Harrogate 3-0 down at home to Forest Green at half time. Since got a goal back. Sound familiar ?

Decided to watch their match tonight and it should have been more. Two disallowed and a clear penalty turned down.

Only 1600 off there too

Only trouble with ‘manufacturing’ a club from nothing, there’s no historic fan base to call upon. This idea of buying a nothing club and proving it can succeed by spraying it with money proves nothing, that’s the easy part. The hard part is building up a fan base or your club is just a meaningless toy of a rich man, trying to prove he can be a ‘success’ in yet another venture and make something from nothing, in these cases a pointless exercise with a derisory fan base.
Imagine a league of teams like this, no atmosphere, no crowd ...what is the point.

mind you harrogate are not on there own and with it being a decent sized town i imagine the owner is not that happy that the town has not really bought into jis dream. with forrest green that along with fylde being the middle of a green dessert there are worse examples. the excuse often used for picking these sides is that they are starting with a blank sheet of paper. for me if that was your thing there are plenty of non league clubs that have fallen on hard times but still get decent crowds. kettering and worsester come to mind. places in the past that got over 2,000 gates regularly when doing well.

Fleetwood and Fylde's owner's could have bought Barrow.
Harrogate's owner might have had the money to buy York City or even someone like Halifax or Bradford PA.
Rushden Diamonds owner could have bought Kettering.
Forest Green's could have bought Gloucester City or maybe even Bristol Rovers.
The people at Salford should have been morally obligated to save Bury, especially the Nevilles.

It's just an ego trip for them as I've said before. Credit where credit is due to the lads who bought Wrexham, they said from day one they wanted a club engaged in the local community. I give the same credit even to the people at Stockport and Chesterfield and Robbie Savage at Macclesfield.

And don’t forget, back in the day the owner of Scarborough nearly bought Pools...who’d have left town and changed their name to......Scarborough by any chance....?
Now that’s one way to become a league club without the bother.

These egotistical people want a clean sheet so the success is all theirs. The trouble is they’re so thick they don’t realise they need supporters in numbers or potential numbers

Could be more of a case of not doing their homework or getting a feel of the town. Unless its the premier league you are talking about fans do not ditch a club they and their family have supported for years to join one with a tin pot ground with a parking problems. Then there is that certain towns, especially in yorkshire and lancashire are just not football towns, never have been or ever will. Halifax Rugby League in their prime always had higher gates than its football team even if they we doing ok. Anyone could throw their fortune at places like st.helens,warrington and castleford with a football team and get little reward through the gates.

or become the vile MK Dons.

I bet Vince had to think twice about that one.

McCain Dons

We have a couple of these rich mens playthings on our doorstep, Spenny and Marske.
At least Shields used to be a league team and now have a strong fan base.

Apart from some crocodile tears at Bury's passing, the big broadcasters don't give a monkey's about how strong a club's fanbase is. After the FA Cup 2nd round results BBC Sport pretty much ignored the equal achievements of Pools, Mansfield and Port Vale in winning away to League 1 opponents to bang on about Harrogate.

The reason? It's their first time in the 3rd Round. They'll be lucky if they take a couple of hundred fans to Luton, but it's all about the magic of the FA Cup, innit? For armchair supporters at any rate.

only the media call it the magic of the fa cup. most clubs are only really interested in how much money they can get out of a competition before they eventually get knocked out.

Yes the magic of the cup means money to the clubs but it is still the dreams of all supporters to do well.

Aw come on, it is special...but the money grabbing media have bastardised it, they’ve changed the time it kicks off, no chance of soaking up the pre match atmosphere now replaced by gobshite ‘pundits’ droning on and on......they’ve even took away the teams coach journey to the ground ........ the FA Cuo is special, but not at plastic Wembley.

The early rounds of the FA Cup are special, namely the first couple such as the extra prelims. Typically those clubs are entering for the first time and usually draw a higher league or other regional league opponent they wouldn't usually play.

While some fans may disagree, as soon as you get to the National League you'll find some teams making team changes along with garnering lower crowds. Granted, while us lot probably didnt care for it, the likes of Stamford and Kidsgrove probably enjoyed their visit to the Vic regardless of the result.

True that, although they haven't reached the heights of the above. I doubt Marske's ground would even pass grading at a higher level. As for Spennymoor, looking at recent results maybe they've reached as far as they can go.

Got to agree there. These particular sugar daddies are probably big spenders at there particular level, but that’s a different ball game altogether.

it was special but not anymore. the competition for me was ruined before the new KO final time. games played over 4 days including the quarter finals and the semi finals played at wembley no matter where the teams are from. it will never happen but the day of teams kicking off at the same time and listening to all the results coming in cannot be bettered for the actual football fan.

Having the semi finals at Wembley have devalued it massively. As has playing almost every single final known to man there.

It's surreal to think at one time you only played at Wembley if you got to either the Amateur Cup final, FA Cup final or played for England. A couple of years ago my local pub team in Stockton played there!

Ironic isn't it that the two finals we got to were both not played at Wemberlee!!

that shows how much wembley stadium has been devalued. anyone else but pools and accrington fans and players have never been to the place.

Is it just me who hates the new Wembley. That silly arch over the top is hardly a substitute for the twin towers. Another sheet metal gin palace that looks like a cross between a conference centre and a giant deep fat fryer.

If you see the advert for the managers job at Spendy you will see that their sugar daddy expects them to be in the football league in a few years. Just like Fyldes chairman said they would be but they are back at our level now.

Rich men’s playthings always end in the bin or tears.

It ended badly for the original Spennymoor United.

I see they've just released Carl Magnay