Glad you’re such an optimist Glynn 🙄
I feel the same CV, 10/11th in the championship what a laughing stock we have become. Not checked the football fixtures for next Sunday yet but if there’s a decent game on I reckon I’ll stay at home and watch that instead
Do you remember that song by Billie Ocean, When the going gets tough, some fans stop going! Good job you don’t support Swinton!
What have Swinton got to do with anything? Different expectations, different history. Those that were born before and during the 70s & 80s probably never thought they'd see us part time getting beat twice by both Dewsbury and Batley. Appreciate things change and you can't dwell etc. but still.
I'd be amazed if any non-season ticket holders are forking out for Sunday. I have commitments elsewhere but as a season ticket holder still not bothered I'm missing the game, I used to hate missing a game on the season ticket.
The season has started flat and fizzed out from there, I've stood by the club with season tickets, donating last years ticket, VIQI membership etc. there has to be a limited to all of this.
I fear for the future of this club, no academy, part time, not competing at the right end of the table, dwindling numbers through the gate - it's not exactly heading in the right direction from where we were 5 years ago.
Widnes need to come up with ideas that will buck the trend. Promotion of the games, the match day experience, engaging local school kids, reduced season tickets, free season tickets (Motherwell FC are giving away free season tickets to unemployed and low income individuals). Fair play for someone to actually try something new and see what the results are.
Hull KR have put a fan zone in their ground before a game, stalls/pints/games for the kids - can't we do this on the stadium car park? Put a club shop on there, sell flags, sell pints, sell food, play old Widnes games, bring fans together (home and away), have players not playing that day come and do some skills games with kids, pictures, get the fans connected with the club. Think outside the box Widnes, if you continue to do the same you're going to get the same results.
No-one I know thinks it is 1989 any more. What people do expect is better than winning 5 league games out of 16; imagine if we had had to play Fev or Toulouse twice instead of Swinton and Oldham!
Just for comparison, the 97 season which I have repeatedly heard was the worst people could remember saw us win 6 out of 20.
If you think about it, our situation is a bit like Halifax after they got relegated from SL, they nearly lost their Championship status and had some dodgy seasons before reasserting themselves as a top end Championship side, that is where I think we are realistically at tbh.
Just five wins for Dewsbury, two of them against Widnes.Gates of three figures loom on the horizon in the not too distant future if this shitshow is allowed to continue for much longer.It won't be a question of if but when.
[quote quote=13445I fear for the future of this club, no academy, part time, not competing at the right end of the table, dwindling numbers through the gate – it’s not exactly heading in the right direction from where we were 5 years ago. Widnes need to come up with ideas that will buck the trend. Promotion of the games, the match day experience, engaging local school kids, reduced season tickets, free season tickets (Motherwell FC are giving away free season tickets to unemployed and low income individuals). Fair play for someone to actually try something new and see what the results are. Hull KR have put a fan zone in their ground before a game, stalls/pints/games for the kids – can’t we do this on the stadium car park? Put a club shop on there, sell flags, sell pints, sell food, play old Widnes games, bring fans together (home and away), have players not playing that day come and do some skills games with kids, pictures, get the fans connected with the club. Think outside the box Widnes, if you continue to do the same you’re going to get the same results.
Some good ideas VM but Phil Finney said at the meeting last week running an Academy would cost us half a million pounds a year, which unfortunately we can’t afford. Also giving out free tickets to kids in previous years didn’t help get more coming to watch us. Some of the things you suggested, I can’t see us doing this season, with Covid still around, but hopefully we can try some of these things next season, and see if they work.
Hopefully we will have a much better squad next season, with players who are fit, and not ex SL players who are knackered.
I think we should judge Finnegan at the end of next season, when he’s had a season coaching players he’s brought into the club.
A coach coaches players in general not just players they have signed,in particular.Whoever the player is and no matter who signed him, you get the best from him and play the hand dealt.
A coach coaches players in general not just players they have signed, in particular. Whoever the player is and no matter who signed him, you get the best from him and play the hand dealt.
I have never understood this excuse "he never signed them" A coach as Sinbad says gets the best from the players he has at hand or doesn't he coach them because he did not sign them. We are allegedly going to sign eight players or so for next season, SF has never coached them before but now he's going to make world beaters out of them because he signed them and what about the other players still at the club he never signed. Strange process of thought
It’s not so much coaching the players, it’s the players he’s inherited, who have been injured for most of the season, that he hasn’t been able to coach, like Jewit, Clough, Cook, and Tompkins . Hopefully next season, Finnegan and the owners, will be buying some good players that he has a good chance of coaching and seeing play regularly, and have a big enough squad, to replace players that are injured, unlike this season, where he has struggled to put a 17 man team out, and having to include players who are injured and have no chance of playing in his 21 man squad.