I know we're only 8 games into the new season but I'm seriously concerned about the detrimental effect Martin Hayes is having on our football club. The feelings I had after the end of last season (bitterness and anger that he was being kept on at the club) are starting to arise again. He's just passionateless, clueless and keeps churning out the same excuses over and over again. I can see this being a repeat of last season. Decent away form but the home performances are absolutely abysmal. Only this time round I doubt we will have a cup run to paper over the cracks. Look at the crowd on Saturday: 861 on a Saturday early on the season. If i'm honest, I don't think their even looked like there were that many in the ground either. If thats not seriously concerning then I don't know what is. I really cannot see why the odd neutral / floating fan would want to pay £12 to watch that constant underperforming lacklustre crap that Crabble has served up for the majority of Martin Hayes' reign.
As is being thoroughly discussed on the forum, Crabble is losing its magic and many of us have stopped relishing the prospect of being up there and are only doing it out of habit. This isn't just fully down to our under-par home performances either - it just seems most of the board are completely out of touch with the supporters. Just to outline some of the problems I consider;
- The football - Obviously I have already covered this but results and/or bad football do effect crowds pretty much all over the country. Last season we didn't win a home league game between the end of September to early March, and so far this season we have won once in four.
- Admission Prices - £12 to watch football in the sixth tier of English football is ridiculous. Obviously we're not the only club who are guilty of charging such prices, but your not going to convince the floating fans to come up at that price to watch what isn't even the top level of non-league football. When I first started coming to Crabble in 2002 the Adult price was £8 which remained the same until about 2007. Its not the adult prices that are particularly concerning, its the children. As we all know the lack of youngsters on match days is a worrying trend. £6 is decent for an 18 year old but why the fuck is it the same price for an 11 year old? Ridiculous. I would have seriously struggled to go to all home games at the age I did if those were the prices back then. Its just way too expensive and if any adult wants to take their children then they're looking at spending a fucking fortune. Theres just no incentive for parents to take their children. Why the fuck can't our club show a bit more initiative? If this isn't addressed ASAP then we're going to lose a whole generation of fans, Personally I thing a lot of damage has already been done here.
- Centre Spot - This subject has been pretty much been covered to death. But as you all know, it is a concrete shithole deprived of any club merchandise and is not a particularly pleasant place to drink in. I hate the leather seats - why not just have some proper fucking tables and seating like the old place did? Fosters and John Smiths aside, the prices are a fucking rip off and it takes an age to get served. What incentive do we have to drink in their instead of the Old Endeavor, which unlike the Centre Spot offers decent prices and a nice friendly atmosphere?
- Food - I rarely eat at Crabble but this is always getting complained about. The queues are always ridiculously long and most of the products are bland and overpriced (in fairness you can probably expect that from a football club!). But seriously though the amount of times when I haven't bothered to get anything because I can't be arsed to queue is ridiculous.
- Atmosphere- This in particular has gone very flat recently. Its always been a trouble trying to get more people to sing but the lack of PASHUN on the field has even left us Jollyboys not being arsed.
The main thing I have been enjoying about home games is the Old Endeavour. It has been an absolutely cracking place to drink for most of us. £2.20 all pints during happy hour (12pm-6pm) has been an absolute result, and I tried a burger on Saturday which lived up to the expectations. Saturday night was a fantastic night doing ermmm Kareoke! We were all absolutely slaughtered in the evening, well I was anything having taken advantage of £2.20 Stella Artois! I got up and sang about 8 times to various songs including the likes of Atomic Kitten's Eternal Flame and many Oasis stuff. I literally sounded like a cat being strangled, but I didn't give a shit as I was enjoying myself. Everyone was. Dave and Julie did lots of duets, Ryan Reid was his enthusiastic self whereas old crooners like Phil Smith, Neil and Dave Waterfield were fantastic. The latter sang a pretty enjoyable version of Anarchy In The UK which I videoed on my phone. I will upload them at some point as long as people don't upload any videos of me!
Anyway, me, Russell and his lovely girlfriend Bess had to leave at 9:30PM but it had been a very enjoyable evening that had helped take my mind off of the football. I somehow managed to make it home to Herne Bay and even went for a pint with my mum and her boyfriend down the local pub. I went to work with a steaming headache but it was worth it.
