Heanor Town FC (H)

[zeke]

Time is Tight? Really?

[zeke]

2-0 up. Two great goals from Reynolds. Att 379. Lee "offside" Hughes isn't having a great game

[zeke]

5 mins to go 3-0 up. Refereeing is something else at this level!

[The Verner]

Aug 12, 2017 13:58:45 GMT zeke said:

Time is Tight? Really?

Yes. Was requested in memory of a gentleman who recently passed away.

On tuesday we will be starting experimenting to find a decent walk out song

[zeke]

Shame the minute's silence didn't happen.

[thatloudbloke]

Aug 12, 2017 13:58:45 GMT zeke said:

Time is Tight? Really?

yes it was in tribute to my father who passed away on 5th June & he was a life long city supporter aswell as his father & grandfather...

[dragon]

How about `Going Home` by Mark Knofler .Seems appropriate.

[badsey]

Forgetting the off the pitch problems you can't ask for any more than win in the first league game. A good performance and the second goal would have graced any level. Hope for more of the same on tuesday

[stamoo]

All very interesting, trying to assess the new players and the expected standard of football at this new level.

Dave Reynolds obviously has that eye for a goal that all good goal scorers have and alongside Hughesy at last we have a real attacking threat, we looked dangerous when going forward. Matt Birley looked leaner and fitter than last time he was here and he also looked dangerous breaking quickly through the middle. I thought Jamie Smith had a fine game on the wing.

It struck me that at this level players seemed to have a bit more time on the ball but at times some of them didn't seem to realise this and rushed their pass or hoofed it forward. Having said that we had a short spell around the 20 min mark when we passed the ball around beautifully.

Difficult to assess because I thought Heanor looked a pretty average side and offered very little in terms of attack but nevertheless very happy with a 3-0 win, it could easily have been more. This team should improve over time and it looks like we are going to be competitive in this league. 🙂

[adycrean]

Video from Heanor

[dcx]

Aug 12, 2017 22:46:54 GMT stamoo said:

All very interesting, trying to assess the new players and the expected standard of football at this new level.

Dave Reynolds obviously has that eye for a goal that all good goal scorers have and alongside Hughesy at last we have a real attacking threat, we looked dangerous when going forward. Matt Birley looked leaner and fitter than last time he was here and he also looked dangerous breaking quickly through the middle. I thought Jamie Smith had a fine game on the wing.

It struck me that at this level players seemed to have a bit more time on the ball but at times some of them didn't seem to realise this and rushed their pass or hoofed it forward. Having said that we had a short spell around the 20 min mark when we passed the ball around beautifully.

Difficult to assess because I thought Heanor looked a pretty average side and offered very little in terms of attack but nevertheless very happy with a 3-0 win, it could easily have been more. This team should improve over time and it looks like we are going to be competitive in this league. 🙂

City are paying players £150 a week but playing against teams who pay their lads 25p a mile expenses. I would bloody hope City would be competitive!!

I note that the Worcester News opted to send Geoff Berkeley to the Worcester Warriors pre season game (against a college!) than have him report on Worcester City. And BBC H+W also barely gave City a mention, shows how little interest there is for the club at this level now.

Attendance was reasonable yesterday at 380, although if you rewind 12 months I think we had 650+ on the first day of last season with very few travelling Harrogate fans. Shows how much the drop in level and off pitch struggles are having an impact. You look at clubs like Bromsgrove and Hereford and their attendances are rising every season but City's are in the steep decline. Any delusions we will ever get back to a decent level of football (Norther/Southern Glue League) are unlikely.

[lancashirelad]

Aug 12, 2017 14:52:24 GMT zeke said:

2-0 up. Two great goals from Reynolds. Att 379. Lee "offside" Hughes isn't having a great game

Att. 379 (including two from Lancashire!) - but it did not look that many. Heanor brought around 10 fans, I wonder if that will be the norm in this league?

And many thanks to the gent in the office who helped my mate Leo come into the ground on his disability scooter, and let us park right outside the office, it was very much appreciated.

[badsey]

I impressed my other half as I guessed the crowd as 375. Mind you she doesn't know much about footy. I took her to her first game at Gloucester last season, pointing at the dugouts she asked if they were the goals?!

