For this coming Sunday's match Away to Northmet (Riverside) there is a bar at the venue and the Northmet Secretary has asked me if we will all be staying for a drink after the game.
(This is 'standard procedure' for teams who play at Social Clubs).

On the basis of what has happened after our matches so far this season I therefore told him 'probably not, but I would see what I can do'.

After the last Home game, the only club members down On Broadway were five Management Committee Members ! (Myself, Trevor, Conor, Stuart & Tony Speller).

Why do well over half our players 'shoot off' straight on the final whistle and NEVER stay for a drink, even when there is a bar at the venue ?!!!

Do some of our new players not realise we go down the Pub after matches ?
Do our 18-year-olds not drink yet ?
Do some of our older players go round the in-laws for dinner EVERY Sunday ?

I know a lot of our players live 'miles' away and have a long drive back home, but what's wrong with having just a 'swift half of lager shandy for 10-15 minutes afterwards'(like I do) at venues where there is a bar...or when we play at Hazelwood when On Broadway is only down the road ?
Don't forget we are actually sponsored by On Broadway and they lay on food for us after every game !!!

There are quite a few of our players who I never get a chance to speak to at all because they never come down the pub...and the days of club tours and club night outs/Snooker Nights also seem to be over.
No wonder the Player Profiles on the website are so inaccurate !

Your excuses and opinions please (in addition to the obvious piss-taking comments we are going to get from Ritchie, Jacko & Junior).

Could it be that in the past the team largely consisted of a group of mates who would go for a drink together anyway and didn't have many other commitments (Irish Band, they made a film about them)?

Failing that, I would blame Tony Blair.

I appreciate that most of our players have family commitments on a Sunday afternoon, but I get the impression that they CAN come down the pub or go in the bar after a game just for a 'quick half of lager shandy' for 15-20 minutes, but they say to themselves 'What's the point ?' (As if it's only worthwhile staying for a drink after a match if they can stay all afternoon and get absolutely hammered).

I just think it's a bit 'strange' (for want of a better word) that players can just turn up at 10.00.a.m. on a Sunday morning and go home straight after the match and that's all we see of them. (No training, no clubhouse, no social get-togethers, etc.).
That's especially so when things are now starting to look good ON the pitch.
I don't think other Sunday clubs have this problem.
Do all Rolls Park's players go down the pub after matches, Junior ?

Usually we do but most people go home first and then go down there. But, the entire team went to school together except me and two others and they all live local to where they drink. It is completely different from Rovers now but much like when I first staring playing for Rovers in the Polo days. Personally I think you are banging your head against a brick wall.

Maybe, but surely our players could stay for 15-20 minutes after a game if there's a bar at the ground (e.g. this coming Sunday) ?
Different age groups, etc. shouldn't come into it for that.

Fair enough if they don't want to socialise any further than that. (Nights out, etc.)

I remember when I played a season for Norsemen on Saturdays in 1989/90.
I was in the same situation as you, Junior, where I only knew a couple of players in each match I played in (the elder two Beedens normally !), so I didn't fancy going on club night outs etc.
I always stayed for an hour after the match for a pint of lager shandy and the obligatory bangers, mash & mushy beans though !
Everybody else used to stay 'til 11.00.p.m. and have two jugs of bitter each then drive home.

Personally, the last thing I generally want after a game is a drink, be it shandy or otherwise. Sunday afternoon is usually the only chance I get to do all the boring bits in life like food shopping, on top of which I write the report and sometimes have the odd Arsenal away game. So that's my reason....that said, I did ask on Sunday whether we are having a Crimbo beer or three...now that, I am well up for!!

I don't know how you can broach such a trivial subject as post match drinks when there are still metal pegs potentially rusting away in the hallowed turf of Hazlewood?

Any passing Bichon Frises could end up with Tetanus!

Fair comment Murf....and I have asked the League Fixture Secretary to give us a Home game for Sunday 17th December so that we can get the 'best' seats down On Broadway for an extended post-match session. (Is that correct, Conor/Stu ?)

However, if you look at it from my perspective as a Club Secretary, it is a bit embarrassing for me when opposing clubs offer us the use of their bar afterwards, and in some cases even lay on some snacks, and our players then all bugger off home or down On Broadway instead.
That's why I brought this up.

