Altrincham FC Fans' Forum, 19 September 2003
Whilst these notes are intended to be accurate they are not an official record of the meeting nor should they be taken as necessarily representing the views of Altrincham Football Club.
Background
The meeting was called in the wake of a poor performance last Saturday at Wakefield and in the context of recent mostly anonymous postings on the Alty Fans' Web Forum. During the meeting GR said that the Forum was a useful gauge of some supporters' views but if people would give their names when posting messages, the club would be happy to respond to them personally. The Forum was attended by about 40 supporters and the panel comprised manager Graham Heathcote (GH), chairman Geoff Goodwin (GG) and director Grahame Rowley (GR). The following notes are arranged by topic rather than in the order of their discussion at the meeting.
Player Availability
Mark Maddox and Barry Shuttleworth may be available for Tuesday's game at Southport. Chris Adams, Stephen Rose and Gary Scott are "resting" with injuries but should be available too. Scott has tight hamstrings, whilst Adams has a recurrent back problem and Rose was injured in a recent game. However, Richard Acton will be out for a further 4 to 6 weeks with his shoulder injury.Sean Smith is back jogging, after his bad car accident, but Danny Murphy is likely to miss "most of the season" after his operation. GH said he regretted letting Jason Gallagher go but he could not find the money to keep him. Jason is currently not playing anywhere but concentrating on work. Neil Ryan and Andy Tunnicliffe were both released as they wanted regular football. Neil is expected to sign for Kidsgrove.
The Mattie Hughes situation is "complicated", said Graham Heathcote, In essence, Mattie is unable to commit enough time to play football at this level due to work commitments. He is a "lovely lad" but may not be able to play for Altrincham again. Rod Thornley has been training hard and is getting fitter.
Player Performance
GH said that in the last couple of games the team has not been performing on the pitch as well as in training and had not put into effect what had been planned in pre-match talks. He described the games at Wakefield and against Gainsborough as a "disgrace" and "awful".GH said that the team was creating chances but not putting them away. On Tuesday, for instance, Dave Gardner had landed precision centres on the heads of colleagues in front of goal but no goals had resulted.
GH agreed that a vocal "mouthpiece" was needed on the pitch to get the best performance our of players. He said that Rod Thornley was captain not only because he is a good player but because he was good at moulding a team spirit off the field. Mark Maddox was also excellent at getting good performances from others on the pitch.
GH felt Stephen Rose's best position was in front of the back four and he had now restored him there. Ian Craney was, on his own admission, not playing at his best. He hoped that Wakefield would prove a turning point and he still thought we could finish in the top 6 or 8. GH said many of the players were hurt by the recent poor showings. Paul Robertson had been released in the wake of his "disappointing reaction" to being omitted from the starting line-up at Wakefield. However, GG indicated his pride in the performance earlier in the season at Harrogate and his belief that GH would get the team into the Conference North for next season.
New signing Nick Welton could develop into a useful target man for Altrincham, whilst Steve Lunt's strength may prove to be as a similar type of player to Nick. GH also had high hopes of Michael Reynolds, recently signed from Droylsden.
New Players
GH announced the loan signing for a month of one of Manchester United's reserve keepers Ben Williams, who would be eligible for FA cup games too. A left-sided player had also signed but as terms had not yet been fully agreed, GH would not announce his name yet.
Finance
The panel were asked about ex-Directors who were rarely if ever seen at Moss Lane yet hung onto their shares. GH indicated that anyone wishing to take over the club had had two chances since 1995 - when John Maunders left and at the more recent EGM. GH also said that when he gets his own shares back from the finance people following the abortive McAlpine deal he will donate virtually all of them to the existing board who have virtually none at present. A benefactor had already put money into the club and been offered GH's shares but had refused to take them. He paid tribute to the Board of Geoff Goodwin, Grahame Rowley and Andrew Shaw and underlined that the club is still liable for £650,000 of which more than half was to the former chairman of the club for "loans". NI and VAT demands were recurrent too. He added that unlike some clubs, Altrincham at least did fully face up to their NI and VAT obligations.
GG hoped that more financial support might come to the club now that people could see that it was run properly and had even made a small profit last season. It was suggested that there might be an Open Day to raise funds. GH praised Mike Crockett of the Sale and Altrincham Messenger, (who was present at the Forum), for the newspaper's support of the club though, tongue in cheek, Alty chairman Geoff Goodwin, the owner of Go Goodwins coach firm, took exception to the paper's description of him as a "bus driver"!!