Has The Fun Gone?

[spoff]

I've not been about for a few seasons, but having read some of the threads Ossett Town doesn't appear to be a happy club anymore.

What has happened to Peter Wilkinson, Trevor Green, Big Conk et al.

As for the Tesco affair, my only knowledge is the bits that I have taken from here this afternoon.

Although I am pleased we are staying at Ingfield and in Ossett I cannot help thinking the chance of taking the money and running might have been in the best interest of the club.

Hopefully I will be in a position to get to more games in the coming season.

UP THE REDS!!!

[harrylime]

Peter Wilkinson is still around, although i didn't see him at the meeting last night. Apparently he's organised the two matches with Ossett Albion for a new trophy.

As for the other characters you mentioned, well, that just reminds me how people are brought into the club to do a job, get criticised for doing that job, then get forced out of the club.

Trevor Green was a bombastic character, full of ideas and full of opinions, some of which were not appropriate to Ossett Town, someone on the committee should have taken him to one side and explained quietly that we do certain things in a certain way here and steered him in the right direction. But no one did that, they would just snarl at him, he couldn't understand why he was being criticised and in the end he walked out after just a few months.

Big conk was a popular character here, did a lot for the club on the fund raising side of things, but when he got into an argument with an official from Worsbrough Bridge, the club did not back him up and he too left, wondering what he had done wrong.

We've seen this too many times, the club not backing the people who are willing to do onerous tasks for no payment. I don't know who it was who was involved in this particular incident, but when we played Doncaster Rovers in the FA Trophy a few years back, some woman claiming to be Ian Snodin's wife tried to demand free entry into the ground. The Ossett Town steward in this incident refused to let her in, the incident was brought to the attention of a senior committee man, who, instead of backing the steward, ordered him to let her in. The steward resigned from his duties on the spot. This may not be an entirely accurate account of that incident, but it is symptomatic of the committee's attitude towards people who just want to help the club.

Someone famous once said, "if you don't learn from the past, you will make the same mistakes in the future"

thank you and good night ;D

[spoff]

That Doncaster game was the second OT game I went to. The First being the victory over Chorley the week before.

I had just moved to the area and wanted to watch football. Was pretty much ever present and a few away games during Gary Brooks reign.

Started a family and other expendature means I've only been a few times since the 'promotion' season.

My little boy is two next week, I'll be back soon.

UP THE REDS!!!

[xed]

I remember that Doncaster game well, it may even have been Paul Hitch who was that steward. What i remember is how well organised the club were, plenty of facilities available, burger vans at both sides of the ground, plenty of portaloos scattered around, lots of stewards, a fairly large police presence and so on.
The game passed without incident.

Flash forward to last year and the Leamington game, the club knew full well a large crowd was coming up from Leamington, when i got to the ground, i expected to see the same arrangements as i had seen 5 or 6 years ago with the Donny game; but no, apart from some of the junior managers being given stewards jackets, there were no extra burger vans (so everyone who wanted something to eat/drink was queued up in front of the clubhouse entrance and outside toilet), there were no portaloos (so everyone who need the lavatory had to push their way through the burger van queue to get into the clubhouse or outside toilet). there was no police to keep an eye on the situation and advise the stewards on what to do, and sure enough when some trouble broke out in the clubhouse the stewards were unwilling to get involved because they didn't know the rules of engagement, they needed a policeman there to advise them whether they could physically remove someone from the ground. A committee man claimed the police were asked to provide a presence before the game, but i doubt this, someone who was on the committee at the time of the Donny game said the police told the club "we wont bill you for this game, but the next time you have a big cup game, we will bill you", which suggests to me that the club didn't call the police in because they knew they would get a bill for it. Eventually, as most of you would have seen, a large police presence did turn up at half time after being called out and they maintained a presence well into the evening because of the trouble that had spilled over into the town centre.

For those of you still reading this, well done, i know i waffle on a bit.

I suppose the point i'm making is, in their desire to save a few hundred quid in the cost of hiring extra burger vans, portaloos etc and bringing the police in from the start, it actually cost the club a lot more money, because the bar had to be shut down for most of the game and wasn't re-opened until well after the game had finished, that cost the club hundreds in lost bar takings.