Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[DA Baracus]

Re-reading Into The Valley for about the 5th time. Every time I read it I despair at the regular comments about Masterton and Yorkston being disappointed at the attendances, which were often above 5k (for real, not using the counting method we currently do!). 

I've always wondered then why they thought we could suddenly magic up a few more thousand fans on a regular basis. Where did they get such delusions from?! I realise numbers weren't their strong point but even so I've no idea why they thought it was achievable. Pretty sure they thought we could get at least 8k for regular games.

The conversion of the ground to an all seater saw a massive loss of atmosphere which saw crowds dwindle over time. The stale SPL format was never conducive to attracting more fans. The oft complained about jobsworth stewarding and increasingly sanitised experience on matchdays never helped. The ever worsening relationship between the fans and club was not going to attract more fans.

But worst of all was that there was no evidence we would ever get such attendances. Aside from a few select years in our history home crowds were always between 3-5k. Even in the 60s games were often played out in front of those sorts of crowds. All other clubs our size never saw such massive rises even when going through their own good spells. Simply being pretty good and expecting crowds to increase based on absolutely nothing was always fucking nonsense.

[D.A.F.C]

Yorkston and Masterton were idiots. Dick Campbell interview is worth watching on the heritage site.

He had agreed a deal with Falkirk for David Moss, next thing Yorkston comes back and says he's signed him and paid over double.

Theres nothing clever about coming into a club and spending money we didn't have then remortgaging the ground to have another go. It was criminal and not surprisingly a banker was involved. The whole thing was needless and like the banks went against decades of knowledge and tradition and we very nearly paid the price. The model with Woodrow and Bert and Dick was ideal, we actually made money from selling on youth players and balanced the books.

You can stick all the top six finishes and cup runs in the bin because it was all lies and cheating. They did nothing for the club and are the worst thing ever to happen to Dunfermline football club. Utter clowns.

[parsforlife]

Yorkston and Masterton were idiots. Dick Campbell interview is worth watching on the heritage site.
He had agreed a deal with Falkirk for David Moss, next thing Yorkston comes back and says he's signed him and paid over double.
Theres nothing clever about coming into a club and spending money we didn't have then remortgaging the ground to have another go. It was criminal and not surprisingly a banker was involved. The whole thing was needless and like the banks went against decades of knowledge and tradition and we very nearly paid the price. The model with Woodrow and Bert and Dick was ideal, we actually made money from selling on youth players and balanced the books.
You can stick all the top six finishes and cup runs in the bin because it was all lies and cheating. They did nothing for the club and are the worst thing ever to happen to Dunfermline football club. Utter clowns.

The worse thing to happen to dunfermline football club was the creation of dunfermline athletic.

I'm not quite sure how stupid GM was. He robbed the club blind for years after all.

I have a strong suspicion they both knew the club was bound to hemrage money on a ongoing basis. But nobody really notices the thousands you are taking out the club when there's millions being lost elsewhere. Pair of criminals.

As for not counting the good times on the pitch, nah f**k it they were enjoyable and I look back on them fondly. We went through absolute hell as a result, definitely not a price worth paying, but they were good nonetheless. We had to put up with the shit, we might as well enjoy the good times that happened.

[D.A.F.C]

I found most of the games boring tbh. Much preferred the first division in the 90s.

Some of the football was excellent at times though and Calderwood could change a game unlike now.

[HoBNob]

1 hour ago, D.A.F.C said:

.

You can stick all the top six finishes and cup runs in the bin because it was all lies and cheating. They did nothing for the club and are the worst thing ever to happen to Dunfermline football club. Utter clowns.

To do that you could also throw the years in league 1 in the bin, they happened though and there's no getting away from it. 

[Poet of the Macabre]

I'd rather not stick finishing 4th in the SPL and reaching a Cup Final in the bin tbh. That was easily the best team we've had in my lifetime and was a brilliant time to watch the Pars, especially for a teenager. Crawford/Brewster partnership, Barry Nicholson's wondergoal at Pittodrie, Skerla putting us 1-0 at Hampden; fucking glorious.

I know it was built on sand but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. 

As for the crowds, they were probably holding out hope they could recreate the late 80s under Leish, where we regularly getting near 15-20,000 for home games against the gruesome twosome. Even in late 90s we could get near 10,000 for matches with OF, Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United. Was still a stupid risk and it's amazing it didn't kill the club.

[Stellaboz]

There's truth in that a lot of the games were boring under JC. Maybe you cod argue that about any manager, but I do remember a lot of games being pretty boring, not to mention our utterly woeful away form.

