7.30p.m. Kick Off

just wondering why?

To help the Billericay supporters get home

Can’t see why people are moaning about it. It’s a nice touch to help our opponents and 15 minutes from our end is trivial. Plus if it gets more away fans to the game it’s extra income

That wasn’t aimed at Sacha BTW, heard a few grumbling at the game today

Whaaaaat!  People moaning at Twerton Park, surely not.

Perhaps you could tell the moaners that there is a Supporter Liaison Officer these days who's very willing to listen to their concerns and if he can't give them a satisfactory response will always follow it up with the club. I was in the bar for an hour after yesterday's match but there wasn't a whisper. A sign of the times....

Is this quarter of an hour allowance to do with times of trains, buses, planes or what.
If not then I am baffled , but not moaning, yet.

To ease your bafflement, Sasch, the allowance is to do with the times of trains. If you wish to join our friends from Essex on their return home on Tuesday here are the necessary details...

2204 Bath Spa
2342 Paddington

0050 Liverpool Street
0126 Billericay

The later 2248 from Bath arrives at Paddington at 0031. You wouldn't get to Liverpool Street in time to catch your last train home.

It will be interesting to see how many away fans make the trip on Tuesday as I can see there being further grumbles if it's similar to yesterday's turnout from their Essex neighbours.

Not Essex asbo curfew then ;-)

They got a coach full apparently. Hopefully many by train too.

On reflection maybe I should be the moaner.
I feel sure there are people who will be unaware of the early start to the game. Some who have commitments which limit their time and possibly will find this 15 minute difference really difficult to keep to. In fact I myself will only just make it, or maybe not.
I can't see the justification for reaching this decision for what appears to be surely no more than a handful of travelling supporters.
These train travelers are taking a hell of a risk in the first place with the timetable that Martin as supplied for me.
Surely your own local paying supporters are a priority Mr liaison Officer.
Anyway it's about time somebody moaned on this forum as it's getting a little boring

I can't say I'm looking forward to my drive tomorrow evening to TP. The traffic hell of Rush Hill is bad enough for a 7.45 ko - it will be worse for a 7.30. But somehow I think there are far worse things to be concerned about, particularly today's events at Westminster. It also concerns me that there are more responses to your initial post than mine on the SC ideas thread I posted yesterday.

And I'd like to think that other clubs would be similarly accommodating to our travelling supporters. Don't you think that it's a nice gesture from our club?

I hope you get to the match on time, Sascha. Your moans have registered and will be passed on to the powers that be.

You are 100% correct comrade.

I am disappointed that other posters haven't been considerate of our guests from Billericay;  full marks to whoever thought of the ko change to assist them.  All supporters from all football clubs ought to remember that collectively we are polite adversaries during the game but "comrades" off it.

I could write a book about politics, suffice to say that most politicians, including those pseudo ones in City and Town Halls are not on my Xmas card list.  Governments are badly advised by civil servants / local government officers...BUT politicians fail to govern the bureaucrats...sycophantic and obsequious behaviour is the norm from both sides.

I have seen the SC thread but my ideas are too radical to be accepted, I have made them in the past on the old forum.

Thanks Beau! Radical ideas are better than no ideas, so if you'd prefer not to post them on the thread please pm them to me. They will be considered!

Agree that it might cause some City supporters some hassle but it seems to be a decision made with good intentions to assist away supporters.  

Compare our action with that of  Dulwich Hamlet who are saying buy a ticket in advance or you might not get in. So City fans have to buy an online ticket for a game that they might  have to miss or  that is called off for weather reasons.

Could Dulwich provide us with say 50-100 tickets that we sell to our fans say up to 31 Dec 18. We send the unsold ones back but retain the money until after the match date so if it is called off we have the cash in hand to refund our own supporters.

It seems that Dulwich are making the match  potentially all-ticket with no consideration for away fans.

Many thanks for agreeing to change the ko time. I must admit when it was first suggested to our secretary, we didn’t really expect a positive response.
As you will know long distance midweek away games are tricky but there was a small group of us that wanted to come but it would have been very tight to get back to the station with a 745 ko. Once the ko time was changed and we knew we were “safe” on the train our fantastic supporters club people explored the possibility of trying to get enough for a coach which might allow some more fans to get here. We have managed to get enough to get a small coach going, which together with those that always travel independently means that we should get around 30-40 there tonight, which while not brilliant isn’t rubbish either. I would say that the 15 minute change to the ko time has allowed around 20 to travel who otherwise would not have been able to. It is appreciated.
Contrary to some preconceptions our core travelling support are a decent bunch who have a few beers and get behind the team and will have a good day win or lose. Most of the people coming tonight would have gone to Bath on our brief foray into the NLS a few years ago.
I’m actually going down early on the train and now coming back on the coach, so I’ll be getting to the ground early and taking full advantage of your bar facilities before the game. See you later.

Peter Newman wrote:Agree that it might cause some City supporters some hassle but it seems to be a decision made with good intentions to assist away supporters.  

Compare our action with that of  Dulwich Hamlet who are saying buy a ticket in advance or you might not get in. So City fans have to buy an online ticket for a game that they might  have to miss or  that is called off for weather reasons.

Could Dulwich provide us with say 50-100 tickets that we sell to our fans say up to 31 Dec 18. We send the unsold ones back but retain the money until after the match date so if it is called off we have the cash in hand to refund our own supporters.

It seems that Dulwich are making the match  potentially all-ticket with no consideration for away fans.

I think the Dulwich issue is trying to be helpful.

They're about to return to Champion Hill again, after the dispute that saw them locked out of their ground for a season. They're pitching their 3 games over the Christmas break (including ours) as 'Homecoming' fixtures, and selling a joint ticket for all 3.

They've made it clear that the matches aren't all-ticket but that demand is expected to be high for them.

So it's fairer to ask City fans who plan to travel to get their tickets in advance, rather than have them turn up on the day and find they're locked out.

If the fixture is cancelled due to weather, I'm sure they'll refund people.

Ricayfan wrote: we should get around 30-40 there tonight, which while not brilliant isn’t rubbish either. I would say that the 15 minute change to the ko time has allowed around 20 to travel who otherwise would not have been able to. It is appreciated.

If 30-40 make it down here from Essex on a Tuesday night I'd say that is brilliant. There probably weren't many more of our Somerset neighbours who travelled to Twerton back in August. While I hope you hate the result (!) I'm sure you'll enjoy your brief visit and spend loads of cash at our club...