Negative Media

[aido_b]

Just been checking through some past articles written on the Eircom League and I've noticed how negative most of them are.

I'll give an example. An article one week says that "Richmond Park wasn't looking very well, no wonder fans stayed away". 2 weeks later the same Journalist started giving out about Eircom League fans loyalty.

My argument is why do Journalists complain about bad attendances at games if they're partly to blame? I know its their job to give out in some occasions but surely its time for them to start writing about positives in the league. I know this may sound stupid but whilst I was reading through these articles I didn't see one single mention of hot food at matches or friendly atmospheres.If this was reported on then it would attract families and more fans.

Just wondering if a mod can turn this into a poll!?!??!

Do the Irish media focus too much on the negaive aspects of the Eircom League? Yes/No

[Anto McC]

Compleatly agree with you aido b your spot on in everything you said.I remember one national publication and the coverage they gave an incident between fu*king sh*theads calling themselves Bohs and Rovers last season.The way they made it sound was every single fan at the game was involved and that it happens at every game and every club in the league.One of the Journalists involved has since i must admit been very positive in his reports but the rest are still as negative as ever.

[Slash/ED]

It's a joke. Anything bad happens and it's front page news, anything positive and it's rarely mentioned, meanwhile they continue to hype the bejaysus out of what has turned into one of the most boring seasons in premiership history.

[TonyD]

Paul Hyland of the Herald is a particularly bad offender. He only writes about the League when he is concentrating on off the field problems. The most recent example being Rovers current difficulties. I'm not saying such things should be swept under the carpet, but for Crissakes, I can't remember that particular "journalist" ever actually writing about on the field matters. The main problem with the Media here as far as I can see is that they just aren't interested in football in this country. They seem to cover it out of a sense of duty, or with the idea that they are doing someone a favour.

[CollegeTillIDie]

aido b

Spot on and one of the most negative is David Kelly in the Irish Indo.
A self confessed St. Pat's fan!

[hamish]

Guys, couldn't agree more with all the above posts. Sometime I just despair at all the negativity or apathy from the press with the odd exception. Didn't Cork City get a crowd a few weeks back that matched and, in most cases, BETTERED ALL other codes? :mad:

[mypost]

If you read Hyland's last articles about Rovers carefully, you would have noticed that he's still convinced that Rovers wear green and white "stripes".

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[A face]

For phuck sake ... will these guys ever get a life !!

My take is that alot of these guys get bouts of writers block and try and using an eL bashing article as a means of filling the space. Alot of their articles, for the most part, dont show the full facts and alot of the time are largely inaccurate and misleading. It is just a means of glossing over their own inability to practice good journalism with articles that are hoodwinking the punter. It is a classic textbook “get yourself out of the shíte” measure that a lot of them use as a crutch. These type of articles, alot of the time are so glaringly bad, they just serve to highlight their own failings to any reader that has the slightest idea about what these guys are trying to write on.

A good measure to practice is boycott, if you know it shít .... then DONT buy it.

[aido_b]

For phuck sake ... will these guys ever get a life !!

My take is that alot of these guys get bouts of writers block and try and using an eL bashing article as a means of filling the space. Alot of their articles, for the most part, dont show the full facts and alot of the time are largely inaccurate and misleading. It is just a means of glossing over their own inability to practice good journalism with articles that are hoodwinking the punter. It is a classic textbook “get yourself out of the shíte” measure that a lot of them use as a crutch. These type of articles, alot of the time are so glaringly bad, they just serve to highlight their own failings to any reader that has the slightest idea about what these guys are trying to write on.

A good measure to practice is boycott, if you know it shít .... then DONT buy it.

And may I say very well put a face. I must agree with you on the above. I think its high time that Journalists covering the Eircom League began focusing on the positives. I wait with baited breath for this weeks match reports,

Lets see if any of them have learned how to report positively on The Eircom League!

[A face]

Evening Herald

I dont get much of an opportunity to read the Herald down this way, what is it like overall on eircom League coverage ?? Would it be regarded as good / comprehensive ?

I have seen some hoardings for the Herald but are they a good sponsor for clubs in Dublin ??

[aido_b]

Aidan Fitzmaurice a writer for the Herald is in my opinion one of the best sports Journalists in Ireland. He reports on every aspect of the Eircom League no matter whether its Monaghan or god forbid Cork :D . I think he used to write for the Title. But overall the Herald is very good for Eircom League coverage.

