Harrogate Town 3 Redditch Utd 2

Another Solid performance from the boys. Michael Wood seems a solid player in the defensive midfield role. Maloney was a threat. Simon Harrisons Goal was brilliant should of seen the keeper afterwoods. Rory Coleman what a great coup from Town to get this guy i really hope we can extend his loan, he played really well despite the sending off. Well Done Town!

Goalscorers:
Simon Sturdy
Simon Harrison
Rory Coleman

I thought we were very solid today not the best performance we will ever see but extremely happy with the 3 points I thought Bloomer was quality today he is one of the best defenders we have had in recent years and hernandez did a good job with the crosses again and made a few smart saves. especially from the free-kick they got the goal disallowed he made a great save from the initial shot. Jon Maloney did o.k but i think he needs to get a bit stronger and the hold the ball up a bit better.... Durham had a great effect yet again when he came on what does this lad have to do to get a start :O . And rory cole man bloody hell what a bloody strike that was i just thought 'cross it' and BANG its in the top left corner of the net quality performance... didnt see what happened with the sending off but i really think hes a very good player. Harrison also had a good game in the right wing back role and another great finish ...
WELL PLAYED ALL THE LADS !!!!KEEP IT UP!!!!!!!!

It certainly was a great match to watch. The strange thing is going a goal down so quickly was probably the kick up the backside the team needed. They couldn't afford to lose to a sloppy goal like that!

It was good to see an immediate response and I bet Mr Dutton is feeling a wee bit miffed but Simon did the right thing following up on the line. What a shot by Simon Harrison! From where I was, you could tell the keeper was thinking "wide" but alas for him - NOT!!

I hope that we can keep Rory for longer, he has an amazing shot on him and we saw again what he can do! The sending off (well both really) was farcical, he clipped one of their players as he went past and the liner (same one who took offence at being told he was having a "mare" of a game) spoke to the joke in black and off they went!

You gotta feel sorry for Jon Maloney and Luke Durham, everything that Jon tried came off apart from the ball going in the back of the net (and he will probably have a sore neck after getting an elbow right in the back of it whilst jumping) and as already said what does Luke have to do to start a game, two great runs and laying the ball off when he could have had a shot.

We hit the post, keeper pulls off a blinder of a save then Bloomer against the crossbar! I must admit that at that stage I thought it wasn't going to be our day but could have kissed that liner (in a none manly way of course!) when he put his flag up to rule the goal offside!

Great fighting Town! let's keep it up against Stafford next weekend!

Great result for the lads - thought Matt Bloomer was immense and a great goal from Rory but lets hope we learn that we are a much better outfit with 11 on the pitch!!
I didn't see what happened with the sending off but the lino clearly saw something.
Still created a couple of solid chances with 10 men and Luke created his usual havoc down the right wing.
Well done to everyone - a CRUCIAL 3 points.
Thought the ref was ok (light red touch paper and stand well back!!!!) but why did he add a further 3 minutes on for all the moaning their players did after the "goal" was disallowed for offside. Never happier to see that flag waving .
The Blue Square 5/6 felt great value at half time but not quite so good during the last 25 minutes!

Really enjoyable, if nerve racking, game Saturday. Town deservd to win, a draw would have been hard to take. Incidentally, before the free kick I distinctly heard the ref tell the players 'last kick of the game', which of course it wasn't. If they had scored from that last corner (good save keeper!), it would have been a disgrace. Real shame about Coleman (what a goal ) being sent off, 3 match suspension even if he stays.
On this form we should be easily save from relegation, Prendergast should be a useful addition.
On the downside, the attendance of 233 And I thought 278 was really poor last time, need to do something about this, looks like freefall.

Would agree with the comment about attendances - very disappointing. Have Town ever done incentives for kids to attend (eg, Dad + 2 under 15's for a tenner).
Have watched Town occassionally over the years and 400-450 regularly turned up - any thoughts on the reason for the major drop this year?
Hopefully we'll get a good cup draw and maybe a few more this Saturday but you don't need to many more to make some noise when we play like we did in the 1st half on Saturday.

gedmaloney wrote:Would agree with the comment about attendances - very disappointing. Have Town ever done incentives for kids to attend (eg, Dad + 2 under 15's for a tenner).
Have watched Town occassionally over the years and 400-450 regularly turned up - any thoughts on the reason for the major drop this year?
Hopefully we'll get a good cup draw and maybe a few more this Saturday but you don't need to many more to make some noise when we play like we did in the 1st half on Saturday.

Yes they have done incentives in the past, all with varying degrees of success!

I was looking through some programmes for just 2 seasons ago at the week-end (yes I keep them!), gates of 550, 600, 480 etc. I know we were near the top of the league then, but its an incredible drop in just 2 years. Hard to explain it just with price increases etc. I'm no expert on these things but a few ideas occur to me 1) 2 for 1 offer in the Advertiser, 2) insert in the paper 3) posters around the town. I run a freelance art class in Harrogate and to advertise it I had 1000 high quality colour leaflets (A5) printed...cost me £70! Couldn't the club try something similar? For £200/£300 you could get 3000 or so leaflets done...flood the town. What about getting Associate sponsors ASDA involved? Whats worrying is that there don't seem to be any initiatives coming from the club. Thank goodness for the people in the stand making some noise, otherwise the place was really quiet on Saturday.

paulstreet wrote:I was looking through some programmes for just 2 seasons ago at the week-end (yes I keep them!), gates of 550, 600, 480 etc. I know we were near the top of the league then, but its an incredible drop in just 2 years. Hard to explain it just with price increases etc. I'm no expert on these things but a few ideas occur to me 1) 2 for 1 offer in the Advertiser, 2) insert in the paper 3) posters around the town. I run a freelance art class in Harrogate and to advertise it I had 1000 high quality colour leaflets (A5) printed...cost me £70! Couldn't the club try something similar? For £200/£300 you could get 3000 or so leaflets done...flood the town. What about getting Associate sponsors ASDA involved? Whats worrying is that there don't seem to be any initiatives coming from the club. Thank goodness for the people in the stand making some noise, otherwise the place was really quiet on Saturday.

Paul - I have a copy of last year's programme in front of me.

A comparison

Vauxhall 09/10 - 327 08/09 - 308 07/08 - 410 (both previous games on a Saturday)
Solihull 09/10 - 272 08/09 - 220 07/08 - 430
Redditch 09/10 - 233 08/09 - 342 07/08 - 362

That to me shows that this fall has not just happened and the opposition has always made a difference to the attendance at WR. The games against the oposition we have played so far this season have never been 500 plus. The Harrogate public only seem to come out for the big names in the league. Add to this that the gate against Fleetwood last year with the full, supposibly brilliant, team was only 265.

Let us see if we can beat last season's gate of 338 for the visit of Stafford on Saturday

Also I didn't hear the stand make any noise on Saturday. (maybe you cant hear the noise made from the other side of the ground - especially when you are making noise yourselves )

You could well be right - we thought we were making plenty of noise in the Stand, the wife had to leave early and when I got home she commented on the noise generated behind the goal and in front of the Crossbar as she was going out. Will have to try out this week