Sutton Coldfield Updates

[RaidenYeltz]

It just how far we have regressed.

[wednesburystokie]

Dave- How long were you trawling through the site to find a positive comment from Josh?

it was originally written on parchment, Just a little banter by the way Josh, the smiles have gone from the forum recently

[RaidenYeltz]

Dave- How long were you trawling through the site to find a positive comment from Josh?

it was originally written on parchment, Just a little banter by the way Josh, the smiles have gone from the forum recently

I know

[Yeltz27]

Interesting how some of the work that has been at The Grove that was mentioned early on in the thread has only been completed in the last couple of years despite some thinking it was required/necessary or too soon. Please note this isn't a dig at previous volunteers who I know worked incredibly hard to do what they did.

Thanks for bringing that thread up.

I'm not sure anybody said anything about the work you've done in this thread actually. We've spoken about the tv tower and I've made reference to the programme shed, but nowhere have we mentioned the pitch, the boiler, the floodlights etc. like Steve Lynch does in that thread. Other than the pitch, you have no doubt fixed those things and nobody has said otherwise.

My point is, is go back five years, and posters who have told me I should be ashamed of myself, or BACK your team etc. were posting exactly the same things as I do now. Why did it change? I know when it changed.

[ZeeZee]

On the flight to China, as we had wifi I thought I'd have a look back at what it was like on here before I started posting, and what it was like before JH arrived. There are quite a lot of revealing threads, but this is an example

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=348

Reading that, most of us should understand how frustrating it is when you are desperate for change but it never happens. A lot of the current roles are reversed

I agree, it's interesting looking back at historic forum topics, one thing stands out is the number of different contributors that used this forum compared to more recent times, the lack of enthusiasm is generally reflected on the terraces, the lack of atmosphere ,enjoyment & a fun day out with no agendas has driven many former die hards away.
With reference to digs about the lack of work completed on the list in the highlighted topic, there were very few volunteers at the time ( and for a couple of years previous to it), there was very little money available so volunteers were actually buying tools, materials, lawn mower repairs, etc from their own pockets, nobody shouted about it as nobody was in it for the glory, a hell of a lot was achieved all things considered .
As for people looking on the Ingram / M**s*n era with rose tinted glasses, of course we had decent players, most weren't being paid their promised hundreds per week, we couldn't afford it and that combined with darker off field activities and intentions was why the Club was within hours of disapearing (at least in its current form).
There are problems now and I suspect tin hats will be required again at some point, I just hope there is someone out there who can step up to the plate, unfortunately I fear the supporters are far too fragmented these days for a cohesive rescue mission should it ever come to that.

[The Reasonable Man]

I agree, it's interesting looking back at historic forum topics, one thing stands out is the number of different contributors that used this forum compared to more recent times, the lack of enthusiasm is generally reflected on the terraces, the lack of atmosphere ,enjoyment & a fun day out with no agendas has driven many former die hards away.

This can work both ways. Take our empty shell of a forum, for instance, as a cautionary tale.

The Club has never been more vibrant, yet our forum seems to be propped up by two or three people determined to keep it alive whilst everyone else has slipped away.

Two years ago we went through a ropey period on and off the pitch - you know, the one where GH was apparently given "one last chance" ( ). The forum became a madhouse of wild accusations, paranoia and general slapped-arsery. Those of us, on either side of the debate, interested in sensible discussion gradually jacked it in.

Pity, because a forum like this is the only place to make a detailed point. Twitter and Facebook are both fairly vibrant at Stour, but by their nature are only useful for "one-liners". It still disgusts me now that a handful of pathetic cry-babies were allowed to destroy healthy debate so easily.

They were wrong about so many things then, and I suspect many of you here are wrong about much of the off-field stuff now. On-field, of course, I can't comment on.

Be that as it may, remember you are all on the same side. Better to have an active forum where good natured debate goes on, with forceful but civilised disagreement at times, than nothing.

[Yeltz27]

On the flight to China, as we had wifi I thought I'd have a look back at what it was like on here before I started posting, and what it was like before JH arrived. There are quite a lot of revealing threads, but this is an example

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=348

Reading that, most of us should understand how frustrating it is when you are desperate for change but it never happens. A lot of the current roles are reversed

nobody shouted about it as nobody was in it for the glory.

Precisely. Of course it causes division when you read people saying 'those of us that have done all this work are right behind the manager'. It's one of the biggest problems at the moment for me. People say that the ground and the football side of things are two different issues, but then contradict that and say something like that as though their opinion should count more because they've worked on the ground. The attitudes of the volunteers seven or eight years ago and now could not be more different

[RaidenYeltz]

To clarify my post, I feel you all need to get together and look at the bigger picture. It's not just about having a moan after a bad match, bad matches will always happen in football, swings and rounderbouts.

So the questions fans need to ask themselves are:
1: do you like where the club is?
2: do you trust steve will do whats best for club?
3: if no to either of these why not arrange a fans meeting and discuss what fans should do? Unite together to fight for the club you ALL love.

I'm a little surprised at the lack of response to this post. I can only assume that people are more than happy with the current state of affairs on and off the pitch, and between fans?

If that statement is incorrect then I guess it's fair to say people are more than happy to stay silent and sleep walk through this tricky patch and just let things snowball into something much worse than the current situation?

I do get the impression, possibly it's a wrong impression, that sadly people are happy being divided? People are happy to sit and do little to try and get on the same page as other fellow fans. They're happy as this is what they want?

I'm not sure it's possible to close this divide. It's perhaps beyond anyone's control as a fan, and changes in the club need to be made before hand, so there is less to argue about and so it brings people together.

Maybe it's as simple as congregating together at games behind the goal, to support Halesowen, not a specific individual, just the team that we all love, but this again is difficult as we all have our spot that we stand at every game.

Maybe there should be a meeting to 'clear the air'. Almost a bit of a forum in the JG or wherever. (Not meant in a confrontational way).

We all want the best for the club and surely that should be used as common ground. It's no good saying things unless actions are taken.

Are we happy bickering between ourselves and doing nothing or do we actually want to try and do something positive? If people want to ignore this and carry on as we are, so be it.

Maybe it's gone to far. Maybe there's little point as potentially (this is the impression I get with various goings on of late) there won't be a club to argue about this time next year.

[Poll]

I'm a little surprised at the lack of response to this post.

I would guess lots of people have given up posting on here because of how divisive it's become, and they don't want to get involved in petty online discussions that solve absolutely nothing.

See The Reasonable Man's excellent post (and Zee Zee's too).

IMHO the quality of discussion on here has gone down rapidly recently.

Be nice if in 2017 for everyone to remember all of us want what's best for the both the club and the team (I assume), and everything isn't always "us against them".

Not holding my breath though

[Seamus]

I'm a little surprised at the lack of response to this post.

I would guess lots of people have given up posting on here because of how divisive it's become, and they don't want to get involved in petty online discussions that solve absolutely nothing.

See The Reasonable Man's excellent post (and Zee Zee's too).

IMHO the quality of discussion on here has gone down rapidly recently.

Be nice if in 2017 for everyone to remember all of us want what's best for the both the club and the team (I assume), and everything isn't always "us against them".

Not holding my breath though

Poll - Wise words as ever, agree 100%, my first post for a long time.

Happy new year everyone !