State of the Pitch

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theoriginalcount
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State of the Pitch

Post by theoriginalcount » Thu Sep 14, 2017 9:22 am

Got a shock when we arrived at around 7pm last night to be told the match had just been declared ON! Upon arriving into the ground, it was easy to see why that an area around 60 square yards in the Tin Shed goalmouth was waterlogged!

Think some questions need to be asked in as much as was this a 'one off' as some suggested due to a blocked drain (despite the relaying of the pitch this summer at much cost to each and every one of us), can it be easily rectified and WHY was there absolutely NO communication from the Club about this.

OK, the surface played OK and whilst we'd had some rain the night before, no where else locally was flooded so god help us if we get beyond mid-September and there is some proper rain!

Talk on the terraces last night about the communication issues with the club, it's all gone deathly quiet again, we really do need to step it up on that side as again, rumblings starting to manifest themselves on and off the pitch.

When's the next Fans' Forum for example?

Comfortably_numb
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by Comfortably_numb » Thu Sep 14, 2017 11:30 am

theoriginalcount wrote:WHY was there absolutely NO communication from the Club about this.
MAYBE because the club (our club really) THOUGHT that the pitch WOULD cope with the rain given the work done so NO need for any communication.?

Darlogramps
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by Darlogramps » Thu Sep 14, 2017 11:43 am

theoriginalcount wrote:

Talk on the terraces last night about the communication issues with the club, it's all gone deathly quiet again, we really do need to step it up on that side as again, rumblings starting to manifest themselves on and off the pitch.

When's the next Fans' Forum for example?
This really reads like "If the club don't give us day-by-day statements on anything and everything, we fans will start making up rumours and it's all everyone else's fault." It's quite simple - be patient and don't make up roadrunner-style bullshit.

To highlight the problems demanding regular statements causes, look at the issue just this week about the bar being double-booked.

They threw out a statement, causing confusion and the usual faux-outrage towards the rugby club. Then four hours later they retracted it as the double-booking was resolved. Why not contact the rugby club and the people holding the function, discuss things sensibly and find out what exactly was going on?

For instance, on the fans' forum, we had one earlier in the summer so I'd presume there's no immediate need to have one right now. Therefore, why do the club need to communicate that? What are you wanting - something like this?
OFFICIAL STATEMENT

We will not be having a fans' forum this week.

We will release a statement in due course next week confirming our intention not to have another fans' forum within the next seven days.
Come on fella, think it through before getting unnecessarily outraged.

My point is not everything needs a statement. Could communication be better? Well yes. But then again, we don't have any full time PR employees so you have to make allowances for that as well. We're not a Premier League club with an army of media/marketing employees.

And on the pitch, I think it was a case that it looked worse than it actually was. I was stood near to it last night, and considering how wet it looked, it didn't cut up anywhere near as much as I thought.
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TDS
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by TDS » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:14 pm

Darlogramps, I only see concerns that the fans money has resulted in a poor return (as in, the pitch has not held up to the first bit of real rain we've had and it is only going to put under more pressure in the winter/when rugby games increase). I know we like to shoot people who question the club down here, and yes we are run by a small band of overstretched volunteers, but there is room for airing concerns on a private message board.

I know fine well people who knock about with the people in the know will have asked what the problem was with the pitch yesterday and if it was a one-off issue then fair enough, however why not communicate that? I see no issue, you seem to think we can't just slap a 5 second tweet on twitter and it has to be something mega official. We live in the days where Andy Holt (the Accrington Stanley chairman and owner) is giving real, tangible information on twitter which both educates fans and also highlights the daunting task of funding a football club. We can't seem to get the Rugby Club and the Football Club to talk any issues through before they release a statement which seems bizarre.

When the target is missed and we yet again find ourselves rudderless (financially) we will need to discuss just how we are going to get through that, as a club that is owned largely by the fans. A fans forum is due.

Fact is we leave a lot to be desired in terms of opening the club up a bit more, we aren't talking about anything commercially sensitive, just a bit of joined up handwriting from all involved in regards to the things the fans regard as important.

roadrunner
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by roadrunner » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:37 pm

Darlogramps wrote:
theoriginalcount wrote:

Talk on the terraces last night about the communication issues with the club, it's all gone deathly quiet again, we really do need to step it up on that side as again, rumblings starting to manifest themselves on and off the pitch.

When's the next Fans' Forum for example?
This really reads like "If the club don't give us day-by-day statements on anything and everything, we fans will start making up rumours and it's all everyone else's fault." It's quite simple - be patient and don't make up roadrunner-style bullshit.

To highlight the problems demanding regular statements causes, look at the issue just this week about the bar being double-booked.

They threw out a statement, causing confusion and the usual faux-outrage towards the rugby club. Then four hours later they retracted it as the double-booking was resolved. Why not contact the rugby club and the people holding the function, discuss things sensibly and find out what exactly was going on?

