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AFC St.Austell: Love? Or Hate?


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After being a fan of St.Austell for around 25 years now, I have nothing but admiration for the club through the toughest of times to the best! In my opinion the club is run fantastically, with a hard working committee, and a great bunch of lads in the first and second team.

Over the years, it seems to me that people either love St.Austell (and there's plenty of us looking at the attendance figures in Cornwall over the past few years) or they hate St.Austell.

Be interesting to read other people's thoughts and their reasoning behind them, so:

Love?

Or

Hate?

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I got to admire the ambition of St Austell.

You’re a club that wants to move forward up the leagues and have significantly improved your ground facilities.

You have a manager that is from the town and that has played for you for many years. You know he will have the clubs best interest at heart.

St Austell even in the economic downturn has managed to innovate and attract sponsors to the club. I understand the clubhouse brings in a good income. This is great work behind the scenes by all involved.

Pushing for evening games on a Friday is a fantastic idea and has increased your attendances. That is an initiative that the league should take note of.

However, the only downfall I can see is that St Austell (all be it off the books) pay "travel expenses" to players. Having talked to some of the players it is not huge amounts about the going rate. The only question would be is it sustainable? We have all seen what has happened to the likes of Penzance and Falmouth.

If the club thinks it is sustainable best of luck, I can certainly see you pushing for promotion in the future.

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It's made a fantastic turn around in recent years. I'm sure i speak for a number of opposing players and managers in saying a mid week fixture away to St Austell is not one that they look forward to. That is a great credit to the club, it shows the strides they have made aswel as the facilities looking superb.... its just a shame about the pitch, probably the worst in the league.

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Interested in the "off the books" method of payment.

I'm sure HM Revenue & Customs will be interested too.

Yeh... I'm sure HM Revenue and Customs will jump at the chance to investigate a rumour, on a forum, of 'what someone's heard...'

They've nearly completed my tax return from 3 years ago, so the investigation on St.Austell should commence no later than 2019.

Blimey, doesn't take long to divert off topic on this forum does it!

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Hate !

Cheers Beaker.. You've really hit the nail on the head of what I was trying to gain from starting this topic...

Zac, I wasn't trying to establish whether people love or hate St.Austell based on their footballing ability.

The point I was trying to understand was why people who don't follow them seem to hate them (which is the impression that i get..) So far, I've established that people dislike them, because the players get paid... Which leads me to believe, there aren't a great deal of reasons. A bit like my opinion of Man U. Don't know why... Just hate them!!

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I got to admire the ambition of St Austell.

You’re a club that wants to move forward up the leagues and have significantly improved your ground facilities.

You have a manager that is from the town and that has played for you for many years. You know he will have the clubs best interest at heart.

St Austell even in the economic downturn has managed to innovate and attract sponsors to the club. I understand the clubhouse brings in a good income. This is great work behind the scenes by all involved.

Pushing for evening games on a Friday is a fantastic idea and has increased your attendances. That is an initiative that the league should take note of.

However, the only downfall I can see is that St Austell (all be it off the books) pay "travel expenses" to players. Having talked to some of the players it is not huge amounts about the going rate. The only question would be is it sustainable? We have all seen what has happened to the likes of Penzance and Falmouth.

If the club thinks it is sustainable best of luck, I can certainly see you pushing for promotion in the future.

Richard, you would not make that comment ( see brackets ) if you knew the Treasuer of AFC St.Austell as well as i do. I can assure you that the finances at Poltair are in the hands of a treasurer who is beyond reproach when it comes to accountability. I need say no more.

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David, I respect what you are saying but we all know how it works. I have obviously hit a sensitive issue but do you really think clubs put these things through a treasurer?

Either that or some of the players I personally know are telling me complete lies, when I got no reason to disbelieve them. They themselves have even said that they are not there for the money but it helps out.

I didn't really want to draw it away from the positive discussion about the club. As I said I massively admire St Austell ambition. Going forward and thankful in the past for using the ground for the forum charity match!

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