Just wondering what everyone elses take is on Neil O Riordan and Stephen Finn in the Irish Sun, I think the Sun has some of the best Eircom League Coverage at the moment.

[Slash/ED]

I have seen some hoardings for the Herald but are they a good sponsor for clubs in Dublin ??

No. In fact Rovers fans are still boycotting the paper afaik after the absolute farce of an article they printed calling the Ultras neo nazis and claiming they had links with all sorts of nazi groups worldwide. Incredible stuff.

With the Herald, if it's bad news for the EL, it's all over the paper like a rash. If anything positive happens, you get around half a page, most of it taken up with a picture.

[Éanna]

Just wondering what everyone elses take is on Neil O Riordan and Stephen Finn in the Irish Sun, I think the Sun has some of the best Eircom League Coverage at the moment.
Agreed. I think the Sun is very good.

[soccerc]

I recently read an article on the current problems Rovers are having in the Herald written by Paul Hyland and it was ****e. It was blindingly obvious that the whole article was written from information given to him on a press release.

Again, far from the truth.
What Press Release? Do you think Rovers board actually sent out info to the media?

I assume you are all in favour of Aidan Fitz because like you he is a Bohs fan.

One of the problems with Irish football is that complicity exists between all those with a vested interest NOT to report the failings.

[anto eile]

With the Herald, if it's bad news for the EL, it's all over the paper like a rash. If anything positive happens, you get around half a page, most of it taken up with a picture.

a picture of a ball in the air and two players jumping to head it.i reckon most EL photos in the papers involve a "ball is in the air" picture

[gael353]

our biggest enemy locally is the press and not other sports as a lot of people say. In the biggest paper the limerick leader, thay often dedicate three/four/five/six pages to rugby of the provincial team and one more to the local teams. then the hire a GAA fanatic who pushes pages of ****e about our non compeditive teams, then theres the soccer (senior) guy making cheap swipes at the team and slagging off anyone and anything as well as writing in the most childish ways eg" there was a lot of ooohhs and then there was a lot of aaahhhsss." this hardly encourages anyone to come to see a football match if they think its a pantomine. the yes to being totally biased and unfair the the league gets my vote.

[crc]

Overall, yes; but it varies a lot. The two papers I read most are the Irish Times and the Examiner, which are normally fairly good for eL. What really annoys me is that none of the Sunday broadsheets give a sh*te. Most of them don't even carry the league table, but normally have a syndicated results page which includes the Irish League. No disrespect to the IL (which I try to follow aswell), but this is essentially a big two-fingers to eL football - its as big an insult as the narrow-minded bigoted sports editors of these papers can give us. The worst offender IMO is the Sunday Indo, which I would never buy (but someone else in the house does buy).

[Anto McC]

I assume you are all in favour of Aidan Fitz because like you he is a Bohs fan.

I agree with aido b about Aidan Fitzmaurice i think he is one of the best journalists in regard to Eircom league,I also think the The Sun newspaper has good coverage of the Eircom league.

What do cork fans think of The Echo's(think thats the name) coverage of the league and is their any offenders writing for that publication.

[Éanna]

What do cork fans think of The Echo's(think thats the name) coverage of the league and is their any offenders writing for that publication.
in fairness to the Echo, the amount of coverage has been pretty good for the last 2 years or so, since we signed a sponsorship deal with them. The quality is another matter entirely :rolleyes: Chief football writer there is Noel Spillane, who's record includes the following:
- misquoting players
- using quotes from players long after he was given them
- accusing the Shed of racism for booing Mbabazi about 2 years ago.

[Sonic]

in fairness what about the irish mirror on fridays and mondays excellent coverage

[Anto McC]

in fairness to the Echo, the amount of coverage has been pretty good for the last 2 years or so, since we signed a sponsorship deal with them. The quality is another matter entirely :rolleyes: Chief football writer there is Noel Spillane, who's record includes the following:
- misquoting players
- using quotes from players long after he was given them
- accusing the Shed of racism for booing Mbabazi about 2 years ago.

What do you think will happen when the sponsorship deal runs out?.Will it be back to the way it was before the deal.

In regards to the quality i suppose it's better than no coverage at all.

