Bristol Street Motors Trophy 2024/25

[Y Ddraig Goch]

No. I'll go if we get to the play off final but not for this trophy. If we beat Peterborough I'll watch Birmingham hammer us on TV.

I've made other plans for that Sunday and into the week (Easter Hols), based on trying to go to Wigan away the day before, without realising this would clash.

Very conflicted now as couldn't go to the final (I probably would have if I'm honest), it would spoil Wigan, we'd likely lose, and it could hurt/distract from promotion.

On the other hand, it would be great for the players and a lot of fans.

 

[White horse]

The teams around Greater Manchester don't get many day trippers when they get to Wembley, the glory hunters already are taken by Liverpool, United and City. They get their Wembley fix with them. The Bolton fans who went to Wembley were proper fans unlike the Plymouth and Oxford fans who had probably never been to a game before.

 

[Stocky]

The teams around Greater Manchester don't get many day trippers when they get to Wembley, the glory hunters already are taken by Liverpool, United and City. They get their Wembley fix with them. The Bolton fans who went to Wembley were proper fans unlike the Plymouth and Oxford fans who had probably never been to a game before.

Yep. We've found the same on our Wembley trips down the years.

We'd take absolutely fuck all to a EFL Trophy final. Even I'd uhm and ah about going. A Play-Off final a bit different but even then we don't upscale much for the reasons you've said.

I don't like Wembley trips that much anyway, our record there doesn't help.

 

[Super_horns]

The teams around Greater Manchester don't get many day trippers when they get to Wembley, the glory hunters already are taken by Liverpool, United and City. They get their Wembley fix with them. The Bolton fans who went to Wembley were proper fans unlike the Plymouth and Oxford fans who had probably never been to a game

I can see Plymouth bring well supported (remember going to the 1996 Div 3 play off final with a mate and they had 30k or so there ) but yes probably not that many genuine fans .

Same with Oxford .

And even us like when we played you in 1999 .

 

[denzel ecfc]

Your "protest" doesn't work and only harms the clubs you support.

If you want the u21 teams out the only way to do it is to take it seriously and give them a pasting every game. The PL clubs won't see any merit in entering then.

The under 21s have been getting pasted for years, none of them have ever made a final. Doesn't stop them from carrying on.

 

[Son of Cod]

Your "protest" doesn't work and only harms the clubs you support.

If you want the u21 teams out the only way to do it is to take it seriously and give them a pasting every game. The PL clubs won't see any merit in entering then.

Yes, the only way to protest against it is to partake.

I think we can safely agree that the protests won't work, however that's not due to the fans that don't go to these games, it's completely down to the fans that do go.

 

[Psycho Mouse]

it's completely down to the fans that do go.

It really isn’t. The EFL wouldn’t give a shit if all the grounds were empty so long as they are still getting that PL money for letting their u21 teams take part.

Force the Prem clubs out and you “get your cup back” or whatever you’re after.

Swindon the other month, dire financial straights, pathetic home support, 10k empty seats, wouldn’t sell Blues more than 1200 tickets for no reason whatsoever. We’d have filled it for them. You’d think they’d want the money.

Same goes for Stevenage in the QF. Massive empty terrace down the one side but limited our tickets for no reason.

Oddball behaviour.

 

[denzel ecfc]

It really isn’t. The EFL wouldn’t give a shit if all the grounds were empty so long as they are still getting that PL money for letting their u21 teams take part.

Force the Prem clubs out and you “get your cup back” or whatever you’re after.

Swindon the other month, dire financial straights, pathetic home support, 10k empty seats, wouldn’t sell Blues more than 1200 tickets for no reason whatsoever. We’d have filled it for them. You’d think they’d want the money.

Same goes for Stevenage in the QF. Massive empty terrace down the one side but limited our tickets for no reason.

Oddball behaviour.

Seriously you guys really don't get it do you. The sooner you go up the better.

 

[chief]

Would you even go? I haven't been to a single match in this tinpot cup this season or last so have no real desire to go to that hellhole again and watch us get slapped about by Birmingham.

I expect I would, but I'll moan about it the whole time.

 

[Psycho Mouse]

Seriously you guys really don't get it do you. The sooner you go up the better.

What's there to get?

You don't want the Prem U21 teams in the competition (fair enough) and not turning up to watch hasn't and will never make a blind bit of difference. The only way to get them out is to make it so the u21 players don't get any development out of it either by beating them 6-0 every match of playing your own u18 sides.

The only thing your harming by not attending these games, and limiting the amount of away tickets, is the pockets of your own clubs.

 

[Super_horns]

I don’t think generally away fans bother going .

Only you guys have really taken any sort of crowd to these games or sold out at home .

Has anyone else ever done that ?

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

Wasn't the final a few years ago with Sunderland and A N Other (cba to check) and they had a very sizeable crowd, which has been used as an example of crowds of the superbowl compared to footy over here.

 

[thewwfc]

We were the AN Other, gate was over 70k, of which 22k was us. Obviously it’s a piss easy journey for Wycombe fans, there’s literally a direct train from Wycombe to Wembley.

