Cod Almighty | Diary
It’s all in the numbers
16 May 2022
Trentside Diary writes: Yesterday! Six-year anniversary of that final. That heady day when the pain was over, or so we naively thought at the time.
We spent some time rewatching a couple of clips we took on the day, just after the Arnold goal. What strikes me now is how angry the faces look. It wasn't anger, obviously, just the release of six years of frustration and disappointment following many years of slightly milder frustration and disappointment. I forgave Hursty the ear-cupping. He had been just as frustrated but some fans had made it about him.
Now we're back down as was inevitable until something significant changed in the boardroom. So what about now?
A crazy Sunday game left us exactly where we were at the start of the day. I wasn't at Eastleigh but it sounded fun for those who were and for the players who had a run out. Ollie Battersby getting his first team start is a bonus, having first joined Town at under-nines level. He’s worked hard and been prepared to go out on loan to get games.
Teams were poised and the minute it was over, details of tickets for the National League "Eliminator", or whatever it’s called, against Notts County were released.
2000. Just 2000 tickets. Are we surprised? Not really. They were always going to give us as few tickets as they could reasonably get away with. Could they have given us more? Absolutely but why would they. There have been a few social media posts between supporters, some sensible, others less so.
It's funny how fans like to accuse others of being disorderly or violent. There was the idiot from the Times who said that a train was wrecked last time we played. Grubby due to dangerous overcrowding, lack of seats, bins and toilets yes. Wrecked? I very much doubt it. Those fans were a cash cow for the train company, nothing else.
Apparently because we "threaten to invade the pitch" then we will be given a smaller allocation. Same must go for "stamping on his head" or any of the other similar chants. Silly, yes. Harbinger of violence? That's laughable. If you really think that, you embarrass yourself by commenting.
Finally, the stand that maybe holds over 3000 safely. It might be a lot newer than Blundell Park but it is a pretty shitty stand if you get as many as 2000 in there. The only saving grace nowadays, with no fences in front of crowds, is that in a real emergency fans could escape onto the pitch rather than be crushed in the concourse below.
It annoys me that the police have so much say in football games, the time, or the allocation. The idea that fans drink less if the match is earlier just doesn't hold up. In my experience they just start earlier and by far the majority of fans - and by that I mean 99 per cent plus - still behave perfectly acceptably. I'm sure one of the issues is some clubs draft in lots of stewards who know very little about football. They misinterpret the noise, the limbs, the sheer passion as getting out of hand. I've never noticed the police being allowed to decide on when shops can hold those ridiculous sales where people get crushed or start fighting over a TV.
To avoid this frustration in future, clubs should have to state at the beginning of the season what their away allocation is and that's it, irrespective of who is playing or the game. If they weren't sold within a week say of the fixture then they revert to the home club as currently happens in the Osmond. A club would have to balance potential income against home advantage. For away supporters the FA Cup requires 15 per cent of the ground capacity up to a maximum of 9,000, provided that the spaces are in a segregated stand. Meadow Lane has a capacity for league games of 19481 according to the latest figures I could find. That would have given us just under 3000 tickets. Far more reasonable.
Anyway, apologies for the pet peeve. It's 2000. We live with it. If you're one of the lucky 2,000, get behind the boys and make some noise. A lot of bloody noise. Let's drown them out!
UTM.