Welling: 13th October 2015. | Page 2 | Vital Football

Welling: 13th October 2015.

They started off similar at the start of the season but the players wage expenditure for 2016/17 was way above that for 2015/16.
No, it started off lower. Of course it was higher by the end of the season due to all of those pesky FA Cup bonuses we had to pay...
 
I remember this £10,000 saving due to closing the SW being mentioned with the savings supposedly from less turnstyle operators. I was sceptical about this at the time-how do you arrive at a £K 10 figure from saving a couple of operators per home game ?
 
No, it started off lower. Of course it was higher by the end of the season due to all of those pesky FA Cup bonuses we had to pay...

The total wage expenditure for 2016/17 was £K 2,562 against £K 1,161,for 2015/16,an increase of £K 1,401. Now this is total staff costs ,not just players.The increase of this magnitude is not just FA cup bonuses.You have a large increase in the underlying budget including league win bonuses.
As regards the situation at the start of the season Clive Nates posted on here that the 2 budgets were similar.
 
"It was known under Gary Simpson..." Known by whom, exactly? No one has ever mentioned that to me, not the players of the time, not even Simpson himself. Why on earth would they employ professional players and not have them training? I would be interested to know where you got that.

40-week contracts are the norm in non-league football. It makes perfect sense to do that, as you never really know what you are getting. Remember Karl Ledsham? No, you probably don't. However, a number of Gary Simpson's players were either signed on or converted to two-year deals including Alan Power, Paul Farman, Tony Diagne, Sean Newton and Ben Tomlinson. Whatever we may think of Simpson tactically, he was actually quite smart in the transfer market and used loans and short-term deals well:

2-year deals: 5
1-year deals: 12
Loans: 10
Non-contract: 2
Short-term: 4

The SW was closed to save £10,000 per season in costs - with an average gate of 2,500 and an average away attendance of 70 (excluding Grimsby), it made perfect sense. What has that got to do with going part-time?
- It was here-say at the time. It may have been exaggeration that training sessions had become fewer or shorter, so apologies for stating it as kosher.
I agree Gary Simpson did well with his deals, I’m not criticizing him or the club for that. He did what he had to do, with a small budget. I remember summer transfer windows, it felt like we were waiting for every other professional club in the region to recruit the players they needed before we recruited what was left. That would be because we were offering the lowest FT wages.

I didn’t say we were Part Time, but that we were very close to it. Yeah I agree shutting the SW saved some money, but was another visible sign of gloom that we were down to the bare bones.
 
Let's not forget that we were also very close to relegation to the National League North on a couple of occasions as well. If that had happened I am sure we would have gone part time and would still probably have been there today if not lower. Fine margins sometimes
 
I remember this £10,000 saving due to closing the SW being mentioned with the savings supposedly from less turnstyle operators. I was sceptical about this at the time-how do you arrive at a £K 10 figure from saving a couple of operators per home game ?
I don't think it was ever passed off as just that. It was services, insurances etc as well (whether that came to £10k, I don't know).
 
The Carshalton 3-1 away was worse. I stayed until Sheridan's late curler but I can't tell you why.

I think the days following that defeat were the most disillusioned in Lincoln I have ever been. Worse than the relegation. Worse than the 4-0 thumping at home to Ferriby.
Carshalton 002.jpg

:censor::eek!::eek!::eek!::eek!::eek!:
 
I think the days following that defeat were the most disillusioned in Lincoln I have ever been. Worse than the relegation. Worse than the 4-0 thumping at home to Ferriby.[/QUOTE]

Sorry but no. We lost four nil at home to a village the size of Navenby….where I happened to have lived for over twenty years at the time.....and everybody knew who I supported. Carshalton does not touch the sides.
 
Some very dark days you look at the teams we put out at that time and they were really poor but the wages on offer were very low, I know a player who was offered a contract by Houldsworth of £260 per week needless to say he stayed playing part time even though he was looking for full time football.
 
Sorry but no. We lost four nil at home to a village the size of Navenby….where I happened to have lived for over twenty years at the time.....and everybody knew who I supported. Carshalton does not touch the sides.[/QUOTE]

This thread was about dreadful away league trips we had endured in the last few years. Believe me, Welling stands out in a period of almost consistent gloom, not helped by the ground and 702 attendance.

It wasn't just the match, it was getting to the arse end of south east London on a Tuesday evening, and then witnessing the lack of belief shared by fans and players alike. We even played ok, for some of the game and should have at least drawn if not for the sending off and AP's woeful crossfield pass.

God, it makes you appreciate what is generally served up today. Bring on the Mansfield.
 
Those who've posted about what might have been had the slump continued are a clear reminder that fans should treat these rare periods of relative success with humility - not that many do.

The cases of Stockport and York are direct comparisons with Lincoln.

Stockport decided to go part-time. Their logic was that in NLN they would be the last port of call for full time professionals, whereas as part-timers they could get the pick of the part-time players.

York have kept going full-time with many of the squad who have suffered two relegations and others brought in on big contracts.

Neither approach has worked out for either club though Stockport did reach the NLN play offs. Ironically it was two full time teams who got promoted.

Given what's happened to Stockport their attendances are remarkably good averaging over 3,000. It shows there's still life in them. I wonder what attendances would be at Sincil Bank if City were now in their 6th consecutive season in National League North?
 
The difference between the two is that North Ferriby were carried along on a river of money from the Allam family (nominally Steve and Eman Forster), whereas Carshalton's budget consisted of three bubblegums and a gobstopper. To compound matters, don't forget that we were drawn at home against Carshalton and couldn't beat them twice. Ferriby were essentially full time and had a number of ex-FL players in their side.

Stockport's average attendance last season was 3433, the fourth highest average in non-league football. They have the advantage of being a bona fide, traditional football club with a long Football League history, but those attendances are a great achievement after being out of the League for so long.
 
At the time, Carshalton were managed by their owner, Paul Dipre, who was making few friends down south for the money he was putting in there.
 
Those who've posted about what might have been had the slump continued are a clear reminder that fans should treat these rare periods of relative success with humility - not that many do.

The cases of Stockport and York are direct comparisons with Lincoln.

Stockport decided to go part-time. Their logic was that in NLN they would be the last port of call for full time professionals, whereas as part-timers they could get the pick of the part-time players.

York have kept going full-time with many of the squad who have suffered two relegations and others brought in on big contracts.

Neither approach has worked out for either club though Stockport did reach the NLN play offs. Ironically it was two full time teams who got promoted.

Given what's happened to Stockport their attendances are remarkably good averaging over 3,000. It shows there's still life in them. I wonder what attendances would be at Sincil Bank if City were now in their 6th consecutive season in National League North?


Stockport must be one of the teams we've played the most over all of our history.
I have a good friend who supports them and goes to a lot of other non lge games too.
He actually saw Jamie Vardy playing for Stocksbridge and told Stockport they should sign him...maybe they would now be in a very different place if they had listened to him...sometimes us fans do know something!!
 
All this talk of Stockport reminds me of Schoey's (first) season in charge and when we were last top of League Two prior to this season. We had just beaten Barnet 5-0 away then Rochdale 7-1 at home before an amazing 1-0 win at Swindon Town to go top of the tree.

I was at all three of those games and then came Stockport County away the following week...