Match Day Thread Happy Days Chairboys v Ewe's 29th September

Apparently they have been talking about the win and the goal a lot today on Sky Sports News

 

Wycombe Wanderers punching above weight (BBC Sport)

 

I read that interview on the beeb football site this evening Ron. To some extent I think it's probably true but I'm not sure it isn't a bit of kidology on his part as well. There are no teams in this league that ought to be top or have that much of a disadvantage from the others. Any one of the clubs could win it or at least get promoted and results over the season sort of show that. It is no coincidence that sometimes predicting them is more fluke than rocket science. Some Saturdays they defy any logic at all and to me that says it is fairly even on the playing field and chance chart. Maybe an odd exception to the rule but not in the main. The biggest club in terms of league success in recent times at least must be Portsmouth in league 2. But, every season they have been here people have been expecting them to get promotion by a country mile. Third season and they are still here despite their budget and pedigree. Look at results over those seasons and who have taken points off them. Plenty of minnows there, I think your man likes to play the little club thing to deflect attention and expectation more than anything. I doubt he really believes you have no chance or else he wouldn't bother.

 

But again Greeny we only managed 5 on the bench. Crucial centre back out until new year, captain and last year's top scorer out, key left sider out. Now we have another injury worry (Tuesday's scorer). Probably missed someone. I think we have 2 players facing suspension with one more yellow. At this rate we won't be able to field a team. This all puts extra stress on those that have to play every match, sometimes nursing injuries. It's very difficult to get too optimistic with such a small squad. And many of us will say that we couldn't figure in League 1 anyhow on such a short shoestring.

 

You aren't a club with shorter shoestrings than a lot of other clubs though Ron. We have been unable to field a full bench on more than one occasion and our budget has to be a bit bigger than a lot of others in this league. It's not easy when you have a string of injuries that's true but if players are doing well then somehow they seem to keep going. Thank god for the loan system as well and if you can get a couple of them in at the right time and they click then cracks are covered. I think the problem some clubs have is they can't afford to get promoted. Sounds a bit daft when you say it but the more I think about it the more I believe that. The scope for improving gates for a number of clubs is poor so any natural improvement in finances is similarly poor to go with any success. The bills in league one are naturally greater than in league two and therefore relegation stares them in the face from year one. If they do bounce back down then often they have contracts with players they cannot afford and hardly anyone wants relegated players so they can't sell them. The rot sets in and it's where a number get into financial meltdown where they were doing ok before promotion happened. Therefore handling success on the field is the one thing that isn't even. Watch Yeovil struggle all season now they are returning to their natural habitat.

 

Agree totally with you sensible greeny Crawley are in the same boat & Fleetwood could be next after sacking the manager who I thought had done good job up there they are out of the way a bit. The thing is with Pompey & yourselves if you do manage to go up with the support you have you are more likely to be there longer. Bradford good example they struggled to get out of league 2 but once they did with the support have managed to build on it

 

I think that's true philhythe. It's not just obvious in this league it's much the same in any of them. There are clubs who went up who were not expected to such as Blackpool into the prem and perhaps Rotherham being another into Championship. These are examples of clubs outreaching their potential financially. The boomerang effect takes over and the slide begins. If your revenue can go up along with the team then no problem. It sort of happened to us in the Championship although we lasted longer than others might have. Once the then Board got greedy we hit the skids money wise and didn't have anyone willing to bail us out. We nearly went out of business altogether. We got around 7000 through the gate each week through stuborness if nothing else and it just about saved the day. We have kept that despite some dire football and bum squeaky times and now have a better base to build on than we ever had in the old days. Funny old world isn't it where a bit of adversity brings a better outcome in the end. I don't know enough about your club to comment on sustainability if you do go up. Simply as said above if you can get more people in then you have every chance, if you can't then you will be back soon enough.

 

I think a big problem is loyalty Greeny. I think we had bigger crowds when we were in the Isthmian league, In those days just about everybody who was interested in football used to find there way up to Loakes Park to see the Wanderers. In the FA Amateur Cup Fourth Round tie on Saturday 25 February 1950, when Wycombe Wanderers beat St Albans City 4-1 the attendance was 15,850.
I'll have to repeat that; 15,850 for an amateur club. If we were in the Isthmian League now, we'd be lucky to get 1,000

In the 2007 League Cup Semi-Final at Adams Park against Chelsea the attendance was 9,771. In the 5th round of the FA Cup against the real Wimbledon we had 9,650. I think the most we've had for a League game is 9,625 (that would be nice).

Last year Highest home attendance: 7,750. Lowest home attendance: 1,685 (probably a mid week game but what else is there to do on a Tuesday evening?)

So where are they all? I'll tell you where. Supporting ****ing Premier clubs. How can anyone be a die hard supporter of eg Chelsea when they have never lived there, worked there or had anything to do with Chelsea. Beats me. My brother-in law has a Chelsea season ticket. How I'd love to see them relegated. My son is a fanatical Man U supporter; never lived there (he does still love Wycombe though so I'll forgive him). OK I like to watch (cough) Arsenal but at the end of the day it doesn't bother me whether they win or lose. There is only one team I can get emotional about and that is Wycombe. I was born there, educated there and worked there all my life. I wonder how many of today's toddlers born in Wycombe will support Wycombe all their lives.


It's just not the same any more unfortunately. Very sad. But it's still great to see our devoted fans supporting our team through thick and thin, even if not in the same numbers.

 

Steady on Ron you'll explode.

Some while ago I did a post on the subject of crowds and your rant above could have been a mirror image of that one. My argument has always been that you cannot possibly have any affinity with a club you have no connection to by birth or residence and possibly will never visit either. I was born in Plymouth and although being in HM's finest therefore moved around, I cannot even contemplate suporting anyone else. I can admire certain teams for the football they play but like you don't really give a stuff how they get on in a match. Even as a kid I never ever picked a club out of the top ranks like lots seem to do today.

Who is to blame for this? TV mostly in my opinion. All they want to cover is the top clubs and they show only the best of those mainly. Hence why MU, Chelsea, Liverpool etc, get most support outside of the Cities they are in. I guess you can add Arsenal to that list as well. Shops stock other club's shirts and there are easy bragging rites to be had. When I say TV then of course you know I mean SKY. It will eventually ruin football. The money is so great at the top now that clubs will undoubtedly spend millions they don't have and in the end the domino effect will take over. You never know, if we keep on a sound financial footing we might become premiership giants by sheer default being the only survivors.

I have to laugh sometimes when in my garden with the bloke next door sat out on his patio listening to MU on the radio and cheering if they score. He has probably been to Manchester a couple of times in his life and talks with a very broad Janner accent. "Ged on bheys" somehow doesn't sound right in those circumstances. Mind you, he is a bit on the thick side as well.

 

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