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"Bit shit today wannit! '

Ok Gents, let see what can be sorted in respect to the various comments and concerns that you have.
As a Board member I try not to get to involved with the more heated discussions on this forum. Not because I don't have strong veiws on certain matters, but because as a club Official, I have a duty to uphold the name and integrity of 1874 Northwich.
As Community Development Officer my role is to promote our club to the outside world, however our supporters are our most important asset and I include your veiws and requests as part of my brief.
Firstly, I have no input or specific knowledge regarding team matters. I am in the same situation as the rest of you with respect to this matter. However I do know that it is not possible to give out information regarding possible or potential signings until they are finalised.
Can you imagine the uproar that would be caused if we were to be publishing names and details of potential signings if they were still signed to other clubs.
The same type of thing relates to injuries.
A lot of our players do play with pulls and niggles, and at times this means that they may not perform to their best ability, but they still turn up and give their best. We cannot however broadcast this, can you imagine if we publised that player x is struggling with a bad ankle. I can guarantee that within the first five minutes of the next game he would have been clattered on it and targeted throughout the game.
As far as a Supporter liason oficer is concerned, we have Board members.
We all wear an identity lanyard. If you have any questions ASK US. If we know the answer we will tell you, if not we will find out. Its not our club, its YOURS.
Finally, as well as being a Board member, I also bang the drum. Sorry if its been a bit quiet but I try to take my que off YOU. If the atmosphere is flat I have no intention of belting away like a demented fool and annoying the people around me.
If YOU create an atmosphere, I will add to it.
Hopefully these words might just throw a little light onto things. Remember this is a community club, your club. The rest of us just try our best.
 
Alan Marshall said:
no, josh, I promise you it is easier to have a moan - but that is what this place is for. It is a vent for frustration at what was clearly a poor result. It's a few days before you can get behind them again. In my day we retired to the club and moaned over a pint, nowadays we do it online.

One small consolation is some of the other results today.
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Excellent point Alan. For me bring back the days of the old Central Ground club (the Vics club or Volunteer for you guys) get your moans, disagreements and frustrations out over a pint after the game and move on. Social media drags such issues out for weeks and often creates mountains out of molehills. I would prefer my post match pint/moan and the pink final on way home any day. Happy days when you look back.
 
Ash said:
Haven't the foggiest who Muffin is - won't lose any sleep wondering who or what motives they may or may not have but he/she is an exclusive member of just about 300 people on this planet who care enough to share an interest.

No mention of Martin Hill moving on prior to being listed on away team sheet on Sat + there was a unofficial post on this forum about last season top scorer Beads being unavailable.

A lot of talk about gravy since the summer but Oxo has been playing at X and Bisto has been getting game time at Y - but we were scraping the sauciere on Saturday.

It's a solid point made about comms on the footy side and not the first time this has been raised in the three years. Appreciate some info is not for the open, but basic player availability and confirmed ins & outs should be shared with the entire fanbase. If help is needed, enough members have my number to pick up the phone - if not, please take it as constructive criticism to improve in this area - no motives here.
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I want to start doing a match preview with squad information in contact with possibly Ian or Paul Bowyer, but its sometimes difficult to judge who is available or or not until the actual match day.
 
OK folks, I'll add my two penn'oth. My hubby said 'don't get involved, you could get shot down' but I'll take a chance as I am a supporter who cares. Besides, when do I ever do as I'm told!

I've read the five pages with great interest and it is clear that whilst some of us have slightly different opinions, we all care about our club and want the same thing. That's a good direction to be going in!

There's been a couple of posts about the fact that some people 'at the club' want everyone to conform and that if opinions differ, they will be criticised. Absolutely not! When we supported the former club, we cried out for a chance to be heard and for our opinions to matter. YOU created 1874 and I can promise you, that's what you have. Your opinions are valued and if your ideas can be taken forward, then they are. If there are reasons why things can't happen, then hopefully you will know why. This Forum is an outlet for expressing views. The club has no control over it and can't get things changed and nor does it want to, as it respects peoples right to free speech. However I would personally ask that before posting, you take a breath, weigh up the whole situation and be constructive in your wording. Whilst we will see some 'difficult conversations' from time to time, something that is perceived as a little more 'venomous' could potentially damage our club. I can tell you that we experienced that last week as a result of a particular thread and whilst I do not want to go into detail, I was so very disappointed that the situation was not warranted.