[Poet of the Macabre]

1 minute ago, Stellaboz said:

There's truth in that a lot of the games were boring under JC. Maybe you cod argue that about any manager, but I do remember a lot of games being pretty boring, not to mention our utterly woeful away form.

Fucking hell. If you thought we were boring under Calderwood then you must be driven round the bend by the last couple of seasons. I'd struggle to even name five memorable moments since we got promoted; it's largely been utterly tedious.

[Stellaboz]

Thankfully don't go nearly as often as I did in those days so I've been spared some howlers I'm sure.

[DA Baracus]

So why did they think we could suddenly get massively increased crowds? Where did they get that from?

[Stellaboz]

Remember, the North Stand is a temporary stand as they planned to rebuild it the height and depth of the Norrie and East Stands.

Mental.

[101]

10 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

Remember, the North Stand is a temporary stand as they planned to rebuild it the height and depth of the Norrie and East Stands.

Mental.

when you say temporary, I thought the plan was to extned it back nad use the current stand as the base of the new one? It was a weird idea as EEP is too big for what we need for 50 odd weeks of the year. ALthought the roof of that stand really annoys me as all the noise goes stright up where as the Norries roof projects it out on to the pitch.

[Stellaboz]

Could be right about that, all I know is that Yorkston said something along these lines in Legends one time post match. He was probably more gassed than I was.

[Poet of the Macabre]

33 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

So why did they think we could suddenly get massively increased crowds? Where did they get that from?

Because we've had bigger crowds before and they felt with investment in the squad we'd be successful and a load of lapsed fans would return.

[Salvo Montalbano]

when you say temporary, I thought the plan was to extned it back nad use the current stand as the base of the new one? It was a weird idea as EEP is too big for what we need for 50 odd weeks of the year. ALthought the roof of that stand really annoys me as all the noise goes stright up where as the Norries roof projects it out on to the pitch.

Sort of. They put in new foundations so that there could be a second tier and a new cantilevered roof added at a later date AFAIR. Would be pretty amazing to have terracing on a lower tier, some boxes then a tier of seats but that would be for if I ever won the Euromillions and could bring in some great players and coaches, and if I could underwrite ticket sales so they were £10 for adults (£8 for standing) and £5 for kids/OAPs.

[parsboi]

14 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

1 hour ago, Adam101 said:

when you say temporary, I thought the plan was to extned it back nad use the current stand as the base of the new one? It was a weird idea as EEP is too big for what we need for 50 odd weeks of the year. ALthought the roof of that stand really annoys me as all the noise goes stright up where as the Norries roof projects it out on to the pitch.

Sort of. They put in new foundations so that there could be a second tier and a new cantilevered roof added at a later date AFAIR. Would be pretty amazing to have terracing on a lower tier, some boxes then a tier of seats but that would be for if I ever won the Euromillions and could bring in some great players and coaches, and if I could underwrite ticket sales so they were £10 for adults (£8 for standing) and £5 for kids/OAPs.

I remember when the Woodrow board came up with the Halbeath development idea to have a 12,000 capacity stadium by selling East End and moving everything to near the old Hyundai/Motorola site.  Cue outrage letters into the Dunfermline press “where will all the fans go, there’d be lockouts”.  Not just the mad board that had delusions of grandeur when it comes to spectator amounts!  The problem was/is we have a rose tinted view on the best times and like the trap most Scottish clubs fall into, when there is a big crowd or response to a special game/event (17k at a cup final) we think we should be doing so much better with crowds.  The boards of the past had that belief, despite the facts.  Build it and they will come was their mentality.  Clearly, “they” didn’t come....

Salvo, sounds good!  Pls fill in the corners as well as part of your plan. Good man. 

Edited December 28, 2018 by parsboi
Auto correct fail sorted

[D.A.F.C]

Don't forget their genius plan of a business centre when there was one up the road at the college.

[DA Baracus]

Remember how fucking awful Legends was? A total horror show with a dreadful concept. Me and @Stellaboz were banned for singing Pars songs after the league cup quarter final win over Hibs.

They really need to change the name of it to erase the last memory of how it used to be. 

[Bairnardo]

Remember how fucking awful Legends was? A total horror show with a dreadful concept. Me and [mention=27442]Stellaboz[/mention] were banned for singing Pars songs after the league cup quarter final win over Hibs.
They really need to change the name of it to erase the last memory of how it used to be. 

Which Pars songs about Falkirk were u singing m8?

[DA Baracus]

All the classics