Maurice Jones the Plaid candidate for Alyn and Deeside with Peter Ryder Plaid candidate for Delyn at the Wigan game.
At the first game I was very pleased to see people from all over the north as well as a strong contingent from Bridgend. My experience of the Bridgend fans has been marvellous, teasing us for and helping us with our lack of knowledge of the rules. The Wrexham football fans cheering when the ref gave a decision to Leeds was probably their funniest moment.
In the two away games they were by far in the majority and happy to see supporters from the north joining them. I have to admit I was expecting some animosity but I have found none. To be fair this has also been the case with away fans as well, I don’t know whether it was because of the gutsy performance against Leeds or whether it is just rugby league but the good will from both Wigan and Salford fans has been brilliant.
I think that Crusaders now has a chance to be a franchise for the whole of Wales. It is important that games are played in the south as well as the north and if they would have played a couple of games up here last year the situation now would be better. I believe that the club should now be taking the lead in setting up supporters clubs and transport. Back in the late 70s when Wrexham had a great football team on match days Mold Road would be full of coaches from all over the north and as far south as Aberystwyth. There is no reason this can’t happen again and with the good rail links to the south special trains could also increase our following.
I believe that on the pitch Brian Noble has done a brilliant job but the Racecourse staff now have to back them up. Lets see them organising trips to away games and trips to home games. After all there is a lot of money to be made out of this. I believe they would make 10% commission on away ticket sales alone.
It's going to be another big game on Sunday. Hull F.C. are tipped for the top four at the end of the season. So let's hope we can throw a spanner in the works for them with another big performance. Come on the Cru.
Won't see me at a game in Wrexham until the club and stewards get their act in order, their crowd management for the Leeds game can only be described as incompetent.
ReplyDeleteIt is true. They sold a load of unnumbered tickets for the Yale Stand to Leeds fans and stewards let them sit anywhere. They were not prepared for such a big crowd. I am told that lessons have been learned. I'll let you know after Sunday.
ReplyDeleteIt was a tremendous result for Crusaders in Friday's match at Salford. I've seen all three games so far this season, and, after the tremendous initial performance against Leeds at the Racecourse, the showing at Wigan was disappointing.
ReplyDeleteBut at the Willows, Crusaders started as they meant to go on and outplayed Salford. Brian Noble and his coaching staff are doing a great job in getting an almost entirely new team to gel like this, and in Michael Witt, they have brought an outstanding new talent into Super League. Witt was pivotal in everything Crusaders did and he will clearly be a key figure this season.
With Hull FC making such a good start to the season, next Sunday's home match against them presents another tough challenge, but one which the Crusaders are well capable of meeting.
It was good to see that there were a number of Crusaders supporters from Bridgend and Newport at both Wigan and Salford who shared the team's delight with the convincing win, especially when the players came over to acknowledge the fans. However, I think it's time that the club did something to encourage supporters to follow Crusaders away from home.
Of course the priority is the marketing of home games but building up a healthy away following can do nothing but good for the team's confidence, something which grew as the game progressed on Friday.
I can understnd what 'Anonymous' is talking about, and the stewarding was poor in the area where I sat, or TRIED to sit initially.
ReplyDeleteI was very annoyed about it at the time, and some of the stewards were not too interested in sorting things out, even though a full house was expected. And, of course, you would expect that Wrexham would have the systems up and running, and people in place, already.
But I'm not letting that spoil what was a great occasion. The Racecourse was full and the Crusaders put up a good performance, holding one of the world's top teams until threequarter time. It's great for Wrexham and the north east of Wales.
I hope lessons have been learned and that the problems won't arise again. Give it another go, Anonymous!