[BohDiddley]

I don't think anyone can still argue that the Irish game gets fair coverage here. Even those who do cover it tend to be hyper-critical.
Recently had to spend Friday night listening to the match reports on RTE radio. Almost every reporter seemed to think s/he would lose any credibility if he didn't tell us how dull the game was. 'No goals yet, yawn', was the main point of each report, and you could almost see the anchor rolling his eyes at the lack of a goals avalanche. You wondered when they last sat through all, rather than the carefully edited highlights, of an English prem match, or if they were more used to point-a-minute GAA or basketball.
You don't get that consistent, in-build knocking in coverage of other sports. I'd like to see some football reporters hired who don't have ADT and can get more out of a game than goals.

[Anto McC]

Almost every reporter seemed to think s/he would lose any credibility if he didn't tell us how dull the game was. 'No goals yet, yawn', was the main point of each report, and you could almost see the anchor rolling his eyes at the lack of a goals avalanche.

And yet if it were to end 5-4 to whichever team they would be comparing it to a childrens playground match in which the standard is so bad that the teams scored so many goals.

[CollegeTillIDie]

Well said that man. Worst match I was ever at finished 5-3 !

[ccfcgirl]

The echo in Cork do at good coverage on city games .The mirror dose a good pull out also .But people in general have a very negative view of Loi soccer .

[pete]

I think if an organistaion gives coverage to the good things about the eL then they have the right to cover the negative. Some sector of the media give virtually no coverage but will always give a spread on the negative.

[Anto McC]

The fact of the matter is that if the Eircom League got even a fraction of the publicity that the Premiersh*t got incuding the few bad incidents(no publicity is bad apparently)it might actually encourage people to get up off the barstool/armchair and go to the matches.

[Poor Student]

Working in the newsagents this morning I had a very quick scan of a few papers. The Star on Sunday who at one time had a slightly decent four page coverage of the eL are down to about two none of which were match reports. Just an interview with Leeson on the Galway job and the Rod's stupid column with him moaning about how the FAI sent someone to observe his touchline band. All that was in the Sunday World was about an inch of column space talking about Bohs' first win of the season. I don't even think there was anything in the Ireland on Sunday, Sunday People and News of the World.

[Éanna]

The Sunday World had a brief one column interview with terry palmer.

[Poor Student]

The Sunday World had a brief one column interview with terry palmer.

I stand corrected then, but paltry none the less. Shouldn't even small match reports be the priority and then worry about interviews? Sunday World coverage in particular seems to be very odd and random.

[Éanna]

I stand corrected then, but paltry none the less. Shouldn't even small match reports be the priority and then worry about interviews? Sunday World coverage in particular seems to be very odd and random.
absolutely. I'm not seeking to defend them, just pointing it out. They often have nothing at all. I wouldn't expect match reports to be fair, as games are finished too late for them to be covered, but previews of next weeks fixtures plus maybe one article wouldn't be too much to ask for, would it?

[hamish]

The hit list !!

These names have come up alot before alright ..... anyone else to add to the list. Name and shame !!


Paul Hyland - The Herald
David Kelly - The Irish Independent


My take is that alot of these guys get bouts of writers block and try and using an eL bashing article as a means of filling the space. Alot of their articles, for the most part, dont show the full facts and alot of the time are largely inaccurate and misleading. It is just a means of glossing over their own inability to practice good journalism with articles that are hoodwinking the punter. It is a classic textbook “get yourself out of the shíte” measure that a lot of them use as a crutch. These type of articles, alot of the time are so glaringly bad, they just serve to highlight their own failings to any reader that has the slightest idea about what these guys are trying to write on.

A good measure to practice is boycott, if you know it shít .... then DONT buy it.
yep, A Face, you got it! I have said on another post, that I have stopped buying the likes of the Turbine, Indo, Times etc etc because I simply don't believe in their football "coverage" - I just do not believe the. At least, the Star, especially on Tuesdays, gives the local game a chance. Paul Lennon, wasn't he Drogheda PRO for a while?, is pretty positive and when he makes a criticism you might not agree with him but I feel his heart is in the right place.
To be utterly honest, I get more down to earth information and what's REALLY happening by checking up on Foot.ie several times a day. Who needs the fcuking papers!! :ball:

[monutdfc]

I think Emmet Malone is very good.

Des Cahill is my number one offender.

[Roo69]

aido b

Spot on and one of the most negative is David Kelly in the Irish Indo.
A self confessed St. Pat's fan!

Is that the same Dave Kelly from TV3 ?

[Schumi]

Coverage generally is terrible. Sunday papers are the worst by far. The Indo has about a quarter of a page in total of cráp match reports on Saturday's games and nothing else. The Sunday World has nothing at all usually. I haven't seen other Sunday papers but haven't heard anything good! The Times isn't great but at least has well written match reports on every game and Emmet Malone's features usually very good, just not enough of them. I don't see much of the tabloids but The Mirror's Friday pull-out is very good and i've started buying it for that alone when I remember.

