Thetownend.com

I don't think I've ever started one before.

Bit late.

1-2 rovers

3-2 win.Doughty Norris and Brophy. 9632 attendance with 2695 gasheads  Team Vigs Barry Thompson  Jones Sendles-White Brophy Doughty Kasim Thomas Norris Dalfonsoe subs Henry Boo Rogers Stewart Hylton  Goddard  Landolo.  Still out - Branco Obika

Missed out Furlong  who has impressed. Maybe in for Thomas or impact sub or even change of formation with one of the 2 strikers starting on the bench.

3-1 town. ATT. 10,234 (2,662 disappointed pirates)

in the Townend for the first time in 30 yrs, fucking hell its expensive.
 I really dislike Rovers and hoping for a comfortable win.
Loads of dreary midfield possession please to suck the atmosphere from the crowd.

1-3 (even-ish but game with Rovers converting chances while Town hit the post and bar at least three times, and a red card for Thompson).

9111 (including some soggy Pirates on the Bank).

First home game I'm missing this season which means we'll win handsomely.

3-1 after going a goal down. Doughty, Kasim, Sendles-White.

Don't like their inbreds and roundabouts song.
The sister and our kids find it upsetting.

At least we talk proper here.
Pity the exiles who have to put up with the guttural vocal pollution on a daily basis.

Hopefully their heroic stormtroopers have left the baseball bats at home today.

A win today please. This matters.
Although it would only be a small setback in their relentless self entitled progress through the divisions.

Must be time for a beer.

2-1 Doughty,Kasim.yes!

very close game, 2-1 Swindon.
For some reason a lot of their fans share a viewpoint that they are a big club, and given that a large part of their fanbase comes from the slum parts of Bristol, I do find it strange that they say often that Swindon is a dump. Irony is clearly something not comprehended.

Early kick-off today fam?

1.30

Hoping for a win today, Mrs is from Yate and most of her family are gas bar one shit head fan
The inbred song could equally apply to Yate  ::)

Going for a 2.1 win don't care who scores as long as we do  :beers:

Need to keep Billy B quiet, sure he will be desperate to impress.

3-1 Town.

I have a lot of mates that are Rovers fans and they are all very confident about todays game, they seem to think they are our bogey team, recent history suggests this could be the case with us winning only 2 of the last 8 meetings and we haven't beaten them in the last 3 games.

But if you take into account home games only then its not so good for them with us winning 6 and them only winning 2 in the last 10 home games vs them.

They haven't started too well this season with only 2 wins so far, only one of them in the league vs the Scum at home with 3 defeats and 1 draw so far and sit in 18th place whereas we are sat in 9th place but its still very early.

Apparently they played quite well at Chelsea on Tuesday and kept the ball on the deck, that could suit us today rather than high balls played into the channels to fast strikers which seem to hurt us.

I think it will be a 1-1 draw today with Norris notching his first for us and Taylor for them with 9,905 there with 1,965 sags fans.

Be close, but 2-1 to us. Get the appetiser out of the way, ready for the man course.

The 4-0 home drubbing will, sadly, always be the first result that comes to mind when I think of matches against Rovers.

The other memory is Cibocchi's inability to take a throw in.

No doubt they'll be singing that Plymouth song.

From my experiences of Rovers, their away following is impressive when compared to home attendances (I bet their away attendances are larger than Town's this season), and this will make them look like one of the bigger clubs in this division this season. Brizzle may well have slummier slums that Swindon but compared with the city in general, Swindon is more than just a bit crap. All totally meaningless when it comes to supporting your home-town team though.

My fave is Zaaboub's monster appearance as a sub in 2007! Hopefully the same result today.

I love living in Bristol and would never in a million years live in Swindon. However I hate both Bristol teams with a passion on par with Oxford. This all means we will sneak a 1-0 win and the clean sheets continue.

And by the way, hope it rains heavily for a couple of hours from 1.30 onwards.

Just heard the first strains of Irene from the comforts of The Savoy.  >:(

Swindon's a great place to live, great outdoor spaces, a proper football ground, the lakes and Cotswold on the doorstep. Just coz the town centre is a bit shit the whole town gets slated. Bristol has some nice parts, but it has plenty of awfulness.

When people ask me what Swindon's like, I have nothing to tell them. I think that sums up the town perfectly.

I'm sure a mention re spiritual home of the NHS and UK's first public lending library will trigger a wave of Thai tourism.  :)

Get Mrs FH to get the stew on....we need to win this one to deter the gloating :)

Hadn't though of getting a stew on.

Although I do have some Pad Thai coming to be washed down with Thai iced tea, that should do it.

1 1 Norris. 9879 2675 of which from Brizzle

Goodness me I hope we win this one.

Horlock hattrick.thats my favourite

no rodgers?dont think that will happen

Probably stems from 2009/10 where we conceded seven against them over two games including four at the CG.

UGH.

They'll fancy their chances today.

Vigouroux, Sendles-White, Thompson (C), Jones, Furlong, Rodgers, Kasim, Doughty, Brophy, Norris, Delfouneso

Subs: Henry, Barry, Ormonde-Ottewill, Thomas, Goddard, Stewart, Hylton

Chalkie "absolutely Swindon Town".legend!

Dean Thornton new goalkeeping coach, ex QPR head of goalkeeping.

Closed turnstiles and food outlet in the DRS doesn't bode well for a good home attendance today.
Unless the club is taking the save money, let em queue approach.

I can confirm that last week's excitable block 6 chap is in the ground, and currently talking to other human beings in what appears to be a perfectly rational way.

Didn't really notice that, but just got in and it's not very busy at the moment

Attendance looking good according to the Beeb

Is ian d'olo injured?

Yeah Ralphy just showed it live on fb, about 9/10 full on the bank.

Town hit post.

Rovers fans not a bad turn out.
(http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g171/jjedmunds/Untitled_zpsrxy4emvi.png) (http://s56.photobucket.com/user/jjedmunds/media/Untitled_zpsrxy4emvi.png.html)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cq3bFmxXgAAiYQL.jpg)

We started brightly but its much more end to end the last 5 mins.

Good chance for Norris and Delfouneso.

Anything said before start of the match about a new striker coming in..

Great clearance off the Rovers line from Rodgers  >:(

Nope, but Williams did say hes after possibly another two players but only if they will play most of the games for the 1st team, not squad players.

Another chance for Delfouneso.

Sounds like we are getting a grip on the game now.

Rodgers not endearing himself to the doubters it seems

Another good chance by Delfouneso, saved by the keeper for another Town corner.

Good save by Vigs with them hitting us on the break.

Saved from a Norris shot.

Furlong shot/cross hit out for another Town corner.

Even Rover's comms are mocking Rodgers now

Who is this prostitute they keep singing about?

Saved from a Kasim shot.

How can he play in front of Goddard?

I think he's a fixture now

It does seem so, rightly or wrongly. I would like Goddard and Stewart to get some game time today though.

Almost certainly jj

No idea what the possession stats are, guessing something like 70/30 to us. We're completing taking them apart and should be winning this at a canter.

The Rodgers situation is a farce. How he's started today after last week's awful display is beyond me. It's an insult to those on the bench when he consistently plays so badly.

The BBC stats say 52% possession to Rovers.....doesn't sound like it though, sounds more like 65% to us. I think they are made up randomly.

1 min added time.

EDIT: STFC Player stats say 66% to Swindon.

Does it give them posession time while they're lining up goal kicks?

Is anybody getting commentary via stfc player today? Nothing for me

possession stats are a waste of time. are we keeping the ball and passing it with attacking intent, or are we keeping the ball by pissing around with it from the back.

sounds encouraging from Twitter mind.

Lots of missed chances. On that 45mins footballs a lot better than last season.
If Luke Warm could arrange a little training when we are in the box before we play the piss stains I'd be grateful

Getting player but its a bit "norman collier"

We've dominated possession & chances, but Rovers do look dangerous on the break so we need to stay alert at the back.

The sky match stats are bollocks, I checked them a while after we hit the post to see if the counted it as on or off target only to find they didn't count it at all

The cliche one way traffic was wrote for this, so has 1.0 Rovers all over it.
Hope im wrong

Yes but not in IE or the Edge, Chrome and Firefox is fine.

Rogers watch.

Neat and tidy with passing, spread ball well a couple of times and linking well with kasim
Bottled out of one 50 / 50 that lost the ball enabling Rovers to break, it came to nothing.
Was involved in a six yard box scramble and got in the way of a goal bound shot. He had a complete air shot from 6 yards when a bit of composure needed.

We are on top but they are defending well and look dangerous from set pieces.

Rovers fans now getting very wet.

It's absolutely pissing it down now

Nice day to be on the bank :)

I thought it was supposed to be light rain this afternoon? It's absolutely torrential. Bound to affect the game in the second half.

Irene is getting wet.  :bye:

Another chance missed by Delfouneso.

Cheers. Got it on chrome

Match abandoned?

WTF Abandoned?

Suspended for now.

Hopefully the weather eases a little.

5 min delay to see if it eases

it's just calmed down here and brightened up, it will be back underway soon no doubt

5 min delay we're being told until the ref comes back and inspects the pitch. It's not going to improve in 5 minutes, the rain is getting worse.  Most of the Rovers supporters on the Bank have left.

Where are you, cause its still pissing down in the DRS

Bright and sunny here in Melksham now after thunderstorm earlier.

Pitch inspection at 15:10

Pitch inspection at 3.10

The rain isn't as hard now, but there are puddles all over the pitch

Covingham

Fucking Lee Power wont even invest in proper weather.

Pointless - either carry on now or abandon it now. The waters not going to suddenly disappear from the pitch in 15 minutes!

Oh, and we've found that the DRS leaks :(

Would have thought there would be a bit more frantic forking action from the ground staff now that the rain had eased.

I guess it depends how good the drainage is, but that only helps if it stops raining it's not as hard now but its still raining at the moment

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cq3uHXyXYAANXTW.jpg:large)

Chalky White completely out of touch with why people oppose the EFL trophy.

But SSP pretty much spot on.

I'll be amazed if it goes ahead. Ball is not running true anywhere. Nice to see the rovers fans get wet.


Sent from my iPhone

Most important part!

Sent from my comfy seat in the front room.

In fact jay seems to be taking his banner down. It must be over.


Sent from my iPhone

No way is this starting again anytime soon.

The ball isn't rolling at all well in the corners & goal areas

Boiling hot and sunny in Bude

Abandoned.

Right. All off home. Early bath.


Sent from my iPhone

Can we charge the Rovers fans again for the replay? :D

I miss the old days when a bit of weather wouldn't stop games.

Player safety I suppose

Jumpers for goalposts

Pox 1 nil up

get in. currently getting some sun in Cornwall + can almost certainly make a midweek rearrangement. result.

Now you don't see that often.

yeah, but it's only against bottom club Sheffield united*.

*guaranteed to be Barcelonaesque by the time we play them

I think the League rule is that we don't have to refund if it restarts the 2nd half.

So yes we can.

The last time I remember it happening was Tranmere but I am sure it has happened since then.

Wilder to get sack on Monday? :D

Three clean sheets in a row :D

@Official_STFC & @Official_BRFC fans asked to keep ticket stubs for the rearranged game.

I was at the Grimsby game that got called off 2nd half because of a frozen pitch, that was bizarre

Adam Rooney scores against Celtic

The county ground hotel now has a lake.


Sent from my iPhone

Not a particularly energetic pitch inspection.
Correct decision though.
Another 15-20 mins then who knows.

Stay of execution for them.

I said at half time when it started to absolutely piss down and there was thunder and lightning around that I was expecting to be delayed. When they came out and started, you could see straight away the ball wasn't rolling properly, and when it started pissing down again, it was bound to be abandoned. The corner of the Town End/Arkells was absolutely waterlogged.

Not sure what to make of that. Referee seemed to do a half arsed attempt at a pitch inspection whilst being all the Rovers players and management doing their bit to influence him. 10-15 more minutes and that surface water would have gone.

And you're now banned from starting one ever again, fucking curse

Really encouraging performance in the first half.

Like this from the rovers forum.

Wow that was mental, I was wetter than a cucumber in a women's prison.

35 degrees and sweltering on a café terrace in Paris.

Really enjoyed our first half display and the good linking of our strikers.

