Thetownend.com

SWINDON Town Supporters’ Trust, TrustSTFC, have stepped up to the plate of raising attendances at the County Ground with a ticket offer that has nearly tripled their estimated take-up.

More than 30 Swindon primary schools have signed up to become ‘Trust School Partners’ and, as part of this Saturday’s ‘Trust Family Day,’ all of them were offered free tickets to adults and children attending the game, if the child attends a participating school.

The Trust initially thought they would need between 800 and 1,200 tickets – but the demand has been so large they have had to ask the club for 3,500 and will now fill the Stratton Bank and one of the side stands with families for this Saturday’s game against Fleetwood.


http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/11622828.Trust_s_Town_ticket_scheme_to_boost_Fleetwood_gate/?ref=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Hope it warms up for them, fair play to them

That's fantastic. We all need to get behind the Trust. With our help, they could really get things moving in the town and beyond.

Good news, let's hope we can create a bit of atmosphere and a lot of them decide to come back for future games.

Astonished by the take up. Just goes to show that the interest is there. Here's hoping for a dry day, 3 points, and a goal or two in front of the SB to encourage them back!

Fantastic effort from the Trust. Well done to everyone who was involved.

EDIT> And I've finally renewed my membership.

Fantastic news...

One point of order - 3,500 filling the bank and a side stand???

DRS.

It'll be the first time since the Port Vale game in 2012, that we'll have Town fans on all 4 sides of the ground.

Apologies for my ignorance to this....but have the Trust had to pay anything towards this? How exactly is this working?

Hopefully the club have the Kiosks in Stratton Bank loaded up with sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks to make something off it anyway :-).

Good work Trust. I think this should give some of the doubters a reason to join.

And if City screw up on Friday night...a good time to go top !!

2,200 the bank holds, so I assume they mean overfill in the side stands.

I was expecting 2-300 when I opened this, as first I heard about it was today, genuinely astounded. Its great that were getting kids in, and I hope it leads to lots of returns in the future, that's slightly tempered by the feeling that its possibly a load of freeloaders, so hopefully there will be a lot of programme sales, lots of town shirts bought for xmas presents to replace the Chelsea ones, and more hopefully we don't get dicked and it puts them off for life..

It's worth mentioning I myself am a product of the late Steve McMahon/Jimmy Quinn era of either free tickets for under 16s or regular kid for a quid promotions. It was shit, yet I was still hooked. The system works. 

I believe they have got sponsorship to make up the shortfall

When I was first aware of football I supported Arsenal because my dad did. Then at primary school we went to 'train' on the CG pitch and met a few of the players. At this point my brother and I declared we supported Swindon. Happily it wasn't nearly as expensive in those days so midering the old man to take us paid off, and here I am, nearly 30 years later.

This stuff really does work, if we hook a few kids for life on Saturday it will all be worthwhile.

Makes sense. That should make up a little bit of shortfall and hopefully the club can make sure there are plenty of program sellers about to get some more of that back. Might be an idea to even have a merchandise stand near the exit too.

This. West Ham were my favourite team when I was really small, but after being taken to teh CG a few times I was hooked. Probably helped that we were smashing everyone at the time!

Massive pat on the back for the trust. Fantastic work, I think this will turn a lot of cynics.

Give the kids a taste and they'll want to come back. Well done to the Trust for organising this.

I know we hate the concept of song sheets on here, but when we've got the SB full of kids on a cold November day, it'd be good to have some in there, kids love a bit of a sing and it might motivate some of the quiet miserable fuckers elsewhere to give it a go.

Fair fucks to the Trust, that's a great number. Just hope it isn't 2 degrees and raining or the bank will be a miserable place to be.

I hope there are more than 4 portaloos......

I'm more concerned as to whether they've been emptied after the shitheads have fouled them.

Hopefully there will be one or two members of the trust in there to kind or orchestrate them? Start the songs and get them joining in. I know there's a group of school-children in the Arkell's on Saturdays and there's one bloke amongst them that gets them all singing.

EDIT: Completely forgot to say top work! This is great news! Looking forward to it.