[Macy]

absolutely. I'm not seeking to defend them, just pointing it out. They often have nothing at all. I wouldn't expect match reports to be fair, as games are finished too late for them to be covered, but previews of next weeks fixtures plus maybe one article wouldn't be too much to ask for, would it?
How are they finished too late to get coverage? They manage to do several pages on midweek UK games. Also the Turbine used to carry match reports from Flancare by the Leader reporter on the Saturday night games (a while since I've brought a Sunday Paper, but if a Newspaper that is nearly all features rather than reports can carry it....)

Even if you buy that excuse, no excuse for Sunday Papers not having Friday match reports.

[aido_b]

Purely up to themselves of course but Im wondering if any of those who voted that The Eircom League doesn't get too much negative media could post just to say why they think this is so?!?!

[Ceirtlis]

While i think that it is wrong for some papers to only write about the eircom league when something bad happens i do not think the eircom league gets overly negative publicity. If the crowd and the atmosphere is crap and a match then say so. Do you want Setanta Sports style commentry were they refuse to say anything negative and call 2 passes put together a great move. The eircom league is getting more coverage now then it ever did with a regular program on tv3 and more live matches then before and the attendances are still pretty low. In my opinion the reason for this is because the standard of football is so low. The Sunday papers have little or no coverage about the eircom league because the average punter on the street does not give a toss. Every weekend about 20000 go to eircom league games and it is quite possible that one GAA match in their off season could attract that crowd.

[Slash/ED]

While i think that it is wrong for some papers to only write about the eircom league when something bad happens i do not think the eircom league gets overly negative publicity. If the crowd and the atmosphere is crap and a match then say so. Do you want Setanta Sports style commentry were they refuse to say anything negative and call 2 passes put together a great move. The eircom league is getting more coverage now then it ever did with a regular program on tv3 and more live matches then before and the attendances are still pretty low. In my opinion the reason for this is because the standard of football is so low. The Sunday papers have little or no coverage about the eircom league because the average punter on the street does not give a toss. Every weekend about 20000 go to eircom league games and it is quite possible that one GAA match in their off season could attract that crowd.

Have you ever watched a game on Sky? That's exactly what they do as well, and it helps generate alot of interest over there. Everything is hype, they've never covered a bad game in their life and their pathetic claims the premiership is the best and most excitng league in the world are farcical, but it gets the punters in the door.

The attendences this season are up on last season, proof if as you say we're getting better coverage that better coverage = more interest = better attendences.

Papers and punters, despite what they may think, couldn't give a toss about standard of football. That is an absolute non sense argument. If standard of football was an argument Celtic wouldn't be the second most popular team on this Island and the premiership wouldn't be the most popular league, the Italian one would. They care about hype, they support the premiership and Celtic because that's shoved down their throats every day by the media here and an over exposure to the British media and Sky TV. Witness the amount of Real shirts you now see simply because Beckham signed for them and Sky started promoting their matches. Lastly, standard of football doesn't make a difference anyway. Remember the Juve Milan champions league final? Standard wise, miles better than anything you'd get in England or argubley anywhere else, standard wise it was football at it's finest. Excitement wise it was dross, and these same punters readily call it the worst CL final in recent memory. Yet I've seen EL games that were absolutley incredible games to be at, yet the standard of play was obviously well behind that which was on display in Old Trafford that day. Standard of play does not = excitement and drama and anyway the standard of play here is far beyond what the hacks would have you believe.

As for attendences, like I said they are up but to say a GAA team could attract 20,000 in it's off season is pure non sense. Dublin GAA get near EL crowds for league games, only when they start to play in Croker do the bandwagon jumpers come out, so I'd love to see what they get for off season games. Same goes for a lot of rugby clubs.

For the hacks, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. Keep calling the EL rubbish and give it no coverage, than say you give it no coverage because the interest isn't there and the general public think it's rubbish.

And anyway, if the general public don't care about the EL enough to warent decent coverage why is it whenever there's a problem, ie the current Rovers situation, it's all over the bloody pages like a rash.

