Finnaldo

Fantastic 4-0 win for Hinckley today to keep the wheels turning. 11 games left, counting the games down now! A club record attendance for a regular league game too, so fantastic day all round!

Nuneaton clown show rolls on. Investor club now dead in cot, been announced they’re withdrawing, appears a lot of key sponsors sided with the Co-Op who have officially announced that they’re looking to start up a club. The Co-Op you’d hope will be a little more sensible, we’ll find out but it seems to have rattled a few who were desperate for a new sugar daddy to continue the 30 year Nuneaton cycle. Relatedly, Hinckley AFC are having their 10th anniversary celebrations at this Saturday during their game against Copsewood. Kids go free, Nuneaton ST holders go free and free cake (if you’re early enough!)

See the second meeting went ahead last night regarding the Nuneaton Phoenix club. Seems like they’ve decided Pingles isn’t good enough for them so are shacking up at Leicester Road Will be a disaster. Bloke wanted £1k a game off Boro when they were down and out. He’ll shorthand them without a doubt. That’s without the fact it’s the other side of Hinckley from them with no transport links past it whatsoever, unless you fancy a walk from Barwell or the centre of Hinckley. If Boro supporters have anything about them they’ll fvck this off, get their own supporter-led club arranged playing out of Pingles where they’ll actually make some money and won’t find themselves in the red after three years. Setting themselves up for an immediate death sentence.

Very good game yesterday, shame for Hinckley as Ingles pipped us 1-0 but withstood about 60 minutes of the kitchen sink and about 30 of those with ten men, with some superb saves from their young keeper. Just need to tick off wins now, should be looking to win most if not all until Droitwich away in March, keep the distance as I can’t imagine the chasing pack won’t drop points with how the season has gone. If we do manage it though I’m hoping it’s Ingles that come up with us (or anyone apart from Droitwich at least!).

Hinckley AFC and Hinckley Leicester Road is exactly that situation. Supporters still made it happen. Nuneaton is far larger with better resources. If they can’t make it work it’s unfortunately on them.

If it’s a continuity club it’ll have to be step 6 highest anyway, if it means playing out of town (which Hinckley have had to do since inception) then there’s local options available. I can’t imagine a new Nuneaton club would lack for backers and cash at that level. I’d be extremely disappointed if Nuneaton pack up shop entirely in the event they go bust. I wouldn’t expect it either.

Good win for Hinckley away at Ingles, they’re a good team and well organised so a great away result there. Droitwich and Allscott dropping points as well means some distance is opening up, even if others teams have games on us. There’s a comfortable run of games between now and March for us to go into the run-in in a commanding position. For now though a very good Christmas top!

Is the bar still operational with Nuneaton away from LW? If so, I assume it’s a different asset and unaffected by what happens to the club proper? If it isn’t, then isn’t she unfortunately out a job already? Whilst I don’t agree any club should go out of business, there’s an institutional rot at Nuneaton and such a mountain of debt that the only way they could get on the straight and narrow is to remove a lot of the power players and do one of two things: A- accept voluntary relegation, work off debts over a few years and rebuild once it’s in a manageable position. Accept that may mean groundsharing with the likes of Griff if it means saving money and clearing as much debt as possible to speed up the process B- accept the club in its current guise isn’t salvageable and start again as a Phoenix club, either under a trusted individual or supporter-ran Theres no way Nuneaton will be able to compete at their current level with their level of debt. No one without dodgy intentions (see: DA Capital) will want to buy them, maybe bought out by a well-meaning fan who has the resource but even that would realistically mean going back to option A to steady the ship before rebuilding. Up to Nuneaton fans to step up, vote with their feet if necessary and organise to ensure there’s continuity regardless. Not a nice situation but the bare reality now. Had years to work on the debt and they did GoFundMe campaigns for players chasing glory instead.

Quoted them £1k a game

The social club is its own entity and completely separate from the football club, so no benefit there either. Food & drink handled by each club separately too. Really is all down to rent. edit: just seen you beat me to it!

Barwell isn’t an option though, they have tenants as it stands. Unless they’re trying to replace them (which won’t happen) and that is very poor form. You also have the likes of Bedworth down the road, who don’t have any secondary team playing there currently, but either way you should refrain from going to the papers until a deal has been agreed. That said; don’t put down to malice what can be explained by stupidity. Either way not an encouraging start for a company that specialises in flipping businesses from their existing owners…

Very well played from your lads, well organised, took us a wonder goal to get a breakthrough. Poor defending to concede from a long throw like that but is what it is, think your lads wanted it more at that point. Can definitely see why you’re in the mix though, hoping you guys can hold onto a play off spot, granted we can keep top spot. Think a play off at that point is a fairly level playing field other than Droitwich and they’re prone to awful defending. Either way, good lucky in the cup and hopefully it’s a different result on Boxing Day!