For instance, on the fans' forum, we had one earlier in the summer so I'd presume there's no immediate need to have one right now. Therefore, why do the club need to communicate that? What are you wanting - something like this?
OFFICIAL STATEMENT

We will not be having a fans' forum this week.

We will release a statement in due course next week confirming our intention not to have another fans' forum within the next seven days.
Come on fella, think it through before getting unnecessarily outraged.

My point is not everything needs a statement. Could communication be better? Well yes. But then again, we don't have any full time PR employees so you have to make allowances for that as well. We're not a Premier League club with an army of media/marketing employees.

And on the pitch, I think it was a case that it looked worse than it actually was. I was stood near to it last night, and considering how wet it looked, it didn't cut up anywhere near as much as I thought.

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by roadrunner » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:49 pm

Darlogramps wrote:
theoriginalcount wrote:

Talk on the terraces last night about the communication issues with the club, it's all gone deathly quiet again, we really do need to step it up on that side as again, rumblings starting to manifest themselves on and off the pitch.

When's the next Fans' Forum for example?
This really reads like "If the club don't give us day-by-day statements on anything and everything, we fans will start making up rumours and it's all everyone else's fault." It's quite simple - be patient and don't make up roadrunner-style bullshit.

To highlight the problems demanding regular statements causes, look at the issue just this week about the bar being double-booked.

They threw out a statement, causing confusion and the usual faux-outrage towards the rugby club. Then four hours later they retracted it as the double-booking was resolved. Why not contact the rugby club and the people holding the function, discuss things sensibly and find out what exactly was going on?

For instance, on the fans' forum, we had one earlier in the summer so I'd presume there's no immediate need to have one right now. Therefore, why do the club need to communicate that? What are you wanting - something like this?
OFFICIAL STATEMENT

We will not be having a fans' forum this week.

We will release a statement in due course next week confirming our intention not to have another fans' forum within the next seven days.
Come on fella, think it through before getting unnecessarily outraged.

My point is not everything needs a statement. Could communication be better? Well yes. But then again, we don't have any full time PR employees so you have to make allowances for that as well. We're not a Premier League club with an army of media/marketing employees.

And on the pitch, I think it was a case that it looked worse than it actually was. I was stood near to it last night, and considering how wet it looked, it didn't cut up anywhere near as much as I thought.
roadrunner style
Roadrunner style bullshit was all facts pal the pitch got sorted a week befor the season started cos Gainsborough refused to reverse the fixture and the FA was against it so we had to play on it before it was ready?
Fact 2 Bartlett has now packed his job in at Middlesbrough so now has committed himself to the club and is looking for a day job.
Fact 3 If we don't raise the money there is a certain man going to put money in so just wait and see .

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by Darlogramps » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:56 pm

TDS wrote:Darlogramps, I only see concerns that the fans money has resulted in a poor return (as in, the pitch has not held up to the first bit of real rain we've had and it is only going to put under more pressure in the winter/when rugby games increase). I know we like to shoot people who question the club down here, and yes we are run by a small band of overstretched volunteers, but there is room for airing concerns on a private message board.

I know fine well people who knock about with the people in the know will have asked what the problem was with the pitch yesterday and if it was a one-off issue then fair enough, however why not communicate that? I see no issue, you seem to think we can't just slap a 5 second tweet on twitter and it has to be something mega official. We live in the days where Andy Holt (the Accrington Stanley chairman and owner) is giving real, tangible information on twitter which both educates fans and also highlights the daunting task of funding a football club. We can't seem to get the Rugby Club and the Football Club to talk any issues through before they release a statement which seems bizarre.

When the target is missed and we yet again find ourselves rudderless (financially) we will need to discuss just how we are going to get through that, as a club that is owned largely by the fans. A fans forum is due.

Fact is we leave a lot to be desired in terms of opening the club up a bit more, we aren't talking about anything commercially sensitive, just a bit of joined up handwriting from all involved in regards to the things the fans regard as important.
I'm all for scrutiny and question of the club. No one on here has been as critical of the club in recent weeks as me. There are definitely questions to be asked about our transfer policy.

But you've tediously misrepresented the point I'm making. It's not about individual points like the pitch from last night. It's the general attitude of "We're fans and we want answers on anything and everything." The sanctimonious, self-entitled attitude from some supporters is nauseating. I grow tired of seeing "We're a fan-owned club, we should get what we want" - it's nowhere near as simple as that.

It's "I want this information and I want it now" regardless of whether that info is useful or relevant.

There's a right way to go about it - and to use the OP as an example, getting unnecessarily outraged is not the right way to do it, however legitimate the concerns.

As for Andy Holt, it's very different to us as again, Accrington are a full time league club. We're quite open when it comes to our finances. We do exactly the same job as Andy Holt (who's gotten himself into trouble for spouting off on Twitter), just in a different way.

