Mr Figo wrote:This is MF's first real "bad" patch that he has had since he took over 4 years ago. In that time, my view is we have overachieved to a large extent with the players and squads that we have had in consideration to the budget and let's be frank where Newport is located in the UK. It is not exactly the No.1 destination is it? Even the northern teams in the Premiership have the same problem when competing with the London clubs.
Due to the cup runs and playoffs, I think some have become accustomed to "success" to a large degree. But putting it into context, success (or should I say the expectation of success) for teams like Portsmouth and Coventry who used to be in the same division I would say is relative to the size of the club. Newport are not of the same stature. Could they be? Possibly, but this will take time. I go back to my point I made in a previous post/thread that the size of of our Trust is roughly a 1,000 members. Wimbledon's trust members are, I understand, over 4,000.
IF you look at the stats from the eras when County were successful and I use 78-81 as a comparison, rough figures on an internet search show that the average attendance at Somerton peaked at around 5,500 in the 80-81 season with the CZJ game bringing in 18,000. Even in our promotion season of 2013 we averaged just over 2,500, peaking at over 6,000 for the Grimsby game. Our first season in the FL average attendance was roughly 3,300. Even success doesn't necessarily equate to large increases in attendances amongst the County following.
Compare that to some of the teams I mention above and it becomes blatantly obvious that there are bigger clubs with bigger budgets who can pay players more to play for them. It is clear we simply cannot "pay" to get promoted as we do not have the resources to do so and calling for Flynny to be sacked will further diminish the position the club is in financially and then folk will then complain that the BoD's have been irresponsible with finances as a change of manager would eat into these resources and potential jeopardise the future of the club.
In season 73/74 attendances at a mid table fourth division Newport County were about 2,500. Slightly below County in the League with slightly fewer people attending their games on average were Swansea City.
So is it that the people of Newport are different from the people of Swansea and elsewhere? Or could it be that if you want to attract the more casual football fan you need to provide fit for 21st century modern facilities?
I know which one of go for. But then again I haven't had the advantage of a positive meeting with Gavin Foxall.
