Eastleigh v Torquay

[Southampton Gull]

Great to do the double over Eastleigh - lets face it they are not a proper football club and pay over inflated wages to players like Midson and Constable who are basically just crap.

I'll take the bait Terry. I was there at around 9.30am and their ground was heaving with activity. The car parks were half full with parents seeing their kids playing on the 5 a side pitches at the back (future fans being taken on a journey through the endless ranks of teams representing Eastleigh FC). The whole matchday experience is light years ahead of what our "proper club" can provide. I've tried to tell you and others that their growth is sustainable simply because of the community involvement the club have built up over the last couple of decades. Their average crowd this season is around 1500, not that much below ours I'd guess. They will overtake us very soon in size and stature and only people as blinkered and foolish as yourself will fail to see just how they did it. They are the talk of this area and as Southampton FC begin to price themselves out of the reach of a lot of people, fans will start seeing them as a very real alternative.

Not a proper football club? Perhaps if you got off your arse and took a proper look you'd see a "proper club" in the making. Just a thought

[Gullscorer]

One of the things Torquay United certainly needs to do is to get the South Devon community more interested and involved with the club, not only in terms of kids' football, but with volunteering, publicity, fundraising (lottery/scratch cards, etc.) and other events; as SG says, more like a proper club, and Eastleigh is a good example to follow.

[RussianGull]

A lot of these non league clubs seem to have extra revenue coming in from five a size pitches. Good on them

[Neal]

I think also direct sponsorship from local businesses.

[brucie]

They are not a proper football club at all - they are bankrolled by someone and as soon as the money runs out - they will be playing Bideford. Its all very well paying huge wages at this level - but if you do so then you want to make sure you are paying decent players - not to the likes of Midson,Constable and Burton who are all bog average at best and probably on the downslide at worst.
1500 crowds? whoopee do - will that sustain the wages they are paying their no hopers then.
Plain fact is on their wage bill they should be running away with the league but they are basically struggling to do anything.
Lets be honest they have got a grand total of nil points of us this season - and is we are average at best that tells its own story.
Scott - you are so easy to wind up it is boring - you don't bare something in mind - its actually bear - and you call me a cretin.
You say that its the worst you have seen us play, state that goal a game Rice let another one in and berate other fans for not travelling hundreds of miles to put up with this game in game out? when you turn up once a season.
Its actually laughable - talk about making yourself look a twerp. Mind you I am glad we managed to geta win for your visit.

[Dave]

It is good what Eastleigh are doing re; kids football on Saturday mornings. To be fair however, TUFC are doing this as well through the 'in the community scheme' they run soccer clubs and go in to schools, not sure what else they can do there, also W.B.B YFC the club I work for were given free tickets for the family stand last season and I know other youth clubs were too.

[PlainmoorRoar]

If we owned the areas around the ground and imagine if Plainmoor Swimming Pool isn't there, we could have a grass/4g pitch system that could be used as a real community asset.

[Southampton Gull]

They are not a proper football club at all - they are bankrolled by someone and as soon as the money runs out - they will be playing Bideford. Its all very well paying huge wages at this level - but if you do so then you want to make sure you are paying decent players - not to the likes of Midson,Constable and Burton who are all bog average at best and probably on the downslide at worst.
1500 crowds? whoopee do - will that sustain the wages they are paying their no hopers then.
Plain fact is on their wage bill they should be running away with the league but they are basically struggling to do anything.
Lets be honest they have got a grand total of nil points of us this season - and is we are average at best that tells its own story.
Scott - you are so easy to wind up it is boring - you don't bare something in mind - its actually bear - and you call me a cretin.
You say that its the worst you have seen us play, state that goal a game Rice let another one in and berate other fans for not travelling hundreds of miles to put up with this game in game out? when you turn up once a season.
Its actually laughable - talk about making yourself look a twerp. Mind you I am glad we managed to geta win for your visit.

Can you not see the irony of that stupid remark? They will soon be a bigger club than us with a young vibrant support. Eastleigh is changing its demographic with huge estates bringing in younger professional people. You can't see past what they are currently doing with their playing budget and that's a shame because what it is doing is increasing their gates towards our level. Their growth as a club began 20 years ago and it's been a steady sustainable growth that only an idiot could fail to recognise. Your kind of attitude is replicated through a fair size of our fanbase as well as our boardroom and that is why we find ourselves where we are. It will be interesting to see if you're still spouting your nonsense in 5 years when they will be pushing for League 1 and we're trying to avoid playing Bideford in a League game, because make no mistake that's where both clubs are heading right now.

