Lincoln vs Grimsby

[StrangelyBrown]

Have been through the pic and identified the ones I know...

I'm the one taking the video!!

 

[GodsGift]

Not sure if either of you have seen this already, but it might restore some faith...

http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=6994

Much better. I've found it a bit strange how a few Grimsby fans (I won't generalise the entire fanbase) have looked down their noses at our success. I've seen some odd comments in the last few days.

I get the "plastics" argument, it's been done to death among our own fanbase (especially with last seasons Checkatrade Trophy run) and I know some supporters who have been there every week for 30/40 years have felt a little uncomfortable with it all at times. But fair play to the new fans, they're sticking around (easy to do when we keep winning, I know, but away figures have been impressive). As the above article suggests, it does seem as though there's an element of your fanbase that is quite happy to remain as you are, with gates of 3/4k, watching lower mid-table football and complaining about Fenty from time to time without ever actually doing anything about it.

One fan genuinely told me they'd rather Grimsby remained where they are in L2 playing the "right" brand of football and not having to resort to 'game management' (he called it cheating) - rather than having our success. I call bollocks, but fair enough I guess if that's how he genuinely feels.

 

[Posh Harry]

Much better. I've found it a bit strange how a few Grimsby fans (I won't generalise the entire fanbase) have looked down their noses at our success. I've seen some odd comments in the last few days.

I get the "plastics" argument, it's been done to death among our own fanbase (especially with last seasons Checkatrade Trophy run) and I know some supporters who have been there every week for 30/40 years have felt a little uncomfortable with it all at times. But fair play to the new fans, they're sticking around (easy to do when we keep winning, I know, but away figures have been impressive). As the above article suggests, it does seem as though there's an element of your fanbase that is quite happy to remain as you are, with gates of 3/4k, watching lower mid-table football and complaining about Fenty from time to time without ever actually doing anything about it.

One fan genuinely told me they'd rather Grimsby remained where they are in L2 playing the "right" brand of football and not having to resort to 'game management' (he called it cheating) - rather than having our success. I call bollocks, but fair enough I guess if that's how he genuinely feels.

The plastics arguement is gonna stick for a while and is an obvious one and pretty accurate imho (one of my best mates previously went once a season when his misses let him and now goes to loads of games home and away, and she goes with him sometimes as do the kids - I think they are a perfect plastic example).

As for playing ‘the right way’ and staying in League 2 rather than the game management, well I don’t personally buy that, but there should be a balance. At the moment we are a bit too ‘nice’ as a team. Sending off stats don’t represent a true picture, we are not a dirty team, but have had a few sent off for poor tackles. Overall we probably need to be a bit wiser and get in the ear of the ref a bit more than we do but I personally think that the Cowleys/Lincoln have gone to much the other way.
That is not just me or Grimsby fans saying that, virtually every team you come up against say it. It shouldn’t be win at all costs, sometimes a little grace and fair play goes a long way and buy favour in the long term. The Cowleys imo don’t have any grace and although they are winning for now, I don’t think the way they behave will do either them or your club any favours in the long term, but I could be wrong. They are still the golden boys, but that will change at some point.

As for the looking down our noses (and I appreciate you are trying not to lump us all together), well to be honest that is mostly jealousy, again imo. The bottom line is Lincoln did a superb job of marketing the club to a new set of fans when they had the chance and it has paid off for you massively and that can only be admired. That is the advantage of new people into the club with new modern thinking ideas.

I am not going to slag off Fenty like others do because he helped the club through some difficult times (there again I am not going to sing his praises either). Yes he has not invested for a while etc etc, but he did get us out of the shit before and is genuine fan. But what he isn’t is forward thinking and happy to listen to others, that is obvious and that is what cost us when we went up and lost all momentum.

So I don’t think many look down their noses, I think they do it to hide behind jealousy.

But at least leave us with the ability to call you all bandwagon jumpers, it’s pretty much all we’ve got at the moment

 

[Vanni]

'seen their average attendance rise from 2500 to 8500, a figure of 6000 per cent for those of you not good at sums.'

