As my point was that LOD brings a lot to the Giants and is not a mere fighter your response is irrelevant, so you can go on as much as you like.

Yea wasn't sure if we had and de-registering might not be a bad idea if he aint back this season.

Assuming AP is willing to pay both Heremaia and a replacement to the same salary. Until the fans respond more positively to his obvious investment and start getting themselves to matches for £19, I'd be reluctant to do this if I were him, unless someone very special becomes available.

Understand what you are saying but looking at the games coming up i can see us sliding down the table and thats not going to endear floating support.

On a 'glass half full' basis, whilst our current injury list is very dispiriting and may well lead to defeats in our upcoming games against strong opposition and an early exit from the cup, in the context of the season overall it may well be better to be playing these at best 50/50 win/lose games now rather than fixtures against teams we would reasonably expect to beat.

IMO we can target a top 6 finish if we continue to win 80% plus of our games against teams outside the top 6 and to date we have won 7 from 8.

Fair point. If money were no object the opportunity to deregister Heremaia would be a great one assuming there was quality in the market to bring in.

It's a bit chicken and egg in terms of what the club and fans are doing. Pearson's take some bold steps to try and get momentum going. Put the cleaners through the back room staff. Invested in youth facilities. Brought in Lynch and Gareth Ellis. Held the price of passes. Made match day tickets available for £19.

The response, given where we were a few years ago, must be disappointing to him so far. Recession is one factor, but the recession is not a localised phenomenon and others seem to be seeing upturns in crowds. AP can't be any clearer about the importance of returning crowds but gates I imagine are behind his expectations. Does he spend another, say, £90k on a player to replaced Heremaia, when to re-coup that in this season would need about another 1000 on the gate each week? Not sure I would.

AP has to be realistic though. We're nine (?) games into his first season in charge. The missing supporters were never going to return that quickly. I reckon it could take a season or two of sustained improvement to get back to the levels we were at before Agar drove them all away.

Interestingly i was chatting to a colleague at work who goes to the odd game with family, he went to the ticket office on the Thursday before the derby to get tickets only to be told there were no family tickets left at £50 and would have to pay over £80. He refused and didn't bother and also said there were a few more people in there who also declined tickets because no family tickets available. Think Mr Pearson needs to sort this out because it is lost revenue and it was hardly a sell out.

Interesting. You're spot on that this is a missed opportunity if we're trying to entice people back.

Arent they for a limited area in W1/W2 though, so if its sold out, what do they expect leaving it so late?

Maybe they are but floating supporters dont tend to buy tickets in advance do they?

As Hutchie says, the family tickets for £50 are restricted to W1 and W2. If those sections are sold out, they're sold out. When the South Stand sells out no one expects the club to offer £19 tickets elsewhere in the ground, do they?

I was just looking at the empty seats in the ground and thinking maybe the club could be doing more to get bums on seats simplez really. Bit daft watching people turn away with so many seats available.

have we signed a tent now as well???

So they should just drop their prices because the stadium isn't full? You don't really believe that, do you?