On the subject of Gambling.....
So, I didn't win the Trust's 300 Club draw. Given my luck with Poppies-based lotteries, I'm not surprised at that. What I am surprised at is the fantastic amount of money raised, considering all ticket sales were achieved online without the benefit of games to meet at. £1167.50 to a winner that again wasn't me, and the same amount to the club. Well done all. At least I can comfort myself that I needn't blame Club President Ken Samuels for my not wining this draw, unlike his rigged Klondike draw.....
On the subject of Ken Samuels.....
Ken's "President's Appeal" has topped £12,500. Well done to Ken for coming up with his appeal, and the supporters putting their hands in their pockets at such an uncertain time. Ken eased off going "full-Geldof" on us while the Trust's draw entered it's final week, but expect him to come after us all again now - Read the President's latest appeal update here. Remember, all funds raised will go towards the basic running costs of keeping the Poppies alive.....
On the subject of the Poppies.....
Chairman Dave Mahoney's recent update left us all in no doubt the issues the club faces in the short / medium term. Read the Chairman's message here. So, no extra money is coming from the FA. Just the next scheduled payment several months early. Can't say this comes as a big surprise. When the FA consider the Championship to be practically non-league, what chance do the rest of us have?
In his article Dave mentions looking to do something about unused season tickets and the recently launched 3-4-2 tickets issued. PATGOD would never dream to speak for ALL season ticket /3-4-2 ticket holders......hell, why not. Dave, on behalf of ALL season ticket /3-4-2 ticket holders, don't worry about the outstanding games. If you want to do something for us perhaps a small discount on next season's season tickets? Or, work out a Rota for us all to experience an afternoon of matchday hospitality? I'm sure none of us will be worried about missing out on a few games this season if it helps us play more games in the future.
On the subject of games.....
While we don't yet know how the League will decide to tie-off this season, one of the options is to decide final league positions on a points won per game ratio. When the season was halted we had amassed a modest 1.032 points per game. Enough to drag us one further place up the table at Curzon's expense (1.030 points per game). However, as we all know, the Nationwide League played one more round of games than every other league outside of mad, bad Belarus. It seems fair, therefore to scrub the last games played from the record doesn't it? Particularly as we lost.
Suddenly, without the Telford beating, Paul Cox's wonders are up to 1.077 points for game, putting us above Gloucester and Kiddy too! Up to a heady 17th place in the final League table! Safe mid-table! If only Paul Cox was our manager from the start of the season.....
On the subject of Nicky Eaden......
As this season will be decided as much by statistics as performances, what if we conveniently expunge Eaden's stuttering tenure from the records? Hell, why not!
Cox's points per game, even including the last game, is a heady 1.214. Suddenly we are above Hereford and Leamington too in 15th place!
I'm sure if I looked again at the points per game for everyone, minus the last round of games I can somehow squeeze us further up the table, but, frankly, all this maths is giving me a headache.
I'm sure with a bit more jiggery-pokery we could have been in shouting distance of a play-off place.....
Monday, 20 April 2020
Tuesday, 14 April 2020
(Lock) Down Memory Lane - part 1
Social isolation has its upsides. I am constantly discovering new uses for
chopped tomatoes, my CD collection is at last in alphabetical order, and one of
these days I may even get around to talking to other members of my family.
I have also had a good clear out of
accumulated junk and in the process found a long forgotten box of old Poppies
cuttings and stuff. Warning: if this
lockdown continues, be prepared for endless examples drip fed to a desperate
content-starved readership. Yes that’s you!
Here’s a little gem that certainly evokes
some memories. Before all the Peter Morris near misses there was the forgotten
one that got away.
But that was after a possibly unique feat
in our various sallies at League status – a Poppies side actually winning a
big late season match against a promotion rival. Not only that, it placed us just 2 points off
the top with a game in hand. Statistically perhaps the closest we ever got.
See how calmly the players took it – no
premature celebrations there. Steve Daley even kept his shirt on, whilst thankfully
Paul Reece knew just where to hold his bottle.
All we had to do was take maximum points
from our last three games, starting with an easy little tussle with Runcorn,
also at home… oh crap.
Thursday, 2 April 2020
Is it time to forgive Imraan?
It's been great seeing some of the old games recently hosted on YouTube. I'd not seen the full Blackburn and Fulham games since standing on the terraces and watching them live. Both games were pretty much as I remembered them. Blackburn could have scored 10, and Fulham got off lucky!
I've come away with two overriding thoughts from watching these and other re-run games recently.
