Harry Dowds Green Shirt

Got out of the wrong side of bed today Lordy? Or are you just picking on random players? Get a grip man. Cheers, Harry

Really. I thought Crossley made a decent initial save, pushing the ball up and onto the bar. My question would be where the hell were our defenders when their player followed up to basically tap in. Get off Crossley's back. Your in the wrong Church. Cheers, Harry

Bob that was nothing for you. Together with my good lady, you were the only speactators watching the supporters team in Paris in '82, when despite meticulous planning we set off 2 players short following their (cough) arrest an hour before departure. I'm sure you resisted offers to play in that tournament and god knows we were short following the 2 "detainments" but your sterling backing of the team from the stands helped us reach the final against our friends from Frankfurt who co-incidently shared the camp site with us. So 1 weekend, 1,000 miles to watch a bunch of your mates representing the tics in a european tournament. Now thats going a long way. Oh and that p*ss up with the Gemans on the camp site after the final was something else. I still don't know how I drove home the following day. Cheers, Harry

Try this lift to Hartlepool Cheers, Harry

After your debacle in the beardy bus bog last season I'm glad you are looking for an alternative mode of transport this season. I still haven't got over the stench that filled the coach after you turned out a mix. And to make matters worse Beardy took one on the nose from a plastic latic in the services on the way home. Mind you it served him right for not pre booking the refreshment stop on the way back.

Don't go giving everyone ideas exile theres enough abuse of the system as it is. If your not careful SC will be on the phone to you. Cheers, Harry

Exile you are quite right. However, the club have made it quite clear when announcing season ticket renewals/sales, that they do not replace lost/stolen season ticket and suggest insuring them either through house contents insurance or an alternative facilty offered by the club. So the club, (1) make it clear from the outset that lost stolen tickets will not be replaced and (2) offer a facilty to insure against such loss. You can't then blame the club when someone loses their ticket or has it stolen, just as you couldn't go back to a car manufacturer after you have had your car stolen and failed to insure it, and you wouldn't get the organisers of a pop concert re-issuing a ticket that you had bought 6 months before and had lost or had stolen. I do agree with you though when you say "basically you are " and I have total sympathy with anyone in that position. I know how they feel, as my son had his ticket for an oasis concert lifted from his pocket at the Council house and had to purchase another one from a tout. Its a harsh reality. Boundary Park is antiquated and until the ground is redeveloped things will not change as there is no money in the pot to update systems in the meantime. Cheers, Harry

Its not that simple exile. Whilst the turnstiles are not over-run they are not exactly manned by budding Albert Einsteins. Anyone with a season ticket in the Chaddy end could go through 1 of upto 10 turnstiles, there are 3 in the main stand, 5 in the paddock & 6 in the RRE. Do you know how many people lose/misplace/have their season tickets stolen? Literally every match, with only the odd exception, someone turns up at the ticket office and says that they have forgotten/misplaced their season ticket. The club charge them for going in, put the money on 1 side and when the punter returns with the voucher, the money is refunded. Its a simple but effective measure and helps cut out some abuse of the system. With stolen season tickets, it is different. With respect, you can't rely on the turnstile operators to carry out those checks. It wouldn't work. The only solution is an automated system, which the club will be planning to introduce when the ground is redeveloped. The smart card system will have huge benefits all round, with easier access for fans (once everyone gets used to it), a probable saving to the club in match day costs and I would guess will solve the lost season ticket problem, as the card can be cancelled and a new one issued. In the meantime we will have to live with Boundary Parks 18th century set up. Cheers, Harry.

Miserable sod

The lookers option wouldn't be viable for just a couple of matches due to cost (2 matches at 1100 fans at average £13 per fan = £28,600). So the only 2 options would be to leave away fans in the small section of the RRE or put them in the paddock. Strangely enough, it is probably easier to segregate if they were in the paddock as there is a big no mans land between the paddock and the RRE and then the segreation of the dugouts and tunnel between the 2 paddocks. Having said that if we play the lashers next season, it would be nice payback to have them in the lookers on a typical January day.

