I thought the following article entitiled 'Ballot winner- thrilled to return' in the Daily Telegraph was poignant and close to how I feel. It is an interview with a Thelma Campbell who describes herself as 'over 65' and from Wokingham:
"I'm a local girl and I've been coming since the days of Leary, Lawrie and Townsend. I got all their autographs when I was a 10 year old girl! ...These days I live in Wokingham, but I'm a season ticket holder. I come on my own and meet up with all my friends. Walking through The Valley gates I still get the same thrill that I did when I was a girl and I've missed it horribly.
It's been really terrible not being able to come. I've watched games once or twice on the TV but it's just not the same. I got tonight's ticket online, one of the lucky ones who won the ballot. It means the world to me to be able to come back....More than anything, I hope we don't lose after everyone's turned up. My real worry is getting back. ...If I do catch the trains it'll be midnight before I'm home. If I don't I'll be sitting on Waterloo station all night"
Visits to The Valley, should I choose to make them in future, will be diminished not so much by poor performances, nor small attendances, but in the knowledge that the stadium I helped win back is tarnished by the continuing ownership of Roland Duchatelet. Interference. Ignorance. All those wasted years. Duchatelet Out.
One thing I’d definitely do next time is wear contact lenses. Hate wearing them but it’s impossible to participate in the evening when you can’t see through your glasses. Ended up not wearing my mask properly as it was either that or go home.
It was grim being a glasses wearer. The cold really doesn't help, as the lenses are cold and thus the condensation stays on them
I thought the atmosphere was pretty good at the start, and for the first 10 minutes - about as good as it could have been with 2,000 fans spread around 3 stands in a 27k stadium. It faded after that as supporters gradually came to terms with the fact that Charlton wouldn't be turning up in a football sense.
Didn't agree with Bowyer's comments, but perhaps he was trying to deflect some blame and attention away from the players. Also, he might have been suffering from a bad case of "the bloke behind me" syndrome - with such a sparse crowd, it only takes a couple of people in the West Stand to be loud and critical and that becomes the dominant part of the atmosphere.
I was pleased to be back and looking forward to it for the first few minutes that I was in the ground. The performance was pretty dire, and after half an hour I was longing to be back on the sofa with ifollow on the telly and Sky Sports News on the laptop. Sure I'd have felt very different if we put on a decent show though.
Definitely some of this I think. Don't think there was any more negativity than normal, a few moans and groans at misplaced passes etc, but it was just that most of this comments could be heard. Usually they'd be lost in the general crowd noise
Visits to The Valley, should I choose to make them in future, will be diminished not so much by poor performances, nor small attendances, but in the knowledge that the stadium I helped win back is tarnished by the continuing ownership of Roland Duchatelet. Interference. Ignorance. All those wasted years.
Duchatelet Out.
Respect to you for the stance, don't forget the top I have for you mate.
i wanted to keep talking to my son to keep him engaged as it was a long cold evening plus we weren’t not exactly pulling up trees, but it also meant i sharing every conversation with the row in front and behind
Surely if you are from the same household you can sit together, can't you?
i didn't go but i would expect the atmosphere to be the same as an average early round fa cup home tie for us these days - sparse and quiet - god knows why bowyer thought the place would be buzzing with masks on and everybody socially distanced - i think he's feeling a bit defensive atm and rightly so despite our decent position as that squad needs surgery and he has to look at the team set up and himself a bit in my opinion rather than blaming crowds, players and fixture schedules - i'm hoping he gets it right but definitely not getting it all right atm in my opinion.
i wanted to keep talking to my son to keep him engaged as it was a long cold evening plus we weren’t not exactly pulling up trees, but it also meant i sharing every conversation with the row in front and behind
Surely if you are from the same household you can sit together, can't you?
Technically everyone was supposed to be 4 seats apart, same household or not
Watching the Quest highlights, 2000 fans didn't look bad in the smaller L2 grounds. Definitely different standards being used at other grounds, at Cambridge clearly there were groups of people sitting together (households I assume) while the home terrace looked fairly full
Was given a 6pm arrival slot but no issues with our turning up at 7pm instead (called earlier in the day to check if okay). All seemed to be well organised. Atmosphere felt good at first, but then more like a reserve game thereafter. Would have been interesting to see what it would have been like if we’d played much better.
Not sure the exit from East Stand was correct. They announced Lansdowne Mews gates were open and everyone left en-masse instead of row by row.
Not sure how much the club gets checked for this sort of stuff, but a quite few people wearing masks only over their mouths, just on their chins, or not at all. A few people didn’t even bother to sit four seats apart.