[Ceirtlis]

Fair enough youve made some fair points but i still dont agree with you. While sky television has brought on a lot more interest in the English league that interest was always here. I like the majority of people in Ireland dont have Sky but still have a strong interest in English soccer. The hype on Sky does annoy me like it does most people.
The main reason that people support Celtic is because it is some sort of Nationalist agenda and they think its like supporting Ireland.
English soccer is always going to be more popular than italian because it is more exciting, it is next door and it has a lot of Irish players playing in it.
I was probably wrong to say that a match in the gaa off-season could attract 20000 but what i meant was matches that dont matter in the greater scheme of things such as the Cork County hurling final 20000 and U21 finals which get 20000+.
As for increases in attendances they are marginal and i think it is all pretty much swings and roundabouts. Shelbourne and Cork City might be increasing but Bohs and Pats are decreasing. Im a Galway United fan for the last 10 or 11 years and i have seen crowds of 6000- at Crowley Park and when the lights were put in Terryland- and i have also seen crowds of 200 the last time we were in the Premier.

[bluemovie]

I'd like to see some football reporters hired who don't have ADT and can get more out of a game than goals.

Attention Deficit Tisorder??

The Star on Friday is the only proper coverage that I've seen. I actually look forward to getting it on Friday morning ahead of the game. Dolan's column is always a laugh and they do a reasonable preview of each game. Usually has a stats column as well giving 'longest since an away win' etc.

[Slash/ED]

Fair enough youve made some fair points but i still dont agree with you. While sky television has brought on a lot more interest in the English league that interest was always here. I like the majority of people in Ireland dont have Sky but still have a strong interest in English soccer. The hype on Sky does annoy me like it does most people.

People may not have Sky, but they are still exposed to this in a number of ways. Obviously, down the pub is one, and secondly the constant exposure to the British media be it Sky or not, and they're all at it in hypeing the bejaysus out of the elague. What it's done to attendences there is huge and often understated, attendences were on a downward spiral in the 80s, much like our own I suppose.


The main reason that people support Celtic is because it is some sort of Nationalist agenda and they think its like supporting Ireland.

But that's sort of my point. they support Celtic inspite of a sub standard quality of football on display because of the media exposure to Celtic. If there was the same exposure to domestic football they would support it inspite of the apparent lack of class because they're their own teams.


English soccer is always going to be more popular than italian because it is more exciting, it is next door and it has a lot of Irish players playing in it.

Exactly! Exciting, that's my bloody point. It's nothing to do with standard of play, and whatever you say about the EL, it's as exciting a league to follow as any, full of characters and great games (Watch RTE2 tonight at 8 if you don't believe me). It also contains some players who could easily go on to be the next Irish stars, look at the interest Murphy is getting from England and how he's done for the Irish U21s. It also contains internationals, albeit not mainstays of the team by any stretch of the imagination, and many many youth internationals. And it's not nextdoor, it's on their bloody doorstep.


I was probably wrong to say that a match in the gaa off-season could attract 20000 but what i meant was matches that dont matter in the greater scheme of things such as the Cork County hurling final 20000 and U21 finals which get 20000+.

That's a final, it's a big event, even at U21 level. You get event junkies in this country, and it happens domestically too. Take, for example, 22,000 at a Shels game last year and were it not for the capacity of Lansdowne Road you'd have doubled that, absolutley no doubt about it, if not more.


As for increases in attendances they are marginal and i think it is all pretty much swings and roundabouts. Shelbourne and Cork City might be increasing but Bohs and Pats are decreasing. Im a Galway United fan for the last 10 or 11 years and i have seen crowds of 6000- at Crowley Park and when the lights were put in Terryland- and i have also seen crowds of 200 the last time we were in the Premier.

Well as teams success goes down attendences goes down, that much is obvious. But Shels attendences are up a fair bit on last year, and we're hardly more successful than we were then, it was the media exposure that we enjoyed that was never heard of before during the build up to the Depor game and than the string of live games that followed that are responsible. You do that constantly, and you'll see results across the board and far more dramatic ones.

[bluemovie]

Well said, Slash. I'm a Premiership fan and watch football from Spain, Italy, Scotland and sometimes even France and Germany, but what can beat the excitement of actually being at games on a regular basis. There's a big difference in the feeling of being with your own supporters when your team score having shouted them on as opposed to being in your sitting room shouting from hundreds of miles away for a club that don't really need your support.

