Time to stand and be counted.
 

1962. A football club and a dream, died. Or so they thought. Over the forty years plus that have passed,many tireless individuals have pumped money into a cause to keep that dream/club alive.

Under the stewardship of Eric Whalley and John Coleman,after the tireless efforts of many before them,the dream has not just lived on,but grown.

And ,after all this progress, and restoring league football back to Accrington,what is happening???

People argueing about the direction this wonderful club of ours is heading.

What is happening at the moment can be only described as a DEFINING MOMENT. I am not,or will not draw any conclusions,but it is, as the title of this thread states it's...
TIME TO STAND AND BE COUNTED.

I can only say,after McEvilly's dismissal today,I was DISGUSTED:mad::mad: to hear, so called fans of this club ,chanting such utter rubbish.And for people to even suggest that the problems are to be linked with/blamed upon John Coleman is a total farce.

The club has come a hell of a long way since playing the likes of Hyde United etc.

All I am suggesting/Implying is.. as the club states,wherever possible,bring a friend.When you're there....get behind the team.DON'T SLATE individuals.

As I'm sure the majority will agree.....Let's keep the dream ALIVE!!!:D

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Every Stanley fan is behind the team. Players aren't slated for the sake of it.
It is up to that certain individual in the playing staff, that is single handedly ****ting on our cause, to pull his finger out and work for the team we're all supporting, the team that gave him a lifeline, instead of against it.

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Coleman is the manager of the team. He is responsible for bringing players in.... for tactics on the pitch... for team selection... for making substitutions... for planning set pieces... etc, etc.
Of course he has to take some responsibility for the current problems on the pitch and it's up to him to put it right.

Coleman has been immense for this club and over the years he's built some great attacking teams. However, we've never had a solid defence in all those years. When you're up against non-league strikers you can get away with it, especially when you score plenty at the other end. As is obvious now, you can't get away with poor defending at this higher level and we will be punished week in and week out. The writing is on the wall.

In other areas we are similarly weak. When was the last time you saw a Stanley side use an inventive and well practised training ground manoeuvre, instead of just pumping the ball aimlessly into the area? I know people get excited when we win corners, but how often do we look like scoring from them? Other teams always look dangerous at corners, probably due to out poor defense.

At this higher level we need to be inventive. We need to be creative. We need to be much more intelligent than we are at the moment.

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Please forgive this old dear for venturing into your football section (rarely do and not likely to do again)

At the tender age of 13, I had a schoolgirl crush on a winger named Bert, and attended Peel Park for a whole season (drooling beside the players entrance)- the season when they almost got promoted from Div 3 North to the 2nd division. That was time of the 'glory days' of Stanley. (I admit that I have only attended a football stadium once since -not my scene.)

Four years later I was a regular bacon butty consumer in Redmans Cafe during my lunch hour. There was an old chap (also a regular) who was crying into his butty one day because he was a Stanley shareholder.
He explained their demise to me as being due to - buying a cut price second hand stand and then finding out that it cost twice as much again to dismantle, transport and re-erect it.

Is this a case of the new Stanley of being overstretched financially again due to the construction of this '1000 seater' I have seen mentioned?

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Not really. No.

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Thanks for that response - I will back out into obscurity again (just thought history was repeating itself - as it does sometimes)

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Most of the current day problems are to do with not overstretching ourselves (i.e. sticking to a very mean budget) and for doing that I totally agree with the club.

Accrington has a football league team/club, but hardly anyone in the town supports the venture and couldn't care less what happens to it. The club could overstretch itself and end up bankrupt again, or it could drop back to a level where crowds of 1000 can sustain a club and a team.

It looks as though (from comments in the press, etc), that we have hit a crunch time for the club. Either it generates enough money to maintain its current position (through raising gates, investment, sale of club, etc), or it drops back down into the non-league world and exists at a level that it can maintain.

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Was it the swarthy Scott?

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

:o :o yes :o :o

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Elvis playing football:D

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Right on the money, TM. There seem to be quite a few people in denial about the situation - don't panic, it's early days, it'll all turn out alright in the end. Eric has already spelt it out in the starkest of terms - WE CANNOT MAINTAIN A FOOTBALL LEAGUE CLUB ON THE CURRENT GATES.

Eric and Coley have performed a major miracle over the last few seasons - they have lifted an average Unibond league club into the football league with very small gates and no large-scale financial investment. In Friday's Observer Eric emphasised the necessity of better gates if we are to maintain our league status. At around 4pm yesterday I realised that Eric had taken things as far as he could and the town had reacted to his appeal with total indifference.

This is why I think he should take the next step and put the club up for sale to a suitable investor - someone with the financial resources and breadth of vision to perform another major miracle -to take a football club in a town of 37,000 people with a premiership and championship club 5/6 miles either side and to sell it to the local population in such a way that sufficient numbers are attracted through the gates to maintain and indeed, improve upon its league status. If no such investor appears, we have lost nothing and at least we know where we stand.

And I'm well aware that this post will invariably provoke accusations of "negativity" and "pessimism" from the "keep your chin up" brigade, but I couldn't care less. I watched this club in 1965 when the support base was, quite literally, down to 50 people and I will continue watching it whatever happens because I love Stanley. That's why I passonately want to see it prove all the doubters wrong by prospering in the football league!

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Give these a ring :)

MyFootballClub - Own the club and pick the team

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

what the hell is that! lol

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

You talk a lot of sense there Mr Harris, I particularly like the last paragraph where you couldn't care less what people think and said what you thought, good man. To the "Keep Your Chin Up Brigade" things are not OK so wake up to the fact next season we may be a non-league town again unless something is done.:(

Re: Time to stand and be counted.
 

Its funny what Wynonie Harris wrote as just last week i was having a disscussion with a guy at work who was asking why Accy seem to be struggling so much in the football league, my reply to him was that we are only big enough to be a conference team/side/club, and he said "give over Accrington deserve to be in the league", i said yes we deserve to be where we are but there is no way we can sustain it on the gates that we get, to which he replied why dont more local people go then, all i could answer was that either they support the bigger local teams or they are just not interested, i offered him a lift yesterday to the game to which he replied "are you mad i wouldn`t pay to watch a team in league 2" to which i said "there in lays your answer then"