Sorry.

It needed longer than that and a groundstaff to actually take water off the pitch. The corner of the pitch by the TE/Arkells was totally waterlogged.

If anything they'd have been trying to persuade him to play, it clearly suited their style of play far better than us, the puddles destroyed our passing game.

Except it didn't.

Agree, although at half time, was slightly concerned that they'd have gone in feeling they'd weathered the storm (ha ha, no pun intended) whereas we'd perhaps be feeling we'd not taken our chances when we were clearly much the better side

Just got back from the aqua park in sunny Lanzarotte. Great for me that the game was abandoned, I should be able to make the rearranged fixture.

The 1st half sounded as though it was lacking in quality to me, but then I was listening on Bristol comms.

That's almost a thisis comment ;)

Anyone complaining about the game being called off is an eejit. I'm just glad we didn't score the 3 goals we should have done in the first half, would be much more annoyed.

I liked how confused some of the hooligans were too.

Quality from them maybe...

We completely dominated them first half, created a host of chances and all that was lacking was a finishing touch, we played pretty well and actually looked pretty solid at the back as well. 2nd half was a non event as the pitch had standing water on it when the second half kicked off and we couldn't play any passes or run with the ball as a result. They were playing a long ball game so conditions would have suited them more.

Bizarrely I've seen a few people having a pop at Power about the pitch being done on the cheap and that was why it was abandoned. Fuck me the rain was biblical, no pitch in the world would have coped with that and I think it is testament to the quality of our pitch that the game lasted as long as it did.

I was wondering how on earth the DRS was flooding from the back.  Water was coming down the steps.  How did that happen?  I'd be very concerned about the construction of it...

The guttering was overflowing as at one point the rain was just ridiculous, just had no where to go.

From the Town comms it was almost exactly the opposite, we were very unlucky not to be winning at HT.

Been in Canada last 2 months so that's the first opportunity to see us play.

Thoughts:
Jones is an excellent acquisition, looks head and shoulders above Turnbull (literally), first player willing to head it since Flint..
Kasim is our best player by a long shot, let's hope his form doesn't dip after the transfer window.
Delfouneso looks a decent player and is going to offer us a lot in terms of possession.

Problem may be a lack of a clinical edge up front - could have to create a huge amount of chances to score in a game.

(Also, Rodgers had a pretty good game today, helps us tick in midfield - nowhere near as bad as some people make out)

The drainage system was put in during the Black era. As you said, if the rain comes down like that, no pitch would've coped.

Talk about a delayed reaction. 23 years has to be a record..

Ouch!  Flashheart joins the 1%-ers.  :D


Back to the match, I thought we were very comfortable throughout the first half but need to improve significantly in front of goal.  Rovers tactics seemed to be to play two or three neat passes in their own half and then lump it aimlessly into ours. I was very impressed with Jones again today (a proper, old-school centre half in the making) but less so with Norris.

Ours did!!
Swindon & District level!

(http://s.mlkshk.com/r/UNC3)

 ;)

did I miss the townend banner and streamer display :hmmm:

forget this, just seen your twitter comment

Do the yellow cards from today still stand? As in, do they still count toward bans etc or are they wiped as the game didn't finish?

Unless there has been a rule change I haven't seen, cards still stand.

 The last tine I recall an abandonment at the CG for waterlogging, as opposed to frost, floodlight failure or fog was v BHA about 40 yeaars ago. Must have been Jan....at the time BHA were pissing the league and we were absolutely mullering them 4-0, it got to what seemed like 10 minutes to go on a typical CG mire, which was no worse than with 10 to go than it had been for most of the game, when the ref just took them off, and that was that.  It was always assumed he later received a bung as the only logical explanation.

At least today...it was clear that the game couldn't carry on....

I was there Reg it was snow, not rain that day.

May have been sleet, but the pitch wasn't covered in white stuff.

I might have a dodgy memory for some stuff, but that game isnt one of them. It caned it down with snow at the start of the 2nd half. I was in the shrivvy and couldnt see the Arkells. You were right we mullered them, Mchale got at least 2. I didnt make the rearranged but I seem to remember we didnt win it?

Any idea who this new goalkeeping coach mentioned on Twitter is? Apparently from QPR.

Dean Thornton. Former Wycombe YTS who has spent almost a decade working with QPR's academy.

Town return to a manager, assistant and goalkeeper coach with no Football League appearances between them. Not that it's a big deal, just a quirk.

We won the re-arranged game 2-1.    You can have snow like at the Bescot a couple of years back, when the pitch turns white, but unless proper blizzard you can usually get through that. Anyway snow is water, so the BHA abandonment was waterlogging not a freezing blizzard.

My particular favourite was a fog job v Bradford City in the early 90's. David Elleray was ref and we were 3-0 up when the fog descended......when I left the CG, you could hardly see the end of your outstretched arm.  When the replay happened Elleray added on the what seems  the obligatory 6 or 7 minutes from nowhere, when Town are trying to defend a goal lead and the Bantams duly equalised with just about the last kick.

Cheers George. It does seem that those who have the game taken away from them - by injury or rejection- who work harder/with more focus to get back in. Certainly an idea that we are following with some of our recruitment - Iandolo, Brophy, Gladwin, Goddard etc

Cheers Sutton. Said to my lad earlier, that years from now this game will be in a pub quiz and he'll be one of the bores going "I was at that game". History in the making!

Yep it'll be like the Brighton game where one of the corespondents cant really remember it ;)

But was it snow, sleet, rain or hail?

New years day 1977.

It's happened before in the DRS, West Brom game from about 97 era.

Not the worst result. Do all the coppers get another days overtime that the club has to pay?

Some of those police and their riot vans were brought in from the Sussex constabulary!!  must have cost a bob or two.

Found a thread on one of the Brighton forums about the abandoned game in '77.

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?164389-Swindon-v-Brighton-(abandoned)

Interesting insight into the perils of attending a football match in the 1970's.

First game for me.

Quite happy with what I witnessed.

Needed a poacher just to push the ball over the line at times. I had a horrible feeling that they would sneak one at the death.

Not too disappointed by the call off . The safety aspect doesn't bother me but the ball would not run in the corners and the TE corner was proper fucked.

0:0 makes it less stressful.

I can see this being played on a FA Cup weekend after we both get knocked out.

Do the tickets still have value or will it be full match price?

Good stuff....goes to show how people perceive the same events in different ways, then throw in the passage of time, and you get the unreliablity of history.

And about as reliable as our memories as some say snow, some say rain, and most if not all couldn't remember the rematch score.

They said for the rovers fans to keep their stubs, we've got to pay double next time for the privilege of a roof..

Does this mean that most of your reminiscences on here are bollocks, then?   :D

I thought the club only had to pay for police inside the ground. Outside is public and not under their control. Pretty sure Leeds got a million or so refunded a couple of years back after being charged for public areas by West Yorkshire police

Edit
Yep wasn't going mad

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/leeds-united-to-get-1m-policing-refund-1-4771001

About 80% are.

 :)

You use the same ticket.

The same one at least 10% lost, and 10% will have washed..

Good effort!

https://thewashbag.com/2016/08/28/bristol-rovers-wild-al-was-waterlogged-with-scrumpy/

 :)

it was definitely rain not snow.  new years day 76/77.  Mullery was their manager and told Chris Catlin their fullback at halftime to keep on at the ref until he called it off.  he admitted afterwards that they had got away with it. ref was a gutless wanker called (I think) Robinson).  We won the replayed game 2-1 with a late goal.

That's brilliant.

You have to buy a new ticket if you want to go to the rescheduled game on the 20th September (unless you're an ST holder). Ouch.

Not really a big deal for me as I couldn't go on Saturday, but still....

cant believe youve got to purchase another ticket.. thats appalling

Pretty shocking that, wouldve thought the previous ticket would have been valid. Wonder what the Rovers fans have to say about it

Bit naughty of the club IMO, should at least give a discount to non ticket holders who return their stubs to the club.

Shocking "own goal" by swindon

What do you reckon they'll cite? Policing?

Yep

Get that it's not free to put a match on but even making it half price with an original ticket stub would have been a reasonable gesture

Wow....speechless

that's staggeringly shit

To not at the very least make a ticket half price if you have a stub is absolutely shocking, even that sort of gesture would have been a sign that the club respect the fans, but by doing this it just shows they care more about making money than the fans.

Not that 'shocking' really, although they should have gone for a reduced price IMO.  The arrangements for games which are abandoned are usually different to those for postponed games, although it's arguable that a game postponed shortly before kick off will have incurred similar costs (Policing, stewarding, catering, etc) to one that is abandoned during the second half of the match.  

Looking at the ticket stubs for away games I've been to recently, some state there will be no refunds given once a game has started and others state that, if the game is abandoned after 45 minutes have been played, tickets for the re-arranged game will be at half price.  

Another PR opportunity missed by our club.


The view from down the M4 - http://gaschat.co.uk/thread/8038/swindon-town-away-rearranged

£25 for an hour of football and a soaking to boot, bargain...

This ain't gonna go down well with the natives

What a terrible decision. No wonder crowds are down when supporters get treated like this. It should be a  MAXIMUM £10 entry with a ticket from Saturday.

nor should it Bernie

TBF I wouldn't blame Power if he did want to do a big fuck you to our supporters.... But yeah, still, it's not good really. Even just knocking a tenner off.

Feel sorry for those who travelled to the game and bought a ticket.

Lee Power used chemtrail planes to generate the storm and rain deluge so that he could charge supporters twice.

Fact!

Nah. He really did it just to get the Rovers supporters wet.

LEGEND!

Just out of interest does anyone have any ideas of how much we are in to the Old Bill for policing such a game and will that be different for an evening kick off as I assume that plus stewarding etc will now need to be paid twice.

This is not a new thing I remember a game years back that was very borderline and all the talk in the stand pre kick off was that it would probably start and then be abandoned very quickly as the club would not have to give refunds and could charge for tickets for the new game, cannot remember for the life of me when it was though?

Ultimately they ain't going to make a fortune so if costs could be covered would probably have made some sense to discount in some way?

Not sure how the club can defend this, especially after initially telling people to keep their stubs. I've generally been supportive of Power but this lacks consideration towards those the club needs to attract.

Oh dear.

I didn't think Power (who is obviously behind this decision as it's HIS club) could get any lower, but he has managed it.

It doesn't affect me as a ST holder, but I thought they would offer a 50% discount with Saturday's ticket.

Yes, there is additional police/stewarding costs, but surely these would be covered by the extra revenue. There would've been fans who couldn't make Saturday's game, but could make the rearranged match, and vice versa.

Oh come on. I don't agree with this but 'couldn't get any lower'? Really?

Well you get the gist of it    ;)

It is quite cynical of the club and a kick in the teeth for people who don't have season tickets etc so pick and choose which games they can afford. Not the lowest of the low but understand the sentiment...

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree

Yeah, I can understand the unhappiness and there should be a compromise of some sort.

Not subscribing to the level of outrage though.

What an absolute prize cunt Lee Power is. He's just pissed off the people he can't afford to piss out, those on the outer circle of our support.

Our core fan base won't be affected because most of them will be season ticket holders and even if they weren’t a lot of them our door mats that will put up with any treatment anyway. The non-core support though it's like he's written the book on alienating them when they're already disillusioned.

Power Out. Cunt.

Abysmal frankly.

We've got an increased budget to maintain. Fair enough really.

At least it will deflect attention from the lack of deadline day signings and pocketing the Flint sell ons!

Not great but quickly forgotten I expect

Exactly my thoughts. It's an easy answer If you feel outraged, don't go to the rematch. Easy really.

I'm coming out of forum retirement.

FUCKING CUNTS

YAY.

Welcome back Birdy.

Why thank you :)

A bit much charging full price, reduced prices would have been better. Can't see many bothering. It's cost and dire football that put paid to my commitment.

fuck me, someone started a fucking petition.

Was it you Chubbs? I bet it was!

 :wink: shh

With the aim of achieving what?

All explained here https://www.change.org/p/against-unfair-treatment-of-non-season-ticket-holders-at-swindon-town-fc

The complaint about the club being run as a business is a particular high point?

Shame that the club have done it, logical decision would have been to partly reimburse ticket (e.g. 30% off) for those who display ticket stubs.

