Pre match meet up

[outspoken]

After the game on Monday and all the doom and gloom around the club, I was thinking of a way we could try and improve the atmosphere for Saturday and try get everyone together before the game. I got in touch with JP Reilly and he has kindly offered to host our pre match meet up and put on €3 pints for all Town fans. I've set up an event here and I'm hoping it will help create some sort of atmosphere for Saturday. https://www.facebook.com/events/1676049619278445/

Everyone welcome.

[Martinho II]

great work Outspoken. I doubt I will be in as will be with Kyle and getting a lift. hopefully it will take off.

[outspoken]

great work Outspoken. I doubt I will be in as will be with Kyle and getting a lift. hopefully it will take off.

Cheers Marty, it's time to take the whole thing by the scruff of the neck and try get some bit of noise at home games again.

[Martinho II]

Cheers Marty, it's time to take the whole thing by the scruff of the neck and try get some bit of noise at home games again.

does that mean if this takes off Sat that the ban will be broken or is this for the stand only?

[outspoken]

Not sure what ban you are referring to. The idea is to get as many people young and old over to Section O and make one hell of a racket. If things don't go so well and the numbers simply aren't there then maybe we might look into trying something else.

[Martinho II]

Not sure what ban you are referring to. The idea is to get as many people young and old over to Section O and make one hell of a racket. If things don't go so well and the numbers simply aren't there then maybe we might look into trying something else.

no I mean were a few of ye comin back from the stand for this? typical bad grammar for me!

[outspoken]

Just want to make it clear Marty, there is no breakaway from Section O. I noticed a lot of section O regulars in the stand at the pats game, myself included, but I think that was down to the fact that people knew numbers would be low and the atmosphere wouldn't be great so a lot of people just weren't bothered. Hence why I'm trying to drum something up tomorrow night.

[Martinho II]

Just want to make it clear Marty, there is no breakaway from Section O. I noticed a lot of section O regulars in the stand at the pats game, myself included, but I think that was down to the fact that people knew numbers would be low and the atmosphere wouldn't be great so a lot of people just weren't bothered. Hence why I'm trying to drum something up tomorrow night.

thats a relief as i was down in the dumps over it. thats a relief!

[outspoken]

Thanks to everyone who turned up both in jp's and section O. Massive improvement in atmosphere and appearance (flags, banners, tifo's etc) and while numbers were far from special I honestly think we have a base to build off now and as a result I will be running these meet ups for all home games as i think numbers will start to improve from here. cmon de town.

[Martinho II]

Thanks to everyone who turned up both in jp's and section O. Massive improvement in atmosphere and appearance (flags, banners, tifo's etc) and while numbers were far from special I honestly think we have a base to build off now and as a result I will be running these meet ups for all home games as i think numbers will start to improve from here. cmon de town.

only concern that I have Outspoken is if the stewards come around to us again at the next home game and forcibly remove one of our lads for not payin the fine wot do we do? I would be happy to chip in towards the fine so to guarantee that individual goes to games.It would depend on what the rest of the Section O lads want to do if they would be happy to do so.. I dont really want to cause a scene and its awkward for me being a member of the Supporters Club committee... As I get the criticism like I got at the end of last season! Wot do other people think?

[outspoken]

only concern that I have Outspoken is if the stewards come around to us again at the next home game and forcibly remove one of our lads for not payin the fine wot do we do? I would be happy to chip in towards the fine so to guarantee that individual goes to games.It would depend on what the rest of the Section O lads want to do if they would be happy to do so.. I dont really want to cause a scene and its awkward for me being a member of the Supporters Club committee... As I get the criticism like I got at the end of last season! Wot do other people think?

Personally I have been trying to avoid this issue online for a while now as I had my say on it and it's not helpful for anyone to be talking about it online but unfortunately due to the club we are still talking about a minor incident five months later and it's leaving a horrible dark cloud over the atmosphere at home and away games. It's time for the club (or more like certain board members) to stop this power trip they are on and forget about it and move on. We've lost enough supporters over the oriel incident last season as it is and we can't afford to be banning fans who travel home and away without fail every week. I'm struggling to run busses and these lads are my core base so without them that will fall apart. I'm tried my best last week to get numbers over to Section O and it's a slow hard struggle and the club sending stewards over saying lads would be left outside at the next home game didn't help one bit. If the lads are not let in against Dundalk i personally think I will have to take a long hard think about attending any more home games this season as a lot of the people I stood with for years have stopped going over it already and I would find it an unenjoyable experience if the rest were banned. That's all I'm going to say on the matter. I had hoped we had moved on and wouldn't have to speak about it again but the club continue to go around in circles im afraid.