 

[Luke Imp]

The plastics arguement is gonna stick for a while and is an obvious one and pretty accurate imho (one of my best mates previously went once a season when his misses let him and now goes to loads of games home and away, and she goes with him sometimes as do the kids - I think they are a perfect plastic example).

As for playing ‘the right way’ and staying in League 2 rather than the game management, well I don’t personally buy that, but there should be a balance. At the moment we are a bit too ‘nice’ as a team. Sending off stats don’t represent a true picture, we are not a dirty team, but have had a few sent off for poor tackles. Overall we probably need to be a bit wiser and get in the ear of the ref a bit more than we do but I personally think that the Cowleys/Lincoln have gone to much the other way.

That is not just me or Grimsby fans saying that, virtually every team you come up against say it. It shouldn’t be win at all costs, sometimes a little grace and fair play goes a long way and buy favour in the long term. The Cowleys imo don’t have any grace and although they are winning for now, I don’t think the way they behave will do either them or your club any favours in the long term, but I could be wrong. They are still the golden boys, but that will change at some point.

As for the looking down our noses (and I appreciate you are trying not to lump us all together), well to be honest that is mostly jealousy, again imo. The bottom line is Lincoln did a superb job of marketing the club to a new set of fans when they had the chance and it has paid off for you massively and that can only be admired. That is the advantage of new people into the club with new modern thinking ideas.

I am not going to slag off Fenty like others do because he helped the club through some difficult times (there again I am not going to sing his praises either). Yes he has not invested for a while etc etc, but he did get us out of the shit before and is genuine fan. But what he isn’t is forward thinking and happy to listen to others, that is obvious and that is what cost us when we went up and lost all momentum.

So I don’t think many look down their noses, I think they do it to hide behind jealousy.

But at least leave us with the ability to call you all bandwagon jumpers, it’s pretty much all we’ve got at the moment

R.e. your first point, I think that's also a perfect example of what we set out to achieve and how successful our Junior Imps Club and family areas are (something introduced pre-Cowley). I'm not sure at what point plastic becomes normal, but attendances will be the same whatever league we're in next season, which will then be four years.

Second point, and whilst I appreciate we're not angels, there are plenty of preconceived ideas about us and how bad we actually are. Competitive, yes. Organised, yes. Low risk in our defensive third, yes, but contrary to popular belief, we're not full of beats and monsters. Rowe, Eardley, Toffollo, Andrade, Pett, Frecklington etc etc...it's an easy stick to shake, and like Way last night, an easy one to use when you've lost to deflect for their own and/or own sides shortcomings. I'm not entirely sure long term really matters because having had Murphy, Beck and KA as managers, people already label us as a long ball, aggressive side. Even under John Schofield, which was like watching Brazil at times, the label of that never left!

 

[PaulHaddock]

'seen their average attendance rise from 2500 to 8500, a figure of 6000 per cent for those of you not good at sums.'

Sarcasm clearly doesn’t read well on the internet...

 

[Vanni]

Sarcasm clearly doesn’t read well on the internet...

Dunno about that Paul. I don't think it's sarcasm at all.

 

[StrangelyBrown]

The plastics arguement is gonna stick for a while and is an obvious one and pretty accurate imho (one of my best mates previously went once a season when his misses let him and now goes to loads of games home and away, and she goes with him sometimes as do the kids - I think they are a perfect plastic example).

As for playing ‘the right way’ and staying in League 2 rather than the game management, well I don’t personally buy that, but there should be a balance. At the moment we are a bit too ‘nice’ as a team. Sending off stats don’t represent a true picture, we are not a dirty team, but have had a few sent off for poor tackles. Overall we probably need to be a bit wiser and get in the ear of the ref a bit more than we do but I personally think that the Cowleys/Lincoln have gone to much the other way.
That is not just me or Grimsby fans saying that, virtually every team you come up against say it. It shouldn’t be win at all costs, sometimes a little grace and fair play goes a long way and buy favour in the long term. The Cowleys imo don’t have any grace and although they are winning for now, I don’t think the way they behave will do either them or your club any favours in the long term, but I could be wrong. They are still the golden boys, but that will change at some point.

