Sami disappointed with the crowd for Southampton game [video]

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Don't forget the 50p booking charge.

£1.50 booking charge for me. Even if you went up to the Amex to buy the ticket and paid in cash. Or maybe they slapped a surcharge on me for moaning about being kept waiting 20 minutes to be served in a queue of three people.

 

[Icy Gull]

And Oscar did!

I agree, for what it's worth.

As you know I was a fan of Oscar and was gutted he left, might yet be a fan of Sami though. He seems to be having exactly the same player issues that did not get sorted very well last season, will he be better backed than Oscar?. Hope he doesn't get the same injury woes though

 

[Bozza]

£1.50 booking charge for me. Even if you went up to the Amex to buy the ticket and paid in cash. Or maybe they slapped a surcharge on me for moaning about being kept waiting 20 minutes to be served in a queue of three people.

Really? I booked online and there was no added extras at all for the 'Print at Home' option - a straight £14 for an adult ticket. If you wanted to collect at the Amex instead, I believe it was £1 extra.

 

[Ecosse Exile]

Maybe we've all been a little bit spoilt over the last few years, where was the Vicente? Where was the Wayne Bridge? The Ulloa? The smattering if Spanish talent, that could turn a mundane game into something worth watching with one moment of magic?

I wouldn't have gone anyway, Scotland to Brighton for a friendly ain't happening whoever were playing but ive followed Brighton for enough years to know that if the product on the pitch isn't good enough the attendance drop.

The team we have at the moment, in my opinion is, well, its ordinary, there's nothing there to excite me, OK Lua Lua does offer that, but is he going to get more than 20 mins a game? Only if we want him crippled for the next game, Buckley excites me but will he be fit enough to play? I wouldn't bet on it.

This season could be a wake up call to all involved, the stadium and infrastructure is fantastic, but its the team on the pitch you go to see.

I hope they surprise us and sign some players that do excite us all over the next few weeks but I won't hold my breath, if this is ffp and we just need to get used to it, fair enough, but if the team ain't winning, the crowds WILL drop off.

 

[Bozza]

Really? I booked online and there was no added extras at all for the 'Print at Home' option - a straight £14 for an adult ticket. If you wanted to collect at the Amex instead, I believe it was £1 extra.

Just checked for Sheff Wed and these are the 'extras':

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Really? I booked online and there was no added extras at all for the 'Print at Home' option - a straight £14 for an adult ticket. If you wanted to collect at the Amex instead, I believe it was £1 extra.

Yup, just checked my stub receipt from last night. Definitely paid £15.50 for cash. Ticket itself says £14.

 

[Quinney]

Pretty sure I paid £1.50 per ticket admin charge.

 

[moggy]

Maybe we've all been a little bit spoilt over the last few years, where was the Vicente? Where was the Wayne Bridge? The Ulloa? The smattering if Spanish talent, that could turn a mundane game into something worth watching with one moment of magic?

I wouldn't have gone anyway, Scotland to Brighton for a friendly ain't happening whoever were playing but ive followed Brighton for enough years to know that if the product on the pitch isn't good enough the attendance drop.

The team we have at the moment, in my opinion is, well, its ordinary, there's nothing there to excite me, OK Lua Lua does offer that, but is he going to get more than 20 mins a game? Only if we want him crippled for the next game, Buckley excites me but will he be fit enough to play? I wouldn't bet on it.

This season could be a wake up call to all involved, the stadium and infrastructure is fantastic, but its the team on the pitch you go to see.

I hope they surprise us and sign some players that do excite us all over the next few weeks but I won't hold my breath, if this is ffp and we just need to get used to it, fair enough, but if the team ain't winning, the crowds WILL drop off.

Couldn't agree more with any of this. The team at the moment doesn't warrant the cost of the ticket price.
This is a very weak championship side at present so how much would you think a ticket should be to watch this team?

 

[Blues Rock DJ]

hope Sami sits at his desk this morning an realises that this pre-season the only team of any 'quality' we've beaten is an SPL side. I have doubts many will turn up next week, unless we see more positivity from the board.

 

[gripper stebson]

I wonder if next seasons manager will take as long to get frustrated!

 

[daveyboy1973]

He looks and sounds like a man that thinks he's ****ed up coming here!!!!!

 

[spanish flair]

As you know I was a fan of Oscar and was gutted he left, might yet be a fan of Sami though. He seems to be having exactly the same player issues that did not get sorted very well last season, will he be better backed than Oscar?. Hope he doesn't get the same injury woes though

Watching that video, I get the same impression and I wonder if he is already experiencing the same recruitment policy that both Gus and Oscar talked about.

Of the three signings we have made since Sami arrived, I can believe he had input over the Stockdale signing, but I am less sure about Hughes and have serious doubts he had any input on O'Grady. I wonder if the list he submitted, he has already been informed that they are all either not available or too expensive, like Oscar's list.