The sad thing is, this could have all been easilly avoided if the club had just sent someone over and said look we got a fine for x amount, will you lads chip in a fiver or a tenner each and don't let any more off this season. That would have been the end of it, but instead certain people decided to start throwing letters and their weight around and look what happened. I sent an email to the club at the end of the season saying this is exactly why a supporters liaison officer should be appointed but as usual it probably wasn't even read, this is why we need a press officer. It's small improvements like this that would push the club onto a much more professionally run footing, and you can't say it's down to lack of volunteers as the club keep turning help away. Attendances are f*cking awful at the moment and incidents like this are one of the main reasons behind it.

[Town Legend]

Is the reason for the ban been the club been fined for a few idiots letting off flares which they know are banned? From what I know the club got fined because of these idiots so it should be up to them to pay the fines for their idiotic behaviour and not the clubs.

[Martinho II]

Is the reason for the ban been the club been fined for a few idiots letting off flares which they know are banned? From what I know the club got fined because of these idiots so it should be up to them to pay the fines for their idiotic behaviour and not the clubs.

to be honest the majority of them that had let them off used to be on our side and stopped goin over the last while. with our lads who are regulars that were caught I am not goin to excuse it but this was never done before majorly which proves the culprits are outside the club! the club havent a clue over this whole episode on how its effectin people and unless theres a clean sweep of the board things will never change!

[outspoken]

Is the reason for the ban been the club been fined for a few idiots letting off flares which they know are banned? From what I know the club got fined because of these idiots so it should be up to them to pay the fines for their idiotic behaviour and not the clubs.

It's how it was done. A simple sit down and ask for a whip around among section O would have sorted the whole thing. Instead one board member in particular decided to throw his weight around and his actions from last season have cost us a lot of fans. If someone makes a mistake in a position of power they should face consequences, voluntary or not. We are the last club in a position to be banning passionate young fans given our sh1te attendances.

[Town Legend]

Well the club wouldn't of had to deal with it if the idiots involved paid heed to the rules of no flares. Those idiots should shut the f*ck up about been banned or the way it was dealt with or just pay the fine that they should of paid. It annoys me the way these boys are going around giving out about how the club dealt with it when they were dead right. Play by the rules or get out. Simple as.

[outspoken]

IT was a cup semi final ffs, the man on the street could tell you there would be pyro. It's never been an issue before. Look at all the other clubs at it every week and you don't see them losing their life over it. Our board is as backwards as sin and that's the issue here.

[nigel-harps1954]

Harps were in the FAI cup semi final two years ago in Richmond Park live on TV, had play off games in front of huge crowds last year, and this season started out with a couple of big crowds again with Derry at home especially having 5,000 people in the ground. We just left Sligo at the weekend having packed out their away section too.

We had no need for pyro to create colour and noise in any of those games. We knew better than to purposefully cause big money fines for our club.

Anyone that partakes in this nonsense and has the balls to complain about it when they're caught by the club needs to take a good long hard look at themselves. It's against the rules. Simple as that.

[outspoken]

Big fine, it was 150 euro. Had they asked all of us to chip in (I'm not one of the banned parties btw) we would have had no bother doing so, however, the club went about it in a sneaky fashion by waiting until the final home game of the season to slap people with letters and let's not forget wrongfully issued letters to a life long supporter who hasn't been back to a game since as a result. A large group of supporters boycotted the dinner dance as a result and as I've said we've lost a lot of fans over this issue and it's cost the club far more than 150 euro ever will. The face we are still talking about this 5 months later shows the club have made a balls of dealing with it and it should be just forgotten about now. We had 300 people at our last home game and the club want to ban 5 members of section O, even though we only had about 20 over there for the last game. The whole thing is a mess.

[Longfordian]

Was the fine not €1500? Thought I read that at the time.

[nigel-harps1954]

€1,500 per flare.

[outspoken]

Was the fine not €1500? Thought I read that at the time.

Nope the fine was 150 as the club wanted 30 each off the lads that were issued letters. That figure of 1500 was thrown out there by a certain board member to scare monger, just like he did last season when he told a young supporter who ran on the pitch in Galway that the club had been given a heavy fine only to find out later this was totally incorrect and the FAI had not even noticed the matter

[Town Legend]

There was a huge crackdown last season from the FAI with regards flares. Every man and his dog knows flares are banned from the ground. If you let them off you suffer the repercussions. Some people might think the issuing of letters being a professional way of going about things. Some others think different. The fact of the matter is that some idiots out there can't read or just didn't give a f*ck and let the flares off thinking the club will pay for it.

