Taunton v Barrow FA Cup game

[Adam29]

This is getting more of a farce by the minute.
The draw was over a week ago. Plans should of been in place before the replay was even played.

[Richard Ingham]

But Adam, you have to remember they are all volunteers!!!!!

That is the response I have been getting from Twitter.

You'd think they were the only club ever to be run by volunteers the way some of them go on. The fact our own Barrow AFC has pretty much always been run that way and only relatively recently have we had paid staff seems to be irrelevant.

Competent volunteers can still run things fairly professionally.

[Steelworks End]

Would there be an option maybe to buy a ticket and print it off at home.

Somehow I think not.

[Arvo]

Bet everyone's wishing Hemel had won now: larger ground capacity, (probably) less local interest, (slightly?) easier to get to from Barrow, not as likely to have been switched to Sunday, less embarrassing if we lose.

[PRR]

We, of course are the epitome of professionalism and no one ever moans about the way things are run at Holker St and we never have queues backing up on the popular side and we always print enough tickets for games, always open the bar late enough, stock the right beer, have plenty of merchandise for sale, maintain our floodlights, have a decent set of bogs, sell pies in the snack bars etc etc. Cut the [SwearFilter] a little bit of slack eh? If it all [SwearFilter] up, then have a moan or just have a beer and forget about it. They're printing tickets aren't they?? Maybe they could send them in chocolate envelopes with a free benny and a voucher for a blow job.

[barrowaberdeen]

Having already invested in two (not cheap) return tickets on GWR when it was cash on the door, I hope that we can get our tickets for the game without any problem. Am getting too old for climbing over walls.

perhaps we can get one of the kind people who frequent the coach to bring down ours!

That would probably be a decent shout as a young chap from the office often travels with us.

[32mile_cul-de-sac]

We, of course are the epitome of professionalism and no one ever moans about the way things are run at Holker St and we never have queues backing up on the popular side and we always print enough tickets for games, always open the bar late enough, stock the right beer, have plenty of merchandise for sale, maintain our floodlights, have a decent set of bogs, sell pies in the snack bars etc etc. Cut the [SwearFilter] a little bit of slack eh? If it all [SwearFilter] up, then have a moan or just have a beer and forget about it. They're printing tickets aren't they?? Maybe they could send them in chocolate envelopes with a free benny and a voucher for a blow job.

just what i was thinking, we shouldn't be calling other clubs anything, we are hardly great at doing anything ourselves.

[McMark]

perhaps we can get one of the kind people who frequent the coach to bring down ours!

That would probably be a decent shout as a young chap from the office often travels with us.

Will wait and see what plans the clubs have, but if need be I would be happy to distribute any pre-payed for tickets at a designated Taunton watering hole if needed.

[Lancaster Branch]

To be fair to Taunton, a large chunk of the delay seems to have been getting the meeting with the relevant authorities. Having said that, once that meeting had taken place things should have progressed a bit quicker. All these volunteers presumably have access to email and mobile phones - although it is the West Country so maybe not.

[Pedro]

Its a shame all the negative attitude towards Taunton ,its a good job the game is there because if they saw the Holker street end with no roof or the the porta cabins without wash basins they would think and this is a professional outfit?

We did have a item on the arrogance of Tranmere supporters!

[John Very Little]

Agree with LB.
However such is the level of interest in the game they could've made it all-ticket without waiting to speak to the police and already printed the tickets. There were massive queues getting in for the last round and there will be a lot more in attendance for this game.
We still don't know what our allocation is yet so there is no guarantee that everyone who wants a ticket will get one as the 15% rule doesn't necessarily apply as Taunton don't have the necessary facilities stipulated by the FA Rules for that. If you'd forked out for travel and in some cases accommodation and were in danger of not getting a ticket or not getting one in time then it's only natural people are wanting to know what's happening asap as they may need to organise alternative arrangements themselves.

[Wordsworth]

It is nice to hear a few people above me defending the team I support: Taunton Town FC. Had I managed to log in before tonight then I fear that I would have written something more akin to a rant. It saddens me to read all of the disparaging comments and pressure being put on the Taunton Town officials both on here and on social media. I am just a fan and have little ‘insider’ knowledge but I want to give you an introduction to the club, hopefully set right some of the more hurtful things that have been said, and begin a more positive discussion for the next ten days until game day.

It is really late and I am personally having a shit time of it right now (since July I’ve had my motorbike, bicycle and – yesterday – mobile phone stolen) so I apologise if this comes over as a rant!

“Pull yer fingers out!”

Many people appear to feel that the club has acted rather slowly and incompetently. My view is that they have actually done a lot. No doubt I will miss out some stuff but, more or less, it looks like this:

18/10/16 – replay Hemel Hempstead, returned to Taunton around 2 am.
19/10/16 – the club handles live morning and evening news broadcasts from BBC and ITV.
21/10/16 – TV negotiations concluded and date, time and price of the game announced. Taunton says there will be no tickets.
22/10/16 – home game v Winchester City, Taunton now say there may be tickets but further talks are required with police.
23/10/16 – update on when the police are available.
25/10/16 – away to Yate Town, results of discussion with police announced.
26/10/16 – we sign a lad from Hereford, details of when tickets can be purchased released on Taunton website and sent to Barrow who will release them tomorrow.

To recap – in eight days the Taunton staff have staged three games, negotiated with Barrow and the BBC, consulted with the police and arranged for ticket sales. The club has never hosted a 1st Round game before, and has had to learn about and comply with the rules for Step 1 of the Pyramid. During that time there was a period of 1 day where it appeared, wrongly, to be pay at the gate.

