October 8th - "Pay What You Want" Community fixture v. Eastbourne Borough.

[Marc Monitor]

OK, Romans. Same pack drill as non-League day - share the life out of this Face book event, invite all your friends using the, erm, 'Invite' button and let's see if we can fill Fortress Twerton for the first home match as a community club.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1072068399530118/

[Elmore James]

Unfortunately with this, you'll get, as with last year a few who think it's funny to pay 50p for a family of five!!

[SteveBradley]

Unfortunately with this, you'll get, as with last year a few who think it's funny to pay 50p for a family of five!!

It's still better to have them there paying 50p than not there and paying nothing though.

Also - the money we get from Mo-B-Q every game is attendance linked.

[Beau Nash]

Unfortunately with this, you'll get, as with last year a few who think it's funny to pay 50p for a family of five!!

It doesn't matter what anyone pays, this is a promotion of the club.  If a few of the newbies return then it is worthwhile and given the high cost of normal attendance, for regulars, it is a deserved gift.  

Hopefully, someone hosting at the party asks a question such as "Welcome to Bath City FC, hope you enjoyed the game, if there are any questions please ask now, or talk to me 1-1?"

[Peter Newman]

One of the problems with these "Pay what you want" days is that as a season ticket holder I feel pressurised to pay again. I handed over a note last time as did not feel I could just walk through and not hand over anything.
Perhaps there should be a separate turnstile solely for season ticket presentation.
In all reality I don't think we should be doing these games since the majority of regulars will pay close to what they would have paid anyway. After allowing for those provided with free tickets there will be a handful of new attendees who will make a token or nil contribution and not turn up again until the next time there is a similar promotion. It has a similar ring as to things like Sky etc where new customers get the deal leaving existing ones feeling an element of resentment.
As far as raising the profile of the club surely the regular publicity of the bid exercise will have done much more to achieve that aim. I don't think our future gates will be any different after this exercise than would have been the case without it.
I believe that last season it was the St Albans game and looking at the stats it seems the first Saturday game after was against Ebbsfleet with decent away support and that had a lower turnout than the Concord game that preceeded the promotion. The problem is it will always be impossible to evaluate the success, or otherwise, of the exercise.

[BenE]

We ought to do pay what you want on the way out.

[2weirdtown]

every week

[BenE]

Or maybe there could be a win bonus collection after the game.

[LB]

After Tuesday, it is a good thing it isn't 'pay what you think it is worth'!

Seriously though, I do have to agree with the points made by Peter Newman, particularly in respect of season ticket holders - like him, I am not sure what to do on days like these. It could be argued I suppose that it could be treated as one of the 'free' games that you get as a season ticket holder and therefore there is no reason why you shouldn't pay something as you aren't really losing out. I will take a view on it between now and 3pm.

His comments about the result of these days on attendances is valid as well - I don't think anyone has found the answer to significantly increasing them. It is unfortunate that today comes in the immediate wake of the Potters Bar debacle, which wasn't the best way to entice new people to come to games.

[Steve Whites Missus]

As a season ticket holder I've already paid what I think by dividing cost of season ticket over home games per season. No need to feel guilty.

[OliverH]

I don't see why season ticket holders should feel they have to pay anything - just flash your season ticket at the turnstile - no problem

EDIT: I think I'm right in saying the club gets sponsors to underwrite the gate, so there's no risk that everyone paying 50p would mean a massive hit in finances - it's all upside for the club.

[pete mac]

Yes the sponsors underwrite the day. I have been part of the exiles group. 8 people paying 60 quid each to support lower gate takings. I think there are 8 or 9 sponsor groups.

It's a great initiative. The more people that know about Bath City helps when we do have success on the pitch - they know where to come and that it's positive experience/good day out.

People put a lot of work (and money) in to make it happen.

[pete mac]

Brilliant crowd. 1.108. Well done all!

[BenE]

Mmmm but how many will be back after that?

So far I have watched over four hours of sh1t football this week including the second half of the England game.

Eastbourne had zero ambition other than to rough us up and we didn't have the wit to do anything about it.

