Southend Thread
 

Hi all
Preview time for this weekend's game. You'll find the usual here - ASFC News Story > 3851

Also there's a slightly different perspective here - ASFC News Story > 3848 this is a new feature, so let me know what you think.

More to come, so I'll post some more updates here later.

Dan

Re: Southend Thread
 

Excellent Dan really like the different perspective with thoughts on the away team from one of their own fans:)

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nice one dan a very balanced view from the southend fan also.:)

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Thanks for thoughts - I always welcome a bit of feedback! Hopefully Martyn will be providing us with the view from the opposition ahead of every game for the rest of the season.

Also whipped this up as a bit of information, and yes, shamelessly an advert! ASFC News Story > 3853

Before 3 o clock tomorrow there should be another article and perhaps some audio so keep 'em peeled!

Re: Southend Thread
 

The Southend fan is right about Mohsni. I recall he headed a cracker into Stanley's net down at Southend, although the lads battled hard and deserved the draw.
No easy games, but good luck to Th'Owd Reds.

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The bit about 'audio' intrigues me. I'll wait and see...

Here's a reasonable preview from a Southend fan:
Accrington Stanley Match preview

But who on Earth is 'Stanley Wotherington'? And the recent form statistics must have thrown a wobbly.

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Like the Southend view, great idea Dan!!

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Some thoughts from Jimmy Bell here YouTube - 11-02 jimmy bell southend.wmv

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He's not playing! He's out for up to eight weeks with ankle ligament and tendon damage, according to the BBC.

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Howdy
Here's some thoughts from Ray Putterill ahead of today's game - ASFC News Story > 3857

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Hope Putterill gets a start today.:)

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Whats the pitch like? Bet its rather boggy in places.

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read post 16 in Shopping thread.:)

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Match off.

Pathetic not to have any pitch inspection before the away lot travelled. Brentford take two here we come.

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Bloody ridiculous at this time of day. I really feel for the traveling fans, if there was ANY doubt then surely an earlier inspection should have been called.

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oh great another fiasco.:mad:

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Its getting beyond a joke now. Only game off in League two and whats this gonna cost in expenses we can ill afford. Should have inspected early this morning and saved the travelling fans a lot of money too.

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Lost for words:(

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Well apparently the club have made arrangements for Southend fans to go and watch Rovers today. Are we trying to anger them further!? :)

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more chance of being struck by lightening mate.:( if the running of club aint sorted this will be me last season ticket.

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It will be a soft ref probably did not want his boots to get muddy, he should of been with me this morning watching young lads play on the fields. ITS A JOKE!!!!!!!!

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its the groundsman i feel sorry fer, works his nuts off on a cabbage patch, no one will ever convince me 70K was spent on that.:mad:

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The game was obviously going to be off, with our pitch the way it is. Why we didn't go through the formality of inspecting it before the Southend team and fans travelled I have no idea.

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Stanley are currently a bit of a laughing stock in football league circles. The club still has an Evo-Stick league mentality, and facilities for that matter. Looking at that picture of the pitch, tells it's own story. It's a disgrace, pointed out by Aldershot FC last August !!!!, The football league must be close to taking action action against Stanley for the complete shambles of a pitch and stadium

Re: Southend Thread
 

Our club is going down the pan & it kills me.

We are being run by a man whose only experience of football is videoing the game.

More & more will just not bother like Cashy..... such a shame

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I couldn't agree more WM, its gone beyond farce!

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We stopped a few getting on the bus down here but some insisited we were pulling their leg and carried on anyway.

Couple of Southend fans got off Rochdale bus ( presumably they came by train ) and asked where the ground was. Told them it was off, wish I had a swear box I'd be rich !

Can see the Football League coming down hard this time, wouldn't suprise me if they insist on early pitch inspections from now until the end of the season

Re: Southend Thread
 

This is an absolute farce..... Posted my score prediction without looking on the fishy site / or other threads, went to put my normal online footy bet on and then noticed no betting on our game !!!:eek:

If £70000 has been spent on that pitch, they want to bill the company who laid it for all the lost revenue and all other expenses that have resulted from games called off.....floodlight costs, etc,etc,etc.:mad:

Really do feel sorry for the Southend folk who would have travelled.:(

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the real shame jase is i am already aware of folk that aint bothered this season, n all fer the same reason its going down the pan soley because of the ownership fiasco, i have no doubt of that, no-one i know expects a super stadium or big signings as that is beyond a club like stanley, but everyone i think has a right to have what stability a club like stanley can provide, many hoped this would have come to pass by now, but no it just drags on n on n on.:(

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I spoke to a couple of Southend fans at the ground,they been travelling since 7.45 this morning , they seemed very understanding and were heading for Blackburn Rovers instead.
To say £70,000 has been spent on the pitch it is time Stanley sued the company who did the work.