[The Verner]

I think we had the highest crowd for the weekend.

And perfect performance by the lads !

[thesecondjack]

Aug 13, 2017 12:00:43 GMT dcx said:

I note that the Worcester News opted to send Geoff Berkeley to the Worcester Warriors pre season game (against a college!) than have him report on Worcester City. And BBC H+W also barely gave City a mention, shows how little interest there is for the club at this level now.

I believe Geoff will be focusing more so on Warriors this coming season following a reshuffle at the paper, but the paper will have a presence at games - they had a freelance reporter at the match yesterday for them, and they have to their credit been pumping out regular content about WCFC recently for a club at this level.

As for BBC H&W, it's a shame that we're not going to be getting Dan and Steve's live commentary each game if at all this season, but I'll certainly be asking the question as to if they will give us more coverage. I noted that Dan Johnson was at Bromsgrove's home FA Cup fixture last week for the radio, and I'd like to think we'd get the same treatment as them as we are at the same level. Time will tell!

[niels]

Interesting attendance figure. Quite a few people at the Worcester Show today said that it didn't look that many. So I had a quick count up from the Heanor video, which shows three sides of the ground, and unless there are twice as many standing on the bar side as there generally were last season (highly unlikely) then the figure is approx 25% too high. Unless of course they counted stewards, players, management, bar staff and the odd stray pigeon.

[genghis]

Aug 13, 2017 21:46:06 GMT niels said:

Interesting attendance figure. Quite a few people at the Worcester Show today said that it didn't look that many. So I had a quick count up from the Heanor video, which shows three sides of the ground, and unless there are twice as many standing on the bar side as there generally were last season (highly unlikely) then the figure is approx 25% too high. Unless of course they counted stewards, players, management, bar staff and the odd stray pigeon.

Attendance figures almost always include players and staff. It's skewed, but everyone does it. It's not limited to just Worcester or even just football.

[The Verner]

OR maybe there just was 379 people there !

[The sound and the fury]

300 tops, did a rough count and there weren't that many in the bar at the time

[Woodenose]

Aug 13, 2017 21:54:12 GMT genghis said:

Aug 13, 2017 21:46:06 GMT niels said:

Interesting attendance figure. Quite a few people at the Worcester Show today said that it didn't look that many. So I had a quick count up from the Heanor video, which shows three sides of the ground, and unless there are twice as many standing on the bar side as there generally were last season (highly unlikely) then the figure is approx 25% too high. Unless of course they counted stewards, players, management, bar staff and the odd stray pigeon.

Attendance figures almost always include players and staff. It's skewed, but everyone does it. It's not limited to just Worcester or even just football.

Quite a few of us on the bar side,so i think the attendance is about right.

[thesecondjack]

The attendance was correct. 379. I'm pretty certain players are not added so plop then on and you could argue we topped 400.

[niels]

Aug 14, 2017 7:45:41 GMT Woodenose said:

Aug 13, 2017 21:54:12 GMT genghis said:

Attendance figures almost always include players and staff. It's skewed, but everyone does it. It's not limited to just Worcester or even just football.

Quite a few of us on the bar side,so i think the attendance is about right.

I have no doubt that there were quite a few there, as there was last season. However I looked at a few games from last season and in order for the attendance to be somewhere near that quoted, it would have had to be twice as populated as it was last season. I find it unlikely that all of a sudden that side doubles it's attendance even though the overall crowd size is reduced. Football fans are creatures of habit and tend to stand in the same place every game.

[cloud]

I loved it when Time is Tight was played, sent a shiver down my spine & made the Victoria ground seem a little bit more homely.

379 looked right, nothing going on there. To be honest I didn't find the crowd/atmosphere much different to most of last season's games. I actually enjoyed Saturday more than I did most of last season's games. Makes me shudder to think of all the money we wasted in Conf North.

I didn't like the stripped down program though, not good value even at £2.

As for the football, when I started watching a few games of the reformed Hereford, I noticed players got more time on the ball - probably because the players aren't as fit as Nat North, so can't close down as soon.