As for the looking down our noses (and I appreciate you are trying not to lump us all together), well to be honest that is mostly jealousy, again imo. The bottom line is Lincoln did a superb job of marketing the club to a new set of fans when they had the chance and it has paid off for you massively and that can only be admired. That is the advantage of new people into the club with new modern thinking ideas.

I am not going to slag off Fenty like others do because he helped the club through some difficult times (there again I am not going to sing his praises either). Yes he has not invested for a while etc etc, but he did get us out of the shit before and is genuine fan. But what he isn’t is forward thinking and happy to listen to others, that is obvious and that is what cost us when we went up and lost all momentum.

So I don’t think many look down their noses, I think they do it to hide behind jealousy.

But at least leave us with the ability to call you all bandwagon jumpers, it’s pretty much all we’ve got at the moment

it's a really odd argument.

The argument is- team plays better, has some success and that brings more fans in therefore the new fans are plastic?!? So across every team and in every sport who increase their attendance, anyone new is "plastic".

Judging by GTFC home end attendances this season, a few thousand seem to be on the plastic bandwagon too.

Or we could create a new law of Sport (bit like Henry's Law in Physics).

Strangely's Law- The number of bums on seats at a football match is directly proportionate to the success of the team on the field and the correlating work the club does in the community.

Brown's Law- there is always an exception to Strangely's Law but not many!

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

We won't truly know how plastic Lincoln's fanbase is until their run of success stops and they start going the other way. If they end up relegated back here in a few years time, we'll see how many fans stick around. I imagine they'll see a bit of a permanent increase to their attendances, but of course a chunk will stop going. No matter what though, the club has benefited immensely from the past few seasons and they've managed it perfectly by maintaining a huge streak of momentum. Anyone would be jealous, especially when we can't go a season without some sort of disaster.

Their Checkatrade love-in is undeniably the most plastic thing I've seen in a long time, though.

 

[Son of Cod]

Dunno about that Paul. I don't think it's sarcasm at all.

Did you not read the rest of the article? Or have you never read Codalmighty before?

 

[GTFCfish]

Judging by GTFC home end attendances this season, a few thousand seem to be on the plastic bandwagon too.

To be honest our gates don’t really fluctuate that much whether doing good or bad, I can remember a few games in the Championship where we only just scraped 4000 and pretty sure once (think it was v Ipswich) we even had under 4000 there.

 

[StrangelyBrown]

To be honest our gates don’t really fluctuate that much whether doing good or bad, I can remember a few games in the Championship where we only just scraped 4000 and pretty sure once (think it was v Ipswich) we even had under 4000 there.

GTFC lowest home end this season against Tranmere- 3090
GTFC highest home end this season against Lincoln - 5392

Somewhere you lost over 2,000 home fans in the space of 7 home league games.

Completely agree, in years gone by, you were less likely to fluctuate but, IMO, fans have become more fickle and I think you're variances between low and high home end will become much greater than previously.

This season you've had 5 sub 4,000 gates at home (total crowd) and the home end in 2015 against the Imps was 450 more than the home game this season.

There are very few clubs who can claim to have a turnout which is static no matter what the results.

How many fans still come to watch us when we struggle is anyone's guess but I think the days of relying on fans to turn up no matter what are coming to an end.

 

[StrangelyBrown]

GTFC lowest home end this season against Tranmere- 3090
GTFC highest home end this season against Lincoln - 5392

Somewhere you lost over 2,000 home fans in the space of 7 home league games.

Completely agree, in years gone by, you were less likely to fluctuate but, IMO, fans have become more fickle and I think you're variances between low and high home end will become much greater than previously.

This season you've had 5 sub 4,000 gates at home (total crowd) and the home end in 2015 against the Imps was 450 more than the home game this season.

There are very few clubs who can claim to have a turnout which is static no matter what the results.

How many fans still come to watch us when we struggle is anyone's guess but I think the days of relying on fans to turn up no matter what are coming to an end.

Should have added- I am not stating GTFC are loyal or passionate but I remain convinced the days of "turn up no matter what" are coming to an end for more and more fans

 

[GTFCfish]

GTFC lowest home end this season against Tranmere- 3090
GTFC highest home end this season against Lincoln - 5392

Somewhere you lost over 2,000 home fans in the space of 7 home league games.

