Do they mean us?

Being far too close to the Poppies to often think or write rationally about our Club, without hair-pulling or gnashing teeth, it is often illuminating to see how we are perceived from outside.

And not by some grudge-wielding rival, or chip-shouldered plastic-jock wanabee, but by someone looking at our situation in a dispassionate and studious way.

http://footballmanagement.wordpress.com/

Scum Alert!

This Saturday sees the Scum slither to town once again. Ru$hden & Direones are the latest former Football League Giants to try their luck against whatever 11 players we can rustle-up before the weekend.




Direones Boss, Just In Edinburgh has a full squad to pick from.







The game will be on provided the snow and ice has all gone of course. And the floodwater has subsided. And if we can find enough people to put into red shirts for the day. Presently our squad list reads, Lee Harper (if fit), and several "A.N.Others". Oh, and if we've actually sold any tickets to our increasing fickle supporters.




With all the negative stuff going-on at Rockingham Road it would be the height of delicious irony if a thrown together Poppies team will finally be the one to beat the Annies at Rockingham Road. That said, I'm not holding my breath either.....





And if we're really lucky, former Scum favourite, Duane Darby may well be the match summariser for local radio!

Where do we go from here?

Now we've all had a chance to think about Imraan's decision to quit as Chairman, there are several areas at the Poppies where questions are going to continue to be asked.


The Club

Expect the cold winter to continue as we revert to part time football and struggle along on sub 1000 gates. But, from this position it may well be the case that the Club can find its soul again. Become part of the community it had grown distant from when we were being artificially boosted by a single man's wealth. More affordable sponsorship packages maybe, now that every game won't be supported by Imraan's companies. Bring the local companies back into the fold.


Imraan

What does stepping down as Chairman actually mean on a day-today basis? By his own admission he hardly committed any time to the Poppies beyond writing the cheques. No more money invested? Possibly. But I think he is more likely to find another buyer if the Club is still in this Division at the very least.

I hope reports of him turning on supporters are unfounded. The vast majority of supporters believe he has generally been good for the Poppies. We can gloss over his seeming desperate need for headlines, and inability to ever really follow through on any of his ideas for the Club, because you sensed here was a man who would do anything within his power to bring success to the Poppies, Surely the best barometer of a Chairman?


Lee Harper

Lee must wonder what the hell is going on. The only good thing about this is that he is not alone.


The Council & The Ground

The Council really need to stand up and be counted. Are they prepared to let the Poppies slip out of existence? Without Imraan in charge will they continue to take the ground relocation situation so personally?

They should, at the very least, communicate with Pickering, and bring him to the negotiating table. A one line email to Ben's solicitors letting him know that they will never allow building of houses at Rockingham Road should do the trick.


The Supporters

Surely it's time for the supporters to get more involved with the Club. Rightly or wrongly the vast mass of fans have found them distanced from the Poppies over recent years. Too many changes instigated by Imraan have put a lot of backs up. Whether it is the enormous increases in admittance fees, of the whole ticket situation, Imraan has never managed to take everyone with him each time he tried something new.

Well, the safety net of Imraan's money has gone - now is the time for all Poppies fans to do their bit to help their Club survive. We all know they are many ways we can do that extra bit that we might have let slip over the last few years. That extra Klondike ticket. Joining the Trust and the Club 200. Having a pint in the Social Club rather than the bowling club. Little things here and there. We all talk a good talk about how wonderful our support is. Now might be the time to show it.

The Rise of the Keyboard Warrior

Whilst the internet has given us many good things such as online shopping to avoid rubbing shoulders with the prols, PATGOD online (!) and access to top quality pornography from all corners of the globe, there has also been a regrettable downside. One of the most annoying things the web has spawned is the self-styled Keyboard Warrior.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to have a go at someone you pretty much had to walk up to them and prod them in the chest whilst verbalising your issues. As time went by we became more civilised in these matters and resorted to written arguments, printed on paper and distributed. The original paper-based PATGOD was a vehicle for such activities. And if someone had an issue with anything written they could walk up to the person selling it and argue their point-of-view. And, if they happened to be the Club Chairman or Manager, they often did.

One by-product of this kind of face-to-face exchange is that you thought carefully about what you wrote before committing it to the printer. For example, everyone KNEW Mark English was as dodgy as a 5-day old pack of prawns left open in the sun, but you had to tread carefully around stating this as an outright fact. Bigger crooks than him had hid behind the libel laws for many years. At the time it was annoying, but at least it made you think ways of phrasing your criticism or seeming to temper your accusations through the medium of attempted-comedy and cartoons.

