Why was it? The club knew the men's fixture list months and months ago. And fa and EFL rules dictate that the men's team must have priority over stadiums don't they?
If the women’s match kicked off at 12pm, on the training ground, and the Horsham game at 2pm, on Oakwell on the Sunday, I would have gone to both. The women’s team would likely have extra spectators, the Horsham fans get their day out and home in time for work/school the following day… Would that work? Not sure, but I’m off to Gran Canaria, now, instead!!!
And most men's fixtures kick off at 3pm Saturday. The club has always known that the weekend in question was the FA Cup 1st round weekend.
And as a female player in that situation, knowing that there will be other opportunities to play on the main pitch, I would much prefer to play on the academy pitch in front of a larger crowd drawn by a later cup tie, than on the main pitch in front of a handful of spectators.
Good lord. The reaction to this is absolutely insane. You would think that the club had announced some heavy sack beatings on the pitch on the Saturday.
Another “own goal” thrusting the Women’s match into the equation in a bucket full of negativity. It’s almost as if the club is making it the fault of the Women’s team. Amateurish. PR wise this whole thing is a disaster.
#JBP4CEO The men's teams would need pre game access to the changing rooms. But you could have had the ladies match at 11-12 and the men's game at 4 pm and in between allow fans to leave the stadium and come back and put things on at the ground for people to spend whilst they wait between games.
The big question to be asked here and above all is why there had been stonewall silence from the club? Who is running the club at the moment? No comment from the club at all on this from anyone in seniority! We are a public embarrassment and have shafted Horsham on their ‘day’ of glory! I will be donating my ticket money to them !
This, blatantly. The Horsham thing is bad enough by itself, but trying to cover it up this incompetently is frankly even worse. Looks as if they think their own fans are idiots who'll swallow anything. And using the women's team to conduct this little bit of poundshop diplomacy does not reflect well at all on how seriously the club takes them. It's embarrassing all round.
All I really want is for the club I support to be basically one of the good guys. If we were in the Premier League then I'd probably accept that this was a crazy dream, but we're in League One. What are we going to save by screwing over Horsham by hosting them with half a stand on a Friday night - maybe £20k? £50k? I hope they smash us, to be honest. Fingers crossed their #9 books the day off work to come up and gets a hat trick. These people might have to use up their annual holiday allowance in their day jobs to play against us, and it looks like we've nodded through a Friday night match. It's unbelievable,