You are right about the Midland Intermediate League. I had several appointments to referee in that competition. I especially recall refereeing Port Vale v Walsall. I can’t remember the year or the score though…
And another cup competition.
This time for National League teams and PL2 academy sides, with £1m prize money.
Attendances will be huge when Maidenhead play Blackburn U21.
I don’t like the fact lower league clubs are already so dependent on loans from clubs higher up the pyramid. It never used to be like that did it?
It depends how far you go back. Buckley was a loan player, though we signed him very rapidly. MOC was a loan and there were plenty of others. I think your point is well made though, that lower league teams, even the ones that get promoted, depend heavily on them.
1 Like
The elite clubs have a far wider recruiting system, and any promising youngster is seen by them before the small clubs get a chance. If this had been in place 60 years ago, the Ron Jukes’ star recruits would have been signed first by an elite club, then sent on loan and ended up who knows where.
I strongly regret that this is happening, but since there is nothing I can do about it, I am not going to make a futile protest by stopping watching Premier League matches
2 Likes
That is not a counterargument, since it does not address the point I make, but instead makes up something I did not say and disagrees with that. My argument was not that you are making a “massive” sacrifice, or that it is difficult not to watch these matches.
My point was that your boycotting of the matches is depriving you of some entertaining football played by the team you support and having no possible effect on bringing about any change in the situation. It remains a futile protest, cutting off your nose to spite your face
5 Likes
So love these games, just as I enjoy pre-season friendlies.
Every player is trying to impress their manager, so very competitive.
A chance to see players who are pushing for a place in the starting eleven or even a place on the bench.
Most of all true fans, who thoroughly enjoy being supporters of Walsall through good, and less good, times
Those who scorn the attendance were not missed by the 99% of attendees who cheered the lads off the pitch at the end of a tremendous game.
Hilarious really how obviously disappointed they are that the team, despite their boycott, keeps putting on brilliant performances in these fixtures.
A Venn diagram of posters who want Saddler out and have ‘principles’ which stop them attending would be interesting.
The future wiuld be even brighter, on the pitch and online, if they absented themselves altogether from anything to do with this wonderful club.
UTS
1 Like
Blimey, no surprise with how they’ve ruined this competition but our away support for a lot of league games is bigger than the whole attendance for a lot of these games now.
Attendance was always lower for these but before U21’s were put in they used to be at least a couple of thousand. I think around 1800 against Barnet is the lowest I can remember before all this.
I’m another that used to attend them but stopped when U21’s were put in.
2 Likes
Yeah there’s always been loans, but feels like clubs are reliant on them now in a way that wasn’t the case before. It also seems to have conincided with an inability to produce first team players from our youth team. Wonder if that’s a wider trend?
Yes, as Bernie said, the difference now is that the bigger clubs sweep up all the young (often before they are 10) talent, most of whom do not make the grade. There are few for us to pick up - Ronan Maher started at the Baggies. It follows that the new route to young talent is via loans and picking up players that the big clubs have discarded. It can happen because players develop at different rates and because people can make mistakes. Even some of the non-league players we have been successfully recruiting started on the books of a bigger club.
It will be interesting to see how many of our own academy players make it. Of the current crop, Barrett, Wragg, Thomas and, of course, Maher, seem to be the preferred group but none of them are guaranteed to come through.
1 Like
Well it does, directly 
the bit that was direct was not that it’s easy not to do (which it is), but that just because you don’t stand by your own convictions, others shouldn’t. Just because your convictions are so weak that you won’t even sacrifice reading a newspaper for them (which in your words would be “a bit worse”, and therefore where it being an easy sacrifice that has little impact on my life comes in), that doesn’t mean others are.
Yeah, it’s bollocks. For a start there are park games that are very entertaining, I don’t give a shit about them either. I have no desire to watch a reserve team vs an U21 team whether it’s Walsall or not, just like I have no desire to see my favourite band sound checking or my favourite comedian chucking paper in a bin trying to write. Secondly, Making a stand against something has f*** all to do with whether it’s “futile” (it’s not) or not, it’s to do with your own morals and thirdly, the idea that the football league clubs and the football league itself don’t give a shit about numbers through the door, and therefore money, is hilarious.
5 Likes
You really sound like a pompas pratt @futuresobright .Has the thought ever passed through that mind of yours that when games come as fast and furiously as they have be lately you have to pick and choose which matches you go to. If you’re in the privileged position whereas you have both the time and money to attend as many games as you want well good for you. Most people either haven’t got the time in their busy live or haven’t got the finances. Either way " true fans" as you’ve tagged yourself are fortunate.
4 Likes
Well the attendance was 800 and our home average is over 4k home fans. An awful lot of supporters have decided to ‘cut their nose of to spite their face’, as other clubs supporters have around the country.
It’s almost as if people don’t just go for the football! The atmosphere, the banter, chanting, meeting mates, waking up and feeling that adrenaline for an important game of football. I am positive there is not a single fan that would look at Tuesday’s sterile occasion and be bothered in the slightest that they chose to do something else, even if it was just sitting in front of Emmerdale.
A competition that will not, in fact does not now, even register in the history books.
I think people can debate back and forth about the legitimacy, pitfalls or benefits of attending these fixtures (or not), but ultimately it is completely down to the individual, their principle and their prerogative.
I have attended all of the cup games so far this season and have thoroughly enjoyed them all, similar to what @Bernie has shared. I haven’t seen an away end like at the Blues game for quite some time. I don’t approve of the introduction of the Prem youth teams into the competition and condemn it, but I am not so staunchly opposed or principled enough to boycott and deprive myself of the enjoyment of watching the games.
My closest mate who I go to all of the Walsall games with, and recruited me into being a Walsall fan at the age of 5, has fully boycotted the competition since the change was made. Although he got a lot of FOMO during the Blues game, he feels more aggrieved about the competition, and is principled enough to make a stand financially, and at the expense of any potential enjoyment, practically the same as @el_nombre.
I can respect, admire and empathise with both sides and think it is perfectly fine and entitled to make a decision that they think it right for them.
The only thing that I take umbrage with is the poster that classifies those that attend all games as ‘true fans’. As a fanbase, we need to attempt to be much kinder and more holistic about the way that we view each other. The barriers and challenges to attending matches can be multi-faceted, and doesn’t always have to diminish or lessen that person’s credentials to being a supporter.
11 Likes
Completely agree. I have absolutely zero issue with anyone that wants to attend these games. Crack on, and good for them, sincerely.
What I do take issue with is people describing anyone else’s decision as “futile” or “cutting your nose off”, and as you say, not “true fans”.
If you took the attitude that “well my personal decision won’t change anything, and x will happen regardless” you would never make an ethical decision in your life. But it’s not one person. It’s thousands, up and down the country.
5 Likes
Did you feel that way about this competition Funk when we got to Wembley for the only time?
1 Like
Which was before this competition included U21s
1 Like
And?
AND people weren’t making a moral decision not to attend then. The argument is they have diluted a competition that used to mean something to League One and Two teams to include Premier League U21 sides (that also includes players paid for in exorbitant amounts with nothing to do with developing youngsters in mind, but played because they need to give their 6th choice centre half a run out, before he fades into obscurity in the Belgian League). Using an example from before that happened doesn’t change that point. I thought that was pretty self explanatory to be honest but there we are.
1 Like
So if we progressed in this competition, possibly as far as going to Wembley again what your feelings be about this tournament?
1 Like