – or should be. I would imagine that 98% of the hardcore will now believe the club and its future to be secure, but we all know that it will take more than that for the town and its inhabitants to believe in our little club again.

Ilyas will administer his own special brand of first aid to the club and its finances. I imagine that he will put people and procedures in place to bolster the infrastructure of the club. He may empower John Coleman with the means to improve probably the greatest squad this club has ever had. What he can’t do on his own is go out there and make the town believe again. He can’t cover every blade of grass and talk to every constituent. We can.

I would like to think that as many people as are bodily or geographically able will stand up and be counted now in an effort to thank Ilyas for the faith and belief that he has shown in us and our club. How can we do our bit to get the club back in prosperity? Let’s be under no illusions that Ilyas will bankroll the club and continue to be its financial crutch. He wants the club to be self-sufficient. He wants us the fans to choose its next direction. Well we can start to do this NOW.

The obvious avenue is that we all attend as many matches as possible and encourage others to come too. Nice and easy and pretty much what we try to do anyway (apart from the previous conscientious objectors)

The less easy ones are to try to get involved off the pitch. How many of you have heeded the call to shovel snow off the pitch? It doesn’t matter whether you had reasons to not want to do it, will you do it next time?

Are you able to offer your time to aid the club with efforts towards the Gold Bond draw? I’ll come back to this one later on.

Can you attend Supporters Club meetings and are you willing to get stuck in and give Pendle Red and his team a helping hand?

Do you know of anyone who may be in a position to sponsor the club in any way? It might be something that already exists, stadium, shirt, match, ball, advertising board etc or it might be something that you have thought of yourself, for example when we had corner flags and injury time sponsored!! Every little helps and if you have the ear of somebody like that then please have a word.

Have you got a particular skill set that the club could make use of? You might be a plumber, builder, joiner or a roofer and your skills could be put to use for an hour or two here and there. From what I can remember of sitting in the main stand (Clayton End) the gaps that are still there every week seem to correspond with where the leaks are – and I certainly wouldn’t sit in those spaces again. But to the right tradesman it might cost fifty notes and an hour to put right with some bitumen and a blowlamp. It might be that you are in marketing, or sales, or banking, or refuse, or media ……… whatever it is the club might be able to make use of you. My suggestion would be that if you have anything to offer then let’s set up some form of register that the club could call on if needs be. I’d love to see (for example) two plumbers step forward so that one plumber doesn’t get the call every time, come on folks let’s share the workload.

That brings me back to the Gold Bond. This used to be a really important portion of the clubs income. I have a feeling that it has slipped away in recent times and is in urgent need of repair. It is an income that provides revenue for the club every week (or month) of the year and helps to stem the tide when close season is upon us, or games called off. I personally have never particularly liked the format of the draw and would have preferred to have an exclusively local Accrington Draw. But it needs to have way more income in order to support that. At the last educated guess Stanley were generating around £1200 a week from this but it has been over £2000. Can we push it to £10,000?

I would like to see some pledges from Accrington fans, as goodwill to the club in this new dawn, to attempt to push the Gold Bond. This could be as much or as little of a push as possible. The club tries to encourage members to be on direct debit. So, you knock on the door of the people on your street/block and try to tap up family, friends, work colleagues. If you can get them to sign up, and agree to DD then your work is done. Piece of cake? It should be shouldn’t it? And there are incentives as well. I can’t remember the exact numbers but a couple of seasons ago it was something like a season ticket for 20 members. You can also earn commission, and if a ticket that has come from your work is a winner then you earn on that as well! It really could be so simple that one nights work from you and the club is well on the road to recovery.

This is going to be my pledge. I will attempt to sign up 100 members



The last thing I would ask on this post is that if any of it has struck a chord with you, or you agree with my sentiments, don’t just nod your head, get up and do something. If nothing else then please remember my words. You might not be arsed to do something this week but next week you might. Or if my words inspire you then please try to use them to inspire others.

We can do this. Just believe.

[stanley convert]

Good post macca,some good stuff in there.
There has been a small band working up at the crown for most of the pre season and also while the season has been in progress doing all sorts of jobs. I have spent hours there sorry days there all for free along with a certain plumber (who stands on the clayton end) and various other peeple repairing seats etc, one of the main problems is the infrastucture is so tierd now we are mearly fire fighting but the fight go,es on.
The main problem has been and still is money in an ideal world all the toilet facilities need ripping out and a fresh start needs to be made, idealy purpose built toilet blocks at the back of both the Clayton and coppice terraces, we have somebody who could build these (planning permission needs to be in place) and has already offered to do so how great would that be an inbuilt unit containing wc,s food outlet and beer sales all under one roof ?
At the moment we need to keep doing what we can to keep things servicable till the end of the season and then make the push and hopefully the new regime that is now in place may have got a grip and set a list of priorities for ground improvements.