I just hear radio and ref on passing the buck, says Stanley should have requested an early inspection , and it now up to F.A. as to what action to take.

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Common sense tells me its going to get worse before its gets better the PITCH i mean
We need to relocate the games to another venue ie Burnley/Blackburn for the rest of the season
Need to get contracter back to dig the bloody thing up and start again they cannot keep patching it up
By the way the local council pitches were played on this morning by the kids !

stanley nick

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Absolute disgrace, and I am once more utterly ashamed to be a Stanley fan. A Southend fan from Harrogate on a motor bike saw my scarf and stopped me after I had got 100 yards up the road and I didn't believe him. I had checked the website just before setting off and was just watching all the footie matches in progress over on Wilson's playing fields. Without a drought we are never going to get any matches on for months, and it's not as if we have had any meaningful rainfall this week! I hate to be wise after the event, but I remember posting months ago before the work on the pitch started that 70 grand was like in the wind. Can we not beg Rovers and Burnley to let us play our home games alternately on their patches, please? Whaddya think, Dave?:D

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Its one thing after another.... Player registration fiascos, club mascot fiascos, tax bill fiascos, ground grading fiascos, ownership fiascos, more player registration fiascos, players not being paid, managers not being paid, small companies not being paid......

There is nothing to feel proud of about being Stanley, bar Coley & Bell

Re: Southend Thread
 

And the players!

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Might end up that way yet, which is even more expense for Stanley. :(

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We're doomed, then.

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I don't think you've heard the last of that one yet if Barnet finish in the bottom 2 :eek:

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Bet there playing on the White Ash, I feel sorry for the Southend fans they must have set of early doors to get up here, there must have been some doubt yesterday, don't think its rained since then, seems like Wallace and Gromit prevail at the Crown:rolleyes:

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Sue the contractors .... dig up the pitch .... ask for the use of Rovers or Burnley grounds. All these are big decisions. There is no-one at ASFC capable of making such big decisions.

How ironic that in a week when one of the triumvirate has been publicly begging support, the club is about to lose yet more money because of the need to postpone a game and all that that entails. Apart from the financial loss, it puts yet more pressure on the players who will again have to play two games within a week. It makes a mockery of the "Back the Boys" campaign.

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Simple question- Who is responsible fer calling n early inspection?

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I don't think we need to look too far ahead, as I can't see the club surviving much longer. This rudderless ship with the ghost of EW at the wheel is going to get blown out of the water. That man will never be forgiven.

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Not sure how long for but it did rain fairly hard at one point last night, I know it was throwing it down at 9ish because I checked for somebody else on here.

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Can't have rained that hard Dave, I can always tell if its raining my windows come in for some hammer, heard very little last night, but even so if games are called of after every rain shower, things are looking extremely dodgy

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Step back for a minute and think what the people who are employed by the Club must be thinking and going through....

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I cut my losses in December - had enough with the whalley and twin farse so quite used to postponements lol BUT couldn't take the upset of the clubs running and unfair on coley and players! Even bollough park was hive of footballing activity this morning - without a groundsman and money spent on pitch, and more chance of being boggier than crown, yet the football played. 70 grand crown pitch yer having a laugh!!!

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I think if I punched the guy on the nose I would feel much better, for a short while:mad:

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We have better facilities at University of Manchester than Stanley have. More than 27 football pitches in Northern Moor by the M60 and I was playing on them on Wednesday, I'm pretty sure the pitches get used by a few different local/university leagues for football and rugby several days a week and I have only played on pitch in the state of Stanley's once. I just don't get how it cuts up so much.

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why its nowt to do wi them, its the clown responsible fer NO early inspection were the buck stops Simple as. plus what about stanley fans who have travelled n southend fans, why try to water this farce down?

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If I were employed by the club, I would think it is being run by self-centred and incompetent numpties.

I wonder if the very recent seminar on match-day experience covered the issues arising from pitch condition and match postponement.