Completely agree, in years gone by, you were less likely to fluctuate but, IMO, fans have become more fickle and I think you're variances between low and high home end will become much greater than previously.

This season you've had 5 sub 4,000 gates at home (total crowd) and the home end in 2015 against the Imps was 450 more than the home game this season.

There are very few clubs who can claim to have a turnout which is static no matter what the results.

How many fans still come to watch us when we struggle is anyone's guess but I think the days of relying on fans to turn up no matter what are coming to an end.

I think comparing a home Saturday game in August against a home Tuesday night game in Nov/Dec will always give a wide variation, plus most clubs highest and lowest gates of the season will see a difference of a couple of thousand either way, although that wasn’t the point I was making anyway, I was saying our home crowds have always been shit and no amount of success (or failure) will cause them to deviate ‘that’ much. (In my opinion)

 

[gijsbert_bos]

Have been through the pic and identified the ones I know...

I'm pleased I'm the skippy one.

Sadly I'm a greying thirty-something with a 2-year-old and a mortgage.

Oh, to be 18 again!

 

[gijsbert_bos]

'seen their average attendance rise from 2500 to 8500, a figure of 6000 per cent for those of you not good at sums.'

 

[Waluigi]

Genuinely don't think you can call anyone who stumped up for a season ticket a "plastic", whatever their previous record of attendance.

I mean, I went to Hayes and Yeading away while they were groundsharing at Woking in front of less than 200 people, home and away combined, so I really should hate the "plastics" the most, and since 2016 there have been games I've not been able to go to because they sold out but...I really wouldn't want it any other way.

Our crowds will drop at some point but I think over the past two years we've built a solid base, hooked a new generation in and our lowest possible crowd is going to be a lot higher than it would otherwise have been.

Not sure if either of you have seen this already, but it might restore some faith...

http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=6994

Extremely good stuff.

 

[Railway Blue]

'seen their average attendance rise from 2500 to 8500, a figure of 6000 per cent for those of you not good at sums.'

Obviously schools in Lincolnshire must be failing at Maths.
It's actually 240%, which is still very impressive.

 

[northstandexile]

GTFC lowest home end this season against Tranmere- 3090
GTFC highest home end this season against Lincoln - 5392

Somewhere you lost over 2,000 home fans in the space of 7 home league games.

Completely agree, in years gone by, you were less likely to fluctuate but, IMO, fans have become more fickle and I think you're variances between low and high home end will become much greater than previously.

This season you've had 5 sub 4,000 gates at home (total crowd) and the home end in 2015 against the Imps was 450 more than the home game this season.

There are very few clubs who can claim to have a turnout which is static no matter what the results.

How many fans still come to watch us when we struggle is anyone's guess but I think the days of relying on fans to turn up no matter what are coming to an end.

What about all the Lincoln fans in the home end at Grimsby

 

[SoutheySWFC]

Lincolns revival is bloody impressive and must give other clubs hope, if you get everything in line and working then your club can almost reinvent itself without much change, it's not like they've got a shiny new ground to attract folk back. Sheer hardwork throughout the club has made this possible, if they can do it then so can most of you, just needs the graft and a portion of luck.

Mentioned this before but my pal works for the club and I know firsthand the work being put in

 

[GTFCfish]

Obviously schools in Lincolnshire must be failing at Maths.
It's actually 240%, which is still very impressive.

Both myself and my kids must be really lucky then as I got an A in Maths and both of my kids are currently at greater depth in it. (They don’t do A - G grades anymore)

 

[Davidimp]

Grades 1-9.1 being the highest.

 

[Railway Blue]

Both myself and my kids must be really lucky then as I got an A in Maths and both of my kids are currently at greater depth in it. (They don’t do A - G grades anymore)

I was referring to the numpty who said that the crowds increasing from 2,500 to 8,500 was a 6,000% increase. Although Lincolnshire is a bit of a backwater, you must be the exception.

 

[Gladders]

I was referring to the numpty who said that the crowds increasing from 2,500 to 8,500 was a 6,000% increase. Although Lincolnshire is a bit of a backwater, you must be the exception.

As opposed to the numpty who took the 6000% increase as serious?