[Mr T]

Will confirm later, but the Goldbond scheme requires a regular list of 50 subscribers per week to qualify for a free season ticket

[VALAIRIAN]

Great post Macca

[Peter Shaw]

Often it goes unrecognised and unappreciated that Accrington Stanley could not exist without the time, effort and sometimes expense that volunteers give freely in order that the club continues to function. Thanks Stanley Convert, plumber and others.

However, macca makes a good point that finding additional volunteers will help spread the load and give attention to detail that is sometimes lacking. Perhaps a register is something that could be taken up by supporter organisatiions.

We are close to becoming a community based club with a firm financial footing and it is up to those who care to turn what have been very difficult times over the last couple of years into a huge success story, both on and off the field.

The club's board of directors is working hard on a number of exciting and innovative projects that will raise the profile and interest in the club to a much higher level and to a much wider audience.

[Pendle Red]

Super stuff Rob

[shakermaker]

One thing I would like to see is us lot dispelling the ridiculous fearmongering about Ilyas' takeover that the Whalley & O'Neill camps started in their desperation. Quite a few of us have come across people who have spouted some ridiculous rubbish that they've heard from O'Neill/Whalley affiliates about Ilyas' intentions with the club. We all know that he's the most honest man in football and someone that any club in the land would be proud to call their chairman. But sadly the fearmongering has reached some fans and it's up to us to get across how good his takeover is. It's not a widespread problem by any means but it bugs me no end.

I think the main thing however is to get across to people how much positive change is happening at the club. The shining light to me is the promise of a new stadium, as people in this town are still so apathetic in spite of our great progress on the field. It doesn't look like the crowds will get above even two-and-a-half thousand until the play-off semis.

We've been playing great football all season, but that hasn't been enough to drag the crowds in. We're now getting the results to match the footy and are within sniffing distance of Old Trafford, but still the crowds are slow to react. What's their beef?

As far as skills that I can offer, I'd be more than happy to help out Dan & Co. with any media ideas they want to implement & need (free) man-power with.

[Peter Shaw]

Originally Posted by maccawozzagod

I would like to think that as many people as are bodily or geographically able will stand up and be counted now in an effort to thank Ilyas for the faith and belief that he has shown in us and our club. How can we do our bit to get the club back in prosperity? He wants the club to be self-sufficient. He wants us the fans to choose its next direction. Well we can start to do this NOW.

Are you able to offer your time to aid the club with efforts towards the Gold Bond draw? I’ll come back to this one later on.

Can you attend Supporters Club meetings and are you willing to get stuck in and give Pendle Red and his team a helping hand?

Do you know of anyone who may be in a position to sponsor the club in any way? It might be something that already exists, stadium, shirt, match, ball, advertising board etc or it might be something that you have thought of yourself, for example when we had corner flags and injury time sponsored!! Every little helps and if you have the ear of somebody like that then please have a word.

Have you got a particular skill set that the club could make use of? You might be a plumber, builder, joiner or a roofer and your skills could be put to use for an hour or two here and there. My suggestion would be that if you have anything to offer then let’s set up some form of register that the club could call on if needs be. I’d love to see (for example) two plumbers step forward so that one plumber doesn’t get the call every time, come on folks let’s share the workload.

The last thing I would ask on this post is that if any of it has struck a chord with you, or you agree with my sentiments, don’t just nod your head, get up and do something. If nothing else then please remember my words. You might not be arsed to do something this week but next week you might. Or if my words inspire you then please try to use them to inspire others.

We can do this. Just believe.

The Official Supporters' Club and Accrington Stanley Supporters' Fund
have got together to follow macca's suggestion of setting up a Volunteers Register.

There will be posters around the ground and handouts giving contact information for anybody who can help in any way - skills as well as time alone will be equally welcome.

Once we have your details we will contact you. Many thanks in advance.

[sherry]

Poster information was Name and Contact Details to

Neil McGuinness [email protected]
OR
Peter Shaw [email protected]
OR
please pass your details to Sue at the club reception.

[John_Timmins]

It's all good and well asking for volunteers but when You hear off a Stanley fan who brings not only his time but his own cash to help Stanley gets fired off and left devastated, i was not alone in worrying what certain people who are now more involved with the club are trying to achieve?

I hope it was only pub talk and mr heap will man the players gate for a long time.....

[Willie Miller]

I agree JT, an honest man who has given his free time & his own money

REDUCED TO TEARS.....

I too hope their is another side to this

[shakermaker]

Thirded JT

[Footy Nut]

Heard from a reliable source that it was just a misunderstanding. Geoff will continue in his important match day role for many years I'm sure.