Firstly - it was a really good idea to bring in the amended back-pass to the goalkeeper rule all those years ago. The first time the ball was passed back to the 'keeper from a defender during the Blackburn FA Cup game I'm sure, like me, you exclaimed, "Wah! He picked the ball up!!!" And probably frantically gestured for an indirect free kick? OK, that last bit was just me then.
After the fiftieth time the goalie picked the ball up I realised just how much this killed the flow of the game back then. No tension. No chasing down the goalkeeper. No fear of the dreaded Burton bobble. Now I think back, I dimly recall the few live games on the television back then when Liverpool got an early goal, and then passed the ball back to Ray Clemence for the next 85 minutes. Yawnsville.
Secondly, and this one even surprised me - Is it time to forgive Imraan Ladak?
If you were around during the last years of Imraan's tenure as owner you will remember the complete horror show he presided over. If not, click on the right of the screen and read almost any article we wrote between 2009 and 2012, and read, open-mouthed at how he "ran" the Poppies. It was an insane time where 99 times out of 100 the club would and probably should have been wound-up. Promises. Contracts. Commonsense. All alien concepts to Ladak.
And yet......the other side of the coin.
There can be no doubt that for a couple of seasons Ladak backed the club to the hilt. Just take a look at the teams playing in some of those FA Cup matches. A strike force of Westcarr, Rawle, Seddon, JP and Christie, joined by Elding. And behind them, players like Darren Wrack and Guy Branston. These guys weren't on peanuts. Did we truly believe they had all bought into the "Poppies Project" and played for a mixture of love for the club and travelling expenses? Of course not. They played for the enormous wedge Imraan was handing out.
Or do you think we generated sufficient funds on our 1200 gates, to pay for these players?
You see, this is where the problem of the potential rehabilitation of Ladak strikes. Does the excitement of Gazza, big signings, promotion and a couple of fantastic cup runs outweigh losing Rockingham Road, Non Park, non-paid players, George Rolls and multiple relegations?
Is it possible to recall enjoying the good times under Ladak without feeling guilty about how he left the club at the end of his reign? If you claim the Fulham game as your favourite Poppies memory are you validating Ladak? The big FA Cup runs certainly wouldn't have happened without access to the DRC Locum's chequebook. And we all know that the closing of that chequebook had us dropping three divisions and hanging on to our club by our fingertips.
On balance, I doubt Ladak's reputation will be rehabilitated in these parts any time soon. I see watching those FA Cup games with his expensively assembled teams as akin to watching a good movie produced by Harvey Weinstein. You can enjoy it as you watch, but are left with a slightly bad taste in your mouth if you pause to think too much about what went on behind the scenes!
Sorry Imraan. We'll look again at your case in another 10 years.
I've come away with two overriding thoughts from watching these and other re-run games recently.
Firstly - it was a really good idea to bring in the amended back-pass to the goalkeeper rule all those years ago. The first time the ball was passed back to the 'keeper from a defender during the Blackburn FA Cup game I'm sure, like me, you exclaimed, "Wah! He picked the ball up!!!" And probably frantically gestured for an indirect free kick? OK, that last bit was just me then.
After the fiftieth time the goalie picked the ball up I realised just how much this killed the flow of the game back then. No tension. No chasing down the goalkeeper. No fear of the dreaded Burton bobble. Now I think back, I dimly recall the few live games on the television back then when Liverpool got an early goal, and then passed the ball back to Ray Clemence for the next 85 minutes. Yawnsville.
Secondly, and this one even surprised me - Is it time to forgive Imraan Ladak?
If you were around during the last years of Imraan's tenure as owner you will remember the complete horror show he presided over. If not, click on the right of the screen and read almost any article we wrote between 2009 and 2012, and read, open-mouthed at how he "ran" the Poppies. It was an insane time where 99 times out of 100 the club would and probably should have been wound-up. Promises. Contracts. Commonsense. All alien concepts to Ladak.
And yet......the other side of the coin.
There can be no doubt that for a couple of seasons Ladak backed the club to the hilt. Just take a look at the teams playing in some of those FA Cup matches. A strike force of Westcarr, Rawle, Seddon, JP and Christie, joined by Elding. And behind them, players like Darren Wrack and Guy Branston. These guys weren't on peanuts. Did we truly believe they had all bought into the "Poppies Project" and played for a mixture of love for the club and travelling expenses? Of course not. They played for the enormous wedge Imraan was handing out. Or do you think we generated sufficient funds on our 1200 gates, to pay for these players?
