Our Support Base!

[Fish_Fan_Joe1]

My fellow fans have warned me that I set myself up for some grief on this with you bunch of charmers but so be it!

 

Whilst frequenting your board for the past couple of days I have noticed that if your not taking it out of Chelmsford or Braintree (Geography based) we seem to be next on the hate list!

 

Fair enough we did take your manager that would warrent some abuse but thats football. Clubs at our level are conveyor belts. Since August we've had three managers and 20 odd players come and go, I'm sure it is the same for you and every other club in our league. Every Fisher game we seem to have a dozen scouts present from league clubs observing our best players that in some ways we hope they don't play too well!

 

Colcester and Oxford are constantly after no.10 Watts and the owner of Grays watches more Fisher games than he does Grays!

 

My point is we accept our situation that everyone of our players and staff are in the shop window and thats just the way it is. If you don't like it go to Spurs...

 

I'm sure Justin will be off soon enough to League 2 its only a matter of time.

 

Your insults in the main are directed at our support base. Yes it is not the largest in the league but it is by no means the smallest. We have a solid base of around two hundred fans that is on par with the likes of Staines, Hampton and Heybridge. We're not exactly at Leytons level!

 

I'd say we're around average for this level and I wouldn't mind your not exactly packing em in at New Lodge these days! If you had the kind of support base of AFC Wimbledon you would have a point but you don't. Also to the Chelmsford contingent on this forum...you might take it out of us but your support is decreasing with every game. Once the novelty of Melbourne Park is gone you'll soon be back down to our level!

 

Well I've said my piece and I'll probably be abused for it but to every true footy fan who is coming down to Champion Hill we look forward to seeing you and enjoy the game!

[paulc27]

speaking for myself, you were more than welcome to our manager. Unless he gets you up he wont be going any where else hiher up as he has done nothing and won nothing as a manager at this level.

Out of interest Joe, how do you rate him so far?

[Ozbrit]

To be honest I can't see Billericay, Chelmsford or Braintree at Fishers two hundred level when sitting second in the league. In fact I'd go further to suggest that with the sort of money they seem to have at their disposal, Chelmsford would be on gates of 2000, Billericay over a thousand and even we'd we'd be nudging the four figure mark at Cressing Road. The only club comparable to Fisher has to be Yeading.

[Ian Blockhead]

Fish don't be too sensitive. I think you will find any critisism of Fisher is purely gentle leg pulling, indeed the harshest comments were made by a friend in Margate. We are looking forward to our trip on Saturday and hope to see you in the bar. I think its gonna be a pretty good game. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/angel.gif" alt="" />

[Fish_Fan_Joe1]

In reply to Braintree fan Orbrit, I think you'll find me old China that Braintre are already top of the league but Cressing Road isn't nudgeing this four figure mark you talk of!

 

Also Chelmsford and Billericay aren't exactly in a relegation battle and are enjoying decent seasons the pair of em yet your projected figures are a little ambitious! I think you've been in OZ too long my son!

 

In reply to Paul the Fish fans are very pleased with Justin thus far. We were always a good side but had a soft underbelly as was exposed at Worthing where we got hammered 4-0. This put us into panic station mode where we took on Justin. In short the new manager has made us tough to beat and defensively solid without losing our attacking threat.

 

Away from home we're the best in the league and if Saturday's game was played at New Lodge we'd have a great chance of turning you over...but at Champion Hill we get the jitters for some reason, so worrying that we now use the away dressing room! However we did put 4 past Leyton last week at home so hopefully we will build on that.

 

Come and have a drink at the bar, you'll find we're a friendly bunch although you will have to bare with us as we have an all important supporters meeting before the game!

[Ozbrit]

Tis! true but we haven't been signing up players in quite the same way as Fisher have, so who knows what crowds might be with league standard players turning out for you each saturday? and thats the point I'm making.

[GazzaBTFC]

Mr. Fish, if you are going to give it, expect to rake it. Charmers you say? Well, that may be but if you notice Chelmsford give it as much as Braintree give as much as we give it and yes, we have to take it as well. Some of us swallow quite hard, other don't.

 

If you don't like it, don't post.

 

And Oz, I agree with you. Your predictive crowd figures look spot on...So why is it that Fisher only get 200 odd?

[The Town Crier]

Mr Fish, I don’t think the word Abused describes the way in which you’ve been received on this message board.

 

Fisher are our next League opponents, so for this week you must expect some football responses when visiting.

 

Billericay are looking forward to this encounter, and with the added spice of an ex Manager, junior assistant and, a physio or two, I expect it to be a lively day for one and all.

Our Blue Army choir boys will be in full voice for this one.

 

Me, I just hope we can batter the Fish Saturday. Failing that I'd settle for a good afternoon’s entertainment and expect to enjoy some good football.

 

See you all Saturday.

