Thetownend.com

Make things clear.

http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,45079.msg995985/topicseen.html#new

A few people on the forum in there wisdom got upset on something i posted yesterday,again if the post is read again it was more a big hand clap for the two lads who made the trip up from Bournemouth rather than a dig at other fans who couldn't/can't make it.
Sonic especially got very animated and Samdy weighed in with his comments on Rich Pullen(tongue in cheek i suspect)
My comment of.....pity a few others could take a leaf out of there books wasn't a dig at anyone especially the many out of towners(Constanza on the link i have posted)....it was meant as big up to the two lads in Bournemouth.
It is a shame some things are looked at differently to what i meant and i suppose that comes with the terrortory but it has left bad thoughts in my mind so i wanted to clear it up.
I myself will be missing next Saturdays match because of work in Scotland,i am pissed off,i hate missing matches...the internet is a great tool for those people(like myself also) who miss matches.
So all i can do as i have already done is say sorry to the people who are out of town who took it as a dig...and i am aware of many people who live in Swindon but because of financial or work/kids commitments cant make it and would like to do so also.
So what i should have said was well done on the two lads making the trip up from Bournemouth..end off.

Its OK leefer, if you upset out of towners its not like they'll make the effort to come and talk to you about it
 
:) :)

I'm not sure how you can form an opinion on fans when they go to so few matches. I'll reserve judgement untill they've been to a few

I thought you'd had a few beers and was a bit clumsy in what you said - like may of us have been. I also thought that others too greater exception than they should have - probably beer related as well. It was a Saturday night

Leefer did nothing wrong. The responses were the cliquey ott overeations that have always spoiled this site.

I simply indicated the cost of travel. I have no problems with leefers drunken scribings.

That said, I try and make an effort to not be one of those posters who give opinions as though I've been to the game.

Didn't mean you. And clearly Leefer wasn't on about fans in your situation. Leefer tried to explain himself last night but certain folk wouldn't let it go.

I only live 29 miles from the County Ground and I question my own sanity attending some mid week night games against crap opposition.

I have a season ticket so don't have to worry about a ticket but petrol, beer and food still costs £30 a game.

I can completely understand how alot of people can't afford it.

Agree with arriba I don't think it was aimed at you.

As I posted last night I don't have a problem with people that can't make games. We manage to get to 15-20 of the home league games, but miss most of the cup/away games.

The thing that does annoy is when people who aren't at the game are happy to slag off the performance of players.

I overreacted because I always do  :)

Stop it Ralphy, get a bike, cut out the beer and food and it will cost you very little!!

Seriously, I live in Swindon now, but used to travel 25 miles or so (as a nipper!) to support my team and was as frustrated as hell when my work took me to Suffolk and I could only get to the Cambridge's and Colchesters of this world.  Because of a mortgage etc. and the cost of travel my home games would be limited to four or so per year.  Can still remember the first game I took my son on the train from Norwich to eventually end up in Swindon, it was against York City if my memory serves me correctly, proud to say he, having finished with playing now, sits with me in the DRS and is Swindon through and through.  He now lives in Bicester and travels with his girl friend (both season ticket holders) to home games and many away ones.  What I am trying to say is I really salute all those who travel great distances to support their team!!  Like Posh Red I get pissed off with people who criticise players and are rarely seen at the CG.  Would be interesting to know what the actual percentage is of people who travel, say, more than 20 miles to home games, compared to those of us who do live in town.

I live about 2 miles from the ground,I just can't be fucked to go. :)

Am I turning into DMR?

You mean me? He called me out, so I gave some back.

You're just as bad as him, you miserable fuck.

Most Town fans live in/come from Oxfordshire anyway  :)

Thanks.  Leefer is a good fella in my book,so being compared to him i like.

 Trucker sticking together,clique!!!!!

if there was a like button i'd be clicking it now. Good work Yeovil.

I always get the impression that a sizeable chunk of out of town support comes from Devizes and Calne - its particularly noticeable on evening games when the A361 is just a long stream of lights going that way after the game - about a third turn off at Beckhampton towards Calne, the rest carry on to Devizes. Just on people I know/see at the ground I reckon there are easily 500 plus at home games from Devizes.

Has arriba gone now as well? He'd be the first poster I missed, even if we have had some right old barnys on here.

Every post can be read two ways.  Some people take the world of forums far too seriously.

no one ever leaves. they just simply post under a different username.

1486 members - I reckon at least 500 of them are me.

I'm Ben, and so's my wife.

I've not noticed Lumps come back :(

Someone start a thread praising Nick Griffin,that'll smoke him out

No you're not. I'd never eat shit bacon.

....take you down, 'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Having lived in the centre of Swindon, a suburb of Swindon, a Town just outside Swindon (Bassett) and a Town quite away from Swindon (Didcot), id say this.

The hardest time Ive had getting motivated to support STFC was when I lived in the Town centre. The problem is you feel trapped by the place. There is enough in the Town to keep you in Swindon, but not enough to make you that happy about living there. To get out can be a bit of a nightmare with the traffic (shit road planning and underinvestment in infrastructure), so often you dont bother.