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Nail on the head.

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Rob Heys? He was on the radio defending the state of the pitch.

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I think the problem is ( and it's happened on numerous occasions ) they hope that if they wait for the referee to turn up he will be put in a position to play it, especially if the visiting team have travelled some distance. Doesn't work that way. If the pitch is unfit the referee runs the risk of being thrown off the list and even worse sued.

If thats not the case then somebody more qualified should at least check the pitch and see if it's going to warrant an inspection. I've been able to tell half the time if a match is going to be on and I've been nowhere near the ground. As an ex-referee you get an idea what's what, call me :)

Re: Southend Thread
 

not watering anything down Cashy, they are the ones who will have to deal with it face to face.

Having made the trip over myself which is nothing compared to the Southend supporters trip up there are no excuses for what happened.

I also agree it make's us laughing stock on top of everything else that is bubbling away.

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Thats the job they are employed to do! n also why i agree wi revived reds comment, if yeh had said yer last comment before i would not have thought yeh were watering it down.;)

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You said last night with the state the pitch was in last week that it was a good chance it'll be off.

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Spoken to Lew on the phone earlier,the game wasn't called off because of that sanded arear which the ref had inspected not long after he arrived at the ground!!he was happy with that as long as sand was put down,which was done by buzzer.apparently when he came out for a second inspection after the sand was put down he didn't even go anywhere near that area but went to a diffrent arear which had a small amount of standing water and bounced the ball which only half bounced,thats when he called it off not because of the sanded arear.

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Don't tell everybody, they will think I'm a smart ass ;)

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it was chucking it down pretty bad for a couple of hours roundabout 3am this morning ... i know i was awake .....

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Two very tough away games next, followed by 5 of the next 7 at home!!!! Just not too sure how that pitch will hold up?????

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heard Rob on radio, he was making a fair point.The pitch was no worse than when we played Morecambe .I just hope that Stanleys " owner " amends the pitch for next season , but I shan't be holding my breathe.

Re: Southend Thread
 

The game against Morecambe shouldn't have been played either, really; on account of the meteor landing site in the middle of the pitch.

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...and despite all your well documented problems your fans are a credit to your club.

Out of adversity....:):):)

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But the referree allowed the game to be played against Morecambe. Todays ref just been on radio again, says apart from the wet parts he found it uneven and could end up with broken ankles etc and wasn't prepared to make that risk.

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this was the pitch before the bury game on the 8th its only got worst since :(

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Overheard from a woman walking up Livingstone Road.

"The first one I came to was called off because the pitch was frozen, the second one because the pitch is waterlogged. Back the Boys? I won't be coming back here for a long time." Frozen pitch fair enough, but today was a farce. We are now a laughing stock both within Accrington and outside it. :o

Do one...just do one, O'Neill and Whalley. :mad:

Re: Southend Thread
 

perhaps management (?!) should hire Billy Smarts big-top to cover the pitch on non-match days. And it does sound like cash-flow led to gambling on a lenient ref - no doubt Southend will require the League to question Stanley's competance to feature as a professional club. Wouldn't be surprised if we were ordered to play our 'home' games on opponents grounds for the rest of the season. Time for an Egypt style protest to encourage an end to the incredibly inept ownership situation ? We really are mickey mouse backstage at Stanley. Rant over - for now.

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Makes you wonder if there were loads of volunteers forking the pitch more often it might help the problem. How many people do you see on other league grounds tending the pitch before and at half time in a match ?

The trouble is all the volunteers have been driven away

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i think the magic towel effect has run outta magic or maybe they cudnt find the magic towel hiding in the changing rooms today ? or was it the dustpan wot got the bury game on?

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The handling of today's shambles all goes back to Rob Heys, surely he should have got in touch with the match referee earlier to sort out an inspection at a reasonable hour. The referee is not to blame for the state of the pitch, he just made a decision which he felt was made to protect the players from injury. I feel sorry for the Southend fans that had a wasted journey and this just adds to our cashflow problems with yet another cancelled match. Is it too much to ask to get a game on at 3pm on a Saturday? If this continues then the Football League will be forced to act and sort out some sort of punishment. I agree with an earlier comment that the club tried to force the referee to play the game due to the lack of time given for the inspection before the game and this just shows why we are the laughing stock of the league.

