Reason for poor gates?

[Wynonie Harris]

Originally Posted by LongLostSon

history shows a lot of Accy folk don't count town pride in their make-up.

Sad, but true, LLS...and now even more disturbing news in today's NLP - Coley is raising the spectre of selling Craney and Roberts when the January transfer window opens, if gates don't improve. To quote him, "We are not that rich that we can turn down big offers. They have been outstanding so far and I fear some League club might take a plunge in January." The gate for the Halifax match suddenly assumes a new importance, in this light.

Although I can well understand Coley's disappointment with the response from the town, I really can't see why we should have to sell them. It was only last week that Eric reassured us that the club was on a sound financial footing. To quote him, "Obviously at the start of the season when we prepare our budgets we don't take it for granted that the team will do well. In fact we have to ensure that if we are struggling we can still cover our overheads with the lower gates that would reflect that situation." Or to quote Rob, "The football club have no loans or mortgages."

So, unless either player expressed a strong desire to leave, why do we need to sell them anyway?

[Wynonie Harris]

In fact, it's all the more strange because he issued a "hands off" warning to league clubs in Friday's Observer. To quote him, "we want to keep our best players until at least the end of the season just to see what we can do." So, what's happened since then to change his mind? Has yesterday's gate upset him so much??!!

[Whalley Red]

The Club are playing a dangerous game IMO. With headlines that threaten "Do you want a club?" and threats that we may sell our best players if people don't turn up. This could very easily backfire. Clearly the Club was not listening, as Rob claimed they were, when this thread became an appeal for a more positive light to be cast upon the issue of attendances.

What would happen if one or more of our best players were sold in January and we fell from our lofty position at the top of the league and missed out on promotion? Such "betrayal" by the Club would not go down very easily with the fans that do turn out for Stanley games.

To talk of selling players is nonsense. The Club is on a stable financial footing and income will only rise in the New Year given the performances on the pitch. There is absolutely no need to cut costs. So the only reason to sell would be to maximise profits from selling players when the Club might command the highest fee for its players. If we were to sell players so they 'progressed' to a Club higher up the League structure, that can be done in the Summer and most of us would understand the need to do so and wish the player all the best with his new club. But to do so, or even raise the spectre of doing so, in January with promotion so close is a very different thing altogether.

I just hope the Club see sense and spend more time celebrating the fantastic football that we are playing and the prospect of a return to the Football League after 44 years than threatening the public. It smacks of desparation and that can only be unsettling to players and fans alike.

[Willie Miller]

Yep I think that their hearts are in the right place when "rallying the call" for more paying public, however, the general attempt to shame people into coming will not work

A headline saying "Stanley keep 7 clean sheets" would be more help in getting fans in then "Do you want a club?"

But, at least they're talking about the issue & crowds will go up!

Selling Craney or Roberts WILL happen but like WR said in January it would be suicide & would effectively rule out promotion. There would be an UPROAR, led by me! Hopefullly, it is again an attempt to bring punters in

I hope...........

[Doug]

Who was responsible for the headlines? I would have thought that selling key players before promotion would be tantamount to an act of treason on behalf of the club, was anything was learnt from the events leading up to 62. The only way of securing a wide spread fan base is positive promotion of the club by its managers and existing fans.

[Bazf]

Why do newspapers have these headlines...........? to sell papers, Accy are top of the league and a paper will print what it thinks was said and then defend the right to free speech, if you think this is bad wait until we are in the league and pushing for promotion then we will see some headlines.
1 Leicester and Millwall are understood to be looking at Cheltenham's Grant McCann.
2 Sky Sports understand that Kevin Gall could be on his way out of Huish Park in January.

1 Grant is a great young player who has come through the ranks and they would be stupid to sell him, Cheltenham have had NO offers for him.
2. Kevin Gall is signing a new contract.
see the crap they write, just remember its only a rumor and we souldn't sweat the small stuff.

[Wynonie Harris]

I think the club needs to jump on this story as quickly as possible. Did Coley say what he was quoted as saying or did the NLP, to use the old adage, "quote him out of context"? If he did say it, did he mean it or was it just said in the heat of the moment after Saturday's disappointing gate? Answers, please!

[rob]

unfortunately we can only give quotes, papers choose their own headlines.

coley's comments in the nlp were a very small part of the article. it would take a silly offer before the club would even consider allowing anyone to go during this season, after all the value to the club of the squad as it is now runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

saturday's gate was not a big talking point at the club, there is always a drop for the early rounds of the fa trophy, it was the week before christmas and the sixth of six consecutive home games. the mood is upbeat, eight wins in a row, six clean sheets in a row (9 hours of football!), we're looking forward to a big crowd for the halifax game on 2nd jan and a very interesting 2006!

rob

[Wynonie Harris]

Glad to hear it, Rob! Thanks for the info.

[Willie Miller]

Thanks Rob, just what I thought & very easy to tell the mood is upbeat.
I really believe that we can win the next three games as Halifax although unbeaten at home aren't uprooting any trees & have just been told that there ground is for sale. Make sure you get to Yorkshire on Boxing Day & lets make the Shay like a home game

[John_Timmins]

up for sale!!!! Lets see if they would sell us a roof???

[maccawozzagod]

i'll chuck in a tenner.

the roof over the away end won't be worth sh!t when we raise it, so i'll have the home end roof please.

[Lancashire Stan]

[QUOTE=garinda]

Originally Posted by Bagpuss

You saw me, but I didn't see you because I don't know you. Say hiya next time.

Me and Harwood Red still play the game of guessing who Wynonie is, as we still believe there is a tenner for tapping him on the shoulder and identifying him.

Be great to put more faces to names from the forum.

The chat between gainda and Bagpuss is a reminder of something we fans really can do to help gates.
Be what we are, friendly northern folk, say Hi to the other supporters in the ground. Get our club a reputation for being the friendliest most welcoming football ground in the country.
This is something we can beat any of the soulless premiership clubs at, and its something that is bound to attract more support and goodwill for our club.

I know that its something we do now anyway, but we can realy make it a big feature.

[harwood red]

just over 3 years ago I finally realised my lads were growing up, yes they were only 9 & 10 at the time but they were finding their own independence. I wanted something that we could all do together and that would interest us all. My first thought came to footy as I already spent sat mornings and sun afternoons watching them play in their local youth league footy sides. We'd been to a few rovers matches and I saw an advert for the next match at stanley and thought I would give it a go. It was a pre-season friendly, so we went along and I immediately felt at home. Everyone was so friendly, the players, staff, stewards all made it feel such a welcoming place to come.

A couple of weeks later I found I came into a smallish amount of money and thought, hmmm how about buying some season tickets... Now I could afford rovers ones for all three of us.... but no I chose the stanley and have never looked back!!

Nowadays my lads have become teenagers and don't come along to all home matches (although I still purchased the season tickets) but I have no problems coming along on my own (although I seem to have managed to drag garinda). I attend every home match and some away (when poss), I am also a patron (extra money for the club), sponsered Boco this season, and have pledges for any Robert's goals or assists. No I'm not flush with cash, but somehow stanley has got into my blood and only many other fans on here and who go every week know what I'm talking about.

I suppose what I'm saying is, it's people like me that we need to capture, not the rovers/burnley fans when their playing away, but those who are looking to fill a gap and who then can think of nothing they would rather do than get down to the IES on a sat pm

Right waffle over, just thought I would share that with you, (please no karma deductions for being a saddo )

[Tommy McQueen]

Thanks for the info Rob, it's just the words the fans have been waiting for. No folly for this club, league 2 next season, hopefully with a roof as well