Well done to all involved, great news

Fantastic effort is that.  As someone else said, I was thinking take up would be a few hundred, not 3500!!  So what will that do to the attendance?  Presumably 10/10.5k once added to the regular 7k.

The Trust has come of age.  Astonishing achievement.  Well done to everyone involved.

Mr Box, get yourself a CRB clearance, and you could become a musical Pied Piper, a conductor of a pre-pubescent choir.  The TEF could have a whip round to get you a hi-vis jacket, and possibly a flag bearing the TEF logo....

I'm on it.  :director:

This is brilliant and must be the way forward to build a fan base for the future  :clap:

My eldest was so excited when he got home from school and told me about this, I'm already a trust member but I'm more than happy to build my son's relationship with the club, just hope we're not on the bank! :-P

"You're gonna get your fucking heads kicked in"
"You can stick your fucking mackeral up your arse"
"Shit fucking Blackpool, your just a shit fucking Blackpool"

Any more ideas for the kiddy song sheets ?

hahahahaha.

Wanky Wanky Oxford.
Shoot the Oxford Scum.
Dirty Northern Bastard.

Joking aside, I think this is brilliant, hats off to the trust.

If 10%  get hooked, that's 300 future fans we might not have had.

And once hooked................

(just hope we play well and win, 'cos that could be the difference between 100 and 500 on the hook)

Incidentally, are you lot aware that Swindon Town is the only football league club that doesn't share a letter with the word "Mackeral"  ??

 Mackerel - it's mackerel

Point still stands.

Pretty much as everyone else has said, this is fantastic work by the Trust, one hell of a lot of work to pull this off, but if you're going to do something like this, do it well and it looks like they have. Superb work!

Always thought that a 'free' Stratton Bank might push things along in the right direction.

Just to say that an avid Forest supporter at work died a bit inside when his 6 year old said he wanted a Swindon shirt because all his mates have one.

It's on my youngest list to Santa too.

Whether they grow out of it when older who knows*, but Swindon town are reaching the youngsters and this initiative can only help.

I just pray it warns up and is dry for therm on the Straton bank. As recently discussed, the facilities aren't best as it is. No choice to house them there given the unexpected demand though.

*my lad won't :)

That's the single best thing I've read this week I think

Dry and a mild 10 degrees forecast at the moment. This will all come down to how well equipped we make the Bank for the day. A tough ask with limited resources, but hopefully seen as a worthwhile investment. Get Rockin Robin in there. He may actually be useful for a change.

Hats off to the Trust. It's fantastic to see us get to a point where it's efforts can afford to be at investing for the future.

I took my son's mate, who supports West Ham, to Peterborough last Saturday. He goes to West Ham regularly but loved seeing the players up close and said the atmosphere was much better amongst the Swindon fans. He went home and declared himself a Swindon fan! His dad isn't happy but it does show that it works.

It's all looking more promising, the Trust are doing really well this season. Think crowds really will start to step up after Christmas time, especially if we're still up there

This really is a great effort by all involved. Incidently  is there going to be trust members outside again? I really want to join but seem to keep missing them. Im in the DRS by the way.

Really excited for Saturday now. Can't wait for a goal to go in for the Stratton Bank to be celebrating too. Man, that would suck to be in the away section.  :D

We will be doing a membership drive once again on Saturday prior to the game.

We should be on the corner of the Arkells/TE, and DRS by the club shop.

Please join up if you haven't...

to echo other comments big well done to the trust peeps - nice to see this sort of initiative paying off

Thanks. I will try getting there a bit earlier Saturday.

Looks as though they've given them the SB end of the DRS. So at least 1000 will have decent facilities. Just hope they place plenty of portaloos on the bank for the mums and kids.

We're normally there from about 1.30...

Of course you can join online at www.truststfc.com/join

I'm hoping they will allow SB ticket holders to use the DR facilities and have improved the SB facilities itself for Saturday considering this could be a key to an extra 100-200 a week.