It is perhaps unfortunate that the modern commentator, hidden behind an anonymous pseudonym has no such compunction. Secure in their parent’s spare room the Keyboard Warrior is King of all he surveys. He knows all and tells all. His opinion is the only opinion. His worldview is the only worldview, and all others must bow to his will. And one day very soon, he might actually speak to a girl.

Online forums burn with his poorly punctuated words and opinions. Trivial discussions become weighed down with crushing decrees from on high. And varied opinion is replaced with abuse, threats and barely understandable text-speak.

Presently, Poppynet is under attack from a pack of fearless Warriors, augmented with disgruntled former club employees, and other axe-grinding hangers-on. Rumours and opinions are treated as hard facts. The Chairman is being hounded by a vociferous minority of brave Warriors, who seem hell-bent on forcing him out of Rockingham Road.

None of them can suggest how the Club might actually survive such an event, beyond a few vague suggestions about reconstituting the Club at a Sunday League level. Unfortunately, the survival of the Club post-Ladak would take a good deal more effort than griping into your PC, ordering pizzas online and arguing the merits of Kirk versus Pickard with a 10-year old kid in China. It would take real efforts in the real world, which is not a place the dedicated Keyboard Warrior visits too often.

Lucky Cooper Avoids Poppies Clash!

Former Poppies Boss Mark Cooper continues to ride his luck. Fresh from umpteen last minute goals when manager of Kettering, and several whilst the Posh boss, he has managed to avoid a potentially embarrassing tie against his former charges.



How?



Well......IF we'd beaten Leeds, and then, IF we'd turned over Man Utd on their own patch (not entirely beyond the realms of extreme possibility after watching their tie last weekend), AND IF Peterborough had won at Tottenham, we would all have been off to London Road for Round Four.



We reckon we would have given his Peterborough United, shorn of the defensive sturdiness of a cup-tied Big X (!) a run for their money! That's if we had eleven players to pick from of course.







"Phew, dodged a bullet there!", says a relieved Mark Cooper

What price Ian Roper now?

Berbatov - cost £32.5 million pounds. Has 48 goals at International level. Goals against Leeds Utd - zero.


Rooney - cost £25.9 million pounds. Has scored 25 times for England. Goals against Leeds Utd - zero.


Giggs - Almost 600 appearances for Man Utd, scoring over 100 goals. Current BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Goals against Leeds Utd - zero.


Owen - Cost £25 million in transfer fees from Real Madrid and Newcastle Utd. Has scored 40 goals for England. Goals against Leeds Utd - zero.


Valencia - cost £16 million pounds. Has represented his country 40 times at full international level. Goals against Leeds Utd - zero.







Ian Roper - cost the Poppies half a bag of training bibs. Currently the heaviest man to ever play professional football. Can't see without his glasses on. Goals against Leeds Utd - one.



Did someone once say that football was "a funny old game?"

Do You Remember?

Do you remember those happy, carefree, winning days of old at Rockingham Road? Teams came to here with the intent to stifle the rampant home team and perhaps hang on valiantly to a point?


Do you remember the return on Anthony Elding at the start of November, and his ghosting in to head home after 4 minutes against Wrexham? I hope you do, seeing as this is the last goal we scored at home in the League from open play!


Since the we have endured a mind-numbing 536 minutes (plus injury time) of home league action without us rippling the net from anything but a couple of penalties. To put 536 minutes (plus injury time) into perspective, if you'd decided to have a bit of a Lord of the Rings marathon, and slipped The Fellowship of the Ring, into your DVD player just as Elding scored against the Taffs, you would now be watching the end credits of The Return of the King, whilst awaiting our next league goal at home from open play. Ouch! That'd hurt your arse.


In the same time that it took for a scared bunch of Hobbits to bring down the defences of the most evil Empire in the history of Middle Earth, we have been unable to lower the colours of the rather less impressive defences of such mighty teams a Kiddy, Hayes & Yeading, Salisbury, Barrow and Tamworth.


And with Diamonds and Cambridge coming up (against whom our home records aren't exactly stellar...) don't bet against a revisit to this article featuring the specially extended editions of the Lord of the Rings films!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

"Bugger me! I was clean-shaven when Elding nodded-in against Wrexham!"