The reason we get such shit support from Swindon itself is because most Swindonians want escapism and so attach themselves to 'glamorous' Premier League clubs. In the past you could get that by going away with Swindon, but nowadays we mostly play shit clubs in Towns even shitter than Swindon.

The main problem for our support (apart from the matchday prices) is not actually the club itself. Its the consistant failure of the whole Town. Id love to see most of Swindon council fired tommorow, because they are a useless pile of shite.

When I lived outside Swindon, I loved it. All the 19th century decay and the grime, felt like proper football. But dealing with it 24/7 it wears you down. You realise these people honestly dont have £25 to spend on a ticket.

Honestly dont think our attendances will improve until we get the Town centre regenerated, and inject some pride into Swindonians living under 20 minutes walk from the ground.

The communities of Towns outside Swindon have also experienced much less social change and are more affluent. They should be rock solid Town supporters, no real excuse.

I vote Spencer White

a startlingly good post from Spencer White

To be completely honest, the fact that I have to come to Swindon is one of the biggest reasons I only go to a handful of games now each season (used to be a season ticket holder), along with the price.

I really want to like Swindon, having grown up just outside the town (and subsequently living in Swindon for 5 years). But the truth is that it's descended into a complete sh*thole and if I can avoid going in to Swindon I will.

Hop onto a cycle track from any corner of our lovely town and give it a bit of effort! the town is loverly its just governed by fools

I live 26 miles away, Market Lavington, and make the journey you cunts.

I try and get to a few games a season, but mostly away fixtures, was at Shrewsbury last week. Financial constraints prevent me but if I start a family they'd trump the football every time and I doubt i'd ever attend (unless a son or daughter embraced my allegiance for the team).

Of all the teams in the division, which do you think is the most appealing away day?

Oxford

Hope to be there if I can get a ticket. Coca, won a nice wedge thanks to Bosnia the other day, part one of a double header against Belarus.

Bosnia are looking good to qualify for their first tournament ever.  :toocool: Only 3 points behind France with 3 left to play. It could come down to a final day game against them.  :suicide:

Bosnia will mess up though, like they did against Portugal in the World Cup Playoff.  :(

I'd imagine the chances of me getting a ticket for that would be slim to impossible. Where do France play their home games?

Pretty sure every home game is at the Stade De France. Would be a collosal encounter if it comes down to the crunch. Fantastic if Bosnia succeed in qualifying - plenty of goodwill towards them. Enjoyed seeing them deprive Turkey of a World Cup slot last time around. Right, bedtime  :bye:

G'night. About time I hit the hay too.

I come down from Stafford, 104 miles each way. When my daughter got interested in football I didnt want her being a sheep and following our local sides; Stoke, Vale, Wolves or god forbid Man Utd!  :suicide: We try and get to two home games a month unless there are away games closer to home like Burton, Shreswbury etc.
As a previous post said, the cost of fuel is a killer and makes it an expensive day.

Talking of out of towners there used to be quite a few Town fans in Andover.

Don't have the internet in my new flat at the moment (posting from....not where I work) what's going on? it's bloody hard trying to catch up on an iPhone

I haven't a clue whats gone on either.

More handbags I'd imagine as that seems to be the general theme at the moment.  I can only put it down to the fact lots of people aren't getting any.

How cynical :D

Not getting any handbags?

Is it because we won and no one can start a 'THE END IS NIGH!!!!' thread so we've resorted to having a go at eachother instead?

I respect anyone who travels long or short distance to home games, Unless you buy a season ticket where you have to commit 18-19 plus games a season to justify the cost.
Football generally has become really expensive to go week in week out, Rotherham game on the TV, still charged £25 for an adult ticket if you also take 2 juniors that is £49 before you arrive in the ground, this saturday against southend same prices, therefore you can see why the average supporter picks the games to go to £100 for 2 home games more if you also include the southampton match
To attract more people the club should lower the prices then along with a winning team people will attend more regular

Ouch we're all a bit down on Swindon....

I've never lived in Swindon - closest I got was Chippenham.  Being 105 miles away, it's £30 in petrol before I've even started.  When I was a student I used to make about twenty games a season, split evenly home and away, although I have to admit to prefer the away games - especially some of the season's under King - there was never a dull moment, we were either shit or amazing but never in between.

Now I've moved out, got a job, etc. I cannot justify £60 on a weekend to Swindon.  Whilst I love going to games, the money is better spent on a few jars down my local (and keeping the change), or taking the other half out for a meal.  I even had a tough time justifying the Crawley game(!) which is less than half a mile from me as I've just bought a holiday.

Life in general is too expensive at the moment.  I'm lucky - I landed a decent job, my girlfriend's got a job, and we've been continuously employed for the last 18 months, but the economy doesn't like the youth who try and support themselves.  Maybe once she pops out a few kids I can become a season ticket holder....

Ultimately we all support the same team.  Like others have said, I reserve criticising individuals unless I've actually been to the game, although I don't tend to criticise individual players full stop.  The team that played on Saturday should be immune to criticism for at least three months.