You'll be getting my £1. Hopefully the sceptics that couldn't really see the point of the Trust before will now be signing up. I would have joined before but hadn't had the chance at a stall and my paypal is messed up, but I'll be sure to find you Saturday.

I know you do a life membership already, but do you allow people to sign up for 5 years, 10 years, etc. on the spot? Just a thought, but I think it might be worth looking at.

Doubtfull.

H&S, maximum capacity and all that jazz

Ah, yeah that makes sense. I'm going to tweet the club asking if it's actually on their radar. (Not that their twitter account is looked at not on a match-day...)

Can anyone from the trust give any more insight in to how they have gone about this? What schools have been targeted? How many tickets per school? etc.

This was an idea I had advocated on here in the past, but it seemed pretty pie in the sky stuff. To get the club to agree to it in the first instance is impressive enough, let alone actually then going and organising it and making it a reality.

I know what you mean about extended membership. Now that the Trust is proving its value, I feel that it's worth more than £1 per year. I know it's about creating a low barrier to drive membership and attract sponsorship, but is it time to move the sub up to at least £2-3?

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/sport/11530668.This_is_just_the_beginning_for_the_Trust/

I just think it's a bit of a ball ache getting people to renew, yet few are going to want to put up cash for a lifetime membership. You're far more likely to get someone to commit to 5 years.

I sometimes think it's not enough because people might think "How is £1 going to do anything?" Obviously not making any real difference.

Do the TEF have any kind of pot? For derby days or TV games it would be good to have a pot to get loads of sheets (ala Yeovil below) or flags or something to make certain games special. We always moan about a lack of atmosphere, when we're the most active fans (online anyway) that could actually do something about it.

(http://www.redarmyloudnproud.org.uk/sheetsyeovil.jpg)

Jesus.....impressive doesn't begin to cover it for me. Every town fan on Facebook and/or Twitter should give this a like/share/retweet. Bloody well done to all involved.

Agreed. They need to put in something between £1 and life. Many people would be happy to hand over a fiver.

Superb.

I'v criticised the Trust in the past but they seem to have got their act together recently and this is a fantastic initiative so well done.

I echo the hopes of others that the weather holds up and more importantly, they can do something with the facilities that are so obviously lacking in the Bank.

I suppose I'd better sign up now...

Membership used to be a fiver. We reduced it to £1 to get numbers on board from May, but we will review this, probably in the new year.

I'll be more than happy to get involved with the Trust more than monetary contributions if needs be. I'm a Designer. Mainly a web designer & developer but I would be happy to contribute what I can.

Can you email us via [email protected], with your offer to help. Thanks.

We are Swindon, this is inevitable.  I'll still be there, though.

Edit: Astounding effort by the Trust.  Really well done to all who've made this possible.

Reading that article, it would appear that the two fellas involved could be a bit of a dream ticket when it comes to building a future fanbase with these initiatives.

The Trust have just sent an email out to all members (if you haven't got one and are a member PM me and I'll look into it) with a few more details.

"Saturday will be a very special day for TrustSTFC and the club. We will be welcoming thousands of school children and their parent / guardian to the County Ground for a Trust Family Day and match with Fleetwood; after the Trust secured 3,500 free tickets for this match to distribute to members of our School Partnership.

TrustSTFC are currently engaging with local primary schools through the School Partnerships to raise awareness of the club and boost matchday attendances. Over 30 Swindon Primary Schools have now signed up to become Trust 'School Partners'.

The Trust board approached the football club a few weeks ago to establish how they could support our campaign to boost attendances and encourage more families to the games; at which point we asked the club to support us to the tune of 800-1,200 tickets to distribute to schools.

Fast-forward a few weeks and the feedback from the leaflet campaign with participating TrustSTFC Primary Schools resulted in a fantastic response. TrustSTFC Chair Steve Mytton reflects "The response was amazing though, and almost 3500 tickets were requested, all of them from young school families in the area, they represent the future crowd of Swindon Town.”

We and the club were blown away by this fantastic response. This shows local people are interested in supporting the club and would jump at the opportunity to watch matches. The new question for the Trust was how to get as many of these school children and adults into the County Ground...