The Board, our Society Secretary and myself are 'ronk Northwichers' who perhaps don't always get things right. I don't! But we are still learning to run a football club and we always seem to have a new challenge thrown at us every week. Please be assured that whatever happens, decisions/actions are taken with the very best interests of our football club and its members.

I personally think that communication from the club to the supporters is better than I experienced previously but I know there is more we can do. As Football Secretary, I will take a certain amount of criticism about the lack of player information firmly on the chin. There has been times when we feel that player news is so important, that it warrants a great deal of attention, an example being when Lee Duckworth left. With no disrespect intended to other players, you will find that they quietly move on or they dual register with another club and perhaps go off to play for them, whilst still on our books. We may not make a big deal of this as the door is open for them to return. It is difficult to keep up with some of them at times but that is what you have at this level. The Martin Hill example is one which I will take on board and will aim to provide up to date information when I can. We wished him well, perhaps we could have been more public about that.

There will be times when we can communicate if a player is unavailable, for example through longer term injuries or through suspension. I appreciate that this may help supporters to understand the situation when the team sheet is produced. However what we can't legislate for is last minute, exceptional circumstances, where a player becomes unavailable. This happens more than you think. And what I won't commit to is providing information on a possible missing player the day before, as that will give our opponents an advantage (and Streety would kill me!). Imagine tweeting out that one of our best players won't be there, what a boost for the other team.

I set up the text messaging service for news of pitch inspections/postponements and I started to incorporate some player news. The season is still young, however I will try and include news of signings and departures where possible. We will also aim to provide info in the Newsletter where we can. I am sure that you will appreciate that it is a balance between communicating to you guys whilst not giving our opponents an advantage!

What we absolutely won't do is tell the world who the management team is looking at and who we have made an approach for. In the first instance, we wouldn't want to alert our rivals and if the approach didn't result in a signature, there's always the possibility that we will try again!

Ian Street is very approachable and will try his best to answer questions where possible. Even yesterday in the club after the game, he sat with a supporter and chatted through a few issues. The situation with Ian is clearly different to what we had at the former club. Most of those Managers were full time which meant that they could commit to very regular meet the manager sessions and they also had time to write programme notes and discuss issues with a range of people/organisations. Ian has a full time job and tries to do whatever it takes to keep his family 'on side' which then enables him to use his remaining hours managing our club. He does it because he loves it. I have noted that supporters want some kind of better feedback from him or potential interviews on camera or radio. Brian Edge and I will talk to Ian, Paul Bowyer and Stu Tulloch about this and will see what we can organise when possible.

The current situation is the first tricky moment in our short history. I believe that we have been spoiled up to this point and therefore expectation is high. I have absolutely no issues in supporters airing their views but I would like to see a bit of perspective at times. Yesterday we experienced another loss and some have asked why we don't have other players to come in. We do have a squad but the injury list is incredible and those we would normally have drafted in are struggling (and it has nothing to do with the training!). I was present at the Under 21s game this afternoon and one of the lads was helped off after sustaining a painful injury. This seems to be the 1874 luck at the moment, someone is not smiling down on us! We also had other players that were unavailable. You can't lose key players as we have and not expect it to make a difference. The important thing now is that we get the lads back as quickly as possible or replace those who will be out longer term. It is also important that our management team evaluate all players to make sure that they can 'do a job' for 1874. We have seen some of our players moved on in the past, to make way for further quality. Not easy for us supporters to take at times, however this is the job that Ian must do. I don't think he has done too badly up to now!

I make no apology for defending our Management Team. I know only too well how hard they are working and how much they care. They are very disappointed over the recent losses and some performances but are more determined than ever to put this blip behind us. Their record is very decent, we've smiled more than we've groaned so I have no doubt they will get us past this. I would also urge a little restraint over personal 'attacks' on players on some social media sites. The majority of these lads got us into third position last season. They are not professionals, but are decent players who wear OUR badge. It doesn't help anyone's confidence if they know that they could get 'panned' for trying their best. I think we are all in agreement that they are putting effort in.

Whilst accepting everyone's views certainly, may I now suggest it is time to draw line on this thread and look forward to getting behind the team, starting Tuesday.

My final thought...... We are experiencing a couple of tricky weeks, but we are in very capable hands, we are solvent and are looking forward to a bright and secure future. Where would you rather be?

Now the '74!
 
i think paul has it spot on with his post.

when we do have our own club/bar would anyone be interested in setting a fans forum possible held on thursday to get people together arrange away travel have the highlights playing on screens etc?
 
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