We get to the last 2 home games of the season and we are still chasing the dream and our crowds rise. History tells us 73-74 and 89/90-90/91 that success brings in the crowds. With us only having the 3 stands and with home capacity restricted to a maximum 9,200ish what would you do with the away fans for the last couple of games seeing as they are against Southend and Crewe who are unlikely to bring more than 400-500. Do we give them the samll section of the RRE which holds 1,600 or look at the possibility of giving them the Rochdale road end of the main paddock that holds around 500 therefore making another 1100 seats available to home fans. I know this is thinking way ahead of ourselves, but seeing as everyone is in happy clappy moods, I just thought I'd throw a spanner in and await a reaction. Looks for tin hat and awaits replies from paddock season ticket holders and regulars containing many expletives Cheers, Harry

The 1990-1991 promotion season, IIRC, saw us lose only 1 match at Boundary Park all season. That was Hull City, who were bottom at the time. There is no telling where and when you will lose. You can only take it 1 game at a time. As we are unbeaten in 7 league games, the only aim should be to make it 8. Then 9, then 10 Cheers, Harry

I wouldn't think we will have a problem filling it as we took around 3,500 to Rochdale. Where will you put those that can't get in when that end is sold out? Cheers, Harry. PS. Whats your stewards policy on away fans. I hope they are not as "proactive" as Colchesters.

So is everyone still meeting at the Bricklayers arms for the prematch pint? Has anyone got an address or link to location please? Cheers, Harry

Hang on a minute Andy. The thread I've highlighted was initiated by me. It was certainly not a doom and gloom thread and if you read the thread, it was a debate about the merits of 2 individuals and preferences of 2 very good players at this level. To me its like asking who should play in midfield for England should it by Gerrard or Lampard with Barry or Hargreaves. Its great to have such riches to choose from. Nowhere in my posting will you find any critisism of Stefan Stam, only my belief that like any other player at this level he is more prone to mistakes and inconsistencies and that Gregan is more commanding, experienced at a higher level and makes less major errors ( that result in us conceeding goals) Maybe my initial posting could have been phrased better, but there again that could apply to so many postings. Personally, I think that it is great that we have got such good players to choose from for the position and we certainly look strong enough as a squad to be challenging come the end of the season, so as long as we are in the top 10 at the turn of the year (personally I believe we will be in the top 6). There is NO reason for any D&G. Cheers, Harry

Quite a balanced view there BB. Obviously we will continue to disagree on the merits of the two. What we both agree on though is that the 2 are more than capable at this level. I suppose really if we are making comparisons, it should be with previous years players, so to rephrase my OP maybe I should say I would rather have Gregan and Stam/Hazell than say for arguments sake Garnett and !!!! No. Lets not go there. Still think though that Gregan will make less mistakes that cost goals and that is the important difference between staying down and going up/reaching the playoffs. After a slow start, Hazell is getting back to his form of last season. Your also right about players in possession of the shirt. I have over the 3 years been a Lids fan as his stats have, when he has been fit, been consistent. In truth I did wonder with his 2 major injuries during the 3 years whether Shez would release him at the end of last season. At the start of the season I did not see him figuring regularly and that might still be the case over the course of the season. However, he has shown what a true profesional he is and at the moment as you say deserves the shirt. He certainly sets a good example to our up and coming youngsters and appears to be well worth his new contract. Cheers, Harry

I could see where Shez was coming from last night. Firstly, he has made it clear that he has a big squad and that he was going to use it, particularly for the cup games. Secondly, Burnley were playing 4-5-1 as they did on Saturday at Palace aparently and so he matched them up to try and ensure that we were not overrun in midfield. However, it didn't help that we conceeded after 12 minutes. I think he was then hoping to keep things as they were and snatch an equaliser. Thirdly, as he was about to change things for the last 20 mins to chase he game, we conceeded the 2nd goal having given the ball away cheaply. At that point he either had to accept that it was game over or chase it anyway. Whilst I am not a particular fan of 4-5-1 (I prefer 4-2-3-1) I could see his thinking last night. However, I don't think we have a forward who plays the lone role well. O'Grady whilst he is a grafter does suffer from playing up front by himself, but there again, would Hughes's legs do the chasing down that O'Grady does or young Allessandra for that matter. So the question really is should he have stuck with 4-4-2? We lost the game so it's easy to say yes we should. What I would say is that after the changes we looked more threataning, but there again, we were 2 down chasing the game and Burnley could afford to sit back and pick us off on the break. It would have been interesting though to see how Burnley reacted if Alessandra's effort had gone in. Cheers, Harry

Fair point. However, I dind't go to Swindon so can't comment personally, although all the reports (Chron, on here etc) suggest that Gregan (and the rest of the team) didn't pull any trees up that day. However, my point was more specifically aimed at his return to centre half when injuries allowed. The Swindon game you refer to, IIRC, saw the return of both Gregan and Liddell before they should have done. Both playing because of our horrendous injury sitaution at that time and Gregan playing in midfield, because basically there was no one else. Cheers, Harry