[Fish_Fan_Joe1]

Mr Ricay, I don't believe I'm being overly defensive and have been responding with constructive answers. I have not been insulting in anyway and so as you put it 'I haven't been giving it'. In fact while the three Essex sides have been taking it out of Fish to my knowledge I'm the first Fish fan to come on here to answer back if you will. I'm allowed to do that surely?!

 

In response to your question re 200 crowds there are many factors to do with this. We play away from home in Dulwich which doesn't help. Also geographically we have Millwall on our doorstep.

 

Our success is very recent where only a couple of years ago we were nudgeing the Kent league and loseing to the Eastenders cast in charity matches (dark days indeed!). We had crowds of 50. Now due to an influx of new stars down to the Chairman we're a club on the up. Our crowds are now the highest they've been in twenty years and continue to increase. Once we move back home to Bermondsey we hope this will increase further.

 

I hope this goes some way to answering your longstanding question...

[Keith.P]

Mate, you keep going round in circles. A message board is all about banter. Remember, you have got the last laugh anyway cos you are in a play off spot. So we shall see you all on Saturday. So, will your crowd be less cos Millwall are at home Saturday?!? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

[Fish_Fan_Joe1]

keith, I'm not going round in circles, I'm just answering all of your questions...

 

in response to the Town Crier in hindsight the word abused was a little harsh and I have been suitably impressed by the majority of responses.

 

Over and out, see you all Saturday

[GazzaBTFC]

Mr. Fish, you are as welcome here as others. Feel free to continue...

[Fish_Fan_Joe1]

Thanks mate, that's appreciated. We have a new forum on our site thats still got some bugs so is pretty dead at the min.

 

Also you find with some of these forums (including ours) that they're ruled by kids and you can be easily abused even when its not warranted.

 

Hence my first post where I'm just feeling my way in. Always up for a good bit of banter so thanks I'll stick around going forward.

[Barry Proudfoot]

Werent fisher in the conference not so long ago?

 

Surely they attracted more than 200 then

[Fish_Fan_Joe1]

We were relegated from the Conference back in 91/92 season. Even then though we were only getting 250/350 so we have never been well supported.

 

Our one asset though is we own our ground (bought back in the day) which is in close proximatey to the City/Canary Wharf so you can imagine the land value in that area.

 

As we offer a community based service no property developer can get planning permission from the council. The pitch must stay...but the surrounding area that the club owns can be built on...based on this you may not be surprised to know our benefactor is also a property developer...

[Guildford Blue]

Mr Fish, how is Ross Wareham fitting in? Is he still the legend that he was for the Blues?

[Nitetime Neil]

Quote:

Fish_Fan_Joe1 said:
We have a solid base of around two hundred fans.
I'd say we're around average for this level. I wouldn't mind your not exactly packing em in at New Lodge these days!

If you have 200 fans, half of them don't bother pitching up every week - hardly a "solid base" ! You got 112 v Leyton, 116 v Maldon (both clubs who would bring next to no-one away) and 170 v Hendon who are reasonably well supported away and that was a London derby !!

Agreed you are not Leyton or Redbridge (one wonders why they bother at this level with their pathetic attendances) but you are certainly well below average, most teams get at least 200. I can only think of Harrow, East Thurrock and Windsor whose gates occasionally slip under 200.

As for us (and I'm sure Simon has the latest stats at his fingertips!) we avearge around 500 and got 503 last Saturday for a very typical mid-table match against a team (Bromley) who brought the usual 30 or so diehards along, less than a few, but definitely more than others !

See you on Saturday - and prepare to be outnumbered !

[Simon BTFC]

The median attendance in the division this season is about 325 (The mean is heavily skewed by AFCW) - 100 more than the league average for Fisher. If you take the 1000+ gate for Fisher out of the mix then their average is significantly below 200 - about 176. If you estimate that the average away support (excluding AFCW) is 35 then that would give you a hardcore Fisher support of about 140.

 

Billericay's average is 491 in the league, and we're yet to play AFCW. Think that's held up pretty well cf last season given that our home form hasn't been as good this year.

[Fish_Fan_Joe1]

Blimey you boys certainly did some homework there!

 

Unfortunately the likes of Leyton, Maldon and Hendon are not what you would call crowd pullers!

 

And I'm sure if I go in search of your attendance list I very much doubt every crowd will be 503 or abouts. No doubt you'll have crowds in the three hundreds and I never denied Billericay have more support than the Fish.

 

We have a hardcore eliment and do take 40/50 away every game. Unfortunately due to demographics the majority of our support is over 50 so well past the days when singing away behind the goal so not too visable but there nontheless!

 

Back in our heyday we were called Dad's Army, another pointer to our ageing support.

 

Anyway back to work!

[GazzaBTFC]

Quote:

Fish_Fan_Joe1 said:
And I'm sure if I go in search of your attendance list I very much doubt every crowd will be 503 or abouts.

That is why we refer to "average".