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Post by Tom Bowen on Dec 13, 2023 15:08:38 GMT
I'm sure we had some sort of commercial manager come in this season, unless I imagined it....?
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Post by archbishopchunder on Dec 13, 2023 16:44:20 GMT
Yes, we did. I think his name was Connor? Whether he is full time/part time or still around I couldn't tell you.
Some great discussion and suggestions on here, particularly by Boromike. I think the fanzone is a really good idea and must generate a little more income particularly from away fans. Ideas like this are great. Though you do have to have volunteers to do them.
Another good one is school of the week/business of the week when free tickets are given out. Not sure if we have done a lot of that?
I too hate the Spencer thing about saying "with all the stuff that's been happening in the week." Having been through a couple of administrations and nearly losing our club a couple of times this is not something I want to face again! Either come out and say it or stop hinting please.
Yes, I'm totally grateful too for Spencer rescuing the club from oblivion, but I've argued for some time now that he's taken the club as far as he can as a manager. He will eventually decide he wants to sell up so he needs to keep the club at a reasonable level. Therefore he needs to act to protect his investment by getting someone in. Perhaps in the close season? That doesn't mean I'm not grateful for all he has done. I'd be more than happy as well for him to move upstairs and become Director of football.
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Phil M
1st team regular
Club Welder
Posts: 145
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Post by Phil M on Dec 14, 2023 19:31:09 GMT
Indeed some great ideas Boromike.
I would just like to point out that FaST ran two votes for man of the match last season, with only about 12 votes in both!!!! Pretty demoralising when the winner has 3 votes!
FaST have been offering an opportunity more fan engagement for years. We are in desperate need of new volunteers to carry on the good work. We are about to appoint a new Youth Fan Liaison.
How many have supported the FaST live streaming events? The last one was operated at a loss, but we still plan to continue.
Fan zone opened, outside bar, turnstiles open from 12, 3 tv's to watch the early kickoff matches. All this was done at great expense to the club and FaST. Do you make use of it? The pizza wagon gave a variation of food avaiable, and more is planned, but again this costs the club with less turnover at the burger bar.
The club has paid for PRE Boys and 18 Yarder signs, bought the flags that we took to the playoff final, FaST currently has an order in for more flags, and there is no discouragement to hang up flags.
School of the week is a current initiative with many schools benefiting from free tickets. Unfortunately the players are only part time, they all have full time jobs, in many cases many miles from Farnborough. It's just not possible to get them into schools, if indeed they'd be welcomed.
The club has a mascot suit, but no one will commit to wearing it regularly. Are you volunteering?
There are initiatives happening, but unfortunately its the same few volunteers that are already overstretched to implement them.
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Post by Tom Bowen on Dec 14, 2023 19:58:00 GMT
Phil, and everybody involved at the club, thank you for your continued hard work.
Sadly a lot of it goes unnoticed, but every single person that has worked for both the club, and the supporters trust, in either voluntary or paid roles, always puts in 100% effort, and that's what goes to make up the brilliant setup we have as a community at Farnborough.
There are more people than I could possibly mention and would no doubt accidentally leave many out, but everybody is always appreciated. If there is heavy rain before a matchday, you can count on the rollers being out at the crack of dawn. If it looks like there is a vacancy to do a job on a certain day, there will no doubt be somebody willing to go and fill it!
There is a huge amount of work going into the club, both on and off the pitch, and we are a club on the up. It may seem hypocritical to my earlier post where I was criticising the manager, but ultimately, I, as we all are, passionare fans of the club and want the best.
We may literally be a different club in comparison to years gone by, but at the heart of it, we are the same club as we have been, with amazing people and amazing stories. We've recently had one of the best seasons we've had in a long time.
Let's keep it going, Boro!