[Southampton Gull]

If we owned the areas around the ground and imagine if Plainmoor Swimming Pool isn't there, we could have a grass/4g pitch system that could be used as a real community asset.

Exactly what we should be aiming for

[PlainmoorRoar]

Exactly what we should be aiming for

No doubt about it!

Football is this country's national sport, being able to take the family to some local and live sporting entertainment should be something that we can champion and will provide sustainable fans for generations.

Its not just about 1500 - 1645 which makes the decision worthwhile but the hours before, half time and sometimes afterwards. If Eastleigh make attending a game of theirs a whole days activity then they are doing it right and as SG says they will only benefit from it in the years to come.

[hector]

Brucie - I think you are being a little unfair on Eastleigh. I think what Southampton Dave describes (and being local to that area, he probably has a fair idea of what is going on there) is a progressive club, building an infrastructure and foundation that will perhaps take them beyond this initial cash-injection. The town is not a tiny backwater either, so whilst 1500, is not enormous, it must be a fairly significant increase on what they had before.

[Southampton Gull]

Progressive is exactly the right word. The borough of Eastleigh is similar in size to Torbay so it's easy to draw comparisons. Eastleigh also have the added bonus of a large city with a population of a quarter of a million people right on their doorstep. The area is being regenerated, there is currently a massive housing project underway, there are 2 motorways with junctions feeding the area and the town centre rather than dying a slow death like Torquay is flourishing.
The last time I watched a game there it was a play-off game with Hayes and Yeading and they had a small stand on the halfway line and the rest of the ground was hard-standing. Now they have a newly built stand at the far end of the ground that isn't far off Bristows Bench and covered areas along the side we all stood yesterday. The ground has been slowly developed to cope with their rise up through the pyramid but just a look at their website gives you an idea of how professional they are in looking to sustain their progress.

http://www.eastleighfc.com/

This kind of thing was being talked about over 20 years ago when I played for them, at that time they would be lucky to get a 100 people through the gate, it hasn't happened overnight. The point about the 1500 average is that it isn't far off ours and in the not too distant future that figure will surpass what we get. Instead of dismissing them we should be looking to see exactly how they are doing things to see if we can learn from them. Their whole ethos is sustainability and progression. I would like to see us engage the local community as they do, I'd like to see us providing a weekends entertainment for kids and their families and gaining their future support for our club. It isn't about the Midsons and Constables, it's about showing a desire to compete and progress from the level you currently operate at, it isn't lost on the local population that Eastleigh FC are succeeding where clubs like ours are failing. I took Scott there yesterday morning to show him how they cater for their community, even I was surprised at how busy it was. At 9.30am on a matchday you'd be lucky to find a dozen people milling around Plainmoor but they had all their pitches occupied with whole families being met by officials and helpers with kiosks open and serving food and hot drinks.

They have advantages over us for sure, but that's exactly why it's silly to dismiss them as not being a proper club, they are building something and it hasn't just started, it's been happening for decades and is totally sustainable.

[Rjc70]

I would like to see us engage the local community as they do

Quite agree. If the Club can't or won't, supporter organisations have a lot to offer with this aspect, too.

I take it your presence meant 'Eastleigh's a s***hole' didn't get an airing yesterday, Dave Did they have a kids promotion for yesterday as there were loads in the South Stand where I was? Think that's the one driven up from Exeter Chiefs in time for this season.

As you said earlier, they'll pick up a lot of priced out Saints, particularly if they get one level higher and getting them while they're young is always a good plan for sustainability.

PS: I've got a sneaky feeling Brucie won't be for turning, though. Particularly if he gets wind of Bridle Insurance and puts two and two together to make five.

[Southampton Gull]

The song did indeed get an airing, the.instigator being my son who having been brought up in neighbouring Fair Oak has plenty to say about the town

I'm pretty sure they give free entry to kids using their pitches which incidentally are in use 7 days a week, so they're investing in their future support

They recruited some of the best known and hardest working figures from local football and are very active in recruiting the cream of local talent to represent them from an early age. They've got most angles covered from what I can see and have close ties with lots of ex-Saints who do promotional work for them. It was only a few years ago that they were vying with Histon, the difference being they've been concentrating on infrastructure and development up till now and so have taken longer to get there but I have no doubt they'll continue rising and end up with a sustainable lower league club, not fall flat on their faces as Terry would have us believe.

[goodluckgull]

Eastleigh has got a lot going for it as stated above and there are lessons to be learnt, but I do object to SG's sweeping statement "your kind of attitude ( referring to Brucie) is replicated through a fair size of our fanbase"