Non EL fans think that the gap between the Premiership and the EL is so wide that Jason Byrne, etc aren't fit to lace the boots of gods like Djimi Traore, Peter Crouch and Gary Doherty. Sunderland have just been promoted to the Premiership and their first bit of business is to try to sign Daryl Murphy. Mick McCarthy watched our game v UCD when Daryl was very quiet and saw enough in him to take him straight back over on trial. Sunderland aren't in a position to buy players just for the sake of it so Mick obviously thinks Murphy can compete for a place with Marcus Stewart, Stephen Elliott, Kevin Kyle, Brian Deane (!) and Chris Brown.

The players who have joined the league recently like Dominic Foley, Jason Gavin, Farrelly and Moore haven't been far above the standards already in the league. Shels and Cork showed last year that they can compete in one-off matches with good clubs. The gap isn't as wide as some people would make out.

[BohDiddley]

Attention Deficit Tisorder??

Good spot. Must've got distracted ... :D
Now, where was I?

[TonyD]

Slash/Ed is spot on. The argument that standard of play is why people don't support their local teams is the biggest red herring going. Sustained media attention (call it hype if you like) is what attracts people. Man U and Celtic can get dumped on every year in Europe by Italian and Spanish teams and it doesn't detract from their 'fanbase' in this country one iota. What really bugs me is that the papers and TV here don't see that there's something in it for them too if they promote the local game. If the game here can grow, with their help, then they have access to something that's unique and exclusive, they won't have to be serving up second hand helpings of something that Sky and the BBC have first call on, and getting their football writing direct from London. Then again, maybe that's the point we're missing. It's easier for the papers to get readymade copy from England, easier for RTE to get their pictures from England rather that actually having to bother getting off their @rses and sending their own cameras out.

[Ceirtlis]

Some things are unhypeable such as some of them Setanta Cup games. To say on telly that there is a big crowd at the games is just ridiculous such as the Glentoran and Longford game.
There is also things like when Jimmy Aggrey signed for Bohs he was called an "ex Chelsea star". True he may have been at Chelsea but he signed from TNS in Wales. Paddy McCourt is a "Northern Ireland International" true he played one game but he is not likely to get another game until he goes back to England.
The point about players that came back ie Foley,Moore etc they where hardly making waves the last places they were playing Moore couldnt get a look in at Burnley. Cork City have 2 key players who were let go by Peterboro United. Daryl Murphy may be going to Sunderland but he only signed from Waterford after being let go by Luton Town.
To finish all i am saying is any paper that covers the eircom league fairly ie the star, the sun, irish independant, the mirror, should give honest reports on matches i certainly would prefer it that way. A journalists job is to say it as they see it.

[harry crumb]

Cork City have 2 key players who were let go by Peterboro United. Daryl Murphy may be going to Sunderland but he only signed from Waterford after being let go by Luton Town.


Yes and when John O'Flynn came home he ended up playing for the Cork City 1st team and getting into the Irish u-21 set-up and was arguebly one of the best players in that team.

Peterborough were relegated at the weekend. Coincidence ;)

[aido_b]

A journalists job is to say it as they see it.

Fair enough it is, but is it also their job to start giving out about crap attendances at matches when its partly their fault?As I said in the post that begun this thread I have not read one match report this season that mentioned the facilities available at the matches. Clubs have ploughed money into advertising for games and improving their facilities to make games more attractive to prospective fans, they may as well just give up now because whats the point in them doing all this work if its goes unnoticed?

[pete]

The point about players that came back ie Foley,Moore etc they where hardly making waves the last places they were playing Moore couldnt get a look in at Burnley.

We can all be selective - Foley had a few full irish international caps & was playing in the Portugese league & IMO is useless in the eL. I think Moore had been getting his game at burnley but in his last season was more bench player.

[soccerc]

Fair enough it is, but is it also their job to start giving out about crap attendances at matches when its partly their fault?As I said in the post that begun this thread I have not read one match report this season that mentioned the facilities available at the matches. Clubs have ploughed money into advertising for games and improving their facilities to make games more attractive to prospective fans, they may as well just give up now because whats the point in them doing all this work if its goes unnoticed?

There fault? Hardly.

Crap attendances are the fault of journalists? Not in any stretch of the imagination.

A match report is just that, a match report, not a lovely glossy coffee table article. Why would a match report comment on facilities that are at best poor. Couldn't care less how much they have improved they are still unacceptable to the majority of supporters.

A match report is a match report full stop.

Who are the clubs advertising to? The converted? The casual fan, the lapsed supporter or those who do not give a toss about domestic football? Maybe a more cohesive targeted campaign with specific aims would be more appropriate.

BTW, What clubs are you talking about.

Time to take off the rose tinted glasses.