Saying that, as people have said... we have a budget to maintain and costs for police must be very high for this type of game so can still understand why the club have done it.

Making themselves look a little silly, I assume.

This will give them an opportunity to be in the local newspaper and then we'll have the opportunity to see them featured in this blog http://apiln.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

I fully endorse Power's decision, I was in need of a laugh.

I suppose looking at it as the club cannot guarantee how many will turn up they have to pitch the tickets at a level to ensure they don't end up out of pocket, so if they knock 30% off they will have to be sure that this will mean enough attend.

No idea, essentially damned if they do and buggered if they don't!

Trying to not lose money due to factors out of your control seemingly doesn't make for good PR.

Its the same as those who moan that Power won't put millions into the club and then also moan when burgers go up 20p.

The petition has comments, they are pretty good although looking at the numbers people are signing it, perhaps it will be debated in parliament?

Edit - there is a comment from a BRFC fan that there was no running water in the toilets, bet there was on Saturday!

That makes it sound like it was the groundsmans fault that the game was abandoned. Find me another League 1 pitch that could have coped with that downpour  ???

Hang on a fucking minute, I didn't say that.... - OK you have changed it now!! :D were any other games actually being played at the same time as ours anyway?

However the infamous Jordan Cook has noted that 'I'm signing because this is wrong and Lee Power is utter scum'.  :doh:

Maybe there wasn't one, but it was the only game abandoned in the country.

"Why not just a £5 to cover the policing costs"
"Swindons stupidity watering the pitch in despite of the forecast"

The comments 👍🏻

Just had to click quote on something, just happened to be yours.. nothing personal  ::)  :smugfu:

As I said before I think at the time of the rain it was the only game being played in the Country! Looking wider afield the yellow lot were away as were Reading, the Shitty game went ahead but that was a 3.00 start!

Just heard the news.
My intention for this season, was to watch the Town at home against Rovers and the piss stains, then away games aplenty. I came away from watching 59 minutes and thinking the football wasn't half as annoying as last season and probably of thrown a few more home games into the mix.
This sorry shit of an executive decision has sent me the other way. I will not buy another ticket for the rearranged game and the piss stains. Just leaving me with the away games.
Power knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Total Knob end.

 :cry:

strangely localised. Salisbury had wall to wall sunshine and Chippenham had a drizzle. A couple I know was over by oxford and was drenched.

Seems from the pictures the rain had nowhere to go, is there no drains/drainage at the perimeter of the playing pitch/grass?

On the train from South Wales it really only brightened up once we got into Swindon! But nothing like the rain we had eventually at the CG.

Regarding the whole issue.. I don't know. I don't agree with it at all but I've become so disillusioned from all the 'Power is Hitler' hysterical tweeters that even legitimate concerns just wash over me now. It seems like a very bad and misjudged move, but not the end of the world. That and I'm pretty sure there'll be a reversal at some point.

Although being a ST holder it does not affect me this is without doubt an own goal by the club, surely a £10 reduction on all tickets previously bought would have at least shown some goodwill while covering costs .

From the 'special' FB group

Ha ha the unintended irony in that statement of theirs :)

How do you know £15 a ticket will cover costs?

Agree with this. I'd also note that having announced over the tannoy that people shd keep their ticket stubs creates a reasonable expectation of at least a reduction for any rearranged fixture. To apparently go back on that was always going to create bad feeling. Needless self foot-shooting

Hang on a minute - Have'nt the club already made the 'normal' profit from 10,000+ fans ??, So this game is a 'bonus', they obviously see this as a chance to double their take - well they won't get away with it with me. I ain't paying again !!.Boycott the game.

What, you think the police are going to say "don't worry you paid us last time, we'll work for free" ?

I'll go thanks.

Most of the costs of any football club are fixed, i.e. salaries etc.  The marginal cost of staging an additional game is relatively small. 

I was surprised to hear the announcement as I left the ground that people should retain their stubs but in doing so they set a reasonable expectation that there would be at least a partial reduction for the rearranged game for anyone paying full price for the original game.  Not very smart.

 The policing costs are mainly due to the presence of people from Bristol....Bristol is one of the wealthiest Town/Cities in Britain, so only right they should pay.

Most Town fans will be season ticket holders, bit of a bugger for walk ups, because Swindon has a low wage economy, but presumably they just won't bother next time.

That times are tough is amply demonstrated by SBC's decision to bin grass cutting and litter collection off the Council Tax.

I don't know if it would have covered costs completely but if no one but ST holders turn up the old bill will still charge the same amount as Rovers fans will still turn up but probably only 5 or 6 hundred this time so the club will be out of pocket charging £15 would have probably seen 2 thirds of non ST return for the second game. Of course it is all speculation but I just think it is an own goal especially with the lack of perceived PR. From the club

People are aware that the club only has to pay for the police time for the police required inside the ground aren't they? How much do we really think that was?

Sorry,
Agree with you, there are police costs which need to be covered, but there still seems ample opportunity to reduce admission prices to customers who have already paid full price and have ticket stubs to prove it.

Don't know figures but an earlier comment heard was that we only have to pay for police inside the ground, not those outside  ????  Anyone else heard this ??.

It is inside the ground only, but 40-50 coppers on time and a half will still be 25-30k.

In 2009 Wiltshire police were charging £55.58 per hour for one constable to attend an event.
Minimum charge period for a football match was 6 hours. So £333.48 for one copper.

How many on Saturday, say 100 so minimum of £33,348 not taking into account increased rates for senior officers and a lot of them came from other forces plus the construction of The Great Wall of the County Ground Car Park as well.

Don't know what the current rates are, but assuming there have been increases then at a guess maybe £40 - £45k.

Didn't see a helicopter but would imagine that would be quite pricey to deploy.

Source:
http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/information/documents/policies/181-charging-for-special-events/file

Edit: Just seen the posts re policing costs covering those inside the ground only.

Was there 40-50 coppers inside the ground Saturday? I didn't see them. No way you need that many inside the ground anyway. Not a chance.

I dont give a fuck what the plod charge....this is wrong.

I kept my stubs but believed I would have to pay £10-£12 for a TE ticket because they are costs.

This is just greed....pure fucking greed.

The rain wasn't the clubs fault but it also wasn't Gas and Town fans fault.

Is this the same for the gas? I feel sorry for them as it is being ripped off to go on the bank with Dickensian conditions and get pissed wet through and then charged full whack again.

Can somebody confirm?

Sorry but if this stays in place it's another match I will give a miss.

Get that new PR cunt to come out and explain this one away!

You don't until the end of the game, unless something kicks off. And it didn't get to the end.

Has the club got public liability insurance it is the law .

What's that got to do with anything? You need to read up on what PLI covers if you think that will cover costs.

Yeah I can't disagree with that.

I suppose to me it seems to be a bit like if you go for a meal and something goes wrong that's no one's fault. They don't HAVE to give you a refund, but you'd expect them to do so out of pure decency.

Some are now suggesting that the match was allowed to start (as opposed to being postponed before hand) deliberately in order get the match abandoned, so that Power could then charge again for the reply.

And I am not fucking exaggerating either.

Have to say I think it's a poor decision, I'd have thought £10 for the Town End/Bank & £15 for the Arkells/DRS would have been sufficient to cover any costs.

Will be interesting to see if they charge ALL the sponsors of the game full whack again

bloody hell £600 a copper - where do I Sign up ???.

It isn't far off. Where do you live 1985?

if they would have knocked off a fiver I would have attended again, doing this will now have me on the sofa with some cans :pint: I'm not having a go at ST holders but  if the trigger point went past to charge pay on the day fans again then surely this game must have counted as one of the games a ST holder has payed for meaning they should be charged full price also :hmmm:

That's bullshit...it was a balmy afternoon pre kick off....it came literally out the blue..

You miss the point he or she is making.

Unless we made a staggering loss from the first match so this charging full whack for the second match is about cutting costs for another staggering loss in the second.

I think not...

Season Ticket guarantees a reserved seat at every home league game. Both games are home league games.  I don't think it's a question of the club rewarding the loyalty of Season Ticket holders, it's more of a 'legally can't do that' situation.

That's what FH is saying, other loons are suggesting otherwise. It all sounds a bit Morgan Freeman to me.

Some examples of the cost of Policing matches, which indicate the cost to clubs isn't as high as some may think.  Haven't found any for Wiltshire Police yet but they can't be hugely different to these examples (which represent the cost for a year, which is bound to include the odd 'higher risk' game).

https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/about-us/freedom-of-information/previous-foi-requests/policing-football-matches/cost-of-policing-football-matches/

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2016-08-10/policing-top-football-matches-in-manchester-costs-more-than-anywhere-else-in-uk/

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/police-struggle-to-absorb-costs-of-matchdays-1-7457658

Quick scan of the EFL rules reveals this.

28.4    Every Club must have a publicly stated policy regarding ticket refunds or other arrangements for abandoned Matches.

Wonder where ours is publicly stated?

Sat police bill was 28k rematch is 32k .This includes Thames valley an avon and Somerset on loan includes horses.Only charged for actual police inside ground and some of car park all agreed in advance .In the know for once !!!

Interesting, appreciate you may be in the know, but can you explain why re-match costs will be 4k dearer ??

Ha! Are some people really that idiotic? Can you imagine the furore if the match was called off before it started, just in case it rained?! Anyone who didn't witness the conditions really shouldn't bother criticising.

STFC/Power hasn't done itself any favours with this decision. Even if the replay lost the club some dosh, openly stating that it was to reduce prices for those with stubs and willing to take a financial hit would have been decent PR. At least it may have zipped the gobs of some of the Power=Satan mob. It may even have encouraged a few more pay-on-the-dayers to watch a derby under lights.

My guess would be unsociable hours?

Logistics are completely different for evening games I am told other than that not sure

More time for drinking, more chance of trouble = more police. Plus its relatively short notice so will have to cancel rest days/ change officers shifts around to accommodate. At least some of them arent having to come from essex this time!

Back in 2007 I seem to remember we were charged 3 or 4 pounds extra to cover the extra police costs when we played them away - and they did not charge their fans the extra amount.
Just as an aside

Our four home abandonments since 1980 as far as I can tell have all been in leap years.

Power is clearly playing the long game here with some sinister astrologically based betting accumulator.
Will this be enough to get accepted into the FB fans group.  :hmmm:

It's too long since the last one to look for precedents in terms of ticketing arrangements for the rearranged games with different people in charge etc. Was a ST holder in those seasons so don't know / can't remember.

I can see where the club is coming from, but as has been suggested earlier in the thread £15 for side stands and £10 - £12 for the ends would seem reasonable.

As a footnote, I'm assuming that there was a stock control issue resulting in lack of cheapo waterproof availability for the drowned rats on Saturday.

Agree with most on here. Full price for rematch is awful PR particularly given tannoy announcement to keep stubs. Club need to rethink and announce reduced prices for all stands. I would have made it £15 for side stands £10 being goals and charged £5 for season ticket holders. Think that would have got 10k crowd but now 6k max in my opinion . Forgetting klds that would have generated say 5k at sides £75k 3k s/t holders £15k and 2k behind goals £20k = £110k. By contrast 3k at say £25 max = £75k with s/t holders going free. Bad PR = less income both immediate and long term. Hope they see sense and reverse decision tomorrow. Forget stubs just make cheaper all round.

What a load of outraged shite. I find it absolutely comical.

It's another match. Hopefully ninety minutes. Just because you were "inconvenienced" into only 60 minutes worth of entertainment on Saturday because of the weather you think that you have some "right" to pay less for future entertainment.

I've been to an England Cricket Test Match at the Oval which finished just before lunch. I bought a ticket for a whole day's play. You get what you pay for. I wasn't going to get all shirty because that is the nature of sport and the elements. Actually we fucked off to Lord's and watched Middlesex in a one dayer and that was ace.

Get a grip and stop bloody moaning. It's income for the club  ::)

Talk talk. Cricket is a far more weather dependant sport and you know the risks and refund policy before you attend. To have a game of football called off in august because of a waterlogged pitch is slightly uusual and given that the club specifically asked all supporters to keep their ticket  stubs  created a reasonable expectation of a refund or reduction on the rearranged fixture.

this

At least when you buy a test match ticket you know how many overs are bowled before you lose the refund. Will have to see what the STFC publicly stated policy is!

