Pre match protest on Tuesday | Page 2 | Vital Football

Pre match protest on Tuesday

Wasting your breath G58.

I have tried on many occasions to engage people who reckon we are stagnant and should be doing better. And I’ve used the tactic of asking who they’d sooner swap with.

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I think you are entrenched in your views as the people you dislike in the Facebook group OSK.

This isn't about looking back at what we were but rather looking forward to what we could be.

If you accept that gates have fallen over the last 5 years then something needs changing. It doesn't actually matter what the cause is at this stage as the responsibility to change lies with the club which in effect is one person.

If we don't change then we may end up as the next Southend, Aldershot etc. That's the point. It's not really about being the next Brentford or Bournemouth but about not being the next Southend.

Its really a simple question for me. Can scally turnaround around the decline* ? If yes then stick with him. If no then change is the better option.

* We won't really know until next season to be fair. Let's see what impact this season has on gates next season. I suspect more will say enough is enough. I thought we were at core support of4000 already but actually that core support might be closer to 3000.

What would drive an increase in gates ? Hope, belief, unity, progression ? Do you think scally can deliver that ?
 
Good man Chris. Hope you enjoy the game. Give them a cheer from me please 👍
Will do I have given my free tickets to two for Saturday Gillingham residents one a ex season ticket holder to try to encourage them back.But with the current form perhaps I should have waited. But stranger things have happened lose to Crewe then go and beat Pompey at the weekend.
 
Forgot to point out that Chester and Southend finished abead of us and Port Vale were promoted into the, what is now, Championship. Fancy swapping with them just now?
Finished one place above Aldershit. Tbey've cracked on and done so well since, yes?

Nasically, times are bad just now but please, get some sense of perspective on our current position. It is about average for my time as a Gills fan.
The problem now is two bad seasons from our position and you can lose your league status. In the 70s and 80s up till 86 that was almost certainly impossible.I think that is so scary now one look at the national league tells you how many will simply never recover their status.
 
But stranger things have happened lose to Crewe then go and beat Pompey at the weekend.


It's the hope that gets you in the end.

You are right though that would be the gillingham way.

Actually more important that we beat Fleetwood and Crewe as we just need to keep above four teams this season.

Portsmouth are in effect playing in a different competition to us. It would be nice to drag some more teams into our mini league though so perhaps Cheltenham is bigger than pompey.
 
It's the hope that gets you in the end.

You are right though that would be the gillingham way.

Actually more important that we beat Fleetwood and Crewe as we just need to keep above four teams this season.

Portsmouth are in effect playing in a different competition to us. It would be nice to drag some more teams into our mini league though so perhaps Cheltenham is bigger than pompey.
Cheltenham have had a decent start .I know Steve Evans felt they had signed someone he couldn't. But then they could possibly look at our players and say they wish they had X or Y in their squad. Cheltenham almost certainly had a similar budget or less than ours.So I would agree trying to drag them into trouble has to be a target however we will have very little influence.
 
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They are chanting "Scally out" during the game. This will be dispiriting for the players. I can only asume they want the team to lose and therefore supposedly force Scally out and then they "win". Arseholes imo. I bet you don't join in during the match MinK.

Will chanting scally out really influence the players ? I remember Danny Lloyd thanking the fans after Sunderland for the great atmosphere.

I suspect the players are more likely to be dispirited by the groaning/moaning at missed chances something that is aimed at them and not the owner.

What must be really dispiriting is to play in near empty stadiums that sound like a library not chants aimed at the owner.

However it will suit scally and his supporters to make the claim that its affecting performances. You can't beat a bit of deflection tactics.

You are right though I haven't chanted at a game. That's more out of respect for those that sat around me - they are suffering enough ;-)
 
Cheltenham have had a decent start .I know Steve Evans felt they had signed someone he couldn't. But then they could possibly look at our players and say they wish they had X or Y in their squad. Cheltenham almost certainly had a similar budget or less than ours.

It was a fact Chris according to Evans . Danny Crowley was set to sign for us but we couldn't compete with the Cheltenham offer. I saw Crowley at Norwich he did look a class above.

The other one was their big CB.

They are only 6 points ahead of us. A win tomorrow and we can hope of pulling them back. If they go 9 clear then we may struggle to close that gap.
 
I've done my fair share of shouting at matches and probably made a fool of myself but I don't do chanting against my own chairman, manager, or players. I understand that others think and feel differently and I think Scally has contributed to the current situation.

I didn't enjoy the chanting at the Sunderland game and some of the behaviour irritated me. None of that prevents me from acknowledging the protesters as genuine fans, who travel the country to follow our team. We need them, all of us and the disheartened back in the ground together again. I think that will now require a change of ownership, or the current man taking a back seat.
 
Again, all true mark. Most of them would much prefer to see wins.

But I strongly suspect that core group (the fans discussion main posters, and the couple of them still allowed on GiTB etc) would much rather see losses. It helps their cause to get more people angry and against Scally. If we were currently top 6, they would be arguing into the wind. The fact we are bottom 6 suits them down to the ground.

They are all way more vocal after losses than they ever are after wins. That main guy actually goes out of his way to create more negativity after wins to try to get people “back on theme”. His theme.

Spot on there OSK regarding the drumming up of negativity. The more I have seen of his posts the more it's obvious it's about him, despite claiming otherwise. It's two large egos (Scally and said individual) duking it out with only one real winner as things currently stand. Unfortunately, his faithful blindly allow themselves to be manipulated and carry out his agenda.
 
Wasn’t really a moan, more of a correction as people seem to be using the burger van as a central reference point of the protest when it likely won’t even be there!
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I mentioned the burger van as that is a location people would immediately know where I mean. If I said "in front of the garages" then it might have been less clear.
 
