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jogills

jogills

Vital Football Hero
We have chewed over the effects of televised football and plastic fans often enough and many of us have clear views. The situation continues to evolve however, witness the recent VAR conversations but I am struck by something closer to home, which also affects most clubs. Up until recently we would rely on match reports to get an idea of away performances, some from various media, some from the hardy travellers. A few of the latter I know post on this MB.

This season has brought a new group of commentators, our exiled fans with access to live feeds. I confess that it has been a welcome innovation, for them and for us. Great for the exiles to actually see games and get a feel for the stuff we are going on about and great for us to get a new and sometimes more objective perspective.
 
Interesting topic, jogills. I`m really pleased that Gills fans living/working abroad now have an opportunity to view live GFC games, home and away. Each day the world gets that bit smaller ! The quality of the feeds will no doubt improve and I believe that domestic customers (ie those of us resident in the UK) will, from next season, have the opportunity to watch live feed of Gills midweek away games.

 
I remember ClubCall in the mid 90's.

I had a thought yesterday - do they still have the Manchester Pink'un? Going to somewhere like Bury away and by the time you get back to Manchester Piccadilly you can read the match report in the paper.
 
One thing with the live feeds is that they "just" follow the ball. Being there gives you a different perspective on what the team is really doing.

I could have stayed home yesterday and (I assume) watched on I follow or whatever. Rather than spend around 3 hours total driving, about 4 hours in the cold at the ground, an hour in KFC and Costa. But I reckon I got to see more of the proper match than I would have on my laptop.

The screen has it's place but being there is a whole different thing entirely.
 
In Strood in the 1960s the results were written down as they came in from the teleprinter and then copied onto the intentionaly left empty strip on the back of the Evening Standard. Paper boys would then deliver them to customers houses around the town also selling a few extra by shouting ?fooootbaaaallll reeessssuuuulllts - eeeevvvening ssstandard?.

By around 6:30 the pink edition of the evening standard with match reports would arrive from london and so back out doing the deliveries, this time with the shout of ?clllaaassssiiified.

Now theres social history for yers innit - shows the Stroodies ahead as usual in the towns lol.
 
Skullduggery Pleasan - 4/2/2018 18:

I could have stayed home yesterday and (I assume) watched on I follow or whatever.
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Well no you couldn?t, as the live feeds are only available to people outside the UK this season, hence JoGills? original point about these new reports from fans watching from afar.

However, I agree with your general point, that nothing beats being there live to get the full picture.
 
As far as I'm concerned, this season has been the best ever since I left the country, and that even includes the pre-Lovell part of the season. I was just so glad to see the matches that I wasn't bothered what tripe they served up.

It's nearly thirty years since I left England, but once you've been bitten you've got the bug, and Gills have still managed to blight or bless every Saturday afternoon throughout that time. In the beginning all we had was the BBC World Service, and in those days they at least used to cover the lower leagues, and I think one of their producers was a Gills fan. The annoying thing here, though, was that they ran a German service as well and switched over to it just as the results came in.

Then they got the Gills Player set up, which was great when it was working, but the trouble is that it often didn't, and you'd end up having to listen to the opposition commentary.

As of this season, being able to actually watch the matches is absolute heaven. The only thing is that they now actively stop you from having the commentary on at the same time. That's a diabolical liberty, seeing as we've paid for both, but if I'm honest, watching it without commentary forces you to watch more closely. And with this current team, although it's not the most talented we've ever had, it's all the more enjoyable.
 
Martin Fookes. We can say it now. That's progress for you.

I'm a hold out. I have a package with all the Prem games, and I watch football on tv to be entertained. Might try it but being reduced to spitting feathers by a lap top show...I don't know. Prefer getting home for one match a season.

-12 F here this morning.
I'm not watching the Super Bowl.
 
Loved listening to the BBC World Service & Martin Fookes.

Those brilliant seasons in late 1990's and early 2000's when we finally got up to the 2nd tier. I spent most of that time awake all Saturday nights just waiting for the scores and updates on the radio.

Unfortunately nowadays I'm too old and knackered to stay up late Saturdays (except for the odd big game). I get my fix on Sunday mornings and later on with the highlights. Very plastic I'm afraid.


Who remembers back in the day when driving home from a game you'd have the newspaper stand selling the Evening Standard. And by about 5.15pm or a bit after, all the papers had the football results freshly printed on the back page. No idea how they did it. We used to get one at the bottom of Star Hill whilst waiting in traffic.
 