The Trust board would therefore like to thank Lee Power, Steve Anderson and Adam Wainwright who have agreed to match the response and provide 3,500 free tickets for this match. To achieve this we've opened the Stratton Bank as well as taking up space in the 'S' of the Don Rogers Stand. We hope that this boost to the attendance will last beyond this match, with more families regularly attending games. Given the team are performing magnificently at the moment and playing some excellent football the Trust want to see five figure crowds at the County Ground every game. We therefore hope to announce further initiatives in coming weeks about boosting attendances and supporting the next generation of Town supporters."

Three rules for the hardened silverbacks on Saturday:

1. Go out of your way to be helpful to kids and their families: they may not know which way up to hold a football, but they might come back if you make them welcome.

2. Don't moan at the consequences of this success: yes there will be longer queues for the loo and refreshments, and parking may be harder than usual. Welcome to the future, with luck.

3. Tape up Jayo's mouth.

Enjoy. That is all.

I woulda gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for them pesky kids

Have the tickets been distributed yet? Spoke to someone at work who hasn't received them, plus FITC were going to let us have a couple that haven't arrived in post!

Apparently some negativity around this but can't seem to find anything about it? Can anyone shed some light?

People moaning on facebook, unfair on season ticket holders as people are getting in for free. Should be charging adults 15 quid as well.

 :suicide:

Adver comments

Say no more Tans!

What, like a spider ?

Was talking at the pub about this tonight, and the first thing that was brought up was 'What about the season ticket holders?'

I personally think that letting 3,500 new supporters into the ground for free is worth it. Especially when the majority will be kids who will, if the result goes the right way, be pestering their parents for a £25+ admission fee for the rest of the season.

Catch 'em young and they're hooked, especially with the way we play football at the moment, and if we get them singing along and enjoying the atmosphere.

Doesn't matter about season ticket holders or regular payers, they're in whatever.

As a season ticket holder for 10+ years now, which all started because my Dad took me to a kid for a quid game I think this is great! Catch kids young, make them realise how much better it is watching football live, with a crowd and an atmosphere and hopefully they'll be hooked like I was! No point in moaning about one off promotions to try and create crowds if you're a season ticket holder, that's for the club to sort out, would love to see season ticket holders get cheaper cup tickets/free pre-season tickets, but that's something to talk about another day in another thread, the trust have done brilliantly promoting this and proving that the fanbase could potentially be out there.

Yeah, damn right, I pay through the nose for the privilege of sitting in a half-empty ground where I can often relax in perfect calm. The last thing us season ticket holders want is lots of noisy crowds turning up bringing their atmosphere and future season ticket holders with them, just leave us alone to shrivel away in peace.

Give it away for free, make them form a habit, then charge shit loads when they're hooked.

Swindon Town: The crack dealer of League One.

To be fair, it's the Trust not the club. And peddling to school kids in their schools as well, appalling behaviour :)

Cracking job well done.
I re-joined at halftime at Orient away :)

The Trust is just someone below the main man ;-)

In all seriousness this is excellent work by the Trust.

I know it's yesterday's news but the extra attendance should hopefully shush the Bristol City fans who will be checking our gate against Fleetwood... and, alas, they will be.

An added bonus.

Great work from the Trust. I don't really know what to say regarding ST holders kicking up a stink over an attempt to introduce the potential future of our fanbase. Sigh.

It's probably just the moaning fucker who sits behind me.

But let's be honest - some people just like moaning

All joking aside, is there really anyone kicking up a stink, or just a couple of blokes HonkyTonk knows in the pub?

.....and if so can their STs be confiscated due to twatishness and raffled off to those new potential new long term fans on the bank Saturday?

Well done to the Trust, good work. As a ST Holder im more than happy to let future potential fans have a try before you buy.

It is definitely possible to increase your fan base considerably (although usually with a new/ redeveloped stadium). Brighton average nearly 30,000 these days, that is VERY impressive.

Also, MKDongs ran a promotion for home and away fans today. For £25 two adults get entry, a pint and a pie. They managed to attract 6,720 today.

