Thetownend.com

Hello all. First post, first topic...well nothing ventured and all that.

Rochdale on Saturday represented my first visit to the CG since the rather shambolic display against Franchise last season (I simply couldn't bear any more after that i'm afraid) and like many I'm sure, I was struck by the new found life that appears to have been breathed into the club. Messers Wise, Poyet, Devlin & Powers I thank you for your timely intervention. Lets hope that this season will be remembered as a turning point in our stately club's history, rather than just another false dawn.

As I sat watching from the Nationwide I couldn't believe quite how good it felt to be watching League 2 football! After a summer subjected to the latest installment of I'm a Soccer Celebrity Get Me Out of Here (swap Germany for Aussie Jungle), witnessing some good old fashioned 'up n under' touched something within me (although it may just have been indigestion!).
Now Saturday was no classic, but as the Premiership gameshow is about to roll out into town once again, the prospect of sitting down to watch a bunch of highly paid, over-rated tossers strutting their sizeable ego's in super high definition, fills me with more than a little loathing. Give me an Ifil punt to the heavens over another stuttering shimmy from Ronaldo any day. Give me a strong tackle from behind that dosn't immediately require the showing of a red card. Give me a team that saves two penalties one Saturday, only to miss two penalties the next. Give me real football with honest endeavour over anything else.

You could argue that it's rather easy to say that on a warm August afternoon after picking up another 3 points, and that things will feel so much different on a bitterly cold January night having lost pathetically to Hereford,  but I can't help feeling that a shift in balance from armchair to turnstile might just be underway. I for one certainly hope so...roll on Darlington!

Welcome to the forum. :D

 Have you met Yeovil Red yet?

Good post.

We hate the Premier League say we hate the Premier League!!!  :twisted:

 Thanks R4E

what a cracking 1st post :shock:

totally agree with it too.

Well I guess it was a little too much to ask of myself not to slip a wrong un in there somewhere!  :wink:

 To answer the original point....I'm sure that when its a Tuesday night in Feb and you've got to travel from London, then the armchair will take over.

 Personally I lived in London for some years and used to watch Spurs...as they were localish.....I'd go to Town away games in the area and high days and holidays at the CG...there wasn't the option of armchair support.

At the prices GWR charge these days, then perhaps I could be excused for spending that money on some Pay per view. I like to think however that come Feburary, if I have too, i'll take the armchair listener option instead. Although, Shaun Hodgetts will wear a little thin with me after a while I have to admit!

Not sure I could have ever taken the watch the TV option....for me its always been about the ritual of going to a game....when I've lived elsewhere, then I've watched a local side...of course it could never be as good as watching STFC, but has its own appeal.

Nothing quite like an STFC match day thats for sure, and have equally never felt comfortable taking the TV or the nearby game option whilst the Town were playing. Winning or losing, near or far.
Just can't help believing that 'fairweather' supporters like myself with no affliation to a top side, might just have had enough of all this Premiership posturing and that the turnstile will beckon once more.

Yep. It has nothing to do with Wise or the wins, I would have come back this season anyway. Not sure I'll be going to every game until some steady income though (can't wait to start work) and although I moaned like a grumpy old man on saturday at the game, was pleased with the result and the 3 points.

welcome to the forum, now you've done your part for the 25% football, please contribute to the 80% bollocks  :D

When I was at uni, I used to either get the train back or drive back from London for home games. Well, isnt that what Student loans are for? :mrgreen:

 I thought they were for sex, drugs and rock and roll....times change I suppose.

sex, drugs, rock n roll AND FOOTBALL.

Keep with the times dude!

Mine went on rent and bills  :(

maybe they should install an armchair stand, with sofa's for families.

The user "Red Len" keeps reminding me of that song "Steal my Sunshine"  :oops:

Make this man Prime Minister. Now.

Yeah, like that idea RobertT. If the club can find a way of supplying the sex, drugs & rock'n'roll whilst there at it, put me down for a season ticket!

Lady, not sure can I remember the words to 'steal my sunshine', but if you care to join me on my arm rest, i'll gladly give it a go.... :D

interesting post red len and some great sentiments but,surely lower league teams like stfc and its fans are still hoping to get back up to the lofty hights of the prem one day.
the best league in the world,i want that above basement league football myself.but only if stfc are in it of course

The problem with the Premiership is the big clubs who have just had people come in and give them money to survive.
Sure i want to see Swindon up there but I want them to make their own way there through hard work and loyal unshakable support from the club and its fans.

I would feel like a twat supporting a team who worked their way up through the leagues from nothing to being big because some guy bought us success *COUGH* Reading *COUGH*
The fans and the connection between them and the club is what the Football League is (generally) all about, rather than super high profits

all clubs want mega rich investors.if someone wants to plough loads of cash into stfc and we buy our way to success i wouldn't care at all.though its highly unlikely
fair play to reading i say.though matey simply didn't chuck silly money at the club, it was a gradual build up to where they are now

Started off by chucking money at the club though...

I am very happy with the way Mr Devlin is running this club, effectively following Reading's example without a Madjeski involved.

If SBC would pull their collective fingers out we could be partly on our way to being a bigger club

does anyone else here think we'll NEVER get to the premiership again?

the way football is, i really can't see us ever being better than a mid/low table championship club at best.

Some fair points there Arriba, I too would dearly love to see STFC back up there, but I have to echo what R4E is saying here...would we be prepared to sell the soul of the club for the 'holy grail' ?
I'm not so sure myself. A very good friend of mine has supported chelsea all his life. He admits to feeling like he's watching some kind of travelling circus these days, and although back to back titles means he dosn't feel too bad about it all (!), he does also pine for those 'good old days'.

They do that for the rugby in South Africa. Big fuck off sofa right next to the pitch, think they are given free food and beer.

Granted it is for the winner of a competition but it would be cool as fuck! :beers:

Maybe an idea for the temporary conversion of the Bank then.  Lazy Boy chairs for a premium up at the back.

Genius. Why haven't the club thought of this? If they can bracket on one of those massive pub garden brollies to the back of the chair its a winner as far as I'm concerned  :clap:

we could even attach a frame infront to mimic seeing a tv screen.

Bit off topic and all but this week I saw the club was mentioned as an example for broadcasting live streaming events on the Internet.

Similar to Bittorrent the viewers share their bandwidth thus cutting the costs to the supplier.

Not sure who owns the rights to broadcast league footy live on the Tinternet or even if it falls within Sky’s package but the Chumps league is set to be broadcast live this season.  In fact I think they are actually ‘obliged’ to do so under the new terms of their deal.

It’s probably purely coincidence that we were used as an example but with games already being filmed outside of the complexities of the licenses and rights the cost of actually streaming live games for clubs such as ourselves is now quite realistic.

Not sure what the take-up would actually be come the end of the day or what your armchair/desktop fan would be willing to pay but it’s certainly another option on the horizon for the armchair fan.  The only question it raises is would it have an adverse effect on attendances?

Its possible, but I wouldn't expect it to make a big difference for the lower league teams. Depending on cost, I'd certainly be interested in taking a look while I'm overseas.