If this had been the Port Vale game it would be a non event as it could be done with stewards and we don't get many walk ups for Tuesday night games. This being a derby game is tricky. If we knew Rovers were only bringing a few hundred then it's policed accordingly but it's an unknown so how do you size your costs?

 The club do seem to have adopted the worse case scenario. Maybe we will get a 'we have listened to the fans' climb down?

Yep, I get that completely. Expectation fail. But in reality why is football any different? We live in an unsettled climate zone for gawd's sake. It has snowed in May and we have had torrential downpours in the summer before. I'm with the club on this. Fucking injured party/victim mentality. Let's all try and claim compensation shall we? Get a fucking grip.

Oh and I am extremely happy that I invested in the club with my season ticket to show my commitment and I have been well rewarded for doing so by not having to pay for the rematch.

Smug? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Uh, how many instances have we had of games being abandoned in the club's history? Probably very few. So why would they bother having a policy? If I had to write something for my children about not being able to go to school because it was snowing would I make the effort?

Can people please not ask about past postponements please, it'll only encourage Reg to tell us we had a game called off in 1900 cos of the Tories not building a swimming pool.

because as stated in the thread the league rules stipulate that there must be s policy

I've just written the policy Batch. Cheers.

"In the event of an act of God (whether this deity exists or not is not up for discussion is this document or whether he is responsible, factual, existent or fanciful), the football club shall and will decide to do whatever the fuck they like"

That ok?

The Tories DID build a swimming pool Ells. It was the old skool holiday resort for Bristolians at Severn Beach, called the Blue Lagoon. And in 1922... I think the pre-season friendly against Hamilton Academicals was passed over as STFC wanted to bathe in the clear Severn waters?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Beach

Not affected as a ST holder, but agree with the majority, it's a poor decision.

The fact that an announcement was made telling people to keep ticket stubs suggests that someone behind the scenes was expecting the rearranged fixture to be a discounted price at least.

It could have had the potential to be a better crowd than Saturday (people away over Bank Holiday etc). Not going to happen now because alot of people won't be prepared to pay twice. Don't blame them. I wouldn't fork out £50.

The online T&Cs are still 2015-16 and don't mention abandoned games:

https://www.eticketing.co.uk/swindontown/staticpages/termsandconditions.aspx

Aha...
http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/club/groundregulations.aspx
 5    In the event of the postponement or abandonment of the Match, refunds (if any) will be made in accordance with the Club's Customer Charter. The Club will have no further liability whatsoever, including (but not limited to) any indirect or consequential loss or damage, such as (but not limited to) loss of enjoyment or travel costs.

Now where the fuck is the clubs customer charter.

Aha
http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/club/CustomerCharter.aspx

9.MATCH ABANDONMENT
In the unusual circumstance that a match is abandoned/postponed we will provide full details of the re arranged fixture on the official website and social media channels as soon as possible.
Read more at http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/club/CustomerCharter.aspx#MrwDX2iqoh287jUx.99

Oh FFS! Clear as mud.

-------------
Do they even do this (aside)

I'm so glad we all have TalkTalk here to tell us what is right.

It's just my perspective James

Apologies for even raising it

I would be better off going to Wankfest rather than posting on here.

At least they all know that they are furious wankers

http://healthyfriction.org/2016/08/01/healthy-friction-weekend-of-masturbation-in-key-west/ (http://healthyfriction.org/2016/08/01/healthy-friction-weekend-of-masturbation-in-key-west/)

Well fuck me I can sleep happy now then (my point was, what happened 100 years ago is not relevant now. And the government is not relevant now)

So come on then, who is going to be first with the sad faces photos in the Advertiser? That's why people were encouraged to keep ticket stubs so they could hold them looking dismayed.

I always thought that you get your money back / free entry for tge re-arranged match if the game is abandoned in the first half only.

Why are people moaning so much (especially the ones that probably don't even go to the match)?

Sent from my SM-G935F

I doubt the club will climb down and the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

Be interested to see the gate for Gas replay.

Maybe it's a ploy to recoup the losses for staging the EFL Trophy games as I'm sure the club will make a loss on those.

Most clubs would do this. Most fans would have a whinge. Very few would start a fucking petition and call for the chairman to go. Some of us are very special indeed.

Will somebody not think of the children.....

My favourite part

The Summer

"We're not spending any money, so why should I?"
"I don't like the product so I'm not going"
"I don't like the signing policy so I'm not spending my money"

After gasgate

"Stop treating us like customers"

soapy tit wank

On your last point the phone in is a fans forum. As for the rest T's and c's are often vague and written in geek speak, that will instantly be clear as day to lawyers if anyone challenges them...

Ah, I see.


The T&Cs are vague, but are unarguably lacking a refund policy.

I think you could well be right on this Flash.

I did go on the Adver site as I expected they would have found someone for a sad face ticket stub photo but they don't seem to even be bothered with that, plus this in the sidebar of shame seemed much more interesting...

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/14712802.Swindon_woman_in_finals_of___39_best_bikini_body_in_the_world__39__competition/?ref=mr&lp=7

Is there a best burkini body in the world contest?

Many years ago I travelled to Layer Road to watch us v. Colchester - the game was abandoned through rain after an hour and we got no refund or offers of another ticket!  There must be FL rules about this and I would think the club are within their rights to charge otherwise certain people would be all over this like a rash.  It would be seen as a gesture if the club offered reduced price tickets and sacked the person who announced to the crowd to keep their ticket stubs - that is where the real problem lays in my mind.  Whatever happens it will be seen as another stick to hit Power with!

Never been to an abandoned away game....a few where I've pitched up to find it postponed and some where it's been a bit touch and go. I can't really think it's happened too many times down the years.

Me too, went to Aldershot for a Boxing day game that was postponed an hour before KO back in 85 and in 2010 away to Exeter again a Boxing day game I think when it was postponed about 2 hours before KO, both times after I had arrived at the grounds.

Never been to an away game that was abandoned after it had kicked off that I can remember.

I share the dubious pleasure of the Aldershot game. Bolton LC semi was another... :(

Ditto for the Aldershot game.
Was on the supporters coach, arrived at a locked up ground behind the team coach.
Macari got off and looked ready for some GBH.

Bolton was a late call. We were about 15 minutes from the ground.

Me too, there were about 10 supporters club coaches that day and to call it off so late was poor.

I think that sounds like something you would like to organise Reg, very distinguished, like yourself  :D

Did Walsall a few seasons back and Burn on that wet night...

I think first abandoned for me...

I remember the FA Cup replay against Orient being abandoned at the County Ground because of a frozen pitch. Can't remember how much of the game had been played but I thought that the re-arranged game was not full price. Might be wrong though, was a while ago

If that was the January one in the early 90s?
 - Just after half time
 - Was NOT full price for the re-arrangement
 - Probably only needed 1 bobby to police the crowd!

That was the one, it was Jan 1991.

The irony was that at the original game at Orient it absolutely pissed it down just before kick off & we were on the open end trying to find some cover

Yeah I forgot that game, the replay was played 2 days before the birth of my 1st son on 23rd Jan 91, I am pretty sure the replayed game was half ticket price.

I'm still bitter about it.

"The referee is jus checking the pitch as a precaution, there is no danger the game will be called off"...

I'm also still not fully defrosted either!

I do remember being surprised we had to pay anything to get in to the re-arrangement. But I can't remember what % of the original ticket it was.

The first game at home should never have started, the pitch in front of the Shrivvy Road was still frozen at kick off. I too was pissed off & refused to buy a ticket to the replayed game (except someone else bought me one so I went anyway)

Are we really comparing this to games that were played 25 years ago?

Let it go people, let it go.

No I won't & don't you tell me what to do.

I demand a full refund of my season ticket as well as free champagne at my seat in every future match.

If not, I shall expose Mr Power as the cad he is

And a plate of prawn sandwiches.....

Oh, shit, 25 years. Thanks maths boy. 1991 is still only a few years ago in my head, 10 at most. At least it was.

You were 5 then weren't you? Jeez.

You seem quite uptight about this considering you didn't go to the game in the first place...

I seem to remember someone, possibly Kevin Nugent ending up in PMH, after he sort of landed head first, which may have decided the ref it was dangerous  :)

Maybe I could get Nigella Lawson to enter  :hmmm:

(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01875/lawson-2_PAY_PIC_1875925c.jpg)

Is that her?

Club statement.  No change to ticketing arrangements:

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/chairmans-statement-bristol-rovers-tickets-3284041.aspx

short version: tough shit

I'm more disturbed at his claim that this was all down to an imaginary being.

Power out.

Nice easy start for ASD!

I'd have it down to climate change....a man made phenomenon. Power cut.

"Our Season Ticket holders support the team week in, week out and make up more than half of our attendance figure on a matchday so we have decided to reward their loyalty with free entry to the replay"
This comment irks me somewhat. When i was a regular at town games i never had a season ticket but would still frequent probably 90% of the seasons home games. Why is someone who has a season ticket more loyal over someone who does not.

Quick way to settle it.. loyalty points ;)

Nah, I can see why that may grate

They're not, but in the current economic climate the club is grateful for dosh up front to get through the summer.  Undoubtedly, season ticket holders keep the club afloat.

So as expected....no climb down.

Tough shit statement rubbing salt In the wounds...

Doesn't change my mind on Power don't like, don't dislike him.

I will give the game a miss...thanks but no thanks...nearly £40 for a match from the TE is too much.

The lads have decided the same and also give the Pox a miss as the Kassam experience is a shit one....we are probably a jinx anyway after losing the last 5 we have all witnessed live.

Even the happy clappers on here cannot deny that the clubs PR is dogshit it was ratshit before.

Anyway...it's a shame.

Hopefully we will win, get a reasonable gate and all move on. The bitter taste will surely fade after a few wins.

Its not really tough shit.

It's more of "Yeah we can see you're pissed off but this is why we're doing it".

Me and a few guys who couldn't make the first game are going.

they explained why they were doing it yesterday.

Well now the chairman has done it with slightly more detail :)

This information regarding the cost of policing does not support Powers argument about needing to charge full price to cover the cost. If we add to the £14000 to allow for higher midweek cost (why ?) and the cost of stewarding, lets say a total of £25000, then this could be recouped by charging a tenner for those who attended on saturday - say 2500 Rovers fans and 2500 non season ticket holders = £50000 which is a nice little earner on top of saturdays gate receipts. 

The additional goodwill generated would reap handsome rewards in the future, as now the opposite will happen - fans will either not turn up for the replay or will bear a grudge for the future which will impact negatively.

I think Power has missed a good opportunity, and has scored an own goal !   :badmood:

Where have these figures actually come from?

What irks me about that line is the suggestion that it was generous of the club not to charge ST holders, because by rights they'd already used up their voucher on the original game. Imagine the shitstorm if they'd just tried charging them full price. Looking to spin this as generous "free entry" is beyond disingenuous.

What's the betting that the lost value of no-shows for the new date will be greater than the value of the marginal loss on tickets discounted by say 25% would have been, especially among Rovers fans who are being more or less encouraged by their club to boycott? Not good business, and again not much effort to generate goodwill. This really is Power's blind spot.

From todays Evening Advert

Wiltshire Police superintendent Gavin Williams told BBC Points West: “This is in line with national agreements. The primary focus is always in relation to the safety of those attending the match. STFC will pay a proportion of that cost (about a third), in this case just over £14,000.”

Original source of £14k figure here:

Swindon Town v Bristol Rovers - £14,000 policing cost confirmed http://bbc.in/2cc2h77

Interesting so say we only get 5,000 rolling up that's £2.80 a head.

Out of interest who pays the other 2/3 of the cost is it just the local tax payers?

£42k seems a bargain if coppers were being drafted in from Sussex to cover it off.

Nice to see Rovers are offering free travel to those who attended the first game, the shit stirring buggers!

Horlock = rest from police budget. So it comes from the cash you pay on your council tax.

Sent from my XT1562

It'll be forgotten about in two weeks until Reg starts reminiscing in 2067 about the great rip-off of 2016.

The decision is made. People are butt-hurt and need to get over it.

Have I missed something?  