Next time instead of buying seats in same row, will try and get the second seat in the row in front, as that person is actually closer to l
I’ve seen enough dull midweek games over the years for this not to
i wanted to keep talking to my son to keep him engaged as it was a long cold evening plus we weren’t not exactly pulling up trees, but it also meant i sharing every conversation with the row in front and behind
Surely if you are from the same household you can sit together, can't you?
Technically everyone was supposed to be 4 seats apart, same household or not
Thats what I thought but watching on the stream there were definitely people sat next to each other, which is a bit of a kick in the teeth for people like @AFKABartram who actually followed the rules and didnt sit next to his son
As well as the tannoy another problem is the numbering on the seats, in the lower west stand it appears at least 50% of the seats are unmarked due to fading or number removed/ fallen off, obviously the green tick on seats helped some people finding their seat. If the club want any assistance with seat numbering i am willing to offer my assistance as this problem will have to be rectified sooner or later.
i wanted to keep talking to my son to keep him engaged as it was a long cold evening plus we weren’t not exactly pulling up trees, but it also meant i sharing every conversation with the row in front and behind
Surely if you are from the same household you can sit together, can't you?
But how do the stewards or the authorities know who is in a bubble and who is a someone ignoring the rules?
Same as all those who say sod getting there for the time for the club say be there (Not counting the ones with genuine reasons).
Same as those now saying I can pass my ticket on as their are no ID checks.
Everyone currently going who if they want the situation to improve and get either more fans in or at least keep the number we currently have if Covid trends rise further, have I think some sort of responsibility to stay within the rules the club have asked of us for them to show the authorities they know what they are doing and give us the opportunity to do more. If everyone thinks the rules are for others we will soon be back to square one and wasting all of our time
i wanted to keep talking to my son to keep him engaged as it was a long cold evening plus we weren’t not exactly pulling up trees, but it also meant i sharing every conversation with the row in front and behind
Surely if you are from the same household you can sit together, can't you?
But how do the stewards or the authorities know who is in a bubble and who is a someone ignoring the rules?
Same as all those who say sod getting there for the time for the club say be there (Not counting the ones with genuine reasons).
Same as those now saying I can pass my ticket on as their are no ID checks.
Everyone currently going who if they want the situation to improve and get either more fans in or at least keep the number we currently have if Covid trends rise further, have I think some sort of responsibility to stay within the rules the club have asked of us for them to show the authorities they know what they are doing and give us the opportunity to do more. If everyone thinks the rules are for others we will soon be back to square one and wasting all of our time
Other alternative people decided that this isn’t for them and they agree to wait until restrictions come to an end. Thus, we end up in a scenario when the club struggle to shift 2k of tickets for certain matches at a huge costs for the club.
Senior leadership meetings going on all week about trying to improve the experience, but increasing steward is the option but that increase the cost to a very expensive excerise.
Don’t forget all 5k of season tickets holders put money in the club when we could have easily gone bust. Can’t really see the club banning and kicking out their most loyal supporters.
i wanted to keep talking to my son to keep him engaged as it was a long cold evening plus we weren’t not exactly pulling up trees, but it also meant i sharing every conversation with the row in front and behind
Surely if you are from the same household you can sit together, can't you?
But how do the stewards or the authorities know who is in a bubble and who is a someone ignoring the rules?
Same as all those who say sod getting there for the time for the club say be there (Not counting the ones with genuine reasons).
Same as those now saying I can pass my ticket on as their are no ID checks.
Everyone currently going who if they want the situation to improve and get either more fans in or at least keep the number we currently have if Covid trends rise further, have I think some sort of responsibility to stay within the rules the club have asked of us for them to show the authorities they know what they are doing and give us the opportunity to do more. If everyone thinks the rules are for others we will soon be back to square one and wasting all of our time
Other alternative people decided that this isn’t for them and they agree to wait until restrictions come to an end. Thus, we end up in a scenario when the club struggle to shift 2k of tickets for certain matches at a huge costs for the club.
Senior leadership meetings going on all week about trying to improve the experience, but increasing steward is the option but that increase the cost to a very expensive excerise.
Don’t forget all 5k of season tickets holders put money in the club when we could have easily gone bust. Can’t really see the club banning and kicking out their most loyal supporters.
Rock and hard place. Blame Greenwich council.
Can very much assure you the one thing the whole experience didn’t need was more stewards
@Davo55 well I did try to get Seth to start "You can stick your Welsh accountant up your arse" but sadly if he did it didn't take off. Or possibly to the same tune "If Farnell can buy a club then so can I"?