We said before the game - where is a goal going to come from and the answer is there for all to see. Nowhere. After Broom got on the end of a peach of a cross from Naby that was it. No one even looks like scoring.

And then we gave away our customary gift goal.

All the deficiencies from Tuesday were still there on display..

[Luton Roman]

Great start then what seemed a bad call from Max let them in. Otherwise we cd have perhaps built confidence and pushed on. Always tough for Nick on his own, perhaps GO thought Marvin midweek marathon too much. Certainly livened up when he came on and perhaps we had 2 good chances to win it.  Too many long balls rather than confidently play thru.  Frankie too deep as he wd be the one to make it happen.  Hopefully 2 weeks off will give Andy time to get back and Shaq will be available again.

[Ashley]

Fantastic crowd, well done Bob and all the others who got them in. Wouldn't it be lovely to have 1,100 every week!

[comrade powell]

Agreed, the size of today's attendance was a fine reward for all the hard work that Bob puts in for weeks beforehand to make it successful. One major difference with today's community day was that it was held much earlier in the season than usual - it makes sense to have it before the winter and there's more opportunities for people to return during the season if they liked what they saw. Typically, it wasn't a great spectacle on offer today on the pitch. But there were other attractions - did anyone try those little cars in Randalls?

[Beau Nash]

Comrade is correct.

A strange starting formation of 4-1-4-1, Nick is a great battler but all too often had no support from the knock downs or when he got the ball on the ground.  

Frankie is not a holding midfield player, often today beaten in the air and pushed off the ball by a stronger opponent, Frankie needs to be in the midfield three / four with a Chas like figure behind. Jack is having a hard time and is not looking secure.

There was a lot of "hoof" ball by both sides which didn't make for a great spectacle.

At half time Dan Bowman, Stuart Fleetwood and the girls showed how penalties ought to be taken.  

Friday evening I spoke with two males of similar age, mid 30s-40s, one was an avid Bristol City supporter living in Bristol the other a Twerton resident...guess who knew everything about today and who knew nothing...something to work on in the Twerton area.

Congratulations to everyone in getting an excellent attendance today.    That shows the interest is there so what could be the reason why the average so far this season for league games is only 486 (Football Web Pages.co.uk)?

[BenE]

Yes agreed. Absolutely fabulous effort by all concerned in getting people there.

[Roy D Hacksaw]

You're really got to think that GO doesn't favour Bowman if he's willing to put Chas at centre and Manny on the wing rather than play him.

[danver]

Can't understand the system at the moment, it certainly doesn't create chances, a chance might crop up now and then, more by accident than design, but there are very few occasions when somebody is in a position to get a decent shot on target. Most times the lofted ball up the touchline is the only forward pass on offer, and if one of our players gets on the end of it, his options are limited, occasionally we win a throw-in, less often he gets a cross in, and as a last resort he can wait for support from the full back, but the whole thing is lacking pace and penetration. Having said that, I haven't seen a team with a more ambitious plan this season, and we are 9th, with fairly respectable stats., so maybe a fortnight off will give us space for a bit of a rethink.

[yuffie]

I think the way the two teams set up largely cancelled each other out. Normally when we play one up front we have two midfielders getting up to support the lone striker, but apart from in the third minute that didn't really happen. So with such a congested middle of the pitch neither side could pass the ball through there. In fact, our best attacking threat came from Manny in the 2nd half.

Without Watkins and (to a lesser extent) Hunter we do lack the creativity to break down the more defensively minded sides.

[BenE]

As I said above Eastbourne had zero ambition. They played with five at the back against Nick and four midfielders. Like Potters Bar they just parked the bus.

But we need to have a plan for dealing with this. For me of the players available only Josh and Dan Bowman offer any penetration and both from the right and neither are in favour at the moment. Hopefully Hunter will be back next game and preferably Watkins.

[Roman Mike]

I think that we have discovered over the last month (as will others, no doubt) that we really struggle when teams chose to defend in numbers. We had the 2 games when opponents had a player sent off and then 2 games against Potters Bar who parked the bus. We scored zero goals against 10 men, 1 in 300 minutes against PB and struggled yesterday. Need width and someone with guile to unlock defences.

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