Project Crewe mark II

I’ve seen people elsewhere advocating selling them, even going as far as saying it would be “exciting” due to some naive misapprehension it would give us money to spend. It’s probably the same people still maintain we got a good deal for Raya. They obviously play far too much football manager.

I’m also struggling with the idea of it being an enjoyable season too. The events of Tuesday night will haunt me for a long time.

That was infuriating. I was disappointed when I saw the front three was unchanged, I was fuming at the start of the second half after Dolan, Hedges and Brereton all put in wretched performances and remained on the pitch. Knew he wouldn’t make a sub until we went a goal down. Thomas made a positive difference but Dack was massively up against it with Luton parking the bus at that point. Both should have started, not bringing them on at half time was inexplicable. Pathetic performance from Travis. What was the point in bringing Brittain on? Leonard on far too late. Is Hyam completely thick or is he playing to instructions with his insistence on passing it around at the back in the last seconds when we are desperate for goals? The same happened on Tuesday. Aside from this he’s dipped generally. Again we try to walk it in for the vast majority of the game. JRC and Pickering having our best attempts in the first half sums up how toothless our forwards are. Minor miracle now needed for the playoffs. It should’ve been so different.

The biggest driver is without a doubt fear of missing revenue targets. There is absolutely no appetite for risk and they won’t gamble on selling more with reductions across the board. Not since they pushed catering out to Sodexo. They seem happy bringing in a potentially limited but guaranteed revenue via the easiest path.

Every time (and there’s been a lot) we’ve mentioned the numbers that Preston have shifted to Waggott, the response is always “but they haven’t generated the revenue we have”.

But still won’t have been to Wembley!

The constant attempts to walk it in are driving me mad.

This was tagged into the pre-match email for tomorrow. It’s really annoyed me. 1. On initial inspection it looks like an error 2. the “based on 10 payments” is snook in on the top corner, no asterisks next to the advertised prices, no “per month” underneath 3. The figures are wrong. My payments are actually £38.10 because of the stealth booking fee they add to all tickets. My first payment which I’ve just made was £80.20 because it also includes the fee you pay to the finance company

Rovers need to stop looking at what other clubs do and figure out an appropriate response for our situation. You’ll struggle to find another club whose gates are as low as ours in terms of percentage of capacity, which tells us the offering over recent seasons is not attractive and we need a radical new approach.

Months ago everyone was saying they hoped we weren’t going into the games against Luton and Millwall needing anything, and here we are.

You seem reluctant to acknowledge any flaws with Broughton at all which is quite astonishing considering the (non)events of the January window.

I didn’t mention and don’t really care that much about the administration problem, though he certainly bares some responsibility for the fiasco as does Silvester. We’ve had a better midfielder than O’Brien in our squad all season who we haven’t utilised enough. It means absolutely nothing to agree a deal until it’s signed and sealed. Broughton gets no brownie points for trying but failing, he doesn’t get any for Undav scoring two today either. He was clearly expected to bring in a striker in January and he failed miserably.

It’s naive at best to assume a deal is done before it’s signed and ratified, so it’s no excuse at all. Broughton should know better and there’s no excuse for his failings in January.

Dack has 180 minutes to prove his worth, though that might be difficult from the bench. I’m clinging to the hope of a Dack inspired fairytale end/extension to the season. That would change the outlook somewhat, but as things currently stand I expect both will be off.

Leaving the O’Brien debacle aside, the biggest issue is Broughton’s miserable failure to bring in a centre forward. Sob stories around players “going back on their word” are just bad excuses and people need to stop making them. Likewise people claiming “it’s difficult signing players in January”. Bollocks. Other teams manage it. He had time, he had funds apparently, he has failed in the most fundamental part of his job.

It’s got a 103rd minute Amari’i Bell equaliser written all over it.

Another point I forgot to add… The club introduced an international flexi season ticket this year apparently off the back of loads of requests from fans. They thought there was heavy demand based on what supporters were asking for, but they sold 2. I get the sense this has added to their reluctance to try more novel approaches.

