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A couple of non league snippets

3spirit

By 3spirit
in Slough Town Forum

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Holyport Rebel Proficient

Holyport Rebel

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Posted (edited)


I have mentioned before on here the difficulties being put in the way of Oldham and Southend fans in trying to get tickets for this Sunday's Non League play off final.
I had planned to go to this game expecting it to be a doddle to get a ticket, and have been keeping a watch regularly on both clubs official websites and fans forums to see how things were going.
On the Southend forum there is a thread entitled "Wembley tickets" which goes on for 166 pages.
The Oldham forum  "Wembley tickets"  one goes on for 62 pages.
I've read almost every post..
It is very disappointing to read many posts from fans who planned to go in family/friend groups of 6,7,8 or even more, but due to not knowing if they could get all the tickets they wanted let alone be able to sit all together, so many potential attendees dropped out. 
The two clubs I think have been incredible in the way that they have done their very best to get tickets to as many of their fans as they could.
Their admin staff must be truly knackered now after about a week of absolute ticket chaos.
From what I can gather, after the initial batch of 17,500 tickets were given to the two clubs, (which sold out so quickly), most of the other tickets they were given were one's that had to be sold with coach travel attached.
You couldn't buy  a match ticket on its own.
And how do you arrange dozens and dozens of coaches at such short notice !
If you're a Southend fan you could pay £75 for a match and coach ticket , but £75 put a lot of fans off as well as this being  a restriction on how you spent your matchday.
Fans blame the authorities for being so unyielding in their reluctance to give them  more tickets, but a lot of the blame seems to be put the way of the National League Board.
It seems that when the Board were made aware months ago of a 40,000 restricted  Wembley capacity for their play-off final, they told TFL and all the other interested parties that that number would be plenty.
No problem.
When you have got ex-league clubs like Oldham, Southend and York who all finished in the play off places , that is one risky decision.
The National League board must have been horrified when Southend beat FGR on penalties to get through to the final to meet Oldham.
If FGR had won then all these problems almost certainly wouldn't have arisen.
Surely all scenario's should have been planned for though ?
They obviously were not.
Ticket sales for Sunday's match were finishing on the Oldham site at 12 midday today.
Southend said yesterday that their sales would end at 7pm last night.
Then at 5pm yesterday, 2 hours before the deadline, Southend announced that Wembley had given them another batch of tickets, these ones just match tickets only.
No coach travel booking required.
These sales would last until 3pm today.
Late last night it was easy to get on the club website to buy a ticket for the match.
When I started  to write this post it was still easy to get on the  Southend ticket website and buy a ticket.

No online queue at all.
I've wanted to go to this game, and have waited until now before buying a ticket, as I think I can have a clear conscience now that any Southend fan who still wanted/was able to go after all this hassle could now have got one.
They could have sold so many more tickets originally if things had been as straightforward as they should have been for a non-league game in a 90k capacity stadium. 
As of yesterday Southend say they have sold over 28,000 tickets, Oldham over 21,500.
Then you have the tickets as well I guess that were sold in the "Early Bird Sales window".
I was too late to try to get one of these.
Southend and Oldham fans should have been enjoying and anticipating a great footballing occasion at Wembley for the past 7 to 10 days.
Instead all they have been able to concentrate on is whether or not all their fellow fans can get to one of the biggest games in their clubs history.
That is so wrong.
I so much hope Leon starts the game.
To see him play at Wembley in front of 50,000 fans will be incredible, when only a few short months ago he was with us playing in  front of a few less !
Having read about all the stress and anguish that these two sets of fans have gone through in the past few days I'm only sorry that one of them will be leaving Wembley defeated. 
What they've had to go through has been an utter disgrace, and I hope once Sunday's match is over, the people responsible  for this fiasco will suffer the consequences.
Good Luck to both teams.
I hope both sets of fans have a fantastic day.
And of course especially Good Luck to Leon.       

Edited by Holyport Rebel
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Reading Rebel Grand Master

Reading Rebel

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 minutes ago, Holyport Rebel said:


I have mentioned before on here the difficulties being put in the way of Oldham and Southend fans in trying to get tickets for this Sunday's Non League play off final.
I had planned to go to this game expecting it to be a doodle to get a ticket, and have been keeping a watch regularly on both clubs official websites and fans forums to see how things were going.
On the Southend forum there is a thread entitled "Wembley tickets" which goes on for 166 pages.
The Oldham forum one goes on for 62 pages.
I've read almost every post..
It is very disappointing to read many posts from fans who planned to go in family/friend groups of 6,7,8 or even more, but due to not knowing if they could get all the tickets they wanted let alone be able to sit all together, so many potential attendees dropped out. 
The two clubs I think have been incredible in the way that they have done their very best to get tickets to as many of their fans as they could.
Their admin staff must be truly knackered now after about a week of absolute ticket chaos.
From what I can gather, after the initial batch of 17,500 tickets were given to the two clubs, (which sold out so quickly), most of the other tickets they were given were one's that had to be sold with coach travel attached.
You couldn't buy  a match ticket on its own.
And how do you arrange dozens and dozens of coaches at such short notice !
If you're a Southend fan you could pay £75 for a match and coach ticket , but £75 put a lot of fans off as well as this being  a restriction on how you spent your matchday.
Fans blame the authorities for being so unyielding in their reluctance to give them  more tickets, but a lot of the blame seems to be put the way of the National League Board.
It seems that when the Board were made aware months ago of a 40,000 restricted  Wembley capacity for their play-off final, they told TFL and all the other interested parties that that number would be plenty.
No problem.
When you have got ex-league clubs like Oldham, Southend and York who all finished in the play off places , that is one risky decision.
The National League board must have been horrified when Southend beat FGR on penalties to get through to the final to meet Oldham.
If FGR had won then all these problems almost certainly wouldn't have arisen.
Surely all scenario's should have been planned for though ?
They obviously were not.
Ticket sales for Sunday's match were finishing on the Oldham site at 12 midday today.
Southend said yesterday that their sales would end at 7pm last night.
Then at 5pm yesterday Southend announced that Wembley had given them another batch of tickets, these ones just match tickets only.
No coach travel booking required.
These sales would last until 3pm today.
Late last night it was easy to get on the club website to buy a ticket for the match.
When I started  to write this post it was still easy to get on the  Southend ticket website and buy a ticket.

No online queue at all.
I've wanted to go to this game, and have waited until now before buying a ticket, as I think I can have a clear conscience now that any Southend fan who still wanted/was able to go after all this hassle could now have got one.
They could have sold so many more tickets originally if things had been straightforward as they should have been for a non-league game in a 90k capacity stadium. 
As of yesterday Southend say they have sold over 28,000 tickets, Oldham over 21,500.
Then you have the tickets as well I guess that were sold in the "Early Bird Sales window".
I was too late to try to get one of these.
Southend and Oldham fans should have been enjoying and anticipating a great footballing occasion at Wembley for the past 7 to 10 days.
Instead all they have been able to concentrate on is whether or not all their fellow fans can get to one of the biggest games in their clubs history.
That is so wrong.
I so much hope Leon starts the game.
To see him play at Wembley in front of 50,000 fans will be incredible, when only a few short months ago he was with us playing in  front of a few less !
Having read about all the stress and anguish that these two sets of fans have gone through in the past few days I'm only sorry that one of them will be leaving Wembley defeated. 
What they've had to go through has been an utter disgrace, and I hope once Sunday's match is over, the people responsible  for this fiasco will suffer the consequences.
Good Luck to both teams.
I hope both sets of fans have a fantastic day.
And of course especially Good Luck to Leon.       

If Leon gets to start it'll be a great experience for him.

Personally I'm not sure what would be better for atmosphere etc, playing at a half empty Wembley or playing at a packed premiership stadium ?

 

Edited by Reading Rebel
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GlenSTFC Veteran

GlenSTFC

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

If Leon gets to start it'll be a great experience for him.

Personally I'm not sure what would be better for atmosphere etc, playing at a half empty Wembley or playing at a packed premiership stadium ?

 

Crazy how quickly a players career can change! Has it even been half a year since Leon played for us? Really hope he gets to play some part and gets promoted (please tell me we put in a promotion clause!!!). 
Still think especially any player would 100% prefer to play at Wembley than any other ground and similar for fans even if not full they close the whole upper tier so all the noise should still be compacted.

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GlenSTFC Veteran

GlenSTFC

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58 minutes ago, SloughFlyer said:

Francis Amarty signs for Bracknell. 100% his level. Step 3 he'll do well at and hopefully we have finally realised he isnt good enough at Step 2.

Ooooo you bitch! 😆

7 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Hampton have announced a major signing in the form of experienced midfielder Rohan Ince from Woking.

 

Be interested to know how many games he played at step 1 last season?

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Curtis Mentor

Curtis

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On 30/05/2025 at 10:14, Reading Rebel said:

If Leon gets to start it'll be a great experience for him.

Personally I'm not sure what would be better for atmosphere etc, playing at a half empty Wembley or playing at a packed premiership stadium ?

 

It’s 1-1 & Leon comes on as a sub in the 64th minute.

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GlenSTFC Veteran

GlenSTFC

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Matt Briggs ex Dorking has signed for Salisbury. For me this is a big red warning signal. I’d place Salisbury as one of a few teams that are similar to us in terms of ‘ambition’. But if they can attract the calibre of Briggs (who we once wanted too, and should be type of player we’re looking at) then this just pushes us further down the pecking order.

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