There is no recent precedent where a game abandoned in the second half at STFC has led to free tickets second time around and there is no FL obligation to make refunds in these circumstances and yet Power is getting it in the neck, personally, including from magnanimous "fans champions" Bristol Rovers?

Sure I get the points about season ticket holder entitlements (they are being met) and about poor PR, but really Saturday's abandonment is the occupational hazard of fandom and a lot less frustrating than an unnecessarily late pre-match abandonment when fans have travelled the length and breadth of the country.

Yep the infuriated will have found a new saucepan to run around banging by then. I think I can actually make the rearranged game, so something to look forward to.

 Power sets himself up to get it in the neck, so only to be expected.

 It was surely worth paying on Saturday to watch the Gasheads getting a good drenching.....hopefully Wilts Constabulary bought Boris Johnson's redundant Wasserwerfer 9000's, which Sadiq Khan is flogging off, unused, ready for the replay.

Got to be something expensive in the police arsenal.

Putting emotion aside, my take on it was that it just looked like bad business. Given the ill-will generated, I reckoned £0 income from all the no-shows who would have come if they'd been offered a small incentive loses you more money than a modest discount. Though if Rovers are going to do Power's dirty work for him and fund free transport to the game (a complete write-off for them), then maybe more gasheads will turn up than I was expecting. We'll see.

Only the completely pointless PCC. Everything else has been sold.

My fever has died down a bit. I feel it's wrong and I'm part of the majority (for once).

People need to relax and pay up and go or not pay and give it a miss. End of.

I'm still looking forward to Victor Mildews armchair for Saturday and the Bury game.

I suppose it's a good job we've had a half decent start, if we had been shit I dread to think of the shock waves!

This is certified proof that Lee Power is a fucking shyster. No debate here. He's said something and been 100% proved wrong. A large section of our fans will still defend him though. "See no evil, hear no evil".

Embarrassing.

I'm not defending it. There should have been some kind of discount.

However, I'm not going to go giddy with rage over this.

This

OK, I'll bite.

How?

there is zero extra detail from the chairman!

Do the maths. Power says he needs to charge full price to cover the policing costs, yet the policing costs are £14,000. You only need 560 non season ticket holders paying full price to cover that cost, or 3,000 paying a fiver would have more than covered it. Do I really need to call in Carol Vorderman to prove that it doesn't add up?

He actually said match day costs.

What will you do if you don't get the right answer?

Boycott a game....or a season?!

Explain how him/the club making a profit on the match makes him a shyster?

Perhaps you should define what you mean by the word 'shyster'!

 

... and he said the price will be higher.

You can either go for the

HES ROBBING US BLIND angle

Or maybe, the...

Owner of a business tries to make more money for said business (which really doesnt have many revenue streams).

Im not a Power defender as much as an drama queen repeller :)

What does Collins say?

Start there and work back.

Who the fuck is Collins?

Lee Collins?

It's a dictionary.

informal, mainly US a person, esp a lawyer or politician, who uses discreditable or unethical methods?

So....he's a lawyer, now an MP who uses dodgy methods in America...

(http://i.imgur.com/iWKad22.jpg)

Phil Collins?

Yes it would have been a nice gesture for it to be free/reduced entry. Not happened so either pay up and go, or miss the game. Pretty simple really.

 Should be an all ticket match with all seats a tenner. This should include season ticket holders. Why should they get it free whilst others have to fork out again ?

http://www.mensa.org.uk

haven't you heard, we are more loyal than you, fact

;)

;D

In my case that's absolutely true.

Is this how you felt when you read the club statement!?

Yeah, we only need police there to get the game on.

Forget the match day staff, catering, consumables, groundstaff, utilities...

Haven't read back so apologies if covered already.

Back in December 1996 we played Grimsby at home and the match got abandoned after half an hour due to a frozen pitch (we were 1-0 up at the time).
Anyone remember what happened ticketwise in the rearranged game?

20 years ago is too long ago to compare, no?

Why? We had no money then either

Well you can forget the catering....unless  :hmmm:   surely Jed didn't pay someone to run it as well as take the profits?

Obviously I feel for some having to pay full price but I've gotta be honest as a season ticket holder I'm struggling not to take some perverse satisfaction from the whole situation. All summer there's been a number of our 'fans' (primarily on that Facebook group) calling anyone who bought a season ticket a mug and deluded.  This combined with their constant negativity and general 24/7 moaning about everything means I'm struggling to really care.

I'll attend the rearranged fixture even if some kind of boycott is arranged by certain factions....

why wouldn't you go. it's a shit decision, definitely worth the disgruntlement, but nothing more.
-------
Power deserves some of this, you can't keep alienating fans (in general) and not expect some reaction. But some people... one twat on Facebook even hoped Power would get cancer...

Even that Christian twat though it was over the top.

Who says Power made the decision? It could've been the GM or anyone else for that matter.

pretty sure he could have overruled it if he wanted to...

surely the GM doesn't actually exist s anyway..

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/chairmans-statement-bristol-rovers-tickets-3284041.aspx

He may not have made the decision, but he has definitely endorsed it.

The only thing that bothers me about this is that it gives sticks to people that want to find sticks to throw at the Chairman.

I'd rather be talking about Sean Murray.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned before, but I hope Clarke is confident of his own club's policy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37224014

Anyone know if fans were charged full price again following Rovers' abandoned game at Wycombe in 2012?  

I don't think it mates any difference. At the moment some 'special' fan is having a rant that Power and Williams have lied to us about not signing 2 loan players and instead signing Murray when they didn't mention a midfielder....

So would I.

it doesn't affect me financially. But it has pissed off a few of the dads of my dibs football team. one even donated some cash to jaybox instead of buying another ticket in disgust.

you can can them stupid for having that attitude, or whatever, and maybe its a relatively small % that think this way/follow through. but multiply it up and even if it's a small % I find it concerning, disappointing.

Power of course doesn't care, or at least shows no sign of it. Mainly because his model is about buying and selling players. A few hundred 'occasionals' probably don't matter.

I think he could have explained/apologised for the announcement at the game regarding keeping hold of ticket stubs. Other than that there's nothing more to say.

Or that the club's terms and conditions entitle season ticket holders to free entry to every home league game. More a contractual obligation than a generous loyalty offer.

Jesus Christ!

When I read that page I do wonder how representative it is of the fans as a whole.

Some people are kicking off because season ticket holders have said they're going to the game..

It just makes me hate a section of our 'fans'.

Every club seems to have a 'special' element but we do seem to suffer from it more than most.

They're virtual. Don't let the 'specials' get to you.

We really don't. It just seems that way because we only tend to read Swindon forums/facebook pages etc. Every club forum I've been on has it's section of 'specials'. It also reminds me of the 'only on The Town End could this happen' type posts I read on here as is if this is some kind of unique football forum & that going off on a tangent from the original subject never happens elsewhere!!!

If I was Power i'd invite them in to say stuff they post without foundation to his face. They wouldn't of course. About time the internet gods replaced IP addresses with real ones, that would shut a lot of people up ;)

well said Freddy

Still not convinced. A whole Facebook group devoted to spouting unsubstantiated bollocks about the club, the 'get him off' and the 'get it forward brigade' at matches. I still think we have more than other clubs and quite frankly some of the stuff they are moaning about is embarrassing.

This comment seems to have 'rattled a few cages'. Personaly I don't care what other people do, Ive paid once and I am not going to pay full price again, good luck to the season ticket holders, they put their money up front and deserve some kind of recognition, but if every 'pay on the day' suppporter does as I am going to and stays away unless tickets are reduced (which seems highly unlikely), and only season ticket holders turn up, how will that help pay the overheads ?.  Come on Mr Power use a bit of common sense here.

I think it's all a cunning plan to keep the riff raff away. I'm all for it Jeeves.

STFC and Power  - a bit amateurish, it seems, not only on PR but also on "Legals" where it took a Court of Law and a lot of money to determine who owned the Club  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

EFL regulation 28.4:    Every Club must have a publicly stated policy regarding ticket refunds or other arrangements for abandoned Matches. 

STFC does not, so far as I can see, comply with that regulation and it should arguably be challenged on this point.

Looking at three random "Charters" on Google which do show sufficient regard to fulfill this requirement, we see three different approaches:

Preston - abandonment anytime after start then a ticket stub entitles you to free attendance at next match - or a "discretionary" part refund

Plymouth - abandonment in second half, then a ticket stub entitles you to 50% off ticket for next game

Exeter City - Tough, you pay full price to come to the next game

It's all about opinions as to which of those three outcomes is right but (if I am right) the "Bermondsey Market" approach to bothering with regulation probably opens up the Club to deserved challenge. 

It may work with the Swindon Ultras  Apatheticos but I'd really love it if there was some sort of challenge as it would show passion on the fans side (C'mon Trust, if you're hard enough!) and may sharpen up the Club in areas beyond wheeler dealing.

All well and good, but 50 quid says a new policy will say each game and refund policy will be considered under it's own merit.. So in effect a pointless effort. I agree though it does need saying though.

I quite agree.

It's like a personal vote....you are not right or wrong if you go or don't, it's your choice. Just like those who got an ST in the close season. It's a shit sandwich and you choose to have a big bite or not.

There's a lot of sneering at 'the idiots' on here which I find disappointing, this fiasco has upset some fans, most of those who actually go to games, home, away, abandoned the lot and they have let their feelings known.

The digs against these 'fools' from people that don't go to games at all I find slightly annoying.

Sorry I'm still going. ;)


I think it's the way things are said rather than their actual meaning. It's fine to agree or disagree, to say this confirms Power is a crook, or say anyone who goes to the game is a disgrace.. That's being foolish, in my opinion.

Spot on. There are ways of saying things, and ways of making displeasure known. Wild rants, accusations, and name calling aren't the way it should be put over. Unfortunately a lot of the ire has been that way inclined, and it looks foolish.

Clearly, the Gasheads will incur the costs, which is fair enough as there wouldn't be any if we we'd abandoned v Fleetwood or similar.

Fair play to Rovers' hierarchy, they'll lay on free buses to encourage their minions to attend....Bristolians are wealthy people they'll stump up.

I don't suppose Power gives a fuck whether you bother or not.

Oh my life. 24 hours on and there's fucking pages of it.

Either go or don't, stop bloody whingeing

Ann Alder from the Swindon Supporters Club issued this statement;

"This is a difficult and sensitive thing to comment on and I don't wish to upset anyone further.
It doesn't matter what view you have you will always find some will be upset at the decision that has been made.
I understand the reasons for this decision as the Chairman has always said that Swindon Town FC had to be self sustaining. So we will need to have more policing, stewards, and all the other staff that are required to put the match on and they will need to be paid.
Season ticket holders for the first time in a long time come out ok so don't have any moans. So hopefully fans will try to get a Season ticket next season. I know not everyone is in a position to be able to afford one and there is no answer to that.
Those who are complaining are mostly people who pick their games and just come for the 'big' game.
I do feel for the Bristol Rovers supporters as they will have to pay travelling expenses as well.
If you look back on our history, we are lucky to have a club. Perhaps we should bear that in mind when the 'Power' that be makes these decisions."


Blimey

yeah, right on sister. Big game Charlies, kicking off. buy a season ticket fuckers.

Fucking hell!

Ann Alder isn't a Newsthump character is she?

 Dear old Anne, she's a sweetie. It's the Supporter's Club job to back the club no matter what, the club could be owned by a cross of Power and Diamandis, and they'd still do their thing.....supporting.

That statement is cringeworthy.
When have season ticket holders not come out ok ? The poor dears usually get a rough deal do they ?

The decision is nothing but a kick in the teeth to anyone other than season ticket holders. It's divisive and short sighted. It treats some whilst hitting others in the pocket. Everyone who attended that game, however they attained their ticket should be treated equally for the replay.

It's a bit of luck, that we only have 3 more weeks of meltdown to look forward to.   The much discussed Brighton game 40 years ago was replayed right at the back of the season over 5 months after the original abandonment...then Town fans stewed over the injustice of the result, and so turned out in numbers despite having to shell out again.

Why doesn't everyone just buy an under 19s ticket for £12? They don't really check at the turnstile

Because some of us are grown ups ! :-)

True....but it does go to show this is a massive oggy by stfc

It's not as big as some people are making out. Our fans are such drama queens.