You see, this is where the problem of the potential rehabilitation of Ladak strikes. Does the excitement of Gazza, big signings, promotion and a couple of fantastic cup runs outweigh losing Rockingham Road, Non Park, non-paid players, George Rolls and multiple relegations?
Is it possible to recall enjoying the good times under Ladak without feeling guilty about how he left the club at the end of his reign? If you claim the Fulham game as your favourite Poppies memory are you validating Ladak? The big FA Cup runs certainly wouldn't have happened without access to the DRC Locum's chequebook. And we all know that the closing of that chequebook had us dropping three divisions and hanging on to our club by our fingertips.
On balance, I doubt Ladak's reputation will be rehabilitated in these parts any time soon. I see watching those FA Cup games with his expensively assembled teams as akin to watching a good movie produced by Harvey Weinstein. You can enjoy it as you watch, but are left with a slightly bad taste in your mouth if you pause to think too much about what went on behind the scenes!
Sorry Imraan. We'll look again at your case in another 10 years.
Wednesday, 25 March 2020
The President's Address
In the current climate we are getting increasingly used to being directly addressed by our leaders. There's Boris, cutting out the blather for once and giving it to us straight and explaining to the ignorant of our country what the word isolation, and the distance of 2-metres actually mean. President Trump, looking more and more like someone who should be assembling particularly poor balloon animals has chosen his public addresses to use the outbreak as a future trade-bargaining chip with China, and sulkily arguing with reporters for asking.....questions (!)
The President of KTFC has also chosen this time to also address his people. Even though I have had personal issues with President Samuels and his smirking indifference, laughing in my face and sometimes downright untruths when it comes to my attempts to win the Klondike half-time draw, I'm going to be the bigger man and call a truce in our ongoing tussle.
Even though Ken cheerily fleeces me at every home game, he needs to be heard. Click below to read his words and see his admittedly but also annoyingly sexy image -
The virus has created unforeseeable circumstances where the very existence of football at this level could be under threat. Yes, we are being asked to dig deep once again, and in the present circumstances none of us know financially where we are likely to be when we are on the other side of the virus.
But we are in just as precarious a position as we were several years ago when we stuck between extricating ourselves from Non Park, convincing the league we were still viable, AND negotiating with BPW. Remember? When we all pledged we'd do ANYTHING to give our club the chance of surviving? Well, this situation is no different, and if we don't all pull together we could lose the Poppies.
Whether you are a season ticket holder, or attend most games, or go every now and then, or even if you have vowed you "Shent goo agin" until we somehow magically play at Rockingham Road again, the club needs what you can spare. Send what you would have spent at Latimer Park for the next couple of games. Or what you'd have spent down the pub this Friday. Or what you'd have spent on personal grooming products - no-one is going to see your ugly bastard face for a while anyway!
It could be the difference between footballing life and death for our club.
All PATGOD asks is that, at least for the time being, none of our readers holds President Samuels personal enmity against my ever winning the Klondike as a reason (however justifiable) not to respond to his appeal and try to keep the Poppies going long enough for us to moan about them again in the future.
The President of KTFC has also chosen this time to also address his people. Even though I have had personal issues with President Samuels and his smirking indifference, laughing in my face and sometimes downright untruths when it comes to my attempts to win the Klondike half-time draw, I'm going to be the bigger man and call a truce in our ongoing tussle.
Even though Ken cheerily fleeces me at every home game, he needs to be heard. Click below to read his words and see his admittedly but also annoyingly sexy image -
The virus has created unforeseeable circumstances where the very existence of football at this level could be under threat. Yes, we are being asked to dig deep once again, and in the present circumstances none of us know financially where we are likely to be when we are on the other side of the virus.
But we are in just as precarious a position as we were several years ago when we stuck between extricating ourselves from Non Park, convincing the league we were still viable, AND negotiating with BPW. Remember? When we all pledged we'd do ANYTHING to give our club the chance of surviving? Well, this situation is no different, and if we don't all pull together we could lose the Poppies.
Whether you are a season ticket holder, or attend most games, or go every now and then, or even if you have vowed you "Shent goo agin" until we somehow magically play at Rockingham Road again, the club needs what you can spare. Send what you would have spent at Latimer Park for the next couple of games. Or what you'd have spent down the pub this Friday. Or what you'd have spent on personal grooming products - no-one is going to see your ugly bastard face for a while anyway!
It could be the difference between footballing life and death for our club.
All PATGOD asks is that, at least for the time being, none of our readers holds President Samuels personal enmity against my ever winning the Klondike as a reason (however justifiable) not to respond to his appeal and try to keep the Poppies going long enough for us to moan about them again in the future.