Re atmosphere we are just a happy clappy fan base in general, unlike a boisterous crowd, another poster mentioned the amount of older fans in the attendance, we can create a good atmosphere when needed but I would guess the majority of season ticket holder’s are of the older more quieter fans than the more boisterous element, and the fact the crowd was all mixed in different stands didn’t help, maybe if it is possible to make sure “singers” can have the option of being in one stand obviously, covered end
I mentioned this game above. Look at the stands and you'll see people sitting together, presumably households. The terrace doesn't look very distanced either
Re atmosphere we are just a happy clappy fan base in general, unlike a boisterous crowd, another poster mentioned the amount of older fans in the attendance, we can create a good atmosphere when needed but I would guess the majority of season ticket holder’s are of the older more quieter fans than the more boisterous element, and the fact the crowd was all mixed in different stands didn’t help, maybe if it is possible to make sure “singers” can have the option of being in one stand obviously, covered end
Or Lee Bowyer can just accept the fact that it’s not going to be a Galatasaray type atmosphere at these sorts of games and lower his expectations.
We've included a Q in our new survey re the experience of fans attending - we intend to share findings with the club early next week as they prepare for the Wimbledon match.
The survey asks questions relevant for all fans too re your thoughts on the club's future prospects and Valley Pass - only takes 4-5 minutes, so please complete:
We've included a Q in our new survey re the experience of fans attending - we intend to share findings with the club early next week as they prepare for the Wimbledon match.
The survey asks questions relevant for all fans too re your thoughts on the club's future prospects and Valley Pass - only takes 4-5 minutes, so please complete:
Very good questions asked, it is good to see @castrust & the club working closely together. maybe you or the club can learn from the messages on this thread.
There's a lot of dismal bleating about the cold. The conditions of attendance were well publicised in advance. It's not like the weather came as a surprise. The weather's not the club's or the team's fault. Our responsibility to keep ourselves warm ends with us. It's not like we've never been to games on cold nights before - the temperature wasn't even below freezing, nor was it windy. Effective thermal clothing is cheap and widely available. Too many vinegar pissing snowflakes.
Comments
"I'm a local girl and I've been coming since the days of Leary, Lawrie and Townsend. I got all their autographs when I was a 10 year old girl! ...These days I live in Wokingham, but I'm a season ticket holder. I come on my own and meet up with all my friends. Walking through The Valley gates I still get the same thrill that I did when I was a girl and I've missed it horribly.
It's been really terrible not being able to come. I've watched games once or twice on the TV but it's just not the same. I got tonight's ticket online, one of the lucky ones who won the ballot. It means the world to me to be able to come back....More than anything, I hope we don't lose after everyone's turned up. My real worry is getting back. ...If I do catch the trains it'll be midnight before I'm home. If I don't I'll be sitting on Waterloo station all night"
Spot on girl!
Premier League makes face masks mandatory for returning fans
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55180417Next time instead of buying seats in same row, will try and get the second seat in the row in front, as that person is actually closer to l
If the club want any assistance with seat numbering i am willing to offer my assistance as this problem will have to be rectified sooner or later.
Same as all those who say sod getting there for the time for the club say be there (Not counting the ones with genuine reasons).
Same as those now saying I can pass my ticket on as their are no ID checks.
Everyone currently going who if they want the situation to improve and get either more fans in or at least keep the number we currently have if Covid trends rise further, have I think some sort of responsibility to stay within the rules the club have asked of us for them to show the authorities they know what they are doing and give us the opportunity to do more. If everyone thinks the rules are for others we will soon be back to square one and wasting all of our time
Rock and hard place. Blame Greenwich council.
Can you hear us
Can you hear us
Can you hear us in Tier 3
but we bottled it 😉
I mentioned this game above. Look at the stands and you'll see people sitting together, presumably households. The terrace doesn't look very distanced either
The crowd/noise on Wednesday was absolutely fine.
The survey asks questions relevant for all fans too re your thoughts on the club's future prospects and Valley Pass - only takes 4-5 minutes, so please complete:
CLICK HERE to take the survey.
Jason Cundy wasn't to impressed with this caller
The conditions of attendance were well publicised in advance.
It's not like the weather came as a surprise.
The weather's not the club's or the team's fault.
Our responsibility to keep ourselves warm ends with us.
It's not like we've never been to games on cold nights before - the temperature wasn't even below freezing, nor was it windy.
Effective thermal clothing is cheap and widely available.
Too many vinegar pissing snowflakes.