Ticket News Sittingbourne FC H Isuzu FA Trophy - 1st February 2025 3pm

[Yorkshire Blue]

Haven’t we just set up a supporters’ liaison group? Couldn’t they have advised on this?!

Give Sittingbourne the whole north, open the West. It’s really not rocket science…

I’ll defend the club here.

For years fans have claimed they want the North Bank back. Fans filled in surveys saying they wanted it back. At great expense (£100k?) COSU makes it available and now fans are saying just open the West, we don’t want to sit in the North?

The club could have no doubt handled this better but let’s face it: they’ve been led astray by those calling for a return to the North Bank. The message was build it and they will come, when it seems like the message should have been well only come if there are no away fans in it, if we can remove the seats and if we can enter it through certain entrances.

 

[Maldon Shrimper]

Unfortunately the club didnt expect that Sittingbourne would bring these numbers.So I dont blame for not opening the West in the beginning.

However would it be more sensible to relocate Southend fans and give more of the North to the visitors...

On the face of it it seems odd the club have decided to give Sittingbourne part of the West.

Hopefully someone has thought this through.

It's a great pity that the West isnt fully opened for this game

Lessons to be learned for future games

 

[Shrimp and two veg]

I can't bear having to hear away support at Roots Hall, because our club gives them the loudest stand at the place. Liverpool in '79. All those games in the Championship under Tilly, you couldnt hear our fans in W block hardly, i was in East reds back then. Anything that was 500 in the away end or over, was deafening. And still is. We'll try to combat that tomorrow, big thankyou to COSU for the return of the North bank to home fans, might not be perfect yet, thats fine.
I would be very much against giving Sittingbourne the whole of the North.
We pride ourselves when it comes to supporting SUFC, our numbers are amazing and we outsing most at their grounds. Would we have taken over 800 to Sittingbourne, i'm not sure, probably, a short trip and a new ground for most i should think.
There were some remarks on the North bank thread that almost sneered at the low uptake in seats sold for Blues fans in the North in recent games. Wth !
Lets see if you can start a chant tomorrow in the North bank then, or W block at the next game.
I just dont like giving the opp any advantage, starting with the stands.

 

[Barry.C]

Haven’t we just set up a supporters’ liaison group? Couldn’t they have advised on this?!

Give Sittingbourne the whole north, open the West. It’s really not rocket science…

I think they ended up sitting in different rooms its easily done !

I once went to a meeting held in one of the Gills stadium Rooms. using the facilities. Got there a bit early sat down next to Paul Scully, Gills ( Notorious owner ) He didnt say much. People gradually coming in and i Thought this is all a bit odd as didnt recognise many of them . Then I realised I should have been in the room next door as the room filled.

I had also started a new trend of jumping late from work into a first class train compartment as I was fed up of standing and so p leapt forth into the one middle seat left before looking around to find myself perched with half a dozen strangely dressed clergy including the Archbishop of Canterbury ! Exit stage left

 

[Stuart W]

Unfortunately the club didnt expect that Sittingbourne would bring these numbers.So I dont blame for not opening the West in the beginning.

However would it be more sensible to relocate Southend fans and give more of the North to the visitors...

On the face of it it seems odd the club have decided to give Sittingbourne part of the West.

Hopefully someone has thought this through.

It's a great pity that the West isnt fully opened for this game

Lessons to be learned for future games

Sorry MS, for reasons I listed earlier, they SHOULD have expected large numbers. If they weren’t sure they should have spoken to Sittingbourne who were more likely to gauge the interest generated in the town.
It is simply not good enough and that old adage “Lessons to be learned” is as likely to happen as you winning the next Euromillions.

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

We should have done this; we should not have done that.
The trouble is the unknown.
Did the club indeed ask Sittingbourne about extra support above and beyond the 800? Dunno.
Cost of SUFC stewards? Info suggests around £12 an hour over five hours = £60 x 30? = £1,800 or more.
Am guessing there's an agency fee on top? Policing? Dunno.
Cost of opening concessions, and supplies? Dunno. Cost of clearing up after? Dunno
Surely, the club were basing the game on Trophy precedent?
What would be good is Tom explaining the thinking behind the whole game and why the changes.

 

[kentblues]

Firstly to me it’s clear the club have been simply caught out by the size of crowd that they didn’t anticipate. Probably wed to the idea of not opening the West and South for the FA Trophy that nobody would be interested in.

More generally not sure what we are doing re the North. It just seems so short term and not thought through.

Firstly as we have found out it is a requirement to provide 15% of tickets for away fans in certain competitions. We need an away capacity capability that meets that and if we intend to get back in the EFL or have cup runs the current North arrangements don’t work

To me the obvious thing to get to is North to be safe standing and home only. The South holds 2071 and should be the away stand.

Yes this will require installation of safe standing but we are just putting off the inevitable and people standing in seated areas is disaster waiting to happen.

Work will need to be done to create separate access to the South. There’s that corner there that could accommodate refreshments etc also.

Do it properly or not at all. BTW if with the new East capacity goes over 14k then a bit more capacity for away fans will be required than provided by the South.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Sorry MS, for reasons I listed earlier, they SHOULD have expected large numbers. If they weren’t sure they should have spoken to Sittingbourne who were more likely to gauge the interest generated in the town.
It is simply not good enough and that old adage “Lessons to be learned” is as likely to happen as you winning the next Euromillions.

SUFC: Hi is that Sittingbourne FC, it’s Southend United. We’ve been trying to get through to you for days.

SFC: wow, hi Southend we can’t wait to play you. Sorry my proper job means I only get to club matters on Wednesday afternoons.