Something for the future with regards to leaflets from the Trust. I'm a fan of this line which has been used by other clubs before....

(http://176.32.230.17/longlongroad.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/football-not-a-TV-show.jpg)

(http://images.pitchero.com/ui/289539/1407483305_8411.jpg)

Well I just checked - there weren't any free tickets given away in my local school - how do you get on the list of favourites ?

Or it just for the chosen few ?

Also, MKDongs ran a promotion for home and away fans today. For £25 two adults get entry, a pint and a pie. They managed to attract 6,720 today.
[/quote]

I think this highlights the problems with having midweek games when Champions League matches are on the tele.  Particularly on the Tuesday when everybody can see the game on ITV.  I think it might be worth switching back to Wednesday night for midweek games to help

Is there really any need for the snide implications that the Trust have somehow played favourites with a select few schools? AFAIK, they wrote to all schools in the area asking if they'd be interested, so if your school didn't get free tickets given away maybe it's because they didn't show any interest? Might be an idea to ask the question of the school rather than the Trust?

Should probably clarify that the chaps I spoke to in the pub are by no means Swindon fans. I am on my lonesome when it comes to that in my local.

I can see what they mean, but seriously, screw anyone who is willing to moan about the attendance being higher.

They signed-up 30 schools, which is a pretty decent number.  My son had a leaflet at Covingham.

Was it only Swindon that was targeted or did we go after any of the surrounding areas as well?

As you say, a good number, esp for the first time they've done it. And if they got 3500 from 30 schools, probably a good job they didn't sign any more up, they'd have been struggling to meet demand!

Swindon, from the story that ran back in October, it seems.  First of many initiatives, seemingly designed to get local families involved, which in turn will be used to get companies interested in being involved to begin funding initiatives.  Idea being that STFC have burned bridges and companies think football is awash with money, so the Trust are essentially playing the independent middle man card.  On the one hand they get people through the gate and interest in the community, then they get companies to begin investing in the idea, not nec STFC.  

I got "hooked" when my village football team used to go every end of season as a club, did a training session with youth coaches near the ground then watch the match in the afternoon. Under 8's I think. Wonder if this still happens as well?

In 1993, following the initial date being postponed, we got nearly 15,000 for a midweek game against Birmingham.  The two games either side were sub 9,000.  We'd offered tickets for something like £4 for adults in the main stands and less in the Town End.  Clearly these ideas don't work out financially if repeated every game, but with clever analysis and investment from other partners, here could be a very very very good idea in this type of idea.

Yep. My lad's team did it last season as just a team, then all the teams did it as a club (albeit minus the training session but with a Q&A with Cooper, Storey, Wes after the game) as part of the "ProRed" thing. Both worked really well, the kids loved it and plenty of kids (and parents) who'd not been to a game before were completely buzzed by the whole day.

Oh and our attendances began to rise soon after that Birmingham game.  We maintained good form and it was a great season, clearly, but it may well have sparked a little bit of interest that kept a few coming back, even though the game was a dour 0-0 in the cold.

My sons' school must have signed up, as they brought leaflets home a month or two ago about Trust membership.  However, I haven't seen anything about free tickets for the Fleetwood game in their bags.  Not that it matters to us, as we have season tickets anyway, but would be a shame if the school hasn't communicated it out.

You know the score, there could be letters from a year ago in school bags, along with blue sandwiches, or is that just my daughter?

Attendance guesses for the weekend then - 9250

10,200

6,500 regular paying home fans
3,500 Trust family freeloaders (said in jest)
200 Fleetwood.

I'm not going but have given my ST to someone. The last time this happened was when we beat Sheff United 5-2 or whatever it was. I'm enticing the one offs back with good games!

id be gutted if we were looking at an attendance of 6700 without this promotion.

I think it's inevitable that some of those that would have paid as walkups, will end up sourcing tickets through the scheme, maybe 300 at least?

