The Faceman

An update was sent to the Lowland League on the 14th February 2024 I am not sure if they published it. Still confident of getting the target number of games in the league

Thanks pal

Looking for help regarding missing match attendances I have the Uni of Stirling v East Stirlingshire from Twitter Thanks in advance

Any help for the missing match attendances would be

If I was Glenrothes I would appeal the decision. If I was the player I would also appeal, if the player has the skill to do the job then is ageism not grounds for appeal

Not bitter at all, just hope the club are the ones making the money from their success

Morning, 1st on the football team disappointed for them, some good people on and off the field, judging by the reports they did themselves proud as expected. Money: any amount of money paid by the club to the facility is too much. I am sure we will get the full amount in the clubs accounts. I would point out in the last 2 years alone using the clubs own attendance figures the football team bring in between 5-7,000 people per year. The club work extremely hard to promote their games and are really only using the facility 10 hours a week. I don't think that the primary sports team (yeah better than the rugby) should be charged for using the facility and in fact should be getting a cut of the weekend takings. However, if you are telling me the facility paid for the new flood lights, new fences, new signs etc and getting a cut of the bar then fair enough. If its the club doing all the donkey work applying for grants and fund raising, volunteering etc then they really shouldn't be paying the facility anything. It would be interesting to see the original agreement on what the football club were offered when they left the old ground, but I doubt the facility manager will post that on the 'sports centres' Facebook page. Regarding the pitch, yeah harsh calling it substandard but I did say in my view. In fact maybe a bit of praise required for the miracle of getting yesterdays game on despite the pitch not being playable the week before and the overnight temperatures being 5c lower on Friday night. Sadly I didn't make it down, the bus takes ages and car parking is difficult on busy match days, with last week's game at the ground being called off I wasn't sure this would be on. To be clear, this wasn't a dig at the football club. I said it when I was there and I will say it again, they should be looking to go their own way and benefit from the success they have had over the years. They are in danger of being left behind. I understand the facility didn't take too well to the last post which was based on my last visit where the staff were over worked despite the game being scheduled well in advance. I would question the aims of this sports centre. If it is to indeed get Dunbar fit, maybe alcohol and Sunday roasts are counter productive. If its a pub you want to run then hand the clubs the pitches let them build their own ground. Incidentally instead of trolling through pie and bovril which works perfectly fine, maybe show off your Internet skills by sorting the facility website which has been down for a very long time. Maybe people are trying to book into the centre and bring other money in Kind Regards Ryan

It is a great day for everyone who has been or is at the club. I just wish the club weren't tied to a facility that really doesn't know what its purpose is. It says sports centre on the door, yet... - Charges astronomical amounts of money for the clubs to use it - provides in my view substandard surface to play on - any improvements the club make only increase the value for the facility paid for by the club. - those running the facility seem more bothered about selling alcohol, lottery tickets, food than giving anything back to the users. - they can't even do the basics of that right, with massive queues and plastic cups with the minimum of staff. He can claim poverty but the football club alone has brought in hundreds of thousands of pounds to the place, a closer look at what that money is used for should be taken up. The football club itself should ask with all the big home games they have been drawn over the years how much money other than gate have they made? Anyway, good luck to the football club hope they do themselves proud.

Anyone able to help fill in the Scottish Cup missing attendances would be great.

St Andrews United v Oakley was 140 Blackburn United finding it increasingly difficult to collect info. Anyone able to help them would be of benefit

Morning all, I am very rarely on here but see there are a few things to update on. The attendances are still being collected but due to matters beyond my control I am only able to publish these monthly. These will be sent to the relevant league (ie lowland or EOS or Scottish Cup) it is up to them if they publish it or not. I am glad the Lowland league have forgiven my £ow£and £eague twitter post which was silly but at the time a big issue and will publish once sent. As most of you know the target for each season is 100% i think that is fair and defeats the purpose if set any lower. Some clubs publish on social media and I instantly know to wait or look to collect that, some send to me direct, others wait till I ask, and some don't send at all and I have to ask the opposition team or attend myself to count. That is up to the clubs. I personally don't think it should be a secret but equally having worked at a club where 1 man and his wife ran pretty much everything I can all see that counting supporters isn't high on the priority list. Currently missing 30% attendances from this season and 1 match from last All i can say is I am spending every minute of the day that I am not working and looking after my kids on keeping this going. Kind Regards Ryan