Saturday, 21 March 2020
He is Legend
Social isolation. Shops closed. Schools closed. Pubs and restaurants closed. Football postponed. Air travel a distant memory. Toilet paper the new currency.
Welcome to the world, 2020 style.
With so much changing and with no-one seemingly in charge, or knowing how long our lives are going to be affected it's warmly reassuring to know that at least one thing in this mad world is still carrying on as normal.
Richard Atkinson still wants your money!
That's right. With the world slithering to sniffling end, the Provisional Arm of the Poppies Trust has decided that our wallets still look on the heavy side, and Richard's just the man to help out.
The Trust's 300 Club is a simple beast. You buy tickets at a fiver each. On the 19th of each month a draw is made. Half the money goes to the club, and half to a lucky punter. This punter then needs to spend his winnings on pasta PDQ before Richard comes up with another scheme for getting it back again!
Welcome to the world, 2020 style.
With so much changing and with no-one seemingly in charge, or knowing how long our lives are going to be affected it's warmly reassuring to know that at least one thing in this mad world is still carrying on as normal.
Richard Atkinson still wants your money!
That's right. With the world slithering to sniffling end, the Provisional Arm of the Poppies Trust has decided that our wallets still look on the heavy side, and Richard's just the man to help out.
The Trust's 300 Club is a simple beast. You buy tickets at a fiver each. On the 19th of each month a draw is made. Half the money goes to the club, and half to a lucky punter. This punter then needs to spend his winnings on pasta PDQ before Richard comes up with another scheme for getting it back again!
Thursday, 5 March 2020
Home Comforts?
An interesting fans forum? Whatever next? A football match?
What do we know now that we didn't know before? Not that much. We already knew Ritchie pays far too much attention to a handful of dickheads on social media. We already knew that the people running the club these days are an honest bunch doing a good job. We already knew that running a football club is a thankless task. We already knew that putting a moderate player who lives in Manchester on a contract is a pretty dumb idea.
But there was more to this forum.
The meeting was run by Dave Mahoney and Neil Griffin, effectively playing good and bad cop respectively. Dave told us of the exciting developments happening around the ground this season and over the summer. Then, to stop us getting carried away, Neil weighed in to kick us all in the nuts over our constant whining, lack of numbers and delivered some home truths about football finance. And you know what? No one argued with anything he said.
Neil posed a very interesting question. As we seem to be a below average supported club at this level should we really be looking to spend even more money that we don't have developing an inaccessible field closer to the middle of Geddington than the middle of Kettering as a future home when we will soon have a reasonably good facility in Burton? An ad hoc show of hands didn't entirely rule out the possibility that we are starting to get used to our new home. Is Frenchies Field more "Kettering" than Latimer Park? Should the club spend an absolute fortune in the hope that missing fans will suddenly turn up? Kevin Costner believed that if you build it, they will come, but where's the guarantee that would happen?
When further terracing and stands pop up at Latimer Park, and Paul Cox's new-look team hit the ground running next season, who knows, perhaps we'll start feeling more at home at home?
What do we know now that we didn't know before? Not that much. We already knew Ritchie pays far too much attention to a handful of dickheads on social media. We already knew that the people running the club these days are an honest bunch doing a good job. We already knew that running a football club is a thankless task. We already knew that putting a moderate player who lives in Manchester on a contract is a pretty dumb idea.
But there was more to this forum.
The meeting was run by Dave Mahoney and Neil Griffin, effectively playing good and bad cop respectively. Dave told us of the exciting developments happening around the ground this season and over the summer. Then, to stop us getting carried away, Neil weighed in to kick us all in the nuts over our constant whining, lack of numbers and delivered some home truths about football finance. And you know what? No one argued with anything he said.
Neil posed a very interesting question. As we seem to be a below average supported club at this level should we really be looking to spend even more money that we don't have developing an inaccessible field closer to the middle of Geddington than the middle of Kettering as a future home when we will soon have a reasonably good facility in Burton? An ad hoc show of hands didn't entirely rule out the possibility that we are starting to get used to our new home. Is Frenchies Field more "Kettering" than Latimer Park? Should the club spend an absolute fortune in the hope that missing fans will suddenly turn up? Kevin Costner believed that if you build it, they will come, but where's the guarantee that would happen?
When further terracing and stands pop up at Latimer Park, and Paul Cox's new-look team hit the ground running next season, who knows, perhaps we'll start feeling more at home at home?
Wednesday, 4 March 2020
Safe for another season
 |
| Take a bow Tim Krul. We'd kiss you if we could somehow force our way past Jon Dunham. |
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