I'd like to think we are one of the better-run clubs in the League, but I just feel we let ourselves down on this.
If we ever entered the F.A. National Sunday Cup, we would HAVE to stay for a drink & food afterwards. It's in the rules !
It's also a good job we are not a Cricket Club. (Don't know if Tim or Barney will answer that from Australia ?)

I think you will find that it all boils down to, standard and timing, I would imagine that if you asked the likes of stuart, conor etc, when they played a reasonable standard of saturday afternoon football, with a club house and bar etc it is far more the norm. As with cricket a lot of these places are run as social clubs etc as well, all opposition stay for a few beers after the game.

Lol it is only sunday morning football, not too serious, a bit of a laugh, worrying about the social side of things when it actually has no financial benefit to the club seems to be a pointless point of conversation. I would suggest your thoughts are angled in a better direction.

I suppose one way of looking at it is that our players (and Trevor) all have the chance to converse with each other in the changing rooms (and outside them at 10.00.a.m. before they go in), so if they are all happy that that's sufficient for them to get to know each other on a social basis without having to stay for a drink then that's fine.

However, I miss out on those conversations as I am too busy getting the camera ready pitchside before the kick-off and then in packing everything away afterwards.
By the time I get in the changing rooms after the game, most of our players have gone home.

The club wouldn't be the same without the matches being filmed though, so I suppose it's a sacrifice I will have to continue to make.

As long as our players don't mind me annoying them during their working hours on here, by text, in phone calls and by e-mail in order to find out their opinions on things, then we'll continue as we are.

That's just the right attitude to have Lol, besides
it is much better when you only hear things second hand, because then you can get on the forum and cause some hilarious misunderstanding.
P.S. I was actually going to put a sensible reply last night but those darn Bravenet geeks started essential maintenance.

What Premiership fixtures (not Mercury Waltham Lol!) are on the box on the proposed Leo Sayer?

As Conor might say: 'I'm all over that Leo'
Provisional pass received and stamped.
Matches are: Everton-Chelsea & WHU-ManU
passcode - 0NIT

Just a warning that as far as I am aware, Stuart (new job and no internet access at work yet ?) and Conor (off work this week ? to move house, so no internet access either) have not seen this thread and probably won't do so at all this week.

That means the 'Leo Sayer' won't be confirmed until someone mentions it to them this Sunday (if we play).

However, it is a club 'tradition' that all current club members (and numerous ex-club members) go down On Broadway at some stage during the afternoon/evening on the last Sunday we play before Christmas...in this case the 17th.

Ritchie, I could just imagine the scene on the 17th if I brought a DVD player along to On Broadway, plugged it in to all the big screens in there and showed a DVD of a Rovers match just as the Chelsea match was about to start.

Everybody would be shouting out 'get this crap off'...especially Wooly !

Oh what hilarity Lol!!?

Perhaps Tarby could run through the middle of the bar with his trousers round his ankles singing I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts - you weren't the ghost writer for Andy Millman's When the Whistle Blows were you? Is he 'avin a laugh!

(Sorry, I may have lost those of you who are not familar with Extras)

You lost me when you used the name "PELE". Don't you mean "BELE" OR "BELLEND".

I take it from that elusive reply Deej that you won't be out for the Xmas Soiree - d1ck into first and brain into neutral again?

Seems like you now have a team that is so sociable with the opposition. Maybe they are all thinking they are great players and cannot take the light ale after match sessions thats are the norm over here, non after match drinkers never get a look in for a game unless we are stuck for players. Rather have a shite player and lose than someone who suffers mother-in-law dinners week in week out.
Glad you enjoyed the tour over here...none since?

Jimmy, the last Tour we had was indeed Prague 2001...6 years ago !
http://www.edmontonrovers.co.uk/The%20Past/tour.htm
That's you second picture down on the right isn't it ?

Yep. Very enjoyable Tour, even though a load of players blew us out at the last minute and didn't travel because of family commitments...meaning we embarrassed ourselves in the actual matches.

To be honest, I can't see a Rovers Tour ever happening again, even if in 2 or 3 years time we have a whole team of players in their early-mid 20's like we had in the 90's.
People just have too many other interests nowadays, even BEFORE they get married and have kids...and I don't think any of our younger players drink !?

In fact, even if I won the lottery and paid for ALL of our current club members AND their wives, girlfriends and kids to go on a Rovers Tour, well over half of them just wouldn't fancy it....especially if playing football was involved.