 

[LamieRobertson]

He didn't say he was disappointed.

correct...and reading some of the posts here you would have thought he was on his bike tomorrow...i saw none of that ..plenty of smiles and realism.

 

[MattBackHome]

Come on chaps, we're not mathematically certain of relegation yet are we?

You would have thought it, given the collective damp sheets exhibited on NSC this morning.

 

[LowerWesty]

The Albion want to get their act together. I'ts no good blaming the fans.

From start to finish it was a poor show.
1. The bridge car park was a shambles, with traffic baking up into the traffic lights under the flyover. They were selling tickets on the gate, which I thought they said they weren't going to do anymore.
2. The queues on the lower west concourse were very long and slow. Harveys has gone up to £4.20 a pint, almost 8% more, lets screw the fans eh? Well it would have been £4.20 except they had run out of Harveys, the new Harveys R and the guest bitter. Then when I tried to pay using my money on my 'cash back' card I was informed that it was locked. The queues at half time were even longer, first time I've not rushed back for the second half!
3. Friends report that a new cattle herding system has been introduced at Brighton Station, manned by 'enthusiastic' police officers. This was a friendly against Southampton, not a match against Palace or Millwall.
4. If Sami wants to interact with the fans he should get of his seat and do a bit of touchline work, Jones seemed to be doing it all, no walk on the pitch to applaud fans at the end. It was not our fault that the team were lackluster, yes Southampton are premier, but somewhat depleted.
5. Exiting the Bridge car park was the final straw, the traffic lights appear to be set to prioritise West - East traffic, this results in gridlock of traffic leaving the car park. No doubt these lights could be manually over ridden, but that would require the input of a effective transport manager .....

So all in all a disappointing evening, with a lot of problems, and this was with 7,000, what it will be like on the 9th with 27,000 is anyone's guess. I will think twice before going to any more friendlies.

 

[solly]

Couldn't agree more - terrible.......really terrible, no shape, no invention....it's going to be a long season!

This

 

[Bozza]

Friends report that a new a new cattle herding system has been introduced at Brighton Station, manned by 'enthusiastic' police officers. This was a friendly against Southampton, not a match against Palace or Millwall.

They're clearly trying to do things differently with the Brighton train queue this season, and I take heart that thought has been given to try and do things better.

Rather than a single very wide queue, the area is now like a series of chicanes, so you zig zag up that queuing area. However, it sounds like the intention is that, when it's busy (which it wasn't last night) and the queue area is full, the barriers will be opened down the length of the queueing area rather than just at the front. This should mean that instead of the old rush where people exited the queue area and then tried to find a part of the train with space, people will be approaching down most of the length of the train and, presumably, entering the train directly alongside where they were queueing. In theory I guess this should mean that trains load quicker and there's less chance of them departing with spare capacity.

I guess this could also mean that some people don't get on a train whereas some who started queueing after them do, just because they happen to be 'train side' on the zig zag at the time loading starts. It will be interesting to see how this works.

There did seem to be a reasonable sized group of what seemed to be private security staff manning the queue area (not police), and I think this is another change.

 

[dwayne]

Very early doors but have no faith in this guy so far. Looks way out of his depth.

 

[perseus]

I don't think the trains are going to be solved for the foreseeable future. They are bad enough at rush hour when the football is not on.

The final straw is actually not running trains (cancelling the connection to Hove to meet the London train) in West Coastway so it is worse than a normal evening. Two hours to go 12 miles.

So instead of extra trains there is one less. Fed up with it and the season hasn't even started.

 

[LowerWesty]

They're clearly trying to do things differently with the Brighton train queue this season, and I take heart that thought has been given to try and do things better.

Rather than a single very wide queue, the area is now like a series of chicanes, so you zig zag up that queuing area. However, it sounds like the intention is that, when it's busy (which it wasn't last night) and the queue area is full, the barriers will be opened down the length of the queueing area rather than just at the front. This should mean that instead of the old rush where people exited the queue area and then tried to find a part of the train with space, people will be approaching the train down most of the length of the train and, presumably, entering the train directly alongside where they were queueing. In theory I guess this should mean that trains load quicker and there's less chance of them departing with spare capacity.

I guess this could also mean that some people don't get on a train whereas some who started queueing after them do, just because they happen to be 'train side' on the zig zag at the time loading starts. It will be interesting to see how this works.

There did seem to be a reasonable sized group of what seemed to be private security staff manning the queue area (not police), and I think this is another change.

Must admit I wasn't there and was only repeating what I was told. One supporter had the audacity to move a section of barrier so that he didn't have to go up and down the empty maze and was pounced upon and informed he was being detained until the next train.

Sound like a funny queue where the ones at the front don't get on and the ones at the back do. We are good at queuing and I can't see this producing a harmonious outcome.