The other delays (of 3 days each) were while the TV decision took place and while Taunton waited for the police to be available. Neither of those things is down to the people running Taunton Town FC.

The people in charge

So, about those people. There are, more or less, two of them. Two guys. One named Kevin and the other named Andy. Kevin is the CEO, Chairman and Groundsman. Andy is the Club Secretary. There are other people who perform valuable jobs at the club (see below) but in terms of substantive decisions being made it is just Kevin and Andy. This pair – like everyone else at the club – are volunteers. It has been posted on this thread that until recently Barrow AFC was run by volunteers. Given the size of your crowds, I presume it was more than 2?

The rest of the people

The people maketh the football club. There is the chap who does the turnstile and has done for as long as I can remember. The chap who sells the half-time draw and his wife who runs the club shop (with the help of their 2 little girls). The stewards who also put up and take down the goals and look after the changing rooms. The old couple who run the hospitality suite. The wife of the First Team Coach who is in charge of the bar. The Finance Director who applies a lifetime of training, for free, to balance the books. The Match Secretary who hasn't missed a game home or away in 39 years. The 90 year old Club President. There are many others too. I would mention the social media team who have been reading endless criticism this week, but until yesterday that was Kevin and Andy as well!

Taunton Town’s standards

There is an eagerness on this thread to call Taunton “farcical” and belittle us. So let me tell you about the standards set at this club. The new regime took over 3-4 years ago when Taunton was facing bankruptcy. Shortly afterwards our clubhouse burned down. Nevertheless, Taunton have achieved improved finishes in each of the past three seasons. We won the Somerset Premier Cup in 2013/14 and 2014/15. In 2014/15 we won the award for Best Pitch in the Southern League AND Best Pitch at Step 4 Nationally. In 2015/16 we again won the Southern League award and came runners up Nationally …and don’t forget that the Chairman is also the Groundsman and he works on the pitch every day. In 2014, we introduced an Under-18 side in association with a Sixth Form College in the area. We also now have youth teams acting as mascots at every home game.

Taunton Town have 10 players who have been first team regulars at National League level or above (Batley, L Irish, Kelly, Mitchell, Palmer, Staley, Trowbridge, Villis, White and Wright). Since 2013, Taunton Town have won or drawn against:

• Hampton and Richmond Borough
  Hemel Hempstead
  Truro City
  Walsall (friendly)
  Yeovil
  Hereford
  Bristol C (twice in friendlies)
  Torquay United (twice in friendlies)

This is a club run by a small band of people with high standards, and the criticism from some Barrow supporters is completely wide of the mark.

Example inaccuracies

Some of the inaccurate commentary on here shows how easy it is for human beings to make errors.

The post above me refers to “massive queues”. I am not criticising that poster, I just want to illustrate that people are talking without knowing facts. If you knew facts then you would know there was one queue not multiple queues. It also wasn’t massive. Earlier in the thread, someone pointed out that the match report said “at one point nearly down to the Fire Station”. So at its longest it was briefly almost the space from the white van to the black estate car in this (http://bit.ly/2ecxUNL) photo. I appreciate someone said they measured the distance on Google Maps and it was 150m, however Google Maps here shows it as around about 40m (http://bit.ly/2eHL9qB).

Someone posted about six turnstiles. Now you are all talking about six turnstiles. I can tell you the block we normally open is 2. There may be another 2 further down that touchline which have never been open (not sure about this) and the people in charge may have plans to use other entrances but I can assure you 6 is not the number. Yet that is the number lots of people have been citing.

There have been a few other inaccuracies, too.

Summing up

Put simply, it appears that it has been fun in this thread to gang up on Taunton Town. People post conjecture which is then taken up by others as fact, while yet other people post insults like “farcical” without even saying what exactly is the farce. This is supposed to have the magic of The FA Cup but that magic has seemed elusive in this thread and on social media. This is a shame and I am not sure why those individuals are doing it. Barrow is a non-league club. You are non-league fans. A bit of courtesy, humbleness and patience would not go amiss …and as game day approaches and we discuss the tie I will try to offer the same!

[Thelandlord]

Crikey!! Calm down. Sorry to hear about your push iron.

[barrowaberdeen]

Its not unreasonable to want to be able to buy a ticket and get into a match you are travelling many miles to get to. If you got 1200 last round then just over 2000 has to be a conservative estimate of home fans. Barrow bringing say 200 ( again a conservative estimate given weve 90 odd on buses even without knowing first which day) .So it should have been all ticket all along. I simply dont understand why, however many people are running things voluntarily,. As for insulting and ganging up...bit oversensitive....how about ill judged them instead of farcical ? And yes we make plenty of mistakes here which we are equally fed up about when they occur.

Looking forward to the visit. Seen the signs for Taunton when hitching to Torquay a little while back this season and wondered what it was like for football. Football's often like that. Taunton and Hampden in November..both on a Sunday..

[Jo am back]

We, of course are the epitome of professionalism and no one ever moans about the way things are run at Holker St and we never have queues backing up on the popular side and we always print enough tickets for games, always open the bar late enough, stock the right beer, have plenty of merchandise for sale, maintain our floodlights, have a decent set of bogs, sell pies in the snack bars etc etc. Cut the [SwearFilter] a little bit of slack eh? If it all [SwearFilter] up, then have a moan or just have a beer and forget about it. They're printing tickets aren't they?? Maybe they could send them in chocolate envelopes with a free benny and a voucher for a blow job.

Absolute bang on mate. This is a small club probably not been in this situation before,the games a week on saturday for god sake.