Hamdon Mart

It's not anecdotal, it's a fact. I'd say I've had 50-60 calls this week wanting to hire our 3G pitch and there's very little, if any room.

Apparently felled in the late 90's due to disease.

He used to be but left for Wealdstone fairly recently as the new manager is John Meakes who was introduced to the crowd yesterday.

Had a game to cover at London Colney yesterday morning so after, went to St Albans v Welling United at Clarence Park (feel sure someone on here is a Saints fan?). Traditional type ground with a slope and food & drink outlets everywhere. Saints are chasing the playoffs in NLS and Welling are trying to escape the bottom four so the 1-1 draw yesterday was somewhat of a surprise. More than 1,700 in the ground, decent number for a day that started bright enough but suffered heavy drizzle for most of the second half.

I saw someone higher up the thread saying that City had GJ at his peak. Given you were 90 minutes from the Premier League and were only beaten by a worldie, you could make a case for that. But at my club, he won us the FA Trophy (we were 3-0 down at Doncaster with an hour gone in that run and won 5-4); took us to the Conference title with one of the most talented, exciting teams the Conference has ever seen breaking records all the way; missed out on the League 2 playoffs on GD in our first season; won the title in our second season and left with most people's blessing to join yourselves. Came back and won promotion via the playoff final to the Championship. Difficult to argue that maybe we had peak GJ. Either way though, very sad that TUFC are on the brink. There but for the grace of God go so many teams these days.

It's a bit of a dilemma IMO re the stadium capacity. The two venues they can use are obviously hugely different in size; it's either AG with 25k seats or the HPC with 500+ seats plus, what, another 1k of standing. Ideal venue would be 3-4k with the ability to make some profit on the day in a decent stadium with good facilities. Would hope that BS would take a long term view and maybe take a small hit on the finances to offer them AG at reduced rates in order to re-grow the club again next season.

I know Alfie's godfather and he's as blue as they come (think he came through Rovers youth) so I wouldn't take too much notice of him saying he'd like to finish above us. Decent player, saw him many times play for the Saints youth teams and personally would love to see him here but not sure it will happen. ETA - @Bobby Bollax , hope you find some peace, it's a horrible thing to go through.

Smashing news, made up for Seb. Have seen Newport a few times this season and he is more than capable of big things. Although he's quite tall, he is deceptively quick and probably works better in a 2 with an AM behind, maybe. Young enough to adapt though of course.

Yep, exactly the same here. Haven't listened to one for a long time now... same as those folk who film themselves watching a match for their reactions. WTF? Get out into the fresh air, pleaaaaase!! (That said, I'm recording the Payner and Ricko podcast on Wednesday night. That's different though as it's a general podcast as opposed to a club-concentrated one).

It looked a little bit confused at the triple substitution yesterday from my vantage point. I'm not 100% sure Mebude was originally planned to come on at 57 min; Gardner-Hickman was stripped and ready to go for Williams while DM and Conway were warming up along the sideline. Then the latter two were called in, there seemed to be a bit of a rush to get them all on together and bang, it was three on and three off. Mehmeti looked a little baffled when his number was held up too, just something odd about the whole couple of minutes Think it's also a valid point to say there were experienced pro's out there that had stinkers too. The passing was atrocious in the second half particularly and piling in on a teenage loan signing who had a poor half hour doesn't seem to be very supportive. And for those saying his signing was an expensive mistake, surely City don't HAVE to buy him, isn't it an option to buy?

And to be incredibly pedantic (sorry!), only for straight red cards and not those that are for two yellow cards.

That whole rule around how long you play advantage for needs tightening up. I get that it's a little bit subjective but often I'll see refs play advantage then pull it back 3-4 seconds later (correctly IMO) if the advantage doesn't play out then in other games, the advantage is lost after 1-2 seconds and the official deems the time too long to pull it back.

Didn't Williams get the yellow for dissent?

That sounds about right, Silvio. As you say, superb in and out of goal and I've seen him play at CB and CF, his height giving him an advantage over most opponents.

Sad news reached me yesterday of the passing of Dale Dempsey, one of local football's more colourful characters. Obviously a Blue rather than a Red, his knowledge of local football was amazing and many of the people on this thread would have known DD. He was manager of Oldland Abbots when I was secretary there but he'd probably be better known for his connections with BRJSC. Died after a battle with cancer, early-mid 60's I'd guess. His lad Josh was one of the top NL keepers around, played against Cheltenham in the FA Cup for Yate a few years back.

When I worked as SLO for YTFC back in the day, was frequently asked what % of seaon ticket holders don't show up on matchdays. Made enquiries with the ticket office manager and at any game, it was always 10-15% of the STH base. Asked a few other clubs and it was pretty much the same there too. If City have 16,000 STH's (IIRC), that would mean (gets calculator out....) between 1,600 and 2,400 no shows every game.

Hi, thanks for the info. Discovered the announced attendance was 25,429 with 2,982 away fans.

Did anyone get the attendance + Leeds away support? Twas a bit muffled for my ears!

Sorry Dave, wasn't suggesting you were. Just trying to point out somewhat clumsily to someone that his last game and the one that you mentioned were clearly different games in case anyone thought the firendly on the 12th was his last match.

Doesn't he say in the video that the friendly "wasn't last Monday, but the Monday before"? Given that the video was filmed this week, he'd be on about a game on 22nd January then, a different one to what @Davefevs has mentioned. Or am I due a whoosh now?

Maybe I haven't been watching City for long enough but I genuinely don't get this "won't make the playoffs". You're six points off top six with SEVENTEEN games left. That's plenty time. I remember my team Yeovil in 2012/13 bringing in a striker on loan and coming from further back than City to inish fourth and then win the playoff final.

Can't see that catching on!

Yes, that's the badger! I saw a couple people praise him earlier on this thread for getting the name right, guess my sarcasm meter is currently broken.

Ah right, I looked on Twitter and he's named him and listed his attributes but about 20 minutes after City announced it.

Where did he name him?