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Post by boromike on Dec 14, 2023 21:17:15 GMT
Indeed some great ideas Boromike. I would just like to point out that FaST ran two votes for man of the match last season, with only about 12 votes in both!!!! Pretty demoralising when the winner has 3 votes! FaST have been offering an opportunity more fan engagement for years. We are in desperate need of new volunteers to carry on the good work. We are about to appoint a new Youth Fan Liaison. How many have supported the FaST live streaming events? The last one was operated at a loss, but we still plan to continue. Fan zone opened, outside bar, turnstiles open from 12, 3 tv's to watch the early kickoff matches. All this was done at great expense to the club and FaST. Do you make use of it? The pizza wagon gave a variation of food avaiable, and more is planned, but again this costs the club with less turnover at the burger bar. The club has paid for PRE Boys and 18 Yarder signs, bought the flags that we took to the playoff final, FaST currently has an order in for more flags, and there is no discouragement to hang up flags. School of the week is a current initiative with many schools benefiting from free tickets. Unfortunately the players are only part time, they all have full time jobs, in many cases many miles from Farnborough. It's just not possible to get them into schools, if indeed they'd be welcomed. The club has a mascot suit, but no one will commit to wearing it regularly. Are you volunteering? There are initiatives happening, but unfortunately its the same few volunteers that are already overstretched to implement them. I wasn’t meaning to come across as knocking the volunteers in any way shape or form, genuinely sorry if that's how it came across! You all do a fantastic job and I can’t commend you highly enough. I was just putting ideas out there with regards to growing the club. 3 votes for MOTM is totally demoralising, can I ask how the votes for man of the match were obtained when FaST tried it last season? A youth fan liaison sounds like a really positive idea, particularly with some of the unfortunate incidents that have occurred recently. When I mentioned engagement though, I wasn’t referring to fans getting involved with volunteering, I meant the club engaging more with the average supporter. Supporters are more likely to volunteer their time if they feel a part of the club and potential/new supporters are lot more likely to stick around if there is good engagement from the club. For the live streaming events, could the poor turn out be due to the inconsistency of the streams provided by the home teams, coupled with the fact those that might be interested are actually at the match? Personally, if I've not physically been at the match, I've purchased the stream and watched it at home just because times are hard and I cant justify an evening out on a Tuesday, if I am not actually going to the match. I do think though you would likely get more through the door and spending at the bar if there wasn't a charge to get in (just a thought). I have made use of the fan zone to watch the early kick off's and I have also purchased from the pizza wagon. However, if the club isn't profiting from the Pizza van then I wont use it in future, as I want every penny I spend in the ground to go to the club. I will stick to the burger bar. With regard to flags, the PRE Boys and 18 yarders signs are great! What I was getting at was how good the PRE would look with a wall of flags adorning the back of it! I believe a good number of supporters would happily purchase their own flags (I certainly would) if there was an easy and effective way of hanging them, and a simple competition advertised on social media during the off season would be a great way of encouraging them to do so! It was just a suggestion at how to improve both the atmosphere and the appearance of the ground, It certainly wasn't a dig about the flags the club have purchased. I know school of the week is underway as a friends kid received free tickets, is it only for schools right in the heart of Farnborough though? My kids go to school in Blackwater and there are quite a few schools in the vicinity that it would be good to tap in to. With hindsight I see the issue with players going in to schools given work commitments and geographic locations, certainly food for thought! How about reaching them a different way - could the club offer players to present trophies at end the of season presentation evenings of local clubs (these are usually on Friday evenings and happen once a year). Grass roots clubs are always crying out for footballers to present awards? Tapping in to Hawley, Rushmoor etc. would surely be a good idea, thousands of kids and families that already love football..... I can understand why no one will commit to wearing the mascot suit regularly, I am at a bit of a loss there tbh. The only suggestion that comes to mind would be a rota! I suppose how many times you'd have to wear it depends on how many volunteers there are sharing the duty over the season. With regard to the upcoming planned initiatives coming down to the same few overstretched volunteers, what sort of thing do the club need new volunteers for specifically? Is what help is needed advertised? It is hard to volunteer if you don't know what you're volunteering for.
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Post by borobob on Dec 15, 2023 0:18:58 GMT
Hold on everybody, I think we are getting off track here!!
The title of this thread is 'Season so far', and here we are discussing points that are useful, yes, but not pertinent to the title of the post!!
The FaST and the Community Trusts are doing amazing things. Our Superb volunteers are doing some great work. The Ladies football teams? Fantastic. We are receiving some fabulous responses from our sponsors. Fan Zone? Great idea, and being supported well. Main clubhouse is getting regular outside events coming in. Attendances are slowly rising, maybe not quick enough but up all the same! And, from a personal point of view, flags in the stand, or who wears the Mascot suit, or how often doesn't really matter to me. Good for a bit of atmosphere, and nice to look at.
Off the field things are pretty good I feel, and there is always a need for more supporters and volunteers but, and it's a BIG but:
The crux of the matter is that currently we are dead bang average as a team, win 4-0 & 4-1 lose 4-0 & 3-0, one away win all season, and we sit absolutely plumb in the middle of the table!!
Problem is we are games in front of our nearest clubs, having played MORE games than most around us!!
If we don't get three points on Saturday, we could be seriously looking over our shoulders at the black hole!! Even H & W have started to string some wins together!!
Surely that must concentrate the minds of those in charge??
It has always been my contention that, as good as everything might be around the Club, EVERYTHING revolves around, and relies on, what happens on the pitch!!!
Everything else follows on from that!! Why isn't that recognised??
I don't expect full flowing, winning, football every week, it's not possible, but a lift from the peaks and troughs, would be good.
