[Football] Notts County v Solihull Moors

[Poojah]

I always enjoy your posts on here, I think you’re a fantastic communicator.

Thanks for that mate, I appreciate it.

 

[Timbo]

Bizarrely, having dropped out of the football league following the most wretched of seasons last year, our home crowds have been the highest they’ve been since the late 90s in the second tier. Accounting for the fact that visiting sides in those days typically brought more than one man and his dog, they’re probably our biggest consistent home crowds of the post-Taylor report era.

There are a few reasons for that, such as the exit of our universally disliked former owner (who sealed his own fate after it came to light that he and his stooge Ian Holloway were getting into bed with a serially convicted fraudster as part of some shady financial arrangement), being allowed back into grounds for the first time in nearly 18 months and the fact that up until the four straight defeats we’ve just endured, we were going well and had reached the top of the league.

There are some big clubs down here though now, and even some of the lesser lights are very well backed financially. It’s going to be a very, very difficult to get back out of. Again.

I have a bit of history with Grimsby (worked and lived there for a while) so they've always been a team I've looked out for, went to watch them a few weeks ago at Woking as a friend of mine plays for Woking. There were over 2000 GY fans there having the time of their lives. Got to say I almost felt a bit jealous/nostalgic for when we were trawling around places like that being generally shit.

 

[Questions]

I seem to recall a similar situation in September 1976 when we played Charlton in the midweek league, with the Derby County league cup tickets on sale as you entered.

Yes 17k for that reserve game

 

[Poojah]

I have a bit of history with Grimsby (worked and lived there for a while) so they've always been a team I've looked out for, went to watch them a few weeks ago at Woking as a friend of mine plays for Woking. There were over 2000 GY fans there having the time of their lives. Got to say I almost felt a bit jealous/nostalgic for when we were trawling around places like that being generally shit.

Yeah, there’s definitely something to be said for the rawness of lower league football. It would be silly of me to say that I’d never like to see us in the Premier League slapping the likes of Man United about, of course I would, but I imagine you lose something from the experience too.

 

[Swansman]

Yeah, there’s definitely something to be said for the rawness of lower league football. It would be silly of me to say that I’d never like to see us in the Premier League slapping the likes of Man United about, of course I would, but I imagine you lose something from the experience too.

One day, who knows!

Most clubs that thought it was a good idea to spend all the money from the ITV deal before they even had the money had their development delayed until a point that is yet, almost 20 years later, TBD. Will be difficult to catch up. Think it will be a long, long time until any of the clubs in the current League Two / National League makes their way to the PL.

 

[Brovion]

I always enjoy your posts on here, I think you’re a fantastic communicator.

Having read his brilliant post on the 'A Level Geography' thread I totally agree with you!

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Yeah, there’s definitely something to be said for the rawness of lower league football. It would be silly of me to say that I’d never like to see us in the Premier League slapping the likes of Man United about, of course I would, but I imagine you lose something from the experience too.

So who is it?

Hull
Lincoln
Scunthorpe

 

[Poojah]

One day, who knows!

Most clubs that thought it was a good idea to spend all the money from the ITV deal before they even had the money had their development delayed until a point that is yet, almost 20 years later, TBD. Will be difficult to catch up. Think it will be a long, long time until any of the clubs in the current League Two / National League makes their way to the PL.

That’s precisely what happened to us. Being in the Championship at the time, the TV deal accounted for something like 64% of our income, and whilst we hadn’t necessarily SPENT the money as such, we were nevertheless committed to long-term contracts that we couldn’t easily get out of. I think Crewe were the only club affected to the degree we were, but they had the lifeline of a productive academy making them millions in transfer fees, whilst we haven’t sold a player for north of £1m up front since we sold John Oster to Everton in 1997.

As you say though, that was nearly 20 years ago and whilst it should be behind us by now, it isn’t. We ended up owing HMRC the best part of £3m (a lot of money to a club like Town in the early noughties), but rather than take the route of administration (which was much easier to do without sanction back then) our owner bailed us out in the form of a series of ‘benign’ loans which we are still paying back to this day, even after he recently relinquished control of the club. This created a culture where any kind of profit was used to repay those loans, rather than invest in the infrastructure of the club, leaving the club where it is today.

We have good, local owners now who have a genuine interest in the club and community. Not quite as wealthy as your uncle Tony, but I am confident we will be in much better shape in a decade’s time. You fell on your feet with him, you lot…

 

[Poojah]

So who is it?

Hull
Lincoln
Scunthorpe

In all my years supporting Grimsby, I can only recall us playing Hull once competitively, beating them on the way to our Auto Windscreens Shield win in 1998. We’ve had some decent derby ding dongs with Lincoln in our non-league and non-league years, but Scunny are the ones we love to hate. A club in massive trouble there, let me tell you - having wracked up over £10m debts attempting (and failing) to reach the Championship, their owner wrote them off but took ownership of their stadium and training ground, which sites on prime retail land. Sound remotely familiar?

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

In all my years supporting Grimsby, I can only recall us playing Hull once competitively, beating them on the way to our Auto Windscreens Shield win in 1998. We’ve had some decent derby ding dongs with Lincoln in our non-league and non-league years, but Scunny are the ones we love to hate. A club in massive trouble there, let me tell you - having wracked up over £10m debts attempting (and failing) to reach the Championship, their owner wrote them off but took ownership of their stadium and training ground, which sites on prime retail land. Sound remotely familiar?

That's bad news

Wouldn't wish that on any football fans