Thanks for that Louise, I really enjoyed reading it.

If only the Board had listened to the ideas, wants and needs of supporters over the last few years, I doubt if we'd be in the present predicament. It would have been enough if the Club had even been honest enough to tell us the truth on all club matters instead of the on-going rumour mill we have all had to put up with. The only people who REALLY care about Salford supporters are other Salford supporters.

The photo of the Shed at the end of the article brought a lump to my throat. It brought home again what a special thing we have left behind. I notice you did not finish your article with a photograph of our rented tin box.

Let's see what the Club can come up with during the off season. We need a simplistic season ticketing arrangement, some decent signings, something to give us all hope for the future instead of more years like the last two in particular.

Everyone connected with Salford agreed that this season would be the launch of a new era. Well, so far it has failed on almost every count, a bit of adventurous 'throwing the ball about' has failed to paper over the cracks for me and hundreds if not thousands of others.

Perversely, I too am looking forward to the start of a new season. Surely painful lessons will have been learnt and we'll get some sort of improvement next year.

I definately feel we've sailed the Sloop John B this year rather than let our Red Flag Fly.

Great post Louise and a pleasure to read something positive!

We desperately need to bring in some players. Hopefully we can get a good mix of youth and experience for 2013. Gareth Owen impressed me on Saturday again. Vievers has done a good job of blooding him in gradually this year and he could be a very important impact player off the bench to share the hooking role with Godwin (if fit and still in a red shirt).

Youve summed up the marketing issues, lets hope the club work towards them. Theres been plenty of fair weather fans who have attended a game this year but the product on and off the field hasnt been there to entice them back.

Lou cap doffed.

Common sense and subjective are often two things not found in the same article/post by many Salford fans (I unfortunately include myself and when my heart rules my head on occasion).

The section on customer service rings incredibly true, I work in that industry and have often thought that if my company made the simple and unforgivable customer service errors Salford do we'd lose so much custom and the offenders their jobs. I often find that if you manage someones expectations correctly even bad news delivered in a well mannered and honest way works much better than sticking your head in the sand and hoping things will go away. Much better the club tell people the truth rather than as you say promise to call back and then simply not do causing ill will and negativity.

The junior Devils for me is a no brainer, they are purely and simply tomorrows full paying customers and without them regardless of what we do now there will be no Salford down the line. Kids are impressionable get into their heads early and like me and so many others on here you've got them for life.

Approaching local businesses for help with posters and flyers is a brilliant idea, give them the opportunity to put their own company name on the flyer/poster and you have a double promotion with the chance of greater interest from any business that sees a benefit arise from it.

Never have seen any point in giving away free shirts, let's be honest the vast majority of those who have received them for free would pay for them so the club are in effect giving money away. Offer like this season a discount with your season ticket but not as previously give them away.

I agree the on-line shop is dire at best, often think that we could do worse than approaching ASDA Trafford Park to have a presence in the store as we seem to visit there a few times in the season for various promotions. Pretty certain that we'd get more sales and interest there than at the stadium as let's face it people are hardly going to drive past and on a whim pop into the shop but if they are in the store there is a chance of people passing by maybe getting pestered into something by the kids (a brilliant opportunity to make use of the new child friendly mascot) maybe buying a shirt or shock horror buying a ticket for a game.

There is an obvious need for someone with some retail/customer service acumen to be brought in to manage the two processes, think it's pretty obvious than anyone with a modicum of ruthlessness would go through the entire process from top to bottom and make Tarryesque (I mean the binning off obviously) type decisions. You can't be a professional outfit when the basics are attempted in a shambolic manner, first impressions count so the process you follow is imperative.

While I'm not a big face booker and have never read a twitter post in my life to my knowledge I can see that they are in effect free billboards to advertise your product. Judging by peoples comments on here there would be plenty of volunteers to assist with this (I would but I can crash a paper and pencil and am a bit of a Luddite), Salford doesn't have the biggest fan base but the ones it does have a loyal and most would give a bit of spare time to help the club if only they were approached in a proper manner and things were well organised rather than the current half ar$ed let's give it a bash mentality.

Professionalism is something sadly missing in a great many ways at Salford and to truely move forward as a team on an upward curve this needs to be vastly improved upon.

Wow thank you for such positive and encouraging feedback. The response from both player's on Twitter and The RL press has been fantastic and shows that despite what we may believe they do want a successful Salford City Reds. Salford Online have even asked if they could publish it online which I obviously said yes too! My blogs so far have had over 3000 views so we can say we're getting some exposure. I also sent this article F.A.O of Neil Barker and Neil Leigh at the
M.E.N I live in hope they may take notice.

Since I voiced my disproval over your last post, I must say, that was good read.