Accrington Stanley match

[David Holden]

This match has been moved to Friday 17th February, kick off 19:45.

[jc]

That means a gap of 12 weeks between our last home match on a Saturday (Morecambe) and our next one (Scarborough). It just doesn't feel the same without any Saturday Fleet matches at Stonebridge Road.

 

That said, given the success of the Canvey experiment, you can understand why the board are pursuing this further. However, I bet their supporters are made up about travelling all that way on a Friday night - I know I wouldn't be if we agreed a Friday night away fixture with them. For the sake of the away fans alone, Friday night football isn't really fair in this instance.

[Slartibartfast]

Wasn't it Accy who experimented with Friday night footie earlier in the season?

It doesn't make it any easier on their fans of course but it might explain why their club agreed to a switch.

It will be interesting to see if Accy (top of the table, best side in the league, lets see how much we need to improve if we want to be where they are) <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/applaus.gif" alt="" /> are as big an attraction as Canvey (Pikey scum, stick your f***ing yellow up your ****, local rivals etc etc). <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

[mikefleet]

will there be alot of accy supporters? i dont thhink so

[Richard C]

Excellent news in my opinion, it means i can play football on the Saturday aswell. Brilliant.

[Gordon T]

Damn, was gonna head home for that game, can't make it now... I can't see accy bringing as many as they might do on a saturday. Interesting to see how much of a success it is this time round....

[Richard C]

Agree, but they will probably bring similar to the 100 Canvey bought, so it will be an excellent tool to see how many home fans prefer Fridays?!

[Harry J Allstars]

Quote:

mikefleet said:
will there be alot of accy supporters? i dont thhink so

If you would had watched their game with Exeter on monday evening you would have seen they had 100+ there. Okay I'll give you the fact that it was Exeter and those two teams are battling it out at the top of the league but you must also remember that as it was on Sky and a few of theirs would have stayed away.

[kmj]

I would hope that our Board would resist an away game on a Friday that prevented our fans from attending it because if the distance involved. An away game at Accrington on a Friday night would be ridiculous.

[Richard C]

The truly hardcore fans that may got to a long distance game like that would probably not be put off by whether it was a Sat or Fri eve.

The players are mostly Pro and would travel up with plenty of time.

 

It is more relevant to the home team/fans IMO.

[kmj]

The Friday night difficulties include having to take a day's holiday if you usually work Monday to Friday or are attending at school, college or university and for those who use public transport to get to away games it would be impossible to get home if the kick off was, say,at 7.45pm. Even driving to a night game is more of a problem eg tiredness particularly a 4 to 5 hour drive home arriving back at 3am. Non weekend away games should be limited to teams within easy geographical reach.

[EUFC FAN]

This is a bit of a result for me as I am attending a birthday bash on the Saturday and was going to miss this game!! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Now I can see the footy and get bladdered the next day!! Result.

 

My dad's not happy though! "Football is for Saturdays". I am waiting for him to start a petition! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[jc]

Quote:

Slartibartfast said:
Wasn't it Accy who experimented with Friday night footie earlier in the season?
It doesn't make it any easier on their fans of course but it might explain why their club agreed to a switch.

This did occur to me too. In a way, it would seem a little hypocritical to champion Friday night football and then refuse an away game on said day of the week. However, Accrington to Gravesend is a significantly longer journey than Hereford or Forest Green (i.e. the two teams to play Friday night Conference games at Accy this season) to Accrington, and so this could have provided justification for a refusal. Perhaps such issues of distance would enable us to turn down a Friday night game at a faraway ground too, without suggestions of hypocrisy. Or at least I hope so, because such championing of Friday night football could ultimately lead to our supporters who travel away being treated as badly as Accrington's hardcore fans have been.

[Slartibartfast]

Accy look set for promotion this year but if they should miss out and then request that next years match is switched to a Friday night it is hard to see how we could object.

[jc]

Indeed - that's what I'm worried about.