Another reason why the Shrewsbury match is important
Firstly, the most important result from next Saturday’s match v Shrewsbury Town is the 3 points. Apart from the obvious however there’s an important aspect to Saturday’s game that needs consideration.
In order to assess how far we’ve come as a club I look back to 20 years ago. I thought we were a very comparable club at the time to Brentford. Similar size ground, similar support, similar support demographic etc etc. Since then Brentford have been very upwardly mobile & have now established themselves as a mid-table Premier League club - even with a ground capacity at the new stadium of just 17,000. A comparison of WW to Brentford is obviously no longer valid.
Consequently, I think the best club to compare WW to is next Saturday’s visitors, Shrewsbury Town. A similar size town and a new ground of similar size to Adams Park on the edge of town with all the issues that brings. A club that was forced to move from a very quirky ground, full of character, in the town centre. Their support is similar to WW and they have the same problems with people travelling out of the town to watch Premier League football in the North or West Midlands. In fact, Manchester United used to have a club merchandise shop in the town centre (not sure if they still do).
Given the finances generated by either club, League One appears to be the “natural habitat” for both. Unless the average gates can be increased, the only realistic chance of progressing to the Championship is by finance from an outside benefactor. The problem at WW now is that the hardcore fans are being asked to pay more and more and many are simply not prepared to do that anymore.
Both Wycombe and Shrewsbury have a similar supporter demographic - lots of fans over 50 and lots of smaller children, but a gap in the middle. Credit to Shrewsbury that they recognise many of their fans travel to home games from nearby market town ls so they put on coaches from places like Wem.
WW do well to maintain a L1 status but budget cuts and lower supporter numbers make it very difficult to mount a realistic challenge for promotion to the Championship. So when you watch these 2 sides battle it out on Saturday have a think about which club is making the best of their situation - or are they in exactly the same position?
Comments
I don't think the Brentford comparison is a valid one. They'd played top flight football in front of home crowds of over 50,000
They are and always have been a miles bigger club than us
Yeah just a couple of years before we first played them they were in what is now championship and we were non league, but appreciate the points of the original post. At the time we entered what is now league 1, I felt we were comparable to Bournemouth more than anyone else
Brentford and Bournemouth had owners who were willing to lose millions and had some of the biggest loses ever seen in the Championship in a single season. Losses that would sustain us in one League below for 10 years.
Any club even in non league could make the Premiership with sustained investment over 10-15 years.
Wrexham could make that step from non League to Premiership when they had been getting regular average gates of less than 4000 before the present owners took over.
It’s irrelevant how big you are, it’s all about the size of the owners bank balance, how much they’re willing to spend and how good they are at fiddling the books.
Plenty of sleeping giants out there, If we were minted and in the Prem we'd still not get 20% of what Leeds or Newcastle would in the championship, wether that matters is for the owner but it's certainly less sustainable. Clubs that have a random tilt at the big time through funding alone can go pop pretty quickly afterwards.
Interesting that we have the financial means to pry away their captain and player of the year, as well as sign on loan their young player of the year. Seems like we have the bigger budget, this year at least.
They were in the top division from 1935 until 1947 albeit the war intervened for part of this spell.
Amazing what you can afford when the owner has to put in 4.5m per year.
Sleeping giant? I prefer to think of us as a wide awake dwarf.
Just watched pre match drills. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but did Lyle Taylor hint that he just didn’t fancy it on Tuesday night. An interesting character most certainly so.
Most interesting thing for me about this episode is the interview with Matt Bloomfield where he reveals that he’s had feedback from the PGMOL (the body responsible for referees) that the infamous winning goal for Barnsley recently should have been disallowed. They also indicated that Stevenage should have had a man sent off in the game at Adams Park.
Neither of those points help though, "you make your own luck" doesn't mean you do silly chanting or get the crystals out , it means you don't feck about on your goal line 30 seconds before the end of a hard fought draw and you need to try and dominate games to make sure you aren't caught by the odd rubbish decision. Kind of have to factor in refs being awful and it not always going your way. PGMOL apologies are pretty worthless and basically just another opinion anyway.
Didn't pick that up at all. It felt to me more like someone had said there was no need to take a risk in this type of game. Very interesting interview - he speaks very well.
I hesitate to reopen the debate because everyone agrees that Max was at fault, but surely you accept that when the professional body responsible for referees says the goal should have been disallowed-and they almost always defend referee decisions-it’s a valid talking point.
This cannot be true, in fact, while the head knock that should not have stopped the game was being treated and our bench were demanding the game be called off, Steve Evans was told by good honest professionals Taff's and Keogh that Max should have walked...
I don't entirely disagree but your first line and last aren't compatible, need to suck it up and move on. He'd also have had more sympathy if he hadn't dived similarly 30 seconds earlier or thrown away other goals in recent weeks. Sounds like Rav wasn't much better at the weekend but I would never have advocated for him to sit out many games, he's clearly our best keeper and if we have any funds in January I don't think we'd want to have to deploy them there ideally.
Intriguing interview, very different from the bland answers we hear so often from PL players on TV. He’s thoughtful, articulate and intelligent. I also agree that at no point did he say or indicate that he didn’t ‘fancy it’ on Tuesday night.
Some people could hear their greatest hero say it was definitely a foul and they still won't accept it.
Interestingly, Steve Evans bleats eternally about PGMOL apologies on BBC 3CR.
If Blooms wants to use these things to show his squad that all isn't lost and we aren't miles from being better that's fine, if he genuinely thinks the issues the last month or so are mostly down to refs we've got issues.
The issues the last month or so prove that we’ve got issues. MCSQED.
I have an issue with the Premier League still being described as the Premiership.
But then I’m a miserable and pedantic old sod. At the end of the day what does it matter. (I always try to avoid clichés.)
Looks like your irony is once again too subtle for some.
And yet he's not picked him since
I think he'll be back tomorrow.
However, as we’ve discussed many times, no one is seeking to absolve Max from any blame but his foolishness and the referee’s application of the laws are two separate issues.
Watched the ‘ammers beat the beautiful brand of football that Spurs play last night. At one point the passes ratio was 4:1 in favour of Spurs and the end score was 2:1 in favour of the European Champions. My point is that data driven management is not always a success. And West Ham frequently went long from a goal kick to hit Soucek specifically. I hope tomorrow we don’t play a one size fits all tactic and play to the players we have and the opposition we face, rather than the aspirations of our manager.
They are, so we may as well concentrate on the things we control.
Max invited the challenge on him, he had about 5 seconds to pick that ball up before Cosgrove got anywhere near him.
The only reason he had the drop ball to himself in the first place was because he'd been on the ground pretending to be hurt when he wasn't.
He was then gently touched and fell to the ground in the manner of a giant redwood being felled in the forest, and managed to spill the ball as he did so.
All of the above would have been pathetic regardless of the referee's decision. To me, as a fan it was time to keep quiet, show a bit of humility and take our medicine. Obviously others felt differently, which is their prerogative.
One thing for sure though, had the roles been reversed my opinion on the entire situation would not have changed. The same is not true for at least some of those who have spent their time since whining about the referee.
Fully agree. I thought the ref was excellent too.
I think that’s what @StrongestTeam means, then irony can be too subtle for some 😉
Max’s antics led to the officials having to make a decision, by the laws of the game a wrong decision.
The referee had a near impossible decision to make as he had to get into position in the middle of the pitch. The linesman presumably had a far better view.
Because the referee was obviously moving quickly away from him Max should never have acted like he did. He gambled on the linesman’s view and lost. It was his fault and I’m 100% sure we will see a far more mature Max on his return, hopefully tomorrow with our full support