Excellent Comment.   :clap: :clap: :clap:

Suspect she was put on the spot and didn't really have time to think it through.

I wonder how many people who have really gone to town moaning about this, run a business? My guess would be none.

I wasn't planning to go the reply but I am tempted to now all the moaners are complaining, might be able to get through a whole game without hearing 'FORWARD' now or someone complaining a out Rodgers being shit every 30s.

I don't think it's 100% right but this is what the club has decided after a freak of nature stopped play after 3/4 of a local derby had been played. If you don't like it don't go, there is literally no need for the toys to be thrown out of the pram like they have.

Probably very few of the people commenting on either side do, tbf. I suspect some of the "Shut your whinging mouths" type comments for example don't come from people who run businesses that rely on members of the public as customers

I have run a business - my own business - and know there is such a thing as 'keeping a customer happy', I have on occasions worked through the night and on occasions when a problem has occured have done the job at a loss just to keep a customer happy.
Customers do not return if they are unhappy and sometimes in the long run it pays to take a smack on the chin - Believe me it pays - Ive been there and done it !!,
So as many others say - take a look at it Swindon, its the long term you need to look at, not the quick profit.

As I have said before being a Season ticket holder I would have been willing to pay nominal amount £10 adults / £1 for kids to subsidise the pay on the day tickets. I think Power has scored a massive own goal as things were just starting to turn around with some of the doubters waking up to the fact that we might actually have a decent enough squad to have a good season.

I'm sure there'll be someonre on here who'll take up your offer....might even encourage one of the no shows to go.

Won't they make some money on the food sales?  :sherlock:

Jed? ;)

To be honest when you think about it in detail I don't think the club will make much if any from this anyway.

Factoring in it being midweek so a 8k or 9k crowd at best (based on only 10k on Saturday) that gives about 4 or 5k pay on the day customers. Factor in OAP's, Children, behind the goals being £19 and we'll probably have an average ticket price of £13/14 at most and thus about £50k of matchday revenue.
Assumming the £14k for the police is accurate you can probably add the same again in stewarding costs, then there's the stadium costs for power (floodlights), staff etc and the fact we get nothing from catering and it all soon adds up to the point where we need to take in about £50k to cover costs.

Guess the club just deemed that the gamble of lower prices potentially not covering costs was too much for the club. Not ideal by any means but hardly a big cash cow for the club....

Don't you be coming here with logic, it will decimate burning torch sales.....

When is the rearranged game? I might make this my first game of the season  :)

The Trust have compared our policy to rest of the divisions if any one is interested

http://www.truststfc.com/abandoned-matches/

It's interesting to see the differences.

I wouldn't be surprised if our owner had never given the matter any thought until last Saturday afternoon. 

Because we are special 🖒

Sent from my SM-G935F

Only the ones on here 😀

Sent from my SM-G935F

Because the ST covers all league matches. ST holders don't complain when the club puts on promos on cheap tickets.

I did say that anyone with a ticket for last Saturday should've been able to get a 50% discount on the replayed game, but I don't think the club would be able to do it, as the only way would have been to buy it direct from the club, and due to the club being run on a shoestring, there could've been a number of thousand turn up in the club shop over the coming weeks.

the only way? I'm sure Ticketmaster could arrange it for online sales ;)

probably not cost effective to the club mind!

https://bristolroverssc.co.uk/2012/08/28/1703/

Coach ticket refund for Away travel v Wycombe game that was abandoned on Saturday.

Bristol Rovers Supporters Club would like to remind those who travelled up on the Supporters Club coach that they are entitled to a full coach ticket refund. The Supporters Coach Away travel is insured against matches called off when on the way to the match or if the match is abandoned after it has started. Supporters who travelled to Wycombe on the Supporters’ Club coach should return the ticket to the BRSC shop  at  199 Two Mile Hill Road Kingswood Bristol BS15 1AZ or to Pirate Leisure at the Memorial Stadium.

Regarding match tickets, Wycombe Wanderers will give a refund on match tickets purchased. To arrange a refund on your match ticket, we have been notified that the only way to do this is to telephone Wycombe Wanderers 01494 441118.

We could do that.

Calls cost £25/min (min call 2 minutes)

Eh? What's that got to do with the price of fish? If they can sell 1000 tickets at full price, they can sell 1000 at half price.

Luke Williams take on the situation.

https://soundcloud.com/bbc-wiltshire-1/stfc-v-bristol-rovers-tickets

I bet Williams *loved* the idea of having to talk about this to the BBC.

I think he is saying that they would sell more tickets at 50% and our shoestring ticket office couldn't cope with the demand.

Sent from my SM-G935F

Went kayaking from Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island today. Tour guide was a bloody Rovers supporter!

I hope it was wet enough for you.

Yeah, I got that. Just thought it was bollocks, is all. A midweek replay is no different to any other fixture in the sense of selling tickets, there'd be less demand for this one (as it's midweek) than the original Saturday game and don't remember anyone suggesting the ticket office struggled with the original fixture

Newport vs Barnet abandoned at HT  :I'm a complete mofleakin Deak

Bury up 3-0, game under threat there...

China and USA signed a climate change deal today.....maybe too late  :(

Be interesting to see what happens here !!

Not comparable, the rematch will be in front of one man and a dog.

True.

From a ticket office perspective the thing that makes it struggle is midweek cup games, as season ticket holders typically don't reserve/buy their tickets in advance, so you have everyone converge on the ticket office late because they've been home got changed etc and all hit the ground at the same time. From the rearranged fixture perspective, in its current format I expect it to BAU for the normal walk up ticket sales as anyone that does want to attend would purchase in advance, and even if the club did reduce entry to those that attended the original fixture I'd expect they would retain the stubs from the original game and only offer a discount in advance.

I just had the misfortune of ending up on the the STFC fan FB page I have not been on it for ages, my god there are some specimens on there. Who the hell is that Christian lad on there who seems to spend all his time trying to get others to boycott and abusing season ticket holders .

Christian is a 50/50 fan I think, half Swindon, half Cheltenham. He's either a Sutton/kr topping top class WUM, or a total fucknugget.

Used to live near him in Tewkesbury, not a wind up merchant just a bellend. Seems to think he represents the views of the fanbase and any people with alternative views are "happy clappers".  Used to bang Clare Scarth so you would think that if Power was a dodgy as he makes out then he would have had access to some evidence, but no which speaks volumes really!

I saw KR at Qpr I'll have you know.

;)

:O that's what I'm talking about. People think the ticket-refund hysteria was a big deal but remember Fredi? Those were the days.

Facebook pages seem to be the in thing. The amount of LADBible and uniLAD and other twatty things I get linked to must mean it's popular. Is anybody interested in an STFCnotaLAD one? It probably wouldn't have much to do about football.

We aren't opening the Bank for the rearranged game - at least until the Arkells have sold out.

Rovers fans now moaning about being forced to pay £25 instead of the option of £19.

Probably fair to bemoan that decision.

They'd have spent more than that £6 in the launderette.

Isn't that always the case? We couldn't offer them the bank and not the arkells, so why sell both when we're expecting a reduced crowd? I know they will sell, but I can sort of see the logic. Saving Brovers fans a few quid isn't the priority at STFC is it  ???

Same procedure with every single match hosted at the county ground I believe. You sell out the Arkell and if required the bank is opened. If you reduce the rovers fans to £19 for Arkell then you will need to for every fan in the ground who is POD.

I know it's a cost thing, but this isn't really like most games for those that went to the first game is it.

Just got a tweet that Rovers fans now planning to boycott the re-arranged game.

Good

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/14725244.Rovers_fans_plan_to_boycott_re_arranged_fixture/

Just seen this myself and noticed something. While I've no doubt that quite a few Rovers fans will not be attending due to cost, convenience and/or principle, there is absolutely nothing substantiating this story whatsoever. No comments from any kind of supporters group, nothing. Even the article itself makes no mention of a boycott.

A cynic might think that the headline has been spun to make the article sound more dramatic than it actually is in order to try and sell more copies...

Yeah, it was a link to that story FH.

I'm sure they have seen a dozen or so Rovers fans saying they aren't going and have made it into something more substantial.

I'm giving it a miss but I don't class it as a boycott....just see it as a financial demand too far...personally.

I wont be doing any EFL Trophy games ....that is a Boycott...

The difference for me is that I do hope the gate isn't too bad for the gas whereas I hope the CG is empty for the EFL games.

Unbelievable from the club. Fucking disgraceful in fact. No discount. Pay more instead. Don't blame them for boycotting.

 :whogives: the horse bothering go after families in club shirts neanderthals :D

Exactly. Bunch of baseball bat wielding cunts.

Sent from my MotoG3

Agree. They just keep digging themselves in deeper. When not bending to pressure turns into aggravating people away, it no longer makes any sense at all.

Power will be a better businessman when he learns that showing a bit of humanity can be good business too. I'm not holding my breath though.

Some of our fans are being fleeced too. Just by not as much as them.
We have our collection of moron supporters too you know ?

If the boot was on the other foot do you think Bristol or Oxford fans would be saying those poor Swindon Fans it is unfair, I take what you are saying about our fans and as I have said before being a Season Ticket holder I would have been prepared to pay a tenner say for the replay but Power has made his decision whatever the rights or wrongs of it and I will attend as I do all home games as I support Swindon Town FC not Lee Power or Bristol Rovers.

It's not really a boycott though is it, like yourself people chose not to go for all sorts of reasons.....I know several old boys, 50+ year fans, who now choose to avoid games at wherever Rovers are playing this year, after being targeted at the Inn on the Green.

A game where we were charged 3 or 4 pounds extra to cover the policing costs

If Power's plan was to discourage as many as possible to keep the costs down then he's doing a decent job of it so far. If Rovers do boycott do we still pay for policing?

I think they were worried that town fans would rip down the scaffolding and tarpaulin in retaliation to rovers ripping up and throwing seats at the county ground

I don't give a fuck about Bristol Rovers fans. I would've charged them extra as its their fault we have to pay for extra police in the first place.

Could we not have just waited until the weather forecast was know, sunny just sell tickets to the Arkells but if it was going to piss it down just open the bank and they can all buy cheap tickets to go on there?

No it isn't. It's policy for every home game. Why pay to open the bank when they aren't gonna put anyone in it?

I suppose the only way they could win would be to open the bank only, actually scrub that its becoming clear that our club can never win!

Wow another 2 pages with comments of regurgitated outrage, good work. I look forward to logging on here and reading the same old shit day in day out. It's done get over it.

Disgraceful comment.  You've spoiled the whole thread for me.

Is Power now expecting people to scrub the Bank...the seats maybe?

For a laugh can we open up the bank for home fans and offer discounted prices?

Remember the season we gave the Townend to away fans, who bloody made that decision?

With free ponchos  :D

Ricki Hunt. The chairman at the time. Bloody ridiculous decision soon reversed.

there wont be enough town fans to fill the other 3 sides let alone the bank

Then just open the bank.😊

That doesn't make any sense.

I don't think any fan, Rovers or Town, should have to pay more than they paid for the abandoned fixture, regardless of 'policy', overspill, policing etc. A simple solution would be to charge anyone with a stub £19. Fill the away section of the Arkells then move on to the Bank, as usual. Some Rovers and Town fans will benefit a little, the remainder will pay the going rate. The club claw back a bit of lost goodwill and should benefit financially.

It won't happen though.

I presume it's not allowed, although you can do a certain number of promotions in a season.

We could have offered Town fans this game plus the Bury game as £30 for both, would have been a way of covering costs & keeping the Town fans happy.

of course it makes sense, what is the point of opening up a stand (the bank) for town fans when you have 3 stands that are not full to capacity with town fans

It's the way you wrote it that's confusing.

Never mind.

Exactly.

Maybe Lee Power can learn a thing or two from Eastleigh...
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/14726555.Eastleigh_players_club_together_to_pay_for_free_coach_travel_for_supporters/?ref=arc

Their players earn more than ours Chubbs.

wouldn't surprise me.

Apparently, Rovers have sold 63 tickets so far for the re-match.

if that's true, Powers 'shrewdness' may very well have bit him on the arse this time..

assume it's all ticket

Yeah, but if they only sell, say, 300 tickets the police bill will be substantially lower.

Who gives a fuck how many turn up?  Maybe their players won't either which could prove useful.