You could get the London Evenings with half times fresh printed.

My memory is heading home along a foggy, dark Lower Rainham Road with Dad in his Mark 1 Escort listening to James Alexander Gordon and cheering or booing each result.
 
It's great that exiled Gills fans can get their fix and get excited (or miserable) at the same time as those of us attending the matches.
I have been abroad for a couple of weeks and was dissapointed to be unable buy single games to view on ifollow. I think they are missing a trick as I don't need to subscribe but would have gladly paid a higher tariff to watch the Fleetwood and Wigan games. There must be many other fans who go abroad during the season and would cough up a tenner to tune in for odd games?
I resorted to non stop refreshing of the Twitter feed.
 
Vambogills - 5/2/2018 02:14

It's great that exiled Gills fans can get their fix and get excited (or miserable) at the same time as those of us attending the matches.
I have been abroad for a couple of weeks and was dissapointed to be unable buy single games to view on ifollow. I think they are missing a trick as I don't need to subscribe but would have gladly paid a higher tariff to watch the Fleetwood and Wigan games. There must be many other fans who go abroad during the season and would cough up a tenner to tune in for odd games?
I resorted to non stop refreshing of the Twitter feed.
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I thought you could actually subscribe for just one game at a time? No?
 
Reminded me of "paybee", the old bloke who went round the cinder track shortly after half time with the half time scores freshly primted on the back of the paper (Evening Standard? I never looked at the front).

Anyone else remember him?
 
Lark - 4/2/2018 19:38

Skullduggery Pleasan - 4/2/2018 18:

I could have stayed home yesterday and (I assume) watched on I follow or whatever.
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Well no you couldn?t, as the live feeds are only available to people outside the UK this season, hence JoGills? original point about these new reports from fans watching from afar.

However, I agree with your general point, that nothing beats being there live to get the full picture.
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You can access iFollow in the UK if you want to dick about with VPNs.
 
I agree with Alderman, it's been great to be able to watch the games this season. When I first lived abroad in the mid-90s, with no smartphones, and no access to the Internet where I was, if I wanted to find out the Gills' result, I had to wait until Monday, trek half way across town to a shop that sometimes sold the English papers, and hope that Sunday's papers had arrived by then (and not already been sold).

Given the choice, I'd much rather be at the games, and if I lived in the UK I would be there, but obviously with a 2000 mile round trip that's not often possible. I'm sure there are a lot of people locally though who, whether for cost or comfort, would choose to watch on TV rather than go to the games if they had the choice, which presumably is why the service is only made available to those abroad (barring any VPN-related workarounds). How long that will remain the case, I don't know. As LGR says, maybe long midweek away games could be offered to those in the UK.

And Vambo, like OSK says, I also thought you could subscribe on a match-by-match basis. I'm sure I saw the option come up last Tuesday, I wanted to see just out of curiosity whether with my subscription I could watch the Blackburn v Walsall match. I couldn't, but it gave me the option of paying to sign up for it, 6 I think it was.
 
I also found out the other day that you can watch all previous matches in their entirety (which isn't advertised or obvious from most of the options on the news or the front page). If you go to "results", it lists all the results (obviously), but it also gives you an option to re-watch matches in their entirety (as well as highlights - both brief and extended).
 
Lark - 4/2/2018 19:38

Skullduggery Pleasan - 4/2/2018 18:

I could have stayed home yesterday and (I assume) watched on I follow or whatever.
Click to expand...

Well no you couldn?t, as the live feeds are only available to people outside the UK this season.
Click to expand...

According to the ifollow section on the OS "Wherever you are in the world, register with iFollow today for exclusive content and live match coverage. You won't miss any of the action!"

I am in the UK which unless I am mistaken is part of the world.
 
I spent 40 years as an exile in Leeds, which is almost local compared to some but I recognise the experiences. Years ago before the internet I used to wait eagerly for a bulky brown envelope each month. The postman probably thought it was porn but the contents were far more exciting..... photocopies of all the local papers' coverage, the programmes and a brief resum from St Roger of Priestfield aka Roger Triggs. I and a small group of exiles remained firmly in gillsworld before the term was invented. Thanks Roger
 
I remember being on Beira Patrol back in the sixties, The only way we could be sure of getting Gills results were from the radio operators, mail came once a week if you were lucky, and computers were to too big to fit onto a frigate.
 
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