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

We were the AN Other, gate was over 70k, of which 22k was us. Obviously it’s a piss easy journey for Wycombe fans, there’s literally a direct train from Wycombe to Wembley.

I was thinking that it was Portsmouth as well where the crowd was massive. Also didn't Bolton play Plymouth the other year and that was massive too?

 

[Son of Cod]

It really isn’t. The EFL wouldn’t give a shit if all the grounds were empty so long as they are still getting that PL money for letting their u21 teams take part.

Force the Prem clubs out and you “get your cup back” or whatever you’re after.

Swindon the other month, dire financial straights, pathetic home support, 10k empty seats, wouldn’t sell Blues more than 1200 tickets for no reason whatsoever. We’d have filled it for them. You’d think they’d want the money.

Same goes for Stevenage in the QF. Massive empty terrace down the one side but limited our tickets for no reason.

Oddball behaviour.

It's not about getting the cup back. It was an okay competition around the turn of the millennium but has been in rapid decline for a long time now. Even at its peak, the early rounds were always an inconvenience. The protests and the problems people have with the u21s being in the competition is that it opens the doors to the same u21s sides being invited into the EFL divisions.

I don't expect a Brum fan to sympathise. You're a big club dipping your toes in L1 for a solitary season after a while away. However, if these sides are invited into the fold then what could it potentially mean to the likes of Grimsby who have finished in the bottom third of the EFL on the regs in the last 20 years? We've been down to the NL twice off our own back, we don't need sending back down there because the EFL have shafted us so that City and Liverpool youth teams can have our place.

I disagree about what protesting could achieve too. If not a single person watched the matches on TV and if not a single person went to the games then advertising would be pulled and if you think that it then wouldn't force the EFL to reconsider then you're quite frankly wrong. I don't expect fans of the bigger L1 clubs to care. Wrexham fans going nuts for it though need to be looking at themselves.

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

Wrexham fans going nuts for it though need to be looking at themselves.

Are we?

I think all WFC fans on here are really not arsed if we did get to the final. We had our X admin say we sold over 5k which isn't bad for a semi final at home. Not like it has anywhere near sell out as things stand.

 

[Son of Cod]

Are we?

I think all WFC fans on here are really not arsed if we did get to the final. We had our X admin say we sold over 5k which isn't bad for a semi final at home. Not like it has anywhere near sell out as things stand.

Wasn't a dig at the Wrexham fans on here.

However, you've had the following home attendances in this competition since coming back up...

7988 against Newcastle U21s
7870 against Port Vale
6640 against Salford
7591 against Bolton

And you took 1644 to Crewe.

 

[Psycho Mouse]

If not a single person watched the matches on TV and if not a single person went to the games then advertising would be pulled

You can't prove that, and it's completely unrealistic to think a protest like that could happen.

People like watching football, I will watch Blues no matter who, what, where or when they are playing.

 

[chief]

Wasn't the final a few years ago with Sunderland and A N Other (cba to check) and they had a very sizeable crowd, which has been used as an example of crowds of the superbowl compared to footy over here.

I'd expect we'd be another if we beat P'Boro. There'll be 40k Birmingham and at least 25k of us, then a decent neutral number. It'd be 70k at least.

 

[BarrieOwl]

It's not about getting the cup back. It was an okay competition around the turn of the millennium but has been in rapid decline for a long time now. Even at its peak, the early rounds were always an inconvenience. The protests and the problems people have with the u21s being in the competition is that it opens the doors to the same u21s sides being invited into the EFL divisions.

I don't expect a Brum fan to sympathise. You're a big club dipping your toes in L1 for a solitary season after a while away. However, if these sides are invited into the fold then what could it potentially mean to the likes of Grimsby who have finished in the bottom third of the EFL on the regs in the last 20 years? We've been down to the NL twice off our own back, we don't need sending back down there because the EFL have shafted us so that City and Liverpool youth teams can have our place.

I disagree about what protesting could achieve too. If not a single person watched the matches on TV and if not a single person went to the games then advertising would be pulled and if you think that it then wouldn't force the EFL to reconsider then you're quite frankly wrong. I don't expect fans of the bigger L1 clubs to care. Wrexham fans going nuts for it though need to be looking at themselves.

It is a tinpot cup nowadays due to many factors, it had a little prestige in the early days but even then it was hardly a big thing for certain clubs, the issue at the minute is the stupid group games and the involvement of the PL U21 sides, it's made a bigger mockery of it.

 

[Son of Cod]

You can't prove that, and it's completely unrealistic to think a protest like that could happen.

People like watching football, I will watch Blues no matter who, what, where or when they are playing.

It doesn't need to be proven. It's a simple case of economics. If advertising is not going to be viewed by a single person, a company won't pay for it. It's also completely unrealistic to expect our zionist prime minister to call out the genocide occurring in Palestine but people still protest against it. Realistic hopes and outcomes generally aren't satisfied through protesting.

And on your second paragraph, like I said in my previous post, I don't expect you to understand as your club is unlikely to be affected if the u21s were ever invited into the league setup. Plenty of people do understand though. I think there were 700 at our match vs Bradford in the groups last season, which is a fixture at Blundell Park that is more often a toall sell out in recent years.