My biggest concern is that very little attention seems to be coming from within the Club to analyse why we are so hit and miss, particular away from home, where the problems are, and how we are going to fix them!!!
Apologies if I am wrong on that front, but it's how it looks from the outside!!
Until that happens, we will be having the above conversations for years to come!!
Now get me those three points at Slough please, and it might make a grumbly old man a bit happier!!
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!
COME ON YOU YELLOWWSSAA!!
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Post by bbchris on Dec 15, 2023 11:18:30 GMT
[Caveat: I only get to see the games that are on National League TV]
From what I can tell from afar, our biggest issue appears to be the defence. We kinda at get away with it at home when we're expected to be on the front foot, but away from home we start alright, have some decent possesion, give away a stupid goal and then fall to pieces.
Last season, we were built on a strong defence and counter-attacking play which suited playing away from home better. Results reflected that.
So maybe we need to be a little less cavalier away from Cherrywood and build upon a stonger foundation.
Playoffs are still possible with a decent run and I would love us to get promoted to the National League if only so I can watch us every Saturday morning. However, I'm under no illusions we wouldn't come back down immediately in spectacular fashion. If full time Maidstone (nearly wrote Maidenhead) can't stay up, I don't think we can.
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Post by northlondonboro on Dec 15, 2023 11:53:12 GMT
The players are there to get results away from home. Sadly, the tactical acumen, is not.
As was said earlier on this thread, three at the back isn't working, especially not away from the San Cherrio. The midfield balance is wrong. We're not defending effectively as a unit, individual errors, not the kind of manager players run through walls for, etc, etc.
We have some terrific lads but I still don't expect us to achieve anything more than picking up the odd point on the road. Aveley was a one-off - no team are going to consistently score 4 goals away like we needed to in order to get that result.
Whatever we did at Maidstone where we matched them and almost won ought to have provided us with a template for away tactics / performances / mentality moving forward. But it didn't. And now we're back losing at teams that are unlikely to ever trouble the play offs.
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Post by msgribbin on Dec 15, 2023 13:54:56 GMT
I'm not sure the squad is strong enough to get consistent away results. I like the majority of them for their strengths - and often their spirit too - but really how many of our team would get into Yeovil's first eleven ?
The home/away issue does have a lot to do with the opposition, their attitude, how they set up etc. It isn't only about us and our shortcomings but yes, sometimes we have appeared to lack a bit of resilience. That might be to do with how much the side has chopped and changed this year. Some key summer signings didn't work out and Spencer was rightly ruthless in dispensing with Partington and Upward. It's not surprising really that we've sometimes lacked cohesion.
Where I think it's fair to question Spencer is on full backs - losing Freddie and John O without replacement has hurt us badly, limited our tactical options and plays into the 'three at the back' issue. Full-backs/wing-backs are integral to the modern game and, much as they've worked at it and improved, Selim and Reggie are still a relative weakness working backwards. Like them both very well and really appreciate how much commitment they've shown but they ain't really defenders. That's a definite issue to remedy moving forward.
And part-time teams have a tactical as well as a general conditioning disadvantage. It's difficult to change formations around when there's only really been an opportunity to coach/train two or three core formations. It's interesting that sometimes when we hit form it looks as if we're not playing to any particular formation at all. But more often we seem to be persevering too long with tactics that aren't working - or changing formation, losing the limited solidity we had and making a bad thing worse.....
I think the problem here is baked into being a part-time club to some extent and will only really be overcome with more continuity of a well-balanced squad from one season to the next
But I do think Spencer can advance us towards that. At least I don't see why he can't. And I do think he's more than earned the opportunity. Like all of us, he has to learn from the mistakes/stuff that just didn't work out....but he does seem to have the restless energy and drive for it.
And actually he could maybe be used more as the 'face of the Boro' in the area. I know that won't sit well with some but thing is a PR campaign often benefits from a 'big personality' focal point. A lot of good things happen in and around the club - massive heartfelt credit to all volunteers, you make the ground a good place to be - but in PR terms doing good, worthy stuff sometimes isn't enough. You need something extra to cut through the noise !
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smithy
1st team regular
Posts: 65
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Post by smithy on Dec 22, 2023 16:46:21 GMT
Season so far. 6/10. I think we need a more difinitive style of play. What is the boro brand right now? Every game it seems to change which can only be hard for the players to understand as each week it’s a different way to play.
I know Spencer is divisive but at the end of the day we’ve had a great few years, so a bland year isn’t the end of the world. And we all know sometimes Spencer has a Worldie of a player come in we didn’t really know of until it happens. So I will keep the faith. We are doing nearly as well this year as last in a much tougher league compared to last year, so not too many complaints. We need to win away from home though a lot more (although saying that we’ve got points from half our away games so it could be a lot worse).
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