Shrivenham Road since I was 8, Portsmouth Street before that, both a stones throw away.

Cracking post, Spence.  Agree with pretty much every word of that.  Like you, I've also lived in central Swindon (lower reaches of Old Town, really), suburban areas and, for the last 12 years, out of town.  I don't think my enthusiasm dimmed while I was living in town, but the place was a little more appealing back then, I think.  There was a thread (started, I have to admit, by me) from a few years ago that discussed the decline of central Swindon in some detail.

Swindon Town Centre (http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,31343.0.html)

Makes me so depressed, even though I don't live there now.  Central Swindon has never been pretty, but successive generations of politicians have failed and failed again to kick start a rennaissance.  It's not all bad, and I still love it that the club is based centrally and not pushed out to a soulless retail area on the periphery (of which Swindon has many).

But it should be so much better than it is...especially given that there are still vast areas of new suburb planned on the outskirts.  How can the town continue to grow like this when the core is so dilapidated and underinvested?  As your original post says, there need to be massive infrastructure investment for a start (which, of course, will never happen).

Ring doughnut

Lived in swindon all my life Parks/Walcot. Absolutely love it in Swindon and still support the club no matter what.Not quite sure on what where you live has to do with it tbh.

I can sort of see Spencer's point but did Reading, Swansea or Wigan re-generate their town centres before their crowds increased?

Its a simple formula, the more you win the more people you'll get through the door.

I think you could turn Swindon Town Centre into the best Town Centre in the world but if the football club were still mid table in L2 we'd still get the same crowds we're getting now.

Left Swindon at the age of 2 days when I was released from PMH.  Have lived in chip a long time and it does seem that football fans of lower levels in chip turn either towards brizzole or swindon, very much a choice.  I feel I made the right one.  However I used to go out in Bristol more than I ever would in Swindon purely because they have the gigs.

I like Swindon but then im not young and thrusting so im easily pleased.

It was only ever a very brief time that I felt like I was trapped in Swindon and I wanted to get out on weekends rather than go to the County Ground (I still kept going to games). Just think it offered me an insight into why some of the Swindon population are so stubborn about not supporting the Town (3,000 fans a week out of 180,000 people). In general Swindon people do have a bit of a confidence problem. I love where I live now, in Swindon.

On that other thread there is a bit of an overreaction about the state of the Town centre. The problem is that it doesnt compare very well to other Southern Town's, but compared to England as a whole it is fairly average. What really pisses me off is the lack of roads and planning for the sprawl that is North Swindon. The inevitable congestion.

If you go to Reading, Madjeski built loads of stuff, not just the football ground. He started their regeneration. We need someone like that to get us out of this cycle, because Swindon council are not capable of doing it.

As for our support, what we need is reasonable matchday tickets. Sorry club, the prices are a joke, and Ive heard multiple instances from fans waiting in the queue at the ticket office of seeing people going in and leaving without any tickets because of the prices. Not even paying it once. That is a business failure, and they should be ashamed. Swindon is a large working class Town and to be successful we have to somehow tap into those numbers. But at £19 / £25 there is no way.

Im happy with the CG as it is, I think most of our real fans are. But looking forward and trying to tap into our population we do need a change. Shiny new ground, bit of glamour for the plebs. Unfortunately not enough people in Swindon have the bollocks to stand up and say they support their local club. Too many cowards taking the easy way out supporting Premier League teams. We need to give them something they can be proud of to change that.

I think people attach themselves to premiership clubs because we're generally poor and often unexciting to watch

Swindon is like some kind of magical fantasy world compared to Coventry...

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

well played

According to Martin Kellner in the Guardian, people attach themselves to Premiership clubs because they're middle class.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/04/paolo-di-canio-swindon-town?INTCMP=SRCH

Idiot.

Trust me, Swindon is fucking paradise compared to where I live (Croydon)
Bet you don't get kids shooting each other every day

 I bet you don't either.

More than likely, I think the press gave up after the riots

I always feel a bit sorry for Coventry, because it has a long and distinguished history, but there's not much of it left.  First in was Henry VIII, who took a particular dislike to Coventry and razed its monastic cathedral, just leaving a couple of bits standing....then the Luftwaffe stepped in and razed the medieval cathedral and many historic buildings, followed by 60's planners, who finished the job of obliterating most of the rest of its historic buildings.

Some of these Henrician dissolved places ended up being bijou like Malmesbury....but Coventry went for industry.

The planners did more damage than the Luftwaffe.   Do councils up and down the country have some problem with preserving old buildings?  Or is it simply a VAT thing?

Think you can have too much clinging to old.....it's about striking a balance.

The problem is once something has been destroyed it is gone forever.  That's why we should keep old buildings.  I can't believe that they have struck the right balance in Cov either (I know that's not your point).

Indeed, but nothing lasts forever...

I don't think it was a particular dislike of Coventry. more a particular dislike of The Catholic Church and a particular liking for it's wealth in England.