Thanks for the kind words and for posting these on here throughout the season. Can't hide the massive disappointment at falling short of the 100% target with 2 missing out of the leagues and cups covered. Big thanks though to all on here who have sent attendances and information over the last few years, it is greatly appreciated Thanks Ryan

Tell you what there are some great points in your and Caseys posts. Regarding the accuracy of the numbers given: I totally understand how difficult it can be to get anywhere near an accurate number - give it a try if anyone on here hasn't - you would be surprised! With that in mind I think everyone has to accept a +/-9 especially when crowds are moving about etc Things that gives me confidence with this though: 1) having seen how seriously I would say 80/90% of clubs take recording the crowd numbers Examples of this include many clubs go round with a clicker, a fair few tweet the attendance every home game, many include it on a match report, so these tend to be right on the money. 2) the number of games I and ground hoppers have attended with both numbers if not bang on then within the +/-9 is extremely high. The benefits to the clubs have been widely covered in this thread including sponsorship and how well clubs media channels communicate with supporters Things that worry me going forward have been experienced by most clubs, mainly the drying up of volunteering. Going forward, I have contacted the East Region with the offer of help to promote our game through the social media platforms and analysis of attendance data. I believe clubs should be helped to navigate the sometimes tricky world of social media and have always insisted this is a underused route to grow clubs and crowds. Ultimately the only way I see attendances being taken more seriously especially in the West is the inclusion of the attendance in the referee report. As things stand there are massive gaps between the East and the rest but again, I am willing to aid if contacted

Its more about the information being accurate, the time is not an issue. Accurate info gives confidence to the reader, any problems no matter how small make the entire work questionable It only becomes an issue if the info is guessed, not right or i make a mistake and have to spend time finding the problem! The aim at the start of each season is to get 100% of attendance info, goal scorers and goal times for all the clubs. Just now we are well short on attendances with 2 missing, even worse with 4 scorers in the East missing, and 3 games where the goal times are missing. I am sure you agree if we want to use these numbers to improve then these things really need to be complete.

Your probably right, the issue is that I tend to move on to the next thing! I keep goal scorer and timing stats for all the EOS and Lowland league clubs, with all the info taking around 4 hours per club to be put into the clubs files. There is then the continuing work I still collect for my home town club (I should have stopped years ago but can't!) All the player apps and stats go into 3 different files all backed by paper copies - thats 3 weeks work solid. Shed loads of other stuff and its difficult to get back on track! I probably should but if the numbers are to be trusted and I am 100% sure they are accurate then I must have that wee bit of patience. I have to remember some clubs have 1 or 2 people running the show, so much going on as you pointed out so the last thing I want to be doing is harassing them and potentially risking future projects

I'm absolutely aware of the issues they had, hence me not issuing until I receive it. They have had that plus a packed fixture list etc If they want an average put in I will do as they ask with a note to say that's what had been done. I'm in no rush, I waited 12 months to get the missing attendance for the lowland league game last season, I would rather wait and get it accurate than rush and get it wrong

Waiting on Dunipace from the 20th May 2023 And the Scottish (Big) Cup final

Regarding Cup games: every week the attendances get published on twitter as soon as I have them, they include Cup games. Once a Cup is completed the attendance total and rounds are tweeted. There is also a big mad table at the end of each season which includes everything thrown in. If there are any specific games you want feel free to message me on twitter - I'm hardly ever on here @ryanmusselburgh

The club sent 335.

Excellent start from Liam in recovering this season. The only thing nagging away is that pretty much everyone knew he was the guy to take the club forward at the start of last season, the decision not to snap him up will and has been the biggest mistake and cost the club a shot at promotion last season without a doubt. I'm not sure what was stopping him taking charge of the Haddington game but the 2 points dropped there might come back and bite at the end of the season. If Musselburgh play all the games scheduled till the end of the 2022 I fully expect them to collect 21-22 points from the 8 league games That might not be enough to catch Linlithgow but a fairly comfortable January, and some additions should place the club top 3 with a bit of luck they can go on to win the league.

Won't argue with you as your one of the common sense posters on here and In person. But. And I don't mean this in a nasty way. Geordie took over a superb team and team spirit from Calvin. I think anyone could have stepped in and did what he did based on that squad. Maybe harsh but they went from a league challenging side under Shand, to a ok cup team. I was surprised he went from manager to lowland league assistant but I would imagine the rewards or travel maybe suited him more? Having said that massive credit to Liam Burns for moving from a pretty comfortable job to being the main man. Someone who clearly isn't afraid to step up and move the club forward. I wish him absolutely all the best in recovering the season