This is why I'm so surprised the Trust have been able to convince the club to go ahead with it. That's a deficit of about £7,000 or so. I know the Trust have agreed to sponsor to make some of this back for the club, plus they might make some extra programme sales, etc. but there is still a loss there. Credit also has to go to Power for seeing the long term gain over the short term loss. Previous owners would just see the immediate pound note in front of them at our long term detriment.

There couldn't be a better time for this initiative to be honest. I would imagine alot of fickle school kids around who support Man Utd ,  Liverpool , Arsenal  who are not having the success of previous years would be more inclined to start supporting their local team especially if we can go top. 

As others have said  now watch them play shit and lose .

Hopefully we'll get five figures. I can't see why not.

10,900

6,700 every-gamers
350 occasional-gamers (because of our recent games & it's the end of the month Payday)
350 Fleetwood (it's a new ground for them)
3,500 freebies

Another thing to consider is although 3,500 have been given to the schools, they might not all get given out and they might not all turn up.

IIRC the tickets were by personal application i.e. the kids had to fill out a form to apply for them individually, rather than schools asking for them en bloc. So while they might well not turn up (although I think most will), pretty sure they'll all be given out

Chalky white is right. Will add another thousand onto the gate, but I'd be suprised if we broke 5 figures

That's reassuring. I'm genuinely excited at seeing the ground this full of Swindon fans Saturday.

Me too. And I might be wrong, but I seem to remember reading that was how they were going to be given out. Hope it's mild and dry (and we win 14-0)

Fleetwood, may well not make over a 100, they've mysteriously had 3 away followings of 101, this season.  Novelty wearing off, fair old distance, high price and time of year, may deter a few.

I wonder though if the 101, are the same people for each game, in other words their real die hards.

Ah, I see what you did there... research. I went on faith that travelling to quite an old stadium that's, to be fair, bigger than most league one grounds and a 'bigger' club for this level would entice a few extra heads. But as you say... it's a fair old hike.

High 9,000s or very low 10,000s then.

Haha

Some serious aspirations to take more than 101 there.

Looks like they could be the Stevenage away of League One.

https://twitter.com/awaydays_/status/310404425724350464

https://twitter.com/FBAwayDays/status/528595898751008769

Someone in DR take a snap...

Will the Trust be around the stadium signing up new members on Saturday?

I've only been charged £17 for a Town End ticket despite receiving an STFC email/flyer promoting the game at £18?

Ho-hum.

Yep, somebody confirmed in another thread. Outside the club shop.

 :). It's amazing what can be found in a school bag.  My son nearly missed playing for the school football team last week, because he failed to give me the letter to sign the permission slip for him to leave school early.

Looks like the Trust have even sorted the weather out for the SB hordes on Saturday - http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2636389

Impressive  :)

We're good....but not that good !!

Also we should be on the corner of the Arkells/Town End.

Got the tickets today, Jacob's first taste of the Bank! Only sat in the DRS previously. Hope there's more than 4 portaloos!

The acid test will be if anyone can start songs between the Bank and the Town End. Mansfield under Sturrock wasn't it? Wasn't there but heard it was a good day.

Edit: Tongue in cheek above, obviously...there is no test. Top work already.

Townend to Start. We are Coppers red n white army. Followed by the DRS. Followed by the mites on the bank. Followed by Townend, DRS and Bank all booing when the Arkells don't join in COYR...........

It will never happen sadly ............

The only time I can remember seeing that happen in recent years was when we (misguidedly) gave both ends of the ground to Pompey in the early 2000s at a time when we were on our knees as a club and they were on their way up.  Not to say that it won't happen in the future with our fans in both ends, but it would be the first time for quite some years.  (I think.)

When was the Party on the Bank beach-themed game? There was some back and forth chants from the TE and Bank that game I seem to remember.

I can claim to have organised the first ever "Lou Macari's Red and White Army" exchange between the "Southside" and the Town End.

A few of us in the Southside started with "Town end give us a song", then followed with "Lou Mac.....ect"

It took a few attempts to get the rest of the Southside to leave a pause, then we were away !

It was a feature of a few seasons after that.

I think it spread to the bank when we all went up there for the Bournemouth game.