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Loads of Southend fans ended up at the Peel Park, ironically enough watching a game on the old pitch whilst enjoying some Northern hospitality! They were all in good humour thankfully and had some good banter with them before they headed off back to the train station for the 6pm train, they said they'd be home at around 10:30 ! Maybe the Club should relocate to it's former home , no drainage problems there!:rolleyes:

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that would be a dream come true linds fer us older gets.;)

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That would be heaven would love Stanley to be back 'home' :)

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If only...if only...Stanley's true home for me, but can't see it ever happening.

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It is obvious that Stanley is not being run by competent or profesional people at the moment. It seems that the cardboard millionaire is trying to get blood out of a stone, Heys seems to be unable to cope, it all seems to be falling apart at the top. But lets look on the bright side, England won the Ashes!

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Whilst I can sympathise and empathise with most of the comments on this thread, what i cannot understand is how will the Football League or FA for that matter get involved. Let's face it, the weather around Lancashire has been terrible and as has been pointed out, the ground is at the foot of a hill. Blame the contractors who put in the drainage which obviously isn't working. Hell I came up from Wigan yesterday, with my lad and sat in the pub waiting for the kick off whatching the Manchester derby, yes i was disappointed, but lets get a grip of reality. It is all very well blaming all and sundry, but no one on here blames Ilyas (I don't either) yet he was the one who paid for the pitch! We have come through a pretty poor winter and the only thing that will stop the freezing or drowning of the pitch is a cover for the whole ground (and that aint gonna happen). I missed my football yesterday, but if a referee says its unfit then its unfit. Earlier inspections would not have made a ha'penth of difference. I went to Wigan v Blackburn last week and how that match was played I do not know, it was a swimming pool on the pitch. Different referees, different standards.
My only fear is that we are backing up games now and will be forced to play 2 a week for the foreseeable future.
Had we been a non-league team then the game would have been on probably, but we are a professional side now with so called professional referees upholding the health and safety and wellbeing of both teams.

Re: Southend Thread
 

Of course it would. The Southend fans wouldn't have had to travel all that way.

The point isn't that the game was called off (what's new?), it's the appalling actions from our club in failing to schedule an earlier pitch inspection; letting the opposition team and fans travel for no reason, hereby making a further mockery of our name.

Calling the game off was a mere formality with the state it's in.

Re: Southend Thread
 

I went up to Peel Park to watch my lad play. The Southend fans were great and weren't going to let their day be spoilt. They really got behind Peel Park, singing, heckling the opposing "fan", questioning the liners decisions. At the end they bought a beer for all Peel Park players. A credit to Southend and football, true gents. Will they be back for a mid-week evening match? Somehow I don't think so.

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<<<<<<
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Perhaps people should change there Avaters in here to show there feelings towards the muppets in charge?
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I stole mine from shakermaker :)

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Good point gaz!

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Would anyone like to comment on the fact that two (yes 2) League One matches were postponed last night (Tuesday) due to waterlogged pitches! It is not just a problem at the Crown but elsewhere as well.

Re: Southend Thread
 

When were they called off is the point Outback, had the away fans travelled?:confused:

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Both called off around 1.5 hours before the game. Bristol Rovers hit by a downpour before the game, Exeter appear to have problems with their pitch, they are taking legal advice. Interesting to note Exeter issued a public apology to all fans.

I don't think the postponement itself cause the biggest stink on Saturday, although they did play on the amatuer ptiches next door. It was the timing of it when they knew they had problems. Somehwere on here it was stated that as early as Thursday there were possible problems.

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... and that it's one game after another

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Just looking through some old articles and here are a couple of quotes:

1972-73 Problems with the pitch at the Crown Ground forces Stanley to return to their former home of Peel Park for a game against Nelson.

1975-76 Further pitch problems at the Crown Ground lead the club to consider a permanent move back to Peel Park, though this was not to be.

1979-80 Finished runners up in the division but denied promotion due to pitch problems.

1983-84 The club spent £40,000 to improve the pitch that had caused them so many problems in the past.

Re: Southend Thread
 

The history of our pitch problems is covered in Phil Whalley's great book "ACCRINGTON STANLEY - the club that wouldn't die".

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On the local news down here it said Exeter had spent £150000 on their pitch in the summer so they've been even more ripped off than us.

Re: Southend Thread
 

Hooray! It's being resolved.

ASFC News Story > 3864