SUFC: how many fans are you likely to bring?

SFC: we’ve no idea! We’ve never got to this stage before!

SUFC: what’s your usual away crowd?

SFC: well there’s Brian, Tony, Janice if it’s not too far, Robin if it’s not a midweek…

SUFC: ok, let’s not list them all individually you’re not Fylde. What’s your biggest home gate of the season?

SFC: we got 826 for the derby game against Sheppey Boxing Day but they brought over 100. The game before that we got 274. Last home game we got 189.

SUFC: ok, shall we say 800 max then?

SFC: it’d be great if we can bring that many.

SUFC: great, we’ll see you on the 1st.

 

[ace]

I going to stick up for the club a little bit here

No-way in a million years did anyone else believe Sittingbourne would sell more than 500 tickets for this match

Well done to Sittingbourne here

Maybe they should Open the W/X blocks in the West Stand for the home fans now

Its looking likely we see 5000 plus gate now IMHO

Agree. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. At least we are trying to accommodate their unexpected overspill. That's more than the likes of Daggers and others have done for our travelling fans in the past. As regards splitting the support to different areas, its unfortunate, but this happens regularly with our fans travelling away. Often our terrace support is in the opposite area to those sitting.
Life isn't always perfect.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Only just over 200 home tickets available. I think they will have to open another couple of South Upper blocks soon.

 

[WickfordShrimper]

Agree. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. At least we are trying to accommodate their unexpected overspill. That's more than the likes of Daggers and others have done for our travelling fans in the past. As regards splitting the support to different areas, its unfortunate, but this happens regularly with our fans travelling away. Often our terrace support is in the opposite area to those sitting.
Life isn't always perfect.

I remember going away to Colchester in a Cup game in the early 2000s and they put Southend fans in two opposite areas of their old layerabout ground .

 

[Mick]

Sorry MS, for reasons I listed earlier, they SHOULD have expected large numbers. If they weren’t sure they should have spoken to Sittingbourne who were more likely to gauge the interest generated in the town.
It is simply not good enough and that old adage “Lessons to be learned” is as likely to happen as you winning the next Euromillions.

This whole episode, sadly, does absolutely nothing to instil confidence in the competence of those now running our club or those they are choosing to advise them.

Fan engagement ?? Fan enragement, more like.

 

[Stuart W]

SUFC: Hi is that Sittingbourne FC, it’s Southend United. We’ve been trying to get through to you for days.

SFC: wow, hi Southend we can’t wait to play you. Sorry my proper job means I only get to club matters on Wednesday afternoons.

SUFC: how many fans are you likely to bring?

SFC: we’ve no idea! We’ve never got to this stage before!

SUFC: what’s your usual away crowd?

SFC: well there’s Brian, Tony, Janice if it’s not too far, Robin if it’s not a midweek…

SUFC: ok, let’s not list them all individually you’re not Fylde. What’s your biggest home gate of the season?

SFC: we got 826 for the derby game against Sheppey Boxing Day but they brought over 100. The game before that we got 274. Last home game we got 189.

SUFC: ok, shall we say 800 max then?

SFC: it’d be great if we can bring that many.

SUFC: great, we’ll see you on the 1st.

Patronising, and a poor attempt at humour. I listed my reasons why it was so obvious that Sittingbourne would be wanting to bring at least a thousand fans. I didn’t need the benefit of hindsight, just common sense. I know we all want to get out of non-league football, but whilst we are here people need to avoid being condescending.

 

[Hawkwell Blue]

I remember going away to Colchester in a Cup game in the early 2000s and they put Southend fans in two opposite areas of their old layerabout ground .

And Southampton in 1994. People need to calm down.

 

[old leigh shrimper]

Remember we were in 2 seperate sections at orient once.......in the days of Ben Abbey....and that was a league game.....which i believe we won!

 

[Thundersley Blue]

Sorry MS, for reasons I listed earlier, they SHOULD have expected large numbers. If they weren’t sure they should have spoken to Sittingbourne who were more likely to gauge the interest generated in the town.
It is simply not good enough and that old adage “Lessons to be learned” is as likely to happen as you winning the next Euromillions.

I am absolutely confident discussions were held with Sittingbourne and just perhaps even they underestimated the number of supporters they would bring.

 

[PIERS]

This was being highlighted on here a couple of weeks ago. It should have been addressed fully then by opening the whole ground and giving them the north bank in full. And making the tickets as cheap as possible. The attempted bolt on fixes have just made it all more irritating . Should have pulled the band aid off 2 weeks ago and resorted it.

 

[Barry.C]

Patronising, and a poor attempt at humour. I listed my reasons why it was so obvious that Sittingbourne would be wanting to bring at least a thousand fans. I didn’t need the benefit of hindsight, just common sense. I know we all want to get out of non-league football, but whilst we are here people need to avoid being condescending.

Tend to agree. Wanted that fixture to happen , Soon as it did , it was a no brainer that they would turn up in large numbers

Amazing how once we get A Wembley game our attendance rockets 5 fold on average . This was always going to be a big event for the Sittingbourne Town

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

Just caved in and got a couple of North Bank tickets. Watch them now open the West!

 

[rlb999]

Fair play to Sittingbourne - this is their cup final - Iet them bring as many as they want. If we were away to a club a few divisions higher than us, we wouldn't want to be hearing that they couldn't be bothered opening up parts of their ground.

In the spirit of our new-found 3-4-3

Harness
Taylor, Goodliffe, Golding
Wind, Coker, Morton, Ralph
Waldron, Kendall, Walker

Plenty to fill our bench these days so it could be changed up (or sideways if Kev prefers) as required.