The club were hit with fines before regarding flares and probably thought enough is enough and decided it's time the perpetrators paid for it and I for one agree with them.

[outspoken]

The club would be better off trying to get a few young lads out to games instead of barring the few that will go home and away every week. It could have been handled so much better, that's all I'm saying.

[Town Legend]

Exactly. It could of been handled a lot better, first and foremost by those so called fans who let off the flares.

[outspoken]

Exactly. It could of been handled a lot better, first and foremost by those so called fans who let off the flares.

So called fans, these are lads who travel to cork on a Monday night, Donegal for a cup replay in the ****ing rain on a Monday, go the meaningless Leinster senior cup games, but yeah they aren't real fans just becuase they got a bit excited at a semi final and let off a few flares. Hang the bast&rds

[Town Legend]

Sorry, fans that have no cop on then. Is that better for you Outspoken?? Give them lads a clap on the back. So what if they've gone to Cork or Ballybofey. There's plenty of fans that have been going since the Abbeycarton days and the dark days before Kenny but you don't see them letting off flares!

At the end of the day, these 'fans' were costing the club money in fines and they took a stand to get the perpetrators to pay for it to which they've refused. Pay up and they'll get back, until then enjoy livescore!

[outspoken]

Well Town legend if you can find me 2 new young fellas let alone 5+ that will spend the amount of time and money on the club that these lads have over the years you may let me know because we can't run 16 Seaters to matches at the minute or get more than a few hundred in for home games, the whole thing is a f*cking shambles.

People need to think about the bigger picture, these are all young lads in school/college and socialise in Town. Imagine when people their age hear they have been banned, is that going to encourage more young people to come out to games? These bans are costing the club thousands of euros through gate receipts and merchindise sales (not that you can buy merchindise anyway).

[Town Legend]

If these young lads had any manners or cop on they wouldn't be banned would they??? I've spoken to a lot of fans of various ages with regards flares and what's happened with this fall out and everyone agreed saying the club were right to do what they did. So we'll agree to disagree but you're very much in the minority here.

[bennocelt]

Harps were in the FAI cup semi final two years ago in Richmond Park live on TV, had play off games in front of huge crowds last year, and this season started out with a couple of big crowds again with Derry at home especially having 5,000 people in the ground. We just left Sligo at the weekend having packed out their away section too.

We had no need for pyro to create colour and noise in any of those games. We knew better than to purposefully cause big money fines for our club.

Anyone that partakes in this nonsense and has the balls to complain about it when they're caught by the club needs to take a good long hard look at themselves. It's against the rules. Simple as that.


Flat caps and pipes, old fella, lol:rolleyes:

[Mister X]

If these young lads had any manners or cop on they wouldn't be banned would they??? I've spoken to a lot of fans of various ages with regards flares and what's happened with this fall out and everyone agreed saying the club were right to do what they did. So we'll agree to disagree but you're very much in the minority here.

you'd want to get yer head out of your hole town legend

the club were dead right to start slapping letters in peoples faces,especially lads that had nothing got to do with it.Very professional. Then board members to try deny knowledge of the letters...

the entire thing is a farce and should be forgotten about at this stage, the club dont know when to stop digging do they...

[Town Legend]

You're entitled to your view I'm entitled to mine. Be a good lad now and pay your fine and you'll get back! :cool:

[Mister X]

You're entitled to your view I'm entitled to mine. Be a good lad now and pay your fine and you'll get back! :cool:


Im not one of the 5*, I just think its a disgrace the way its being handled
It'll get to the stage where nobody will be at the games only yerself seeing as you think all is hunky dory!


*it was more than 5

[Town Legend]

Ah good man, well you're obviously mates with one of the idiots who let off the flares. A huge chip on your shoulder there, you should try and knock it off :rolleyes:

[outspoken]

Ah good man, well you're obviously mates with one of the idiots who let off the flares. A huge chip on your shoulder there, you should try and knock it off :rolleyes:

Same could be said about certain board members

[Martinho II]

Same could be said about certain board members

that could be a board member postin mind you if you think carefully about it!

[Town Legend]

that could be a board member postin mind you if you think carefully about it!

You wouldn't know who'd be scouring these pages.

[outspoken]

You wouldn't know who'd be scouring these pages.

Let them at it.