- Turning out at a lower level than even our Grandparents would have ever recalled us playing at.
- Still playing at Steel Park.
- At least until Burton Park Wanderers ground is brought up to whatever lowly standard it has to be to host our new found level of football (which will probably be reached when we buy some goal nets!)
- Radio Northampton ignoring us and our Micky Mouse League entirely.
- Quality of football so low most of us reckon we could jump onto the pitch and give it a go.
And that's all dependent on shedding Non F*cking Park, and Non F*cking Chairman!
The main thing I'm looking forward to is the return of large numbers of our stay-away fans. None of us enjoys watching our club struggle so badly in front of some hideously paltry attendances. If all goes well between now and next season most of the reasons given by our stay-aways will have been removed.
The talk in the media is quietly positive. There is talk of offers flying around to rid us of our chains and give us the chance to start again. Sure, we'd be starting at a level not far above a kick around in a park with your mates, but it would be Kettering Town FC, under fresh leadership, with large supporter influence, hopefully soon back in the Borough of Kettering.
So, with no Imraan and Irthlingborough surely hundreds more of our former supporters will be back on board? There's only so many times you can accompany the Missus on Saturday shopping trips surely? I have always had a sneaking respect for those of our fans who stood by their principles and stood down during the Non Park period, but surely this reason must be coming to a natural end?
But if they don't come back, what are we to make of all the protestations against our Chairman and playing at Legoland? Were these merely convenient excuses to stop attending Poppies games. I never really understood the anti-Imraan element excuse of non-attendance. No-one had much in the way of a problem with the diminutive weasel when he was buying us success. A genuinely principled stand would have been to protest when he was paying players far more than a club our size could ever afford. But no, the protests weren't exactly thick on the ground when we were winning promotions and having FA Cup runs were they? Just when the ride was over.
So, we'll look forward to welcoming everyone back next season. Kettering fans should be watching Kettering Town FC play. No excuses. When things were going well we all said we'd support the club evermore, through rain and shine, and that the Poppies,"made us happy when skies were grey." Well, now's our chance to prove it.
I truly hope the end of that song shouldn't have been....."providing we have a club chairman paying unsustainable wages, at Rockingham Road, because I only enjoy watching my team when they just happen to be playing against a host of former League clubs!"
KTFC= Plastic Fans that's the reason! You'll still be getting 150 a game next season as there will still be some excuse. Make me laugh at the end of the day it was KTFC that were the plastic club.
ReplyDeleteAs hard as it is to accept the "plastic" charge from a webbed-fingered inbred, perhaps he has a point?
ReplyDeleteDo too many of our "supporters" make too many excuses to not watch their team?
Is that the very definition of being a "plastic" supporter?
A plastic supporter is one that watches during the good times and isn't there during the bad. So 3k Diamonds fans were plastic, but the 800 that are still there now aren't. Similarly it seems that around 700 KTFC fans are plastic, and the 2-300 still around aren't.
ReplyDeleteNo fanbase is totally plastic, to suggest that is just stupid and if it were the case then some clubs would register attendances of 0.
Just because fans find other things to do doesn't mean they should be belittled. Last time I checked it wasn't written in the law that you have to attend all Poppies games...
£12 is a round of drinks down the pub and there's far more chance of you enjoying yourself and not going home annoyed and half-frozen. I think some people (Mr GL included) need to stop having digs at these fans because there's a chance they might hear and not come back. Not every fan in a fanbase is going to be a diehard that wants to attend when we're getting thrashed 6-2!
My point exactly. Too many poppies fans are setting up numerous barriers to stop supporting the club they profess to follow. If reading something uncomfortable on a blog creates an insurmountable hurdle to watching YOUR team, you've got to ask yourself if you still consider yourself a supporter?
ReplyDeleteOr if you feel that you're valued sufficiently as a supporter perhaps...
ReplyDelete"Valued?" Really? When did we become so soft? Do we really need an arm around our shoulder by the club to go and watch them? I don't recall us needing a consoling cuddle from a club official before heading up to Lincoln or Leeds for big FA Cup replays. Or any of a number of big league games in recent years.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the club did almost everything to make us feel unloved. Buying our tickets pre-match. Hiking prices. Cutting budgets mid season. Making everyone buy club memberships before the Fulham match.
The difference of course is that we were winning, and playing at a good level.
Will anyone finally be honest and admit they don't watch us anymore because were now a poor team playing in a Mickey Mouse league? Stop blaming Ladaak, or Non Park, or the lack of love from "the club" and admit that the Poppies just aren't good enough to watch anymore?
Or can't we do that because that is uncomfortably close to the reason we used to mock the plastics who stopped turning up in their droves to watch the Direones once the good times came to an end?
It would be weird if the fear of hypocrisy *now* came into play, after most fans went over to NP, the ground that we'd all apparently despised for two decades...
ReplyDeleteI don't think those that have stopped going will admit its because of the shitness. Those people won't feel a need to explain themselves, they'd just disappear silently. So IMO the ones that are giving excuses like out of the borough, Ladak etc. are genuine fans who will come back.
I guess we all hope that you are right.
DeleteSurely our only chance of ever turning the club's rapid descent around is for as many of us as possible to return to the fold and build again from scratch?
Hopefully if the Poppies are free of both Ladak and Non Park for next season the healing process and re-building can begin?
All lot of 'Kettering' fans are still in Kettering waiting !
ReplyDeleteWaiting for what? That enormous lottery win? Buying back Rocky Road from Pickering? Inventing a time machne and going back to the glory days?
DeleteThe Poppies aren't Man United. We need our people to go to see their team - we can't afford to have so many armchair fans.
Clue is in the name !!
ReplyDeleteDiamonds fans are still obsessed with Kettering Town, get over yourselves please it is really getting boring now.
ReplyDelete