From The Vault

[upthemaggies]

I did feel somewhat sorry for Pavis. He put together a great set-up and some really exciting times. His redevelopment of ML was incredible, especially when he did 3 sides of the ground in one close season. He had his faults of course but I do think we are much better for having him.

Both Dunnett and Pavis deserved far better support for their efforts, but both were up against Fword with Brian Clough, the peak of hooliganism and a low in attendances across football in general. At least Pavis did eventually come to the realisiation that it was a mistake to moan about the gates. In August 1994, after the new main stand had been built, he wrote....
"If we can get a successful team together, hopefully people will flock to Meadow Lane to use our excellent facilities but if they don't, you won't hear any complaints from me. I’ve never been so 'low' as I was in April when only 6,318 turned up to see our important clash with Tranmere Rovers. I couldn't believe it when the attendance figure was shown to me and I even suggested to Neal [Hook] that he should go back and check it. That's all in the past, though, and I've promised myself that I won't complain about small crowds anymore. It's a free country and people will come to Meadow Lane if they want to."

[BigFatPie]

Pavis and Trew made the same mistake.
Hardy was the only chairman who got that side of things right. Sadly not in others but there's a lesson to be learned here.

I hope the current owners don't fall into the trap of whinging to the converted, it achieves nothing other than leaving existing supporters with the feeling they're backing a lost cause.

I remember Pavis moaning about the first home crowd of 90/91 because amongst other reasons, we’d had ‘a new sprinkler system’ put in.

That’s why I give Hardy a bit more credit than some others, fair play to the bloke, he certainly got the crowds up. Even if playing fortunes went down.

[upthemaggies]

I remember Pavis moaning about the first home crowd of 90/91 because amongst other reasons, we’d had ‘a new sprinkler system’ put in.

That’s why I give Hardy a bit more credit than some others, fair play to the bloke, he certainly got the crowds up. Even if playing fortunes went down.

The worst quote I've come across was Jack Dunnett in September 1974, he was appealing for gates of 14,000 on a day we got 10k v West Brom in tier 2, he said "'We will survive, but it may mean we will drop down to the Fourth Division by selling - and that is why I want our supporters to be warned.' Needless to say the next four gates were lower than any that season before he made the statement.

[magpie_mania]

I remember Pavis moaning about the first home crowd of 90/91 because amongst other reasons, we’d had ‘a new sprinkler system’ put in.

That’s why I give Hardy a bit more credit than some others, fair play to the bloke, he certainly got the crowds up. Even if playing fortunes went down.

Hardy did get crowds up, credit to him. How much of that was due to cheap tickets and free tickets?

Would be interesting to see what our crowds would be if, say, we reached the Championship.

[nw6pie]

History's a bugger, as Oscar Wilde no doubt said, always wanting to pigeonhole people as either heroes or villains. Both Dunnett and Pavis did heroic things for Notts and gave us the finest days in my 40-plus years supporting the club. But they also did things that one might characterise as "villainous" - both extracting a hefty rent from the club and leaving the club on a downward trajectory.

You could argue that Dunnett left us in a better place because he sold the club to Pavis. But three-quarters of the ground was falling apart when he left and the Meadow Lane end was an embarrassment until the grand redevelopment in the summer of 1992.

Pavis, meanwhile, left us with a great modern stadium but things turned sour in the mid-90s and never recovered. I can't remember which season it was when he came over to the County Road side to talk to protesting Notts fans (I'm guessing during the Murphy era?). How much blame can we pin on him for the club ultimately going into administration and the decade-long drift before the Munto mirage?

Also, I always used to cringe when Pavis' idea of trying to increase crowds was to encourage F***** fans to come along when the disciples of Satan were playing away. Safe to say he wasn't big on marketing. That was the one thing Hardy did get right, but of course we'll never know how much those cheap ticket offers ended up costing us.

Ironically, it was the one thing Albert Scardino got right, too - the "8 Through the Gate" scheme during the Great Escape season was a success, but subsequently showed that it's not easy to sustain an attendance when things are going badly on the pitch (as they invariably were over the past two decades).

[upthemaggies]

Also, I always used to cringe when Pavis' idea of trying to increase crowds was to encourage F***** fans to come along when the disciples of Satan were playing away.

That's what Pavis himself had done as a kid, which was fairly typical at the time but once you get to the 1960s each new generation of football fan in this city is largely split between looking across the river with smug satisfaction or resentment. There was enough older supporters with a foot in both camps in the 1970s to have tipped the balance in our favour, but once Clough started having success, that ship sailed.

[Wedgie_pie]

Getting back to the match, really enjoyed seeing Notts play that 'modern' day football of passing, but at least moving it forward...The other thing good to watch was the proper tackles flying in, Notts getting stuck in to those softie Southerners especially Killer...But it did make me smile to see those two St John guys carrying Brian McDermott off round the pitch, and not an Arsenal sponge guy insight...

[ncfcog]

Getting back to the match, really enjoyed seeing Notts play that 'modern' day football of passing, but at least moving it forward...The other thing good to watch was the proper tackles flying in, Notts getting stuck in to those softie Southerners especially Killer...But it did make me smile to see those two St John guys carrying Brian McDermott off round the pitch, and not an Arsenal sponge guy insight...

[ncfcog]

That’s not very big

https://twitter.com/notts_stats/stat...246296577?s=21

[ncfcog]

I had a run in with a Man Utd fan on there and got a bit of a pasting although it was my fault that one I was a cocky ****ager.

I think we all were mate