That, or they’ll rinse fans for every penny. If Stratford are giving them a good deal, then it could well be a case of them essentially get the begging cap out to the supporters with ‘one more big push this season to get us on the straight and narrow!’ before jumping off the bus with their bags of dosh and suddenly the current owners arguing “well they promised me x, y and z!” as they get out of it looking clean. Over to Nuneaton fans to organise and demand some clear answers. What are DA’s objectives? What is the new role of previous board members in the new layout? What’s the plan of action to get back to Liberty Way? They need to get some clear answers, or prepare for the worst. If neither are done then they’ll have only themselves to blame. I’ve had it told that one of main issues with Nuneaton’s supporter-base is elevated expectations at ends with their current reality; they aren’t a National League team any more, frankly with their current debt they aren’t in good standing to start pushing for it either. The best thing they can do is stop paying £900 per player a week, begin to drain down the debt, and accept it’ll be step 3 for the foreseeable, maybe lower. When they’re in a tenable position with secure finances push again. It’s a well supported club that could arguably even be league standard with the right backing and model. The only thing they’re on target for currently is repeated financial crises as they lurch from one desperate push to the next. As mentioned before there’s been an almost institutionalised dodginess there as supporters turn a blind eye for the sake of quick success. They need to break the cycle they’ve got themselves in, ‘drain the swamp’ and demand some transparency and accountability. That might be owners with accountability in the club’s current form, it might have to be starting from scratch. It’s a club with great potential but if they want better they need to demand better.

There was a good article on this in the Non-League Paper a while back. Essentially they have a massive facility with plenty of pitches and have managed to get it all under one roof, club makes thousands upon thousands of pounds of turnover through the youth setup and rent of the pitches to smaller local teams. All legitimate and pretty impressive, I could see them being in a position to threaten Coalville as top ranked non-league club in the county if they play their cards right.

Stockport fans allegedly ghost bought a load of tickets too. Plenty to boost the budget then…

I’ve said it before on here but I’ve never seen a club been so consistently dodgy as Nuneaton. If they go bust this calendar years then it’d be the third iteration in 32 years. The last one went bust after a new owner found ‘financial irregularities’ after he bought them and this is looking to be more or less the same outcome 15 years later. I’ve known caterers and the like who have been leaned on to drop prices even after services rendered or have just had regular late payment. It goes on and on. That said the chairman who just stood down, Stuart Elliott, seems a decent bloke. Puts money into a few local clubs (including Hinckley) and he’s clearly taken the fall for other guilty parties seeing as he joined as chairman not all that long ago. If it is to go bust and the successor is not to be a supporter-owned club, they could do a lot worse than be led by him.

Lack of communication from Nuneaton is staggering. Actively toting ‘last game ever’ without any explanation as to why. But there’s money to apparently pay the ground owner all arrears up front? I’d there’s that money available, there’s likely clubs who would be willing to groundshare to see out the season. Paying up to £900 a week for players, crowdfunding the budget last year, on target to catch up on arrears by December but kicked out the ground despite then offering to pay debt up front? Doesn’t all connect up and there’s clearly some porkies being told somewhere along the line. I know a lot of new phoenix clubs (and I imagine some smarter older clubs too) have it in their constitution/operating model not to take on debt except under very particular emergency circumstances. To be a traditionally non-league club and be in serious debt is absolutely bizarre, and it’s becoming more and more common even lower in the pyramid. It’s probably a worth cause to push for a non-debt movement in non-league below National League, but ambition and always fighting for an edge will make that a difficult reality I guess.

The Leicester Road lot will squeeze every penny they can out of them so that won’t last long. Expecting to seen Nuneaton Town AFC by the start of next season

Precisely. Club finances were buggered at a time we were told we were self-sufficient outside of KP, and stadium expansion halted when we were told it had no bearings on the club budget, despite once the news dried up the spending on the squad resumed. Rodgers should have been sacked, latest, after Forest in the cup. He only went when things were terminal. Any other business, or even any other club at that matter, where things fail so badly across three different fronts then the buck would stop at the top. I’m happy for people to say they value the league win & FA Cup over relegation and that they still favour the ownership because of that. It’s a very reasonable stance. But most people will act like you spat on their dead nan if you suggest the ownership have to take fault for relegation, it’s almost taken personally which is bizarre.

Very good but strangely this is about five years old odd it’s popped up now Whilst on the topic, what a fall for them. Been to a few games as my mate lives that way, when we went to the first game a couple years ago they’d started the season well in the play off spots in the National League South, this weekend’s win at Kingstonian put them just clear of the relegation spots in the Isthmian Prem. Shows how quickly your luck can turn in non-league.

Any decent recommendations for a pint in Central Brum? Got a Hinckley away day and will spend a couple hours about before getting the train out to the ground

Ivanhoe sacked their development coach, senior team manager is still in place.

10-1 Hinckley win last night puts them seven clear ahead of today’s games, including Stapenhill vs Droitwich which are the best two teams aside from Hinckley this year. Promising first quarter to the season!

Hinckley grind out a tough away win at Wednesfield in baking conditions, puts them four clear after 9 games. Some difficult games coming up but the most positive start in years for AFC. Ingles also going very well, massive win against Stapenhill too. Play off dark horses perhaps?

Hinckley have Chelmsley Town today at home, top of the table clash with first vs second and a chance for Hinckley to get some points between them and the chasing pack. Five wins in six league wins and through in the Vase so far, so would really cap off a great August with a win today.