So, Saturday brings one of the more exciting away games of the season; Woking. Always a big game and one to prosper. I've got a funny nagging feeling that we're going to do them again, just to keep up our theme of being excellent one week to being reminded we've got a clueless manager the next. Either way it should be a jolly good piss-up with all the chaps. Father Snell (who was treated on his birthday to that amazing Blazingjoke performance) is coming for his first away game since god knows how long (Huddersfield?) and I assume Uncle John will be off work for this one too. Snell boys on the lash!!! I'm looking forward to having a pint with Kingfield Ender in the Sovereigns too, he's a top bloke. I just hope the game is not segregated and we're not stuck on that shitty terrace down the side!!!!!!!!!! LOL X See you all there.
On a final note, am I/are we over-reacting? I've just noticed that we're only 6 points off of top place and have conceded the least amount of goals in the division. Theres still along way to go. The thing is though I gave MH the benefit of the doubt for most of last season and each time he proved me wrong with dissapointment after dissapointment. I would love him to prove me wrong this time again with me sitting on the other side of the fence this time but I still cannot see that happening.
| Boreham Wood | 1 | - | 2 | Truro City | |
 Effiong (54) |
Martin (03) Walker (91) |
 290 |
|||
| Bromley | 2 | - | 2 | Salisbury | |
| Williams (28) Ibrahima (42) |
 Reid (36) Wright (91) |
605 |
|||
| Dartford | 3 | - | 0 | Eastleigh | |
| Sheringham (02) Sheringham (70) Breimyr (91 og ) |
1,079 |
||||
| Dorchester | 3 | - | 2 | Welling | |
| Flood (16) Dickenson (34) Bowles (48) |
Parkinson (60) Parkinson (86) |
508 |
|||
| Dover | 0 | - | 0 | Basingstoke | |
| 861 |
|||||
| Farnborough | 1 | - | 0 | Staines Town | |
| Gordon (32 og ) |
515 |
||||
| Hampton & Richmond | 0 | - | 4 | Chelmsford | |
| Haines (23) Rainford (23) Palmer (03) Akurang (69) |
489 |
||||
| Havant and W | 2 | - | 2 | Sutton Utd | |
| Woodford (20) Braham-Barrett (35) |
Taggart (52) Page (81) |
789 |
|||
| Maidenhead Utd | 1 | - | 3 | Weston-S-Mare | |
| Williams (70) |
Kirk (22) Price (64) Ingram (91) |
375 |
|||
| Thurrock | 0 | - | 0 | Tonbridge Angels | |
| 358 |
|||||
| Woking | 3 | - | 1 | Eastbourne Borough | |
| Ademoia (25) Cowen-Hall (06) King (91) |
Rowe (50) |
| |||
| 1 |  |
Welling United | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 11 | 11 | 19 |
| 2 | |
Woking | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 17 |
| 3 |  |
Dartford | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 17 |
| 4 | |
Weston-S-Mare | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 15 |
| 5 | |
Salisbury City | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 10 | 4 | 14 |
| 6 | |
Sutton United | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 13 | -1 | 14 |
| 7 | |
Dover | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 8 | |
Bromley | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 13 |
| 9 | |
Maidenhead United | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 13 | -1 | 13 |
| 10 | |
Basingstoke Town | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 12 |
| 11 | |
Farnborough | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| 12 | |
Truro City | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 11 | -2 | 12 |
| 13 | |
Chelmsford | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 11 |
| 14 | |
Eastbourne Borough | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 10 |
| 15 | |
Dorchester | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 15 | -5 | 9 |
| 16 | |
Tonbridge Angels | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 15 | 18 | -3 | 8 |
| 17 | |
Havant and Waterlooville | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 17 | -4 | 7 |
| 18 | |
Eastleigh | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 15 | -9 | 7 |
| 19 | |
Staines Town | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 5 |
| 20 | |
Boreham Wood | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 15 | -9 | 5 |
| 21 | |
Thurrock | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 20 | -14 | 5 |
| 22 | |
Hampton & Richmond | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 17 | -9 | 2 |
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