Well like you BB80 I am entitled to an opinion. I have in no way slagged Stefan off and I have made it quite clear from the outsetof the original posting that I like Stam as a player particularly at this level. Neither was my post a "lying in wait topic" as you say. The fact remains that the the comparison/choice has been mentioned on here recently and I used that fact as my opening comment. I also go on to say that Stefan "is a decent player." I was very happy that he re-signed during the summer. He is more than useful at this level and certainly adds strength to the squad from the defences point of view. Please see post 11 of this topic, where I make clear that (a) Stam tends to make 1 major mistake each match (often leading to us conceeding) and ( Gregans vast experience of higher level football are my reasons for forming my opinion. I don't think that suggests that my opinion was based purely on last nights game. However I cannot disagree that my thoughts are somewhat preconceived as I have had the best part of 2 years watching the pair in the blue (orange/Fluo yellow) shirt to form that opinion. I'm sure that myself, like others have opinions regarding several players for the other positions, Hazel & Thompson, Liddell & Smalley/Taylor, Davies & Allessandra etc etc. My belief is that with the way that we are set up we will score goals, the key to success this season will be clean sheets and IMO the inclusion of Gregan over Stam as first choice gives us the best chance of achieving those clean sheets. Too many times last season, particularly at home, we lost matches 1-0 (no I'm not saying they were (all) Stam's fault) and it was something that clearly needed rectifying. The extra points from turning 1-0 or 2-1 defeats or even 0-0 and 1-1 draws into wins is enough to make the difference between promotion/playoffs and another season in this league. Now Stam playing with Gregan instead of Hazel & Gregan is another matter. Gregan IMO is equally comfortable playing left or right of the central partnership and I believe that this gives Shez that extra flexibility. The Hazel / Stam pairing is also more than uselful, but my OP was based on the fact that I recalled the previous discussion was about certain posters preferring Stean to Gregan. Maybe, I should have expanded the OP somewhat to more fully explain my thinking, but it was only intended to be a brief comment. Finally for absolute clarity BB the post was not an attempt to assassinate Stefan, who I rate at division 3 level. Hang on. I better clarify that just in case the comment is seen as a swipe at any of our other players. I rate all our players at divsion 3 level.

Please refer to post number 11. I think that clarifies my opinion. Apologies if anyone read it otherwise. However, I did also say in the original post that I liked Stam. So, please it isn't a stupid post. Cheers, Harry

I'm not basing it purely on tonight. IMO, Stam, as much as I like him at 3rd division level, is nowhere near the Player Gregan is. I also recall Gregan coming back into the team last season with "less match time on the pitch" than Stam due to being out injured for 5 months and showing his "class" Would you also consider that an unfair judgement? With regard to you not going in for who is better than who, we all have our prefernces, and Shez actually has to make that judgement each week when selcting the team. Returning to Stam, I don't think that tonight was down to not playing reserve team football, but poor judgement, which he does have a habit of doing at least once per match and quite often costing us a goal, even when he has been playing week in, week out. That was really my point and something that IMO was confirmed again tonight. Stefan is a decent player, its just for me, having played at Championship and Premiership level for virtually all his career, must mean that Gregan has far more about him and for others to claim this is not the case, well they can borrow my rose tinted glasses next time they watch him.

Oops Sorry, Harry

I've seen a few comments on here in the last couple of weeks suggesting that Stefan should be in the team in front of our Captain. Although I like Stam, I hope that tonight has shown that he is not on the same planet, never mind the same pitch as Greagan. Cheers, Harry

Just 1 point to mention is the fact that there is no sign of Corney's "rant" on the OS and when Simon goes off on one you tend to see it there first. It just seems to me a little odd this "statement coming out less than a week after he says that they have received bids for 3 players and that unless their valuation is met the player/s will be going nowhere AND EVEN IF THEIR VALUATION IS MET THEY MIGHT STILL NOT SELL THE PLAYER. I have a feeling that this might just be a chron led story, because lets face it there wasn't much else to report after a "good" weekend and a fairly one sided game with nothing contentious happening. It just seems as if Yarwood has asked Corney after the match "what do you think of the crowd figure today." or "disappointing crowd today Simon." knowing full well it would provoke a response and give a nice back page headline on a quiet bank holiday Monday. The comments over the 2 weeks are inconsistent even given the poor crowd on Saturday.

There were still over 200 seats in Main Stand upper on Saturday and many more in the Paddock, so I don't think that argument holds. However I do see your point and if the crowds do increase, the main stand is likely to sell out every match. Cheers, Harry