The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

Following on from a posting I made yesterday, and also a trip to a UCL ground last night for the Thrapston v Irchester FC Cup game, I can see there will be a challenge helping AFC fans work out "who-is-who" in their early games - especially the away matches.

I can see that the AFC squad is pretty fluid at the moment, so it will be a challenge to produce a programme with an accurate team listing, and many UCL grounds won't have a public address (or if they do, their regular announcer won't be at a Youth game) - Thrapston didn't have one at all.

It will be important that AFC Fans can find out who-is-who, so perhaps some creative thinking is required to ensure they get this info before the game, rather than afterwards in a match report. Photocopying a team sheet might be practical, even at away games, if the local clubhouse is accessible, if someone has a relatively portable device. If time allowed this could be "sold" along with the programme to raise funds.

Coupled with that, if a set of player profiles, coupled with pictures are produced before the first game then this can be put on the website and used in the programme along with sponsorship details - I appreciate that might be difficult to get 100% perfect in the short term due to the fluid nature of the squad.

If that's impractical then perhaps the old fashioned blackboard or pinned up teamsheet method would be better than nothing.

Yeah I have a portable whiteboard we could use for that, and we were jokingly talking about our own portable PA after we couldn't get the Wboro Town one to work the other night...

Dazzler wrote:Yeah I have a portable whiteboard we could use for that, and we were jokingly talking about our own portable PA after we couldn't get the Wboro Town one to work the other night...

Sounds like we need to have a 'who can shout the loudest' competition :lol:

Re: Player Profiles Formic, don't worry this is being worked on currently.

I guess there might be some local bylaws that limit the use of Public Address systems at some lesser grounds - although at Thrapston last night they were ringing Church bells from 7:30 to 9pm, so nobody could have been too bothered about ambient noise in that area.

I quite like the fact that boards were held up for the subsitutions rather than somebody struggling to operate an electronic version - but if you were on the same side of the pitch you had to remember they had different numbers on the reverse side.

I remember a few of the pre-season friendlies the other year where they wrote the teams up on the blackboard outside the clubhouse, and had a few teamsheets available for 50p.

There will be an introduction to all the players in Thursday's programme. Obviously not enough space to add pictures of everyone though. I will aim to put in pictures of as many different players throughout the programme saying who they are as much as I can.

I recommend you all buy a programme!

You will need to take advice regarding Child Protection issues as most, if not all of the players, will be under 18.

Certainly at lower ages it's not considered good practice to put names to photos particularly on websites. Sue Miller at the Northants FA will be able to advise.