Pretty much the only teams that have improved from previous eras are the clubs that were “big and successful” in the distant past anyway. They have just got back to where they should historically be. Teams like Wolves, Swansea, Fulham etc. Big clubs with bigger following and some history in the top 2 divisions

You could add Burnley to your list too.

One exception that I can think of though seems to be Bournemouth. Always in the bottom 2 divisions until 87-88, spent 3 seasons in the old 2nd division, then back to slumming it in the bottom two divisions again until 2013-14 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AFC_Bournemouth_seasons
 
I think you are entrenched in your views as the people you dislike in the Facebook group OSK.

I’m entrenched in my view that I think the core driving group of SOB are a pack of tw@ts who would know nothing about running a football club and a lot less about supporting one. If they dropped the “support the team” bit from their campaign I’d respect them more. Because that core group most definitely DO NOT support the team.

Was it Trev or Lancs that recently posted about the guy sitting next to him at Cheltenham(?) who loudly sang the scally out song but was completely quiet during Gills songs. That’s the type I’m pissed at. Support the team? Yeah, right.

And the ones spouting shite about staying away from home games because they don’t want to fund him. Has it not occurred to them that Scally gets paid either way? The money they are putting in their own pocket is coming out of club funds that could go to players wages, transfers, ground improvements, whatever. Scallys getting paid regardless. So they can pick another excuse for not going. There are currently plenty.

In the general discussion about Paul Scally, I fully agree with you mark (and now him) that he doesn’t have the resources or contacts to take us much further.

I think he’d like nothing more than to sell up and ride off into a well earned retirement. It can’t be much fun getting the stick he gets. Some of it warranted, much of it not.

So if someone else came in (individual or consortium) with money coming out their ears to fund Gills up to their armpits, I’d be fully supportive. No problem with that.

But if it went tits up soon after, I’d be asking plenty of questions. And not pointing at Scally.

If you accept that gates have fallen over the last 5 years then something needs changing.

We’ve had this argument before mark.

They’ve gone down over 5 years where we were top of the league at the start and currently bottom 6.

Obviously they’ll go down in that timeframe. They actually went UP for the 3 intervening years (albeit a small amount) from lovells reign to SE’s first season with crowds.

And say all you like, if we were currently in the top 6 I bet our crowds would be a whole lot closer to what they were when we were top under JED.

I will agree with you there is a general overall fall in attendances from our halcyon years 15 seasons back. And Scally and GFC need to do a whole lot more to reverse that trend. PR and advertising are very poor from him. Fully agree.

What would drive an increase in gates ? Hope, belief, unity, progression ? Do you think scally can deliver that ?

Wins.

Plus the other things you mention. Scally moving aside and someone coming in who’s a whole lot better would help. But who’s to say they would be better?

Wins would guarantee it.
 
You could add Burnley to your list too.

One exception that I can think of though seems to be Bournemouth. Always in the bottom 2 divisions until 87-88, spent 3 seasons in the old 2nd division, then back to slumming it in the bottom two divisions again until 2013-14 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AFC_Bournemouth_seasons

Yep. Lots of clubs that were “down with us” in the 70’s and 80’s that are now in the Prem or Champ are pretty much all historically “big” clubs. They are just returning to their old place in the pyramid. You can add teams like Blackburn, Preston, Palace, Bristol City and many more.

And if you look at the current Prem and Champ, apart from a couple of smaller clubs that yo-yo from div1 to Champ pretty much all are much larger clubs than us. Always have been.

The main exceptions are Bournemouth and Brentford, both massively bankrolled. Possibly teams like Reading and Watford. But they still have normally got a lot bigger crowds than us historically. Reading apparently about to get pts deducted.

But for some reason, we should expect to command 20-30k crowds in the Championship or we aren’t “ambitious”.

Do I want to see us challenging to get back in the Championship? Absolutely.

Do I blame the owner for that not happening? Not really.
 
Why would they? What purpose would that serve?

You'd think anyone whose still going to games would want the team to win.

It really is possible to support the team but still believe we'd be better off if scally sold up.


But Mark, you highlight the difference between reasonable people, like you - and the highly vocal antagonists among the Scally Out group who are frankly damaging the team, as well as the Club. I think 58 is right when he alludes that some would actually prefer us to lose as they believe it adds value to their twisted view...
 
Will chanting scally out really influence the players ? I remember Danny Lloyd thanking the fans after Sunderland for the great atmosphere.

You are right though I haven't chanted at a game. That's more out of respect for those that sat around me - they are suffering enough ;-)

Sorry Mark, but it does and there`s been plenty of evidence - though, tbf, probably more at away games, where the vocal SOB are able to be more easily seen and heard by the players. The SOB vocal mob lose no time in voicing their negative tosh as soon as our guys put a foot wrong, especially if it leads to conceding a goal. They are also quick to sing stupid lyrics such as "we`re winning away, how shit must you be, we`re winning away" - I was just behind Cumming when this was sung at a recent game and he was clearly annoyed and bewildered (shrugged shoulders and put his hands in the air in a WTF fashion) that OUR fans should chose to sing that. It`s also the case that mistakes from our players often lead directly to profanity by the SOB - Jackson was getting frequent abuse from one of the SOB (he`s on their facebook group - might even be banned for all I know) for large chunks of the game at Crewe. On Quest TV the reporter even mentioned the Scally Out chanting. I find it impossible to believe that our players are not being affected by the negativity from the vocal SOB element. I respect people`s right to have an opposing opinion but there are too many in the SOB that take it to an ugly level, even involving physical threats to other Gills fans. TBH, if they can`t be civil I wish they would just F*** Off ..
 
Lancs - I'm clearly differentiating between specific scally out and similar chants to anything aimed at the players.

I still think moaning and groaning at missed chances or poor defending will have a far bigger impact on the players than "scally out".