[thesecondjack]

Aug 14, 2017 8:45:17 GMT cloud said:

I loved it when Time is Tight was played, sent a shiver down my spine & made the Victoria ground seem a little bit more homely.

379 looked right, nothing going on there. To be honest I didn't find the crowd/atmosphere much different to most of last season's games. I actually enjoyed Saturday more than I did most of last season's games. Makes me shudder to think of all the money we wasted in Conf North.

I didn't like the stripped down program though, not good value even at £2.

As for the football, when I started watching a few games of the reformed Hereford, I noticed players got more time on the ball - probably because the players aren't as fit as Nat North, so can't close down as soon.

I believe the programme will improve. Tomorrows edition has an interview with Shab and a match report from Saturday in it that I wrote. If anyone is interested in providing anything to the programme feel free to get in touch - I think an opinion blog from the terraces would be good, but just need someone to write it!

[Croc]

Last time I expressed an interest in contributing to the programme a couple of years ago - our esteemed Troika of a Board hadn't even the good grace to acknowledge communication.

So - sorry to say - I wouldn't have minded resurrecting some of the columns myself and TJ wrote back in the 2000s - but I'll graciously decline.

[Brooksiders Return!!]

Aug 13, 2017 18:16:17 GMT badsey said:

I impressed my other half as I guessed the crowd as 375. Mind you she doesn't know much about footy. I took her to her first game at Gloucester last season, pointing at the dugouts she asked if they were the goals?!

Its not the same without the D Stand formula for crowd calculations. !

[The Verner]

The Fact that we allow drinking of alcy pops now at this level saw a few more people stood by the bar door. There were 379 there...deal with it

[Tim Munslow]

379 is a pretty decent figure if you care to look at some of the attendances in the leagues one step above us (three times some teams) - and that for a side in exile!

I enjoyed the game and yes the pace is slower - I noticed that when Hereford were playing at that level.

For me there were performances all over the park: I was particularly impressed with Birch and Hayward in midfield, but then Matt Birley (who, as someone said above) looked the leanest I've seen him for a long time, as he was always a bit tubby. Fishwick looks a real find at the back, Tyler is obviously too good for this level and Reynolds looks a real prospect. His second goal simply beat the keeper for sheer speed, as he had no right to score from where he was. All in all a most enjoyable afternoon.

Didn't bother with a programme: had a team-sheet instead for 30p - much better value. With the help of the team-sheet it took about 20 mins to master who was who. I'm looking forward to next Tuesday and Sunday now.

[lancashirelad]

.[/quote]I believe the programme will improve. Tomorrows edition has an interview with Shab and a match report from Saturday in it that I wrote. If anyone is interested in providing anything to the programme feel free to get in touch - I think an opinion blog from the terraces would be good, but just need someone to write it![/quote]

I thought the programme for this level was OK, even more so when compared to some of the other Midland League programmes I've seen in the recent past .

However, the guy standing next me during the second half made an interesting point that there was hardly any advertising in it at all (apart from the full page add on page two from M. Pinches & Sons Ltd.) What was the reason for this? I always thought that advertising helped offset the cost of producing the programme?

[thesecondjack]

Aug 14, 2017 19:19:12 GMT lancashirelad said:

I thought the programme for this level was OK, even more so when compared to some of the other Midland League programmes I've seen in the recent past .



However, the guy standing next me during the second half made an interesting point that there was hardly any advertising in it at all (apart from the full page add on page two from M. Pinches & Sons Ltd.) What was the reason for this? I always thought that advertising helped offset the cost of producing the programme?

I'm not over involved in the programme beyond as I said, providing some content so not too sure on its going ons.

I think it's fair to say that sponsorship hasn't been given a push in recent times, and this is perhaps a reflection on that, but Kev has taken the lead on new sponsorships and it's certainly progressing well - you just have to look at the article published on the club website today to see some of the new sponsors. There's also been a great uptake on player sponsorship which was also in the programme. I could be wrong, but at a glance I think every player that made an appearance on Saturday has a sponsor!

There's going to be more programme adverts in the future. How many I'm not too sure. For now at least it's a pretty decent read for £2!


On a side note, I'm glad the teamsheet idea seemed to go down well and I hope people will continue to buy them, either as an alternative to the programme, or to accompany it!