Come and back the lads

Club Director Barry Owen

ATHLETIC are scoring goals, winning plenty of matches and regularly providing some of the club’s best football in years. But crowds remain relatively low. Club director BARRY OWEN writes an open letter to the stay-aways.

“I want to make it perfectly clear that those supporters who have been present at our games this season have been truly first-class.

Away from home particularly, fans have turned up in great numbers and even better voice to back the team. In fact I’m firmly of the belief we have one of the best core sets of supporters in the whole of the Football League. They have consistently been outstanding in showing their appreciation towards the manager and his players.

But these fans suffer within the context of a town’s population that appears to not want to get behind its own team.

As a board of directors, we are very disappointed that with the side playing its best football for years, we only saw a slight improvement in attendance at SportsDirect.com Park for the recent Bradford game.

This is a town that is moving forward, a vibrant place with a council determined to push on with a forward-thinking agenda. As a club we are investing in a new stand, with all of the facilities that will feature in the exciting development.

So to my mind to have only 4,300 of our own supporters inside the ground for a game against rivals from across the Pennines doesn’t match up to our aspirations.

I know I can speak for the chairman when I state he has stuck his neck out by putting a lot of investment into the club. Not only does he deserve better support, but so do the players. It is they who, under the guidance of our highly-promising manager Lee Johnson, have taken the team to 13 matches unbeaten.

We are wondering: is the message getting through?

This is a team that plays great football, within an environment at SportsDirect.com Park that is as noisy and enjoyable as it has been in years. We know and appreciate that the economic downturn has had an adverse impact on the pockets of people in the town.

It isn’t easy to finance going to games regularly and there is also intense competition from Premier League clubs close by.

As a board we remain disappointed though, that the pattern of previous seasons — better results generating better crowds — has yet to be repeated in 2014-15.

Simon is in it for the long haul. He has proven that in the concrete terms — literally, in the case of the new stand.

But he is bound to be disillusioned by the dormant support. I urge those fans who are enjoying their football at SportsDirect.com Park to spread the word.

This is a team that deserves to be watched by far more people.

Yours, Barry Owen.”