To add to what @only2garners has posted above, The Supporters Trust have also had similar conversations. Some ideas we’ve put forward include: Entry level pricing - we don’t have a “cheap” season ticket, and some fans are priced out. It’s a big commitment for fans who have never had one before. The front 6 rows of the Riverside are uncovered, they should be cheaper. We proposed £150 for a season ticket there. Obviously that’s a limited number of cheap tickets. I doubt you’d see many regulars giving up their seats elsewhere to sit in the worst seats. You’d literally just attract people who wouldn’t buy one otherwise. There was an argument that “people will just move back into other seats”. My answer was in a 1/3 full ground, so what? Flexibility - massive issue. I think there will be a larger than anticipated number not renewing this season off the back of the number of games we’ve had moved to evenings that people (especially those who generally take their kids) can’t make. Loads of suggestions around this. Tied into this and the significant number of fans I’ve spoken to who’ve had a DD knock back, we suggested a “pay as you go” season ticket. Currently you pay £40 to a finance company for the privilege of spreading your payments. We suggested a £50 membership/initial cost (money to the club) that then allows you to buy a ticket to any league game at a pro-rata price equivalent to the season ticket price per game, so around £18. If you want to go to all of them, you pay about the same as someone on a direct debit. If you can’t make half you aren’t wasting hundreds of pounds. You’d also get the other fringe season ticket benefits like access to away tickets etc. This is from my own working knowledge of consumer credit rather than any discussion with the club… Regarding the direct debit function, the club can’t offer finance. They aren’t licensed to, and it’s a non-starter. I do wonder what criteria v12 are going by, as I know homeowners who have been rejected and people with CCJ’s who have been accepted… I’d guess they are looking more at current work/income status than credit history to make their lending decisions. We’ve also had massive discussions around catchment areas and the marketing of season tickets the club do. I have to say the insight Fraser Reed has into this is brilliant from a digital point of view - very illuminating. There was an acknowledgement they needed to do more in more traditional/non-digital channels, as well as an acknowledgement they don’t have our strength of local knowledge and that was identified as an area they’d like some help. One comment was “the majority of our database has a BB postcode” which resulted in me literally getting a map out and showing them that that meant they could be coming from Rossendale, Ribble Valley, Hyndburn or even Burnley. We asked for tickets to be on sale sooner. That box was ticked, but the issue of only having a window of one or maybe two paydays before a price hike remains, frustratingly. Personally I’m sick of deadlines and cut off points. Season tickets should be available at any point during the season on a pro-raga’s price basis. What happens if someone who has been out of work finds a job in September? They have to wait til half season tickets go on sale at Christmas. We’ve also discussed a membership scheme on very similar lines to the fans forum, as an additional product and not a replacement for the traditional season ticket. There’s a lot more I could go into and the Trust will be putting out Comms regarding this in the near future. We do appreciate any input though, so feel free to reach out. We’re also looking to expand our membership (always) and our board, so please keep an eye open. edit - I should’ve added that there wasn’t any great expectation from our side that there’d be anything much this season. We see this as a longer term project, but id be disappointed if there isn’t something a bit more radical in 12 months time.

We have to end this winless streak at some point.

I’ve tried to take some time and reflect on the actual match and performance, but I’m still pretty crushed. Wharton was obviously a class above. Him and Benson provided the moments of quality. JRC is one we must tie down to a good long term deal immediately and I’d also make him captain. The bully Barnes was put in his place. Unpopular opinion, but Hyam is in a poor spell of form at the moment. He’s a way off the massively high standards he set early doors and his distribution last night put us in trouble a few times, while Carter made a single more costly error he was more consistent. Pickering should probably have been hooked as soon as he got booked. Obvious what Benson would try and do and being on a yellow stopped him preventing it. I’m not even sure he should’ve been booked as it looked from the back of the Riverside like it was Wharton who actually committed the foul. Hedges and Dolan huffed and puffed but neither ever looked like threatening the keeper. For the first time I thought Brereton lacked enough effort, perhaps I was being kind to him over recent weeks. Travis was disappointing, liked how Sorba Thomas showed some fight at the end. We are hampered by the lack of a centre forward, but we also limit ourselves by overplaying around their box and not getting a shot off. I’m still annoyed at how we continued to play about incessantly at the back when we were desperate for a goal. Oh, and Craig Bellamy is still an absolute prick. Very unlikeable little man. Bankruptcy is karma.

Darrenrover, formerly of this parish, hinted that he was appointed directly by Venky’s and would work independently of and was lined up to eventually replace Waggott. I doubted this as soon as I met Fielder, and having met the two together it was very clear Waggott was his superior.

Whose fault was it we haven’t got a striker? Never really needed O’Brien. Just needed to play Adam Wharton.

He was so far ahead of everyone else on the pitch last night it was ridiculous. Not for the first time either. Freezing him out for so long has cost us badly. We’d be comfortably in the playoffs if he’d played anywhere near the amount of minutes Morton has.

It’s sickening what Venky’s have done to our fans expectations. We managed about half a dozen top 6 finishes in this league in the 80s, but now we are looking on jealously and shitting ourselves at the prospect of playing a team that was non-league when those cretins bought us. Even if we end up finishing 8th some people will call our performance miraculous. I don’t get it. After last seasons collapse I’m not sure I can handle us blowing and opportunity again this time round.