Post by cyco on Nov 12, 2022 7:31:06 GMT
Firstly, as a Wimbledon ST holder, l want to apologise for the behaviour of the security team at the away end at our recent clash at Plough Lane. As l hope you are all aware the company responsible were replaced with immediate effect the following day.
However l wanted to make a couple of additional comments and what prompted this post was the arrival of my LOFT membership card the day after the game. As a fan of a lower league we all know the struggle to survive. Small gates, young academy players poached for FA, spiralling costs etc but we all love our clubs.ln contrast to what the big boys think it is us who are the life blood of the game in this country. Add up all the weekly gates throughout League 1 and below, through the National, the Isthmian etc the Northen and Southern leagues and the total outstrips the PL by a country mile! Every week of the season. I don't give a flying **** for most of the PL, I hardly watch it but l will go out every week and watch a lower league game. I came over to Brisbane Road last October to watch you play FGR. And when Becchetti or whatever his name was took you to the brink of extinction several years ago l stuck my hand in my pocket and contributed to your fund (as I'm sure many true fans around the country did) and l joined the LOFT. Still a member. I'd have hated to see you fall out of existence. I did the same for Bury FC. Lovely old club and ground at Gigg Lane. Dead. So l was disappointed to see you come for your first visit to NPL and misbehave. Fighting and flares and then l read in a LO blog calling our new stadium 'a nasty little place'! We worked ******* hard to get back to where we are and you of all people should appreciate how close you came to walking the same path. I love the terrace banter as much as the next bloke - give it 'you're not singing anymore', 'sacked in the morning' etc all day and night! But leave it there. At the end of the day we are all in the same boat, from Accrington to Wycombe and everywhere in between; we are never going to play in Div 1 again. But we'll always love the game. So maybe try and show a little love (if not love then respect) to your lower league neighbours, your brothers and sisters, because many of them will be giving it to you. Up the O's (after AFCW of course!).
However l wanted to make a couple of additional comments and what prompted this post was the arrival of my LOFT membership card the day after the game. As a fan of a lower league we all know the struggle to survive. Small gates, young academy players poached for FA, spiralling costs etc but we all love our clubs.ln contrast to what the big boys think it is us who are the life blood of the game in this country. Add up all the weekly gates throughout League 1 and below, through the National, the Isthmian etc the Northen and Southern leagues and the total outstrips the PL by a country mile! Every week of the season. I don't give a flying **** for most of the PL, I hardly watch it but l will go out every week and watch a lower league game. I came over to Brisbane Road last October to watch you play FGR. And when Becchetti or whatever his name was took you to the brink of extinction several years ago l stuck my hand in my pocket and contributed to your fund (as I'm sure many true fans around the country did) and l joined the LOFT. Still a member. I'd have hated to see you fall out of existence. I did the same for Bury FC. Lovely old club and ground at Gigg Lane. Dead. So l was disappointed to see you come for your first visit to NPL and misbehave. Fighting and flares and then l read in a LO blog calling our new stadium 'a nasty little place'! We worked ******* hard to get back to where we are and you of all people should appreciate how close you came to walking the same path. I love the terrace banter as much as the next bloke - give it 'you're not singing anymore', 'sacked in the morning' etc all day and night! But leave it there. At the end of the day we are all in the same boat, from Accrington to Wycombe and everywhere in between; we are never going to play in Div 1 again. But we'll always love the game. So maybe try and show a little love (if not love then respect) to your lower league neighbours, your brothers and sisters, because many of them will be giving it to you. Up the O's (after AFCW of course!).
