Tooting Gull
New Member
What Coventry are going through and appear to be set for brings back some very bad memories for any Brighton fan - and I'm sure I speak for all of us and many others by wishing you all the very best in the struggle to come through this mess you have been placed in from no fault of your own.
Personally speaking as a forty-something Coventry will always be a big club, a fixture in the top flight for still about 3/4 of my life, winning one of the best Cup finals in the last 35 years with a large fan base and it still seems incredible it has come to this. Less incredible perhaps now though, similar things have happened elsewhere and it defies belief how the football authorities don't act sooner and stronger.
I was one of those Brighton fans who went regularly to Gillingham for two seasons (150-mile round trip). I'm not going to lie, it was shit. Average attendance was probably 3,000-plus, but it's more than that you lose. People get out of the habit, and get disillusioned. Then it was the poxy Withdean, which was better but in the way that having one broken leg is better than two. Last year, second year in a proper ground with the fans finally coming back, we were getting about 26,000. The faith that that situation and those crowds would one day return was very severely tested over a 15-year period.
I hope it is nothing like that for Coventry to re-emerge as a force - although it might be. But it is shameful what is going on in a one-club city where the football club is such a part of the community.
I'm sure you, the fans, will have your part to play but it is up to everyone, all the major actors, to step up, get their shit together and put pressure on/see what needs to be done where required. Local MPs, local businessmen, the media, city council, club owners, stadium owners, and anyone else. I can't help thinking if this had been a London club there would have been more fuss made nationally.
It is a very weird situation when what happens on the pitch, normally the lifeblood for any fan, is virtually irrelevant in the big picture. Brighton fans along with other clubs' fans have been there, and can only hope you are out of that nightmare as soon as possible. And if it is a long time - and it might be - keep the faith that you'll be back.
Personally speaking as a forty-something Coventry will always be a big club, a fixture in the top flight for still about 3/4 of my life, winning one of the best Cup finals in the last 35 years with a large fan base and it still seems incredible it has come to this. Less incredible perhaps now though, similar things have happened elsewhere and it defies belief how the football authorities don't act sooner and stronger.
I was one of those Brighton fans who went regularly to Gillingham for two seasons (150-mile round trip). I'm not going to lie, it was shit. Average attendance was probably 3,000-plus, but it's more than that you lose. People get out of the habit, and get disillusioned. Then it was the poxy Withdean, which was better but in the way that having one broken leg is better than two. Last year, second year in a proper ground with the fans finally coming back, we were getting about 26,000. The faith that that situation and those crowds would one day return was very severely tested over a 15-year period.
I hope it is nothing like that for Coventry to re-emerge as a force - although it might be. But it is shameful what is going on in a one-club city where the football club is such a part of the community.
I'm sure you, the fans, will have your part to play but it is up to everyone, all the major actors, to step up, get their shit together and put pressure on/see what needs to be done where required. Local MPs, local businessmen, the media, city council, club owners, stadium owners, and anyone else. I can't help thinking if this had been a London club there would have been more fuss made nationally.
It is a very weird situation when what happens on the pitch, normally the lifeblood for any fan, is virtually irrelevant in the big picture. Brighton fans along with other clubs' fans have been there, and can only hope you are out of that nightmare as soon as possible. And if it is a long time - and it might be - keep the faith that you'll be back.