I'm sure we had all 4 sides on a couple of "Big games*

Maybe the pre match announcer could give them a steer once the robin has done his business

I was there, they brought about 4500, were good natured and noisy.

Edit. This was in response to Ardiles Pompey comment, but I seemed to have quoted Leggett  :stupid:

Wasn't that the Mansfield game under Pdc?

Mansfield was 06/07.

Pdc game was Port Vale I think? Last game of the season.

You could be right my memory fails me a little at times :)

Hopefully it's going to be a good day tomorrow :

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/11631867.TOM_ON_TOWN__It___s_up_to_you_to_welcome_the_regulars_of_tomorrow/?ref=rss

Good article from what has been a dire rag so far this season.

Can the trust guys hand out a song sheet with all the old favourites to the mites. Could be like early XMAS Carols.

1. Wise men sing ..........
2. When the reds come steaming in .............
3. Get your fathers Gun.... Oxford Scum.............
4. in 1969... On league cup final day........... ( Cup games only strictly I guess )

As long as there all singing number 3 in the playgrounds of Swindon come Monday morning the day would have been an astounding success............

Saturday, April 21, 2007
http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20070144

Saturday, April 28, 2012
http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20120145

Was on the bank for that Vale game
Twas fucking freezing

Just need some older heads with big gobs to get them started really.

Big game at London Road tonight.

Heres hoping for a Posh win so that a Town win this game tomorrow and we go 2 points clear at the top :)

I shall be looking in on this game hoping for a Posh win so I can listen to Cotterill's post match rant.

He is pure comedy gold.

It was the refs fault.

"We would have won if Wade was playing"

"It was their cup final"

"Their behaviour was embarrassing"

Cotterill Bingo could be a fun game

Sky Sports are advertising the betting for this game with an accompanying pic of . . .

Michael Smith   :clap:

http://i.gyazo.com/97a5599dae3dfcab5612c9d08ee9e84d.png

Cotterill's comment after losing to Preston last week :

'We had enough chances to win today, last week and next week'.

He still hasn't got over it...

Peterborough have been awful so far. City one up.

Edit: City have been very good. Freeman, Little, the front two....very impressive, no matter how abysmal Peterborough have been. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ferguson leave in the next few days.

2 up. We're not going top tomorrow.

Just been told that the membership sign up tables will be different locations tomorrow.

One will be by Stratton Bank, and the other by the DRS entrance somewhere by the J Town room.

Peterborough were dog shit.

Dead man walking...

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQnopcgjJHzB0c7W9mIgRPdGrDgEmFdoLUfLXSc_gndDivwcqZM)

At least Cotterill's happy - although he is still harping on about losing to us ::)

He's a horrible, bitter, twisted little man. Funny - until two weeks ago I had absolutely no opinion of him.

Part of the problem at Peterborough is the Chairman.

He brings back 2 ex players up from when their problem is at the back and the lack of midfield.

Probably picks the team

Worst performance from a league one side i've seen in a while. Saying that City did look very good

City are undeniably strong. We've just got to keep doing our thing.

Forget City. They will probably win the league. If we can keep our form up for most of the season we have a great chance of going up with them in 2nd.

Posh last night would have made anybody look good.

Their aspirations should be staying up not promotion - they were beyond awful.

This is a poor league this year compared to recent seasons - carpe diem!

Agree with "Carpe Diem". Not sure why you think it's so poor this year though? I reckon that statement has been trotted out every season for the last 20 years. From what I've seen, it's a pretty good league, with more teams playing decent football on the deck than there has been for years at this level.

What we don't have is a big city club (Wolves) for example who have plummeted down from the Prem with all their parachute payments completely skewing the competitiveness of the whole division.

I think it's much more enjoyable than a few seasons past just for that reason, more of us have got a chance this season of doing something, which is proved by checking out the table.

Oh, and where is the matchday thread?

I was convinced we had a match today.

Is Rosso unwell?