Good at least we wont have to listen to the god awful Irene song, I assume if they dont turn up then no police will be required.

What horse is AP on in your avatar?

I think it is when he won the grand national on Dont Push It, sad day when the great man decided to quit. The guy who lives opposite me was his driver so I used to see AP most days when he was riding pulling up and jumping into the back of his A8. I get the odd tip these days from my 2 neighbours who are both jockeys.

In the 70s I used to live near Richard Hannon at Everleigh. One of his staff gave me Mon Fils who won the 1000 Guineas at a huge price.

The poor old bookie in Upavon was wiped out!

For any good tips whack 'em on the Mex's Tips thread!

And the bad ones  :D ;)

I will try my best I am my own worst enemy get told them and forget to write it down or back them, the 2 new neighbours 1 is a jump jockey the other is flat jockey . One of my best mates father in law is Head Lad at Henderson's so get a few from there as well.

True, assuming it's all ticket, that's why I asked.

TPTB at Brovers will be chuffed. They were going to have to pay for a load of coaches now they've just got a taxi.

So does that mean discounted tickets after all ????

Unless it's changed, the police dictate how much resource is at any match. I doubt they're going to change anything based on current ticket sales, especially this late on.

They've sold nearly 600 now. Chuck in a decent result for them on Saturday and that will probably go up a fair bit.

Got my Berry tickets today and when I asked about Rovers tickets availability the lad said it's been virtually season ticket holders so far.

Eh? Surely ST holders don't need an extra ticket do they? Just use their STs again?

bloody hope so

Was that the box office guys diplomatic way of saying not a lot of tickets have been sold

Does the old boy still work in the box office? He was brilliantly grumpy

Been yonks since I've had any human contact with the place, all been online

Brian? Both Brian and Dave used to run the place - both great, knew STFC like the back of their hand. Both retired now. Got some young whippersnappers in there now no doubt  :D

I havent spoken to anyone either, the online system does work well (for 99% of normal people, so not me, but that's by the by.)

That said, has anyone ever printed a ticket and got it to work in the turnstiles? I never have.

Always works fine for me at STFC. Not had a problem using it at Fulham either.

Perhaps it's just my shit printer then.  :crash:

Dave....Jockanory.... Still does some part time stuff.

Man is a Legend.

You're telling me mate! When I lived in Swindon he was practically my godfather. Don't get to see him so much nowadays for obvious reasons but he's still a legend. Used to work for the railway and could tell you how to get from Timbuktu to the north circular via Narnia any day of the week. His STFC knowledge is similar.

It's a shame how neo liberalism hollows out eye to eye contact.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPdokMzR9_0

The Post Office's  counter staff are on strike atm about Tory cuts....no need to engage with a person over the purchase of a stamp...in much the same way as no need for football fans to watch their team in a discrete lower level competition, but rather Chelsea TV.

I did like the old TE chant of head to boot contact to the tune of Edwin Starr.

I don't speak to him eye to eye so much because I moved 100+miles away, Reg. It really wasn't the Tories fault (after all, you'd be hard pushed to find a community less enamoured with the Conservatives than the Taffs around here.)

!Take Two!

1-3 loss. Gasheads and self-righteous fans of other clubs will call it karma. The rest of us will put it down to the usual problems most of which cannot be addressed until at least January.

Happy Tuesday!

With Doughty and JSW out I can see nothing other than a Swindon loss. 1-2.

If they set up 2 solid banks of 4, stay organised, kick us then leave us to self destruct its a loss unless we get some decent width. Without Doughty we'll struggle to play through the banks as we're too slow and predictable. I'd put Furlong on the right and rest Barry. Our movement is really bad and for that reason I'd pick Goddard who looks as though he's got a brain.
Not feeling positive today. I think we'll be ok this season but I think it may get worse before it gets better.

2/1 is a massive price for a Town win against a distinctly average Rovers side.

Vigs
Furlong Branco Jones Thompson Brophy
Kasim Murray Thomas
Goddard
Obika

This will be one of those midweek games where the stayaways end up saying 'Bollocks. Why did I choose to miss that one'

5-0

0-3 defeat

4-1. Murray, Obika, Goddard, Branco.

Hopefully they read out the combined crowd of both games.

They're even worse than we are so far this year. 2-1 is a ridiculous price for a home win.

It'll be a 1-1 draw. Taylor for them. Murray for us.

                       Vig
            NT Jones Branco
Furlong Thomas Kasim Brophy
                  Murray               
              Norris Obika

Hopefully when the announcer does the usual guff about 'the attendance is xxxxx thank you all for your support' he does an evil little laugh at the end of it! And possibly Power parading in front of the away fans with a fan of £20 notes like Carol Smillie!

Can't make this game tonight, went to the abandoned game in August I just hope we put in a shift tonight. Bury wasn't a great performance I'll settle with a 1-0 win. But won't be surprised if the gas win this.

Weather forecast looks good - couldn`t make the first game so haven`t had anything to whinge on about which is a shame - still can`t work out who is going to score goals for us this season so it has to be a draw if we are lucky and I think we will be 1-1. Norris to score

There, fixed for you.

I won't settle for anything less than Power standing in front of the away fans like this

(https://images.rapgenius.com/08e29e1f80c4a923891222fa937e9307.450x429x1.jpg)

1-1

0-0. Abandoned in 59th minute (floodlight failure).

1-2

 :)

How very Tranmere....

I would prefer 0 - 2 abandoned in 59th minute(floodlight failure) now that would be amusing the Gas would feel doubly aggrieved especially when Power announces full price again :D

I think we will actually win comfortably as they looked woeful in the first game, Beeks and the Fonz to get 1 each in a 2 - 0 win in front of 6,586

2-0 kasim,branco hopefully in that order

I'm going to see Malaga v Eibar tonight and with paddy power a Swindon Malaga double is 4-1

 
Bristol Rovers SLO
‏@BRFCSLO
Sold 374 Swindon tickets. UTG!!!!!

There will be more Police than Gas fans

I'm going to watch Fulham v Bristol City.

TRAITOR

Oooh get you...fine dining by the thames

I've got a good feeling about this for some strange reason.

4-0 Town,Beeks (2) Goddard + Kasim

7731

i got a free pie last time we played there. it was only slightly out of date.

You going in the Wurzel end?

Cracking start to the day for Lee Power
Multitask wins the 3pm at Lingfield, nice price 9/2 too!

Let's hope Town follow it up later.

You mean like attacking AND defending in the same game? That's multitasking!

Just seen a clip of him talking about his horse and tonight's game. He's lost a bit of weight.

We're not really doing much of either recently!

Does anyone remember the Cambridge United call off a few years later - either late 1990s or early 2000s - that resulted in their fans going off at the deep end and hating us for ages?  (Until they dropped out of the League and then presumably forgot about it.)  What were the circumstances then?  I forget.

 :hmmm:   This one passed me by.

it looks like the rozzers are still going to erect the fence in the car park soapy tit wank according to pictures someone posted on FB, it will look a bit pathetic when 300 odd Brizzle pensioners and die hard shirt wearers are marched behind the Arkells with about 200 locals waiting to go into the Town End could be a serious flashpoint for the 200 coppers to control :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Sure I'm not making it up, Reg.  Someone...pls confirm that my memory's not going.

Got it!  The blurb under the video explains it.  Knew I wasn't going mad.  It was at the time of the fuel strike in 2001.  Cambridge were riding high, and our game vs Cambridge was the only game called off nationally as a result of the strike.  They weren't happy...especially after we went & won the replay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekt7Jjp-WVk

Apparently the Fulham game is tomorrow, glad I checked...

There have been whole seasons that I've dumped from the memory banks.....so could well be one of those particularly grizzly affairs.

I didn't feel like going after Saturday, but I don't want to waste my season ticket.  1-1

Feels odd but I won't be going tonight as joining the boycott - I could've got in for a tenner as know someone from Nationwide....but it's the principle !  I'm not one of the Power bashers as have mixed feelings about the negatives and positives of his tenure BUT I do feel he's dropped a real changer on this. Not only will it cost STFC money ,as reckon the boycott will drastically reduce the attendance and hence revenue - but he's also stirred up a lot of ill feeling/resentment and bad press for both himself and the club !

Now I've got that off my chest - does anyone know if there's likely to be a live stream anywhere for tonight's match ?

Bristol Rovers manager:

"I've made four changes and we have tweaked the system. We gave Swindon too much respect up here a few weeks ago and I've decided to switch to a 4-3-3 to try and press them higher up the pitch."

Couple of interesting snippets from Power.

Players are training one day a week in Highworth.

Aaron Pierre was on his way here when Wycombe pulled the plug as their replacement deal fell through.

Didn't sound right when quizzed about tonight's pricing when said he could have charged everyone a tenner but wanted to reward loyal ST holders with a free game.

What about the loyal fans who pay full price every game?

(https://media.giphy.com/media/KOy9r0Fj1NKso/giphy.gif)

got a feeling we are in for a dicking tonight, hope i'm wrong 0.3

Who the hell would do that?

4-0 easy win, Beeks and the Fonz,  2 a piece.  :beers:

Me and Mrs Bellend - apart from tonight!

Unless you've got money to piss away, may I suggest a season ticket?

1-0

Yes

Jones - from a corner!

Their front three have our back 3/5 beaten for pace every time

Sounds like we've got plenty of work to do.

So far so good as far as the scoreline is concerned.

7 minutes of mullering them, 30 minutes of tedium where it looked like they might score, 8 minutes of OK.

1-0 I'll take that.

Anybody with a brain cell can see we need to go 4 at the back. They are playing 3 up front so effectively one on one with our defenders at all time. Branco is also constantly out of position giving them acres to run into.

Will be interesting to see what they announce the crowd as. By all accounts we have around 4000 season ticket holders & they have about 400 so the rest (which doesn't look many) will have paid on the day.

Well ive never been vehemently pro or anti power but from what ive just heard he came across as  a complete arse

Tough game. Midfield can't in the game aside from Murray who's looking classy. Simple tactic of playing into the space behind our defence but its working.

Coyr

Has the commentary gone or is it my pc?

Still on player for me

Back for me now.

Who has just come on?

Brophy and Murray off? Don't understand that unless injured

Goddard and Ormond-Ottewill on?

Yep

Brophy having trouble breathing apparently. Asthma or something?

shite

Oooo lucky

Does the 9 second gap between those two messages signify a disallowed Rovers goal?

Hit the post, rebound went into the side-netting.

Think it was an attack, Vigs beaten, post hit, rebound to another striker who then missed an open goal (but I wasnt listening intently at the time)

Evans talking about the slope at the CG - has anyone noticed this before?

Rovers hit the post and missed an open goal with the rebound.think sonic was just describing brophy's lame excuse for coming off."light headed " ffs!

Is that SSP on commentary?

He said that during Andy King's time, if I player went off feeling lightheaded he'd send them back out after giving them a rocket.

We need a second......and sharpish

There used to be a minor one a few years back. I couldn't tell you if it's still there after all the hard work returfing that the ground staff do.

Rhys Evans I think...

Yes, Rovers seem to be in the ascendancy. All the action is at our end.

I seem to remember that in the good old days of hard tackles, muddy pitches, dubbin etc the goal area and the middle of the pitch were regularly sanded and sometimes saw dusted. The goal areas over years had built up noticeably with the extra layers of sand/saw dust. Must be 10/15 years ago they were comprehensively levelled to match the rest of the pitch, may have been around the time if the premier league campaign which was longer for all I know.

6,760

oh dear

Norris on for the Fonz.

Seems to have created an impression with his first effort.

Not asthma, just a bug apparently

more police than wovers fans :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

bollocks

Doh!

Penalty

8 1/2 mins left

1.1

Nother pen conceded.cunts

1-1

dickhead

load of bollocks 2-1. Thompson twat

1.2 wankers

1-2 Wovers

Dear, dear, dear !

Fucksake

These players have less bollocks than a schoolgirl

Atrocious.

Dark days indeed

That is fucking shocking. Fucking piss poor.

Branco disaster minute

Williams has tonight proven he's not a manager....

Maintained 3 at the back, didn't work all game.

Deary me.

Own worst enemies which does not bode well.

Going down simple as that we are non league standard

Time for Power to get a proper manager I think!  :doh:

But thompson is championship material.

