thedonkeycentrehalf
Moved back to wear the gloves (again)
- Jul 7, 2003
- 9,131
I accept some of the moans on here but if you were organised and patient then it was a good morning for the kids. We arrived at 9:30 and got seats in the North stand. As it was a warm day we took plenty of drinks as any responsible parent should when taking children outside on a hot and sunny day. It doesn't take a couple of minutes to stop at a shop on the way over or to bring a drink from home. I'm also amazed at the amount of people who didn't take any sun cream for their kids.
It was obvious that kids weren't going to get autographs from all the players given the number of people there but my boy and his friends managed to get about a dozen players to sign their shirts along the length of the north stand. They didn't push their way to the front, they didn't have a parent forcing themselves forward to grab the players (unlike some parents who should be ashamed of their own behaviour). They waited politely and then, once they got an autograph, moved along to the next queue.
As for Jack the Lad, I'm not a fan of him on the radio but he did a good job in keeping the kids interest when, to be honest, watching a training session isn't much fun for little ones. Also, while those in the family stand had various gullys girls and the bouncy castle etc to keep them amused, JtL was walking along the front of the North stand having a laugh and a joke with the kids.
One comment about the day - someone in front of me mentioned that it was disappointing that they wouldn't be able to get all the autographs to one of the club staff that were there. The person was told that the open day was more about letting people see a training session than as a meet and greet. They were told that if they wanted autographs then the xmas parties were the place to do that as there was more time and numbers are controlled. Maybe that message should have been given out as part of the invitations to manage the expectation of kids and parents.
It was obvious that kids weren't going to get autographs from all the players given the number of people there but my boy and his friends managed to get about a dozen players to sign their shirts along the length of the north stand. They didn't push their way to the front, they didn't have a parent forcing themselves forward to grab the players (unlike some parents who should be ashamed of their own behaviour). They waited politely and then, once they got an autograph, moved along to the next queue.
As for Jack the Lad, I'm not a fan of him on the radio but he did a good job in keeping the kids interest when, to be honest, watching a training session isn't much fun for little ones. Also, while those in the family stand had various gullys girls and the bouncy castle etc to keep them amused, JtL was walking along the front of the North stand having a laugh and a joke with the kids.
One comment about the day - someone in front of me mentioned that it was disappointing that they wouldn't be able to get all the autographs to one of the club staff that were there. The person was told that the open day was more about letting people see a training session than as a meet and greet. They were told that if they wanted autographs then the xmas parties were the place to do that as there was more time and numbers are controlled. Maybe that message should have been given out as part of the invitations to manage the expectation of kids and parents.