We don't really hide anything - we produce detailed and transparent financial reports, hold fans' forums where we can ask what we like etc. The outcome is no different to Andy Holt and Accrington, just we go about it in a more orthodox (and in my view, sensible manner).
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divas
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by divas » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:08 pm


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divas
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by divas » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:10 pm

roadrunner wrote:Fact 3 If we don't raise the money there is a certain man going to put money in so just wait and see .
Certainly not something I'm aware of - things like this are hugely damaging to the fundraising and is one of the few reasons why it's stalled

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by Darlogramps » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:16 pm

roadrunner wrote: Roadrunner style bullshit was all facts pal the pitch got sorted a week befor the season started cos Gainsborough refused to reverse the fixture and the FA was against it so we had to play on it before it was ready?
Fact 2 Bartlett has now packed his job in at Middlesbrough so now has committed himself to the club and is looking for a day job.
Fact 3 If we don't raise the money there is a certain man going to put money in so just wait and see .
So on the first two - you posted worst case scenarios to get people worked up - even though there was a possibility they weren't going to happen. Guesswork at best, s***-stirring at worst. Neither of them materialised.

As for the third - the chair of the DFCSG has just refuted it.

And you're noticeably quite on all your other rumours which have also turned out to be bullshit. It's amazing how sensitive those who spread rumours are to being told they're incorrect.
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TDS
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by TDS » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:19 pm

OK Darlogramps, I don't disagree the club cannot be commenting on everything.

There are certain helpful bits of information that would improve the general atmosphere between the rugby club and ourselves and there's certainly people who request to know everything.

Divas - I am more than confident there is somebody there ready to make his move because why else is there literally ZERO going in to the pots? I donated three days ago and we've had £50 in since from one chap. If we really are at the stage where we cannot throw a couple of hundred quid in a week between everybody then we are in trouble. So this leads me to think there's a big old well known "rumour" doing the rounds.

al_quaker
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by al_quaker » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:26 pm

divas wrote:Statement on pitch issues

http://dfcsg.co.uk/?x=entry:entry170914-134927
Thanks for that - let's hope it's easy to fix.

I agree with darlogramps that the 'we're a fan owned club, we need to know everything' attitude is over the top.

With the pitch though, as said in the statement, as we part funded it it's good to keep the fans updated. I personally was a bit downhearted when I saw it last night - "we spent all that money and the first bit of rain has done that to it". So the speedy statement is much appreciated.

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by Quakerz » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:48 pm

TDS wrote:
Divas - I am more than confident there is somebody there ready to make his move because why else is there literally ZERO going in to the pots? I donated three days ago and we've had £50 in since from one chap. If we really are at the stage where we cannot throw a couple of hundred quid in a week between everybody then we are in trouble. So this leads me to think there's a big old well known "rumour" doing the rounds.
Well we've just seen the "rumour" and it has been denied.
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by LoidLucan » Thu Sep 14, 2017 2:43 pm

I'm sure Danvic will quickly get to the bottom of this problem and get it sorted. They are a well respected company and do work for a number of clubs including boro who demand high standards.

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by Vodka_Vic » Thu Sep 14, 2017 4:46 pm

No.3 isn't even a rumour. It's just a rehash of something Raj said,something like "If they don't raise the money then they'll soon be back to me". So yes, from Raj's point of view that statement is true. Back in the real world, however, he wouldn't be allowed, unless of course he wanted to buy Community Shares like the rest of us.

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by AndyPark » Thu Sep 14, 2017 4:50 pm

Are the rumours of Raj actually true?

About giving the club money behind closed doors, but not wanting to publicise it...

lo36789
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by lo36789 » Thu Sep 14, 2017 5:24 pm

Who are you asking?

All you are going to get is more rumour from here. Personally do I believe Raj is a white knight just giving away his money for no return - no.

He did it last time to try and get favour to be allowed to take over again. I don't see him being a benefactor when there is no benefit to him.

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:16 pm

AndyPark wrote:Are the rumours of Raj actually true?

About giving the club money behind closed doors, but not wanting to publicise it...

I've actually sat and pondered this for a few minutes, because I was wrong about Singh before, when he attempted his claws in takeover move.

Unless Singh has had a personality transplant, as I see it the only way he would "give the club money behind closed doors" would be if he could obtain some kind of secret influence, which would go against all that everyone has worked for over the last 5 years.

I can't see it at all, in any case it would be unworkable.
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Darlo_Pete
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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by Darlo_Pete » Fri Sep 15, 2017 5:40 am

I didn't even realise there was a pitch inspection before I got to the game. The affected area didn't cut up and played fine. The worry that if the problem has been fixed it's going to take quite a while to dry out.

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Re: State of the Pitch

Post by jjljks » Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:41 pm

Would it help if we all brought some worms? :lol:

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