A couple of Sunday morning thoughts after losing to Kiddy:
– There seems to be a bit of a concern about the ticketing/segregation we do at the moment, especially for these sort of games. Basically, you can’t go in the TE unless you have a designated ticket (which happened to a group of 3/4 behind me yesterday, which I thought was pretty harsh). However, if you have a TE ticket you can go in the KRE when it’s open to us (and therefore I presume the JS too). Go figure.
I know it’s all teething troubles etc, but I wonder how long it will be before the more casual of supporter decides they’re fed up with a shit view in the JS compounded with ticket arrangements that seem to change weekly? Even now, I don’t know whether I can go and get a cup of tea from the Wickes Shed “Tea Pot” and either stand in the TE or go on the JS. Anyone who goes in the TE turnstiles could be forgiven for thinking they can stand in either, although the stewards do give the impression they like telling people they’re in the wrong place…
Anyway, here’s an idea for AFCW. For a game like Luton, we stick to the Tempest/JS only principle. If we can use the escape behind the TE to filter people into the JS, so much the better. It’s not 100% perfect, but it works well enough.
For a game like yesterday, we would have been best to adopt what has served us so well in the RP/CS days. The TE/JS and part of the KRE is home fans only. But you can stand anywhere you like. Granted, it will piss off those with a TE only ST, but as somebody with one of those, I know for a fact that there were spaces in the first half. For a “big game” you obviously give the TE ST holders the access…
The problem as we all know is that KM really isn’t suitable for the crowds we get. It is for all intents and purposes a non-league ground, and the sort of non-league that the Conference isn’t. For short-to-mid term (and I mean, the next 2/3 years) we urgently need that second lease behind the JS stand.
We need something like this all the way down it, or at least most of the way because we don’t want smelly away fans from up north parking their shit-stained arses on them. Give them the crappy bit of JS terracing. It can be as basic and cheap as we can get it, because we need something like this now. This won’t have any effect on ground relocation, because it won’t solve our long-term problem of coping with (eventually) League football. Remember that KM needs totally flattening and rebuilding, in truth.
I’ve heard complaints over the last 24 hours that kids are getting pushed aside (perhaps literally) due to people moving about. Make a family stand in this new stand specifically for them. Granted, I have no time for people moaning that their kids are subjected to foul language – they probably hear far worse from their classmates, and it is a football ground for fucks sake – but by giving families some option to watch the game with their own ilk, you shouldn’t get too many complaints.
And yes, it will cost money etc etc. Hey, being a Conference side with ambition isn’t cheap…
– No real backlash over the players etc from yesterday. It’s clearly just a bad day and people have accepted that before moving on. What a contrast to the Ryman Prem era. Three players would have been crucified by now back then.
– Not too sure if I mentioned it in the report yesterday, but I can’t recall KM being as quiet as it was. I’m not saying people weren’t interested, but the whole thing was a big load of meh. We talk about the amount of games finally catching up with the players, maybe it’s true of the punters as well?
– Finally, it seems that some Kiddie fans had problems with the catering themselves, one of whom asked for chips with his meal, got charged for it yet had to ask about three times to actually get them. Since 2002 there always seems to be some issue with catering at KM. Remember the fad in the early days of fair trade coffee and home-made locally sourced food? The sandal-wearing Independent readers cried into their aubergine bake when commercial and supply reality hit in a big way.
It seemed pretty chaotic around the TE tea-bar area at half time when I was being an extra pair of hands to someone. I bitched about the cost of it, but like an increasing amount of things at KM, we haven’t quite caught up to the level the team are now at…