Think so tonight was just so obvious what to change....

Absolute fucking bollocks.  We're a shambles. Not good enough.

Very disappointing.

They carved us open time and time again so it was no surprise

one of two things is going to happen, Williams gets  sacked with a big 5 year contract payoff, or we get relegated, delete as appropriate!!

Had a quid on branco to scote the last goal!

Are we going to equalise in the 5 mins of stoppage time?

had £20 on a straight win 🙁

A solid maybe

(https://i.imgur.com/aZMIoEH.gif)

I'm finding it harder and harder to defend Power....

No defending them, that was shit.

Players are good enough. Williams isn't.

Its refreshing to hear a co commentator say it how it is.
In not so many words, Rhys thought we were shit.

fucking shit from the moment we scored

I think he said we were naive. Rovers were bigger, stronger and were prepared to grind out a result. He said there were lots of encouraging signs from Town, but Rovers had more nouse, hence the scoreline.

Unfortunately that statement is true of the manager as well, stick to your plan 'A' and hope you can hang on!

We've had some bloody awful luck of late as well.

Oops I'd forgotten we were playing. I think I'll slip back off and read about who Brad's going to bang next, far safer..

Or even worse - Both !!

Thats it fuck of power and take williams your puppet with you. :badmood:

Get the Brasso ready Reg.

thats powers fault. :suicide:

Williams now on the radio  making no sense 

Can someone provide quotes of Williams' interview?

Power said at half time that they weren't looking at bringing anyone else in (ie No out of contract players). We have spent £500k more on players wages this year and its now time for them to deliver.

Williams:
- They deserved to win the game
- They fought for everything
- We didnt match that
- Cant keep trying to hold on to 1-0 for 85 mins
- We need to defend with the ball rather than hang on
- Lack of belief after some bad results
- Looked good after the 1-0 lead and slowly got worse and dropped deeper and deeper
- When we try to be physical and aggressive we have people sent off.
- We need to be aggressive in a controlled manner
- Branco: Williams upset for him.
- We allowed this situation to happen by not controlling the game
- We didnt pick up the second ball at all
- We can play against teams who try to do what Rovers did, but we cant just score and then try to scrap and hang on
- Responsibility falls on Williams shoulders. He will try everything he can. If he cant rise to the challenge someone else will do it.
- Williams not having thoughts about leaving, but his answer to the last question was anticipating the call for his head
- Commented on it being a long journey back for Sendles White
- Barry hamstring tweak. Hence not playing
- Brophy felt sick at half time

Evans:
- Williams doesnt sound inspiring
- Can see what he's trying to do
- This nice stuff cant continue

That was absolutely awful, controlled the game for the first 15 mins or so and then went to pieces for the rest of the game.  The midfield was basically non-existent, lost every second ball and the total lack of a goalscorer was so evident - Norris one on one with the keeper and basically tapped it to him like a back pass!!!  So many mistakes from the defenders and a classic Thompson fuck-up to give them their second goal.  Relegation performance in every respect apart from Vigoreux who rightly won mom.

As for the ticket situation. I've had nowt to say up until now until I realised that Power could have charged ST holders if he wanted to, but chose not to.

You can argue all you like about it being unfair on certain segments of fans and what not, and you'd probably be right.

Accusations of greed and the like though are demonstrably false though. He allowed the majority of tonight's supporters get in for nothing when he did have the option of charging them.

It may have been a misguided decision where PR is concerned, but how is it greedy?

Can't see Williams getting sacked yet but he's clearly under some serious pressure. Thinking back to when Ling came in, he moved us straight to a back 4 and it proved successful. Williams continues with 3/5 at the back and we concede too many goals (previous two clean sheets at home appear to have been a good blip). Is it feasible that Williams could be moved back to coaching with another manager coming in? Would think he'd have lost the respect of the players if that happened.
Fucking frustrating can't see Williams getting us out of this. Hope I'm wrong.

Power was on earlier and said 'quote' - I could have sold tickets for this game for a tenner and made loads of money, but decided to reward the season ticket holders instead  -  I thought he was in business to make money ??.

When you have players going off because they feel "light headed" it's an absolute fucking insult

Why?

They initially said he was having trouble breathing as well, sounds like a sensible precaution to be honest

-Horrific and I think most people could see it coming a mile off. I'm struggling to see what our game plan is at the moment.

-We have decent players but look determined to hit the self destruct button at any point. There's no game management.

-Sat far too deep second half.

-Little supply for our strikers, both big strong lads and found themselves feeding on scraps a lot of the time. Any defence would struggle defending balls into the box against Obika and Delfouneso, we don't do it anywhere near enough. Norris comes on, jogs around a bit, misses a one on one under no pressure, straight at the keeper.

Williams already talking about 'someone else having a go if I can't turn it around' while sounding dejected, after 8 games.

Strap yourselves in, long season ahead unless Williams wakes up and finds a way to utilise what we have effectively.

Championship material  ???
No more questions m"lud

Now JSW is out we have to endure Branco until January which is very depressing thought, surely Williams could see 3 against 3 was dangerous it was only a matter of time before they scored. The lack of depth is alarming we have 3 strikers who don't look like scoring 10 between them worrying times with no emergency loans available .

Apart from the bit of the game up to the goal, that was fucking shit.

Power's pre-match interview was fucking shit.
The ticket fiasco was fucking shit.
The resulting atmosphere and attendance was fucking shit.
The defence was fucking shit.
The midfield was fucking shit
The strikers were extremely fucking shit.
The first half was fucking shit.
The second half was even more fucking shit.
Nathan Thompson was fucking fucking fucking shit.
Branco coming over at the end thumping the Town badge on his chest was fucking shit.
The 3v8 fight that never quite started on County Road was fucking shit.
Everything is fucking shit.
--
Blips that weren't shit : Vigs, Kassim, Brophy, Goddard.

Oh and sorry but Nath is a liability at the moment. Has been an accident waiting to happen (and has happened several times, cock ups or sendings off) since he got injured before the Preston play off final. We all love him and at times he's outstanding but I'm never having him as a centre half. Needs to be at right back or not in the team at all.

Absolute fucking toilet

No shit.

Did he mention his extensive stamp collection?

I find that hard to believe. We were robbed if true

 

6 goals conceded in 3 games, every one a fuck up and totally avoidable. After the first 15, Rovers were far superior to us. The quality of their crossing was excellent. Ironic they didn't score from one of them. Alex Revell will be looking forward to Tuesday. Thought the ref was good today. Thought we were shit. Unfortunately I don;t think it matters who plays midfield / attack given our total ineptitude to tackle, close down and defend.

Guess you thought it was fucking shit then Batch - you are not wrong!!!

Only saw the second half. Absolutely fuming.

Left right on the final whistle, could hear booing as we walked by the CG Hotel, assume the crowd that were left let them know their feelings!

Oh yeah, I forgot..

Delfonso  - completely wasted, he keeps making runs that we never spot because we are too busy fucking about with it.

Norris - only seen him v Bury and today. My son's assessment of "he's like a cheap shit Michael Smith" covers those two performances nicely.

Lastly, apologies to the those around me in the DRS at the end. I may have voiced my displeasure at the performance when I saw Branco doing his tap the badge crap.

The one highly optimistic crumb of comfort I can think of is sometimes and for no reason things can click and everything works.

I can't see where its coming from, but it happens.

Mind you, last time I thought this way about the fist team squad was under Danny Williams and, er, bad example.

The only crumb of comfort I got was cashing out about 2 minutes before the penalty for £67 I had £30 on town win at 2/1

You could just se it coming which begs the question what was Williams watching and why could he not change it around

I think it's been said a fair amount but. We just need to drop the idea of playing 3-5 at the back and should improve. Were we really that shit???

Vigs - made some good saves and if it wasn't for him we could have been on the end of a hiding
Furlong - did little all game. Been impressed with him up until todays game so hoping it was a one off
Thompson - never a centre back and if he is going to play then he plays right back or not at all. No defender should be trying to dribble past an attacker when you are the last defender. These mistakes are happening too frequently
Branco - pissed me off more than anyone at the end with his tapping of the badge shit. How about showing some passion whilst the game is being played instead
Jones - best defender out there and has a great future ahead of him
Brophy/Boo - need to learn to take on there defender when attacking rather than cutting in all the time. If your going to cut in then bloody shoot!
Thomas - far to slow in possession and needs to learn to use his left foot.
Kasim - didn't do anything first half at all
Murray - only one who looked like creating anything
Obika - should have scored in the first couple of minutes. Other than that didnt look fit at all
Delfonso - ran a lot but was never played in by the rest
Goddard - good little cameo
Norris - what a fucking waste of a striking option let alone money!

Tonight was a shambles. Williams may be a great coach but it was obvious for everyone to see that we were overran for 85minutes. We simply allowed cross after cross to come in and should have moved to 4 or 5 at the back. The wingback system is not working. The whole point of that is fast counter attacking football something which we do not play. Taking Murray off 5 mins into the second half was ridiculous. I appreciate he is not up to fitness but you dont have a 15min rest to then only play 5 extra mins. Our free kicks are useless and how Norris or Kasim can ever be on one again i'll never know.

All in all a shit performance where 2-1 flattered us tbh. A long season ahead especially when you have 3 strikers who will be lucky to score a combined 15 goals!

Very good analysis I could not have put it better, agree we collapsed when Murray went off and Thomson and Branco are a disaster waiting to happen every game

Same old then?

I assumed Murray was injured?

I thought we rallied a bit after he came off, but after Norris came on we were shit. I don't blame Norris for that, he was no worse than Delfounso, just that it coincided with that happening. I do blame him for missing a sitter to make it 2-0, even if he didn't mean to!

Norris buries that chance everyones smiling. Poor, poor miss but 2-0 would have flattered us. We lost a spark when Murray went off (great signing btw) and although I was pleasantly surprised with how well we were coping under the pressure I'm not surprised we eventually crumbled. Bad discipline yet again too, this needs to stop.

Shit night all round really.

All I can see ahead is a season of struggle. When you sell a 25 goal a season striker and don't replace him adequately, it's always going to be an uphill struggle.

Everytime we're under pressure we make mistakes. It's utter bullshit and quite honestly I'm bored of watching it.  A few more defeats and I wouldn't be surprised to see Williams resign. He doesn't seem at all comfortable in the role and I doubt will feel the pressure is worth it.

Glad I didn't see the Branco badge thumping, it might of tipped me over the edge!

If Norris could hit a barn door we could well have hung on for an ill deserved win. Murray and Brophy were our only creative outlets and after they went off we really looked short of inspiration. Though to be fair Boo was a lot better than he was at Oxford. Obika worked his bollocks off but simply aint gonna get enough goals to keep us up all on his own, Delfonso looks classy but no determination to get on the end of anything. Goddard needs a goal and Connor Thomas seriously needs to step up his game. Did he win a single tackle or second ball? After a brilliant first 10 minutes and somehow then hanging on in there for the next 70 there was absolutely no one capable of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck and getting us back into it after 60 seconds of footballing suicide handed Rovers the win. Barry hamstring JSW knee, Doughty appendicitis, Jordan Stewart ligaments....... Beginning to look just like late September/October last year. Minus Nicky Ajose to get us out of the shit.

Before tonight I was confident mid table was going to be where we would end up. After tonight I am not so sure. How much did we pay for Norris because he was fucking wank tonight. Not enough goals in is sadly and with Branco now having to play regularly we are going to be just as wank at the back.

Club needs a big change. Change of style is needed but it won't happen.

I didn't attend tonight but it sounds like the kind of performance that I eventually got tired of watching.

We seem to retain possession better when Rodgers plays.

I read the Branco badge thumping as an attempt to apologise.

That game bored the shit out of me, it's an actual ordeal to watch this side at the moment.

Cannot for the life of me see what Thomas is bringing to the midfield.  He contributed absolutely nothing.  

On the flip side Murray looks absolute class. Get Doughty back and with on form Kasim and Murray and that midfield 3 will be absolute class

Doughty is not back for weeks!

I'm sure we'll improve as long as you stay away. That's usually how it works isn't it? The less support we get the better we do?


Wtf? That game was many things - depressing my choice word - but it wasn't boring. It would have been corking for a neutral.