GL5Red versus Flashheart!

[horlock07]

I feel it's a bit of a reaction to being 'hurt'. Of course you still care, but you try and convince yourself you don't so watching us play shit and lose every week doesn't affect you.

Sam Morshead is a good example of this. Says he's not a supporter anymore, yet writes a huge article about it, gets involved with the Trust, posts on the forum and comments on the games on match days. I know how he feels as I was exactly the same after we lost at Preston! Essentially it's a grown up temper tantrum.

No it isn't (stamps feet and flails arms!) 

[Tails]

Ha, I pretty much did after Wembley tbf. Sulked the whole way home!

[RobertT]

I took my medicine early after Wembley - I stayed, watched them lift the trophy (as our players were forced o do as well) then spent the evening discussing our abject performance with a group of Preston fans.  I feel it helped.

The season before, and the season of, our promotion to the Premier League, we had fans vocally chanting about the need for the board to "get yer cheque book out", especially after Kerslake was sold to satisfy the tax man.  During that period we barely broke even, despite having our biggest attendances since Reg starting losing the love.  The basic are always thus for the majority of football clubs - it costs more to run than you make, ergo, you need someone to fill the gap.  Sometimes they do so out of love, sometimes because they see a property deal, sometimes because they think they can buck the trend using a new model.  Power is the latter, it worked for him personally, he's having a season where not so well for the club.  Summer 2016 is the test of the model and probably his patience.

[Stevens]

GL5 Red sounds like that bloke Rocky Knuckles who posted on ThisIs.

GL5 - I only make a handful of games these days at home.
Prefer the away games these days.

I have not enjoyed a game since last year.
In my opinion the chairman and the board have done a pretty decent job, apart from buying players of course, I also believe he is here for the long road and will invest.
The manager has already admitted he made a mistake saying the squad was good enough when the emergency loan market was open.

[Arriba]

How does going to games regularly make your opinion on Power more valid ?
I don't get it ?
It's the same with the football itself. Some people have no idea yet go to games every week.

[Tails]

How does going to games regularly make your opinion on Power more valid ?
I don't get it ?
It's the same with the football itself. Some people have no idea yet go to games every week.

I'm guessing the logic is... It's your money he's not spending. Which isn't how it works at all, but some people are just that daft.

[4D]

Sorry, i only converse with supporters, who support Swindon Town, not wankers that comment all the time but do not attend.

You might be on the wrong forum.

[Stevens]

How does going to games regularly make your opinion on Power more valid ?
I don't get it ?
It's the same with the football itself. Some people have no idea yet go to games every week.

Not sure if that was aimed at me.
If it is, I only have my opinion, and completely no idea about the finances etc.
The club seems to have regained respect throughout the football industry, judging by the comments made by many in the game. I put this down to the chairman's running of the club. My opinion of course.

[Arriba]

Not sure if that was aimed at me.
If it is, I only have my opinion, and completely no idea about the finances etc.
The club seems to have regained respect throughout the football industry, judging by the comments made by many in the game. I put this down to the chairman's running of the club. My opinion of course.

Wasn't aimed at you.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Not sure if that was aimed at me.
If it is, I only have my opinion, and completely no idea about the finances etc.
The club seems to have regained respect throughout the football industry, judging by the comments made by many in the game. I put this down to the chairman's running of the club. My opinion of course.

Just got to love those comments.'Swindon play the game the right way'.

Before mugging us for another 3 points

[RobertT]

I think he was more aiming it the fact we are not seen as the basket case we were at one point - making guest appearances on Channel 5.  Port Vale used us as a model to follow - seems this year at least they are doing a decent job of it.  It is indeed risky to buck the trend of spending on wages -  bit like when Fitton decided we wouldn't use agents, we backed away from that one in the end, spectacularly so.  The flip side would be Bury, or Fleetwood - clubs using high risk strategies like high interest loans or relying solely on an investor (Bolton being another good example on that front).

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Good example, that. Before season's start Vale were most people's tip to go down - including their own fans.

[Simon Pieman]

If you attend more games then you're likely to have a more informed opinion on team performances and what is good and bad on the pitch than if you didn't attend.

Whether the business/investment model is a factor in that is down to further opinion and would not necessarily be influenced by attendance.

We've had a bad season and you can put that down to not spending enough money or just not getting the right formula like we did the season before. The year we went down with Danny Wilson in charge for most of it wasn't due to not spending money - our budget was huge compared to what it is now.

[Reg Smeeton]

  During that period we barely broke even, despite having our biggest attendances since Reg starting losing the love. 

 However unlike many who flip in and out of fandom, and that includes a lot on here, I've never given up. 

I might think the owner is dodgy, change wording to Board/Chairman and that has always been the case. I might think a lot of the players are crap, with poor attitudes for professionals, but it wouldn't be the first time. I might think at the start of the season we should get to 52 points and then think about the next season....with 4 games to go still waiting.

Proper hardcore Town fans are a hardy breed, we don't expect much, and are temporarily happy when we do something, which has been known to happen occasionally.

I was in the library earlier looking a at a WW1 collection of stuff, from an old boy who I used to know. He'd been dragged from the Works to the fledgling RAF, for the duration....there was a certificate from SBC, thanking him for his contribution to defeating The Hun.

I recall going to White Hart Lane with him for the replay in 1980, he'd seen Fleming, Silto, Bown, Denyer, Harry Morris, Maurice Owen....mostly shit mind, but surviving the Great War gives perspective....his enthusiasm was undiminished.

[Sam Morshead]

I feel it's a bit of a reaction to being 'hurt'. Of course you still care, but you try and convince yourself you don't so watching us play shit and lose every week doesn't affect you.

Sam Morshead is a good example of this. Says he's not a supporter anymore, yet writes a huge article about it, gets involved with the Trust, posts on the forum and comments on the games on match days. I know how he feels as I was exactly the same after we lost at Preston! Essentially it's a grown up temper tantrum.

 
I never said I wasn't a supporter any more. Let's not put words in my mouth. Losing a real, pure, old-fashioned love for the club you've grown up with and wanting it to succeed are not mutually exclusive. Yes, there's a feeling of being 'hurt'. But I can say for certain that I don't feel anywhere near how I did about any results three or four years ago. And in my second year covering the club - the relegation to L2 - I really did care, despite results.

Also, the article was not really about one fan losing love for his club. It was advice to journalists not to cover their club - a very particular circumstance. There's a difference there.

I don't go to games now because of two reasons - 1. Work and 2. Because I really don't want to support the current owner. Yet I still found myself paying for a ticket for the Blackpool home game last minute when I had convinced myself I wouldn't. We won 3-2 and I didn't get the urge to cheer. Maybe that's the conditioning of being in a press box for so long. Maybe it's something else.

Anyway, my point is... you can be a supporter of the club (the name, the history, your memories) and not a fan of the club in its current state (be that for whatever reason). Feel free to disagree.