Donny

Quoted from GollyGTFC

I doubt you would see a Luton or Watford shirt in Stevenage. Stevenage & other new towns (including Crawley) were largely populated with people moving out of the poorer areas of London in the generations following the war, so it was mainly Arsenal, Tottenham, West Ham & Millwall supporters and those clubs still have large following in places like Stevenage, Harlow, Hemel Hempstead, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Basildon etc...

I lived in Crawley and now live in Stevenage - must  be a penance for something I did in a former life. I’m not sure the new town family supported thing is as relevant as it may have been but it’s a factor. I think the Prem being rammed down your throat at every opportunity impacts all small clubs in terms of attracting support and attendances. Luckily I have never really come across too many Millwall supporters.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

I lived in Crawley and now live in Stevenage - must  be a penance for something I did in a former life. I’m not sure the new town family supported thing is as relevant as it may have been but it’s a factor. I think the Prem being rammed down your throat at every opportunity impacts all small clubs in terms of attracting support and attendances. Luckily I have never really come across too many Millwall supporters.

It must have been very very bad...Russian front?

"...rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank"

For feck's sake don't apply for any jobs in Corby or Skelmersdale...

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

It must have been very very bad...Russian front?

"...rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank"

For feck's sake don't apply for any jobs in Corby or Skelmersdale...

Good Stones reference there ……. 😉 oddly enough I used to look after a business that I helped set up in Corby and up until a couple of years ago the company I work for used to have offices in Skelm where we’d go for training events.

Russian front? Most probably 😂

Quoted from pen penfras

But you said crowd size means feck all. It clearly doesn't and over a long period clubs roughly appear in the pyramid in order of attendance. Whether that is deemed as success or not is one thing, but the fans that think we should be a top L1 side with occasional visits to the Championship are deluded. Even when we were there we were punching above our weight, but lots of places have embraced football in the last 25 years that have much more potential than a small, poor fishing town in an isolated area.

I think it's easy to lose track of the fact that League One is basically a rebranded Third division and thus sounds grander than it actually is.
So maybe they aren't that deluded, just disappointed.

I see Omar Bogle came on as sub after 34 minutes today with Donny 3-0 up at Morecambe… and they lost 4-3.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

I see Omar Bogle came on as sub after 34 minutes today with Donny 3-0 up at Morecambe… and they lost 4-3.

Someone on another thread said he was subbed off injured after 34 mins?

Good to see some posting which is sensible
We should be a solid league 1 team with occasional flirtation in champs and league 2
I’m sure the new owners understand that well
If we develop and regular seasons at top end of l1 occur we can reassess
For the moment we might just lose to Halifax who are outperforming at top of National league☹️

Some positive comments on the Rover's forum about Omar one even suggested they would have won if he hadn't gone off injured.

Quoted from pen penfras

But you said crowd size means feck all. It clearly doesn't and over a long period clubs roughly appear in the pyramid in order of attendance. Whether that is deemed as success or not is one thing, but the fans that think we should be a top L1 side with occasional visits to the Championship are deluded. Even when we were there we were punching above our weight, but lots of places have embraced football in the last 25 years that have much more potential than a small, poor fishing town in an isolated area.

That’s exactly where we should aspire to be. Works for Peterborough and even more so for Bournemouth and Brentford.
The key part of what those clubs have done has been to mobiles and grow their fan base. Something our less than glorious erstwhile leader failed to understand nor do. If you want to try and tell me that our club should not be regarded in the same thoughts as those three clubs and others of a similar status then I’ll tell you you’re plain wrong. It’s all about ambition and we know where the ambition of this club stopped for the last few years and that was with mediocre survival and even that failed.

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

That’s exactly where we should aspire to be. Works for Peterborough and even more so for Bournemouth and Brentford.
The key part of what those clubs have done has been to mobiles and grow their fan base. Something our less than glorious erstwhile leader failed to understand nor do. If you want to try and tell me that our club should not be regarded in the same thoughts as those three clubs and others of a similar status then I’ll tell you you’re plain wrong. It’s all about ambition and we know where the ambition of this club stopped for the last few years and that was with mediocre survival and even that failed.

I think this is a worthy aspiration but realistic ambition at the moment? I can’t be sure.

Looking at recent history that type of progression needs 1 of 2 or both of the following to become a reality, owners willing to fund (often blindly) and/or rapid socioeconomic growth in the area. Sadly we’ve missed out on both. You could also add to that the benefits of a densely populated catchment to draw talent to and support from.

In my mind the answer is to have 1 clear footballing objective at a time, something the former “major shareholder” never really had as he knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Obviously the “clear objective” is to get back to the EFL and then and only then should it be to get promoted again, brace yourselves though as this will take a few years at best.

There where so many instances in the Fenty reign that either made me angry or very sad, too many to count back on but in footballing terms the press conference where that bell end Philip Day said the ambition was to get to the Championship within 5 years as he unveiled the unproven (cheap option) Michael Jolley as manager said it all about their true objectives and they weren’t footballing ones.