Yep. Totally agree Hobnob. Helps that we're up there too obviously. :-)

Absolutely brilliant. Saw 3 kids there today who were schoolmates of my lad and all 3 were having a brilliant time, eyes shining and just utterly transported by the whole experience. This was at half-time, so hopefully even better after we all celebrated a late winner! Excellent work by the Trust and the club - hope it's rewarded by a good rate of some of them returning.

funny that, the previous lot on the Bank did nothing but complain

must join in and applaud the Trust for a brilliant idea with a new angle, a positive collaboration with the Board and a well implemented plan in the build up and on the day.  I'd guess a majority of us caught the bug as kids and I'm sure many of today's kids will be smitten enough to demand a return!

Oh well, at least it wasn't Nathan 'threatening' I suppose...

Joined the trust yesterday  and there were quite a few in front of me so hopefully boosted the numbers.

Also spoke to friends who brought kids for the first time and they loved it so well done everybody involved.

Thanks for everyone's words in regards to yesterday. As you can guess there are a very few tired Trust board members and volunteers after yesterday's exploits, especially getting 1000 balloons blown up and getting them onto Stratton Bank.

Also thanks to the weather, and Ben Gladwin in scoring a late winner, so it was really 'Glad All Over' for the kids.

A video of the day has been done, so if you've got a spare 23 minutes, please have a look :

http://vimeo.com/113169547

Perhaps the next initiative could be attracting some of the immigrant communities.

The eastern Europeans probably have a footballing background but maybe need some positive encouragement to attend.

Those of the large Goan community I know were all following Portugal avidly in the WC - but probably not predisposed to freezing their nads off on the Bank!

nice video summing up a real positive day for stfc

Brilliant.

Great stuff!  Congratulations to all involved. 

Great video and a great effort from all involved. That's actually motivated me to finally complete the form to join the Trust which some one gave me at Crawley back in August. I've joined for a year and made an additional donation - every little helps  ;)

Brilliant work. Judging by that attendances should start to rise! Signed up for Trust yesterday, keep it up!

Anyone know how many members The Trust are now up to?

Somebody at work showed me an email from their kids school regarding another trust initiative for both Doncaster and Port Vale.

Primary school kids go free with a paying adult(£19) or OAP(£16), with a max of 2 adults and 3 kids per group.

Sounds good to me. 

Appeal to the trust if anyone who knows anyone on the board or who is organising this offer!!

I have taken advantage of the offer and ordered tickets for the Vale game (I know I'm not the target as I go to a dozen games a season anyway but this would have been at best a 50/50 one for me). I ordered tickets for me, the nipper and for one of her friends from her swimming club who has never been before. After the deadline had passed her friends dad got in touch asking how I got the tickets saying that he wanted to get one for himself and other child. The lad and dad are both sports daft but unfortunately armchair Liverpool fans - prime targets of the scheme I'd imagine! Is there any way that I could add them to my order? I would be happy to drop off the cash at the trust office/another address.

Sorry to whack this on the public bit, I know a few posters are quite close to the trust but wasn't sure who to pm. If anyone could help please pm me.

In the bank or another area of the ground?

Talking of incentives Honda have now linked up with the club and all employees can get tickets for £10 for any game until the end of season,kids tickets are £3.

Which stand is that for

Don't know which stand I was under the impression it was anywhere in ground but not 100%

Not being funny, linking up with Honda is great, but £10 a ticket for any game takes the piss slightly given the matchday prices for everyone else.

Just putting it out there like

That all depends who is paying 'the difference, Honda (directly or indirectly through sponsorship ) or the club.

I actually agree that if the club are discounting Honda employees in the hope of sponsorship in the future then while I can see why they'd do it, it is taking the piss out of every other fan.

But we don't know that's the case.

If it's for any game rather than every game, I'm fine with it.

Oh I see. I missread that as every game :)

I wouldn't have a problem with it being offered as a company benefit.  It's no different to companies that provide discount schemes for high street stores.  If you like the benefits, you can always apply to work at the company.  My guess would be that they probably chuck a few quid in to get the discount for their employees as well.

Red Army Fund help pays for Toffolo :

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/11734995.Clubbing_together_for_Toffolo/?ref=rss