Where's Will these days

[willjones]

Jamie - I said exactly the same on here at the time but the threads (and entire message board!) vanished. I say what I think, always have and always will, under my own name and without apology. If I get things wrong, as I often do, I'll hold my hands up and say so.

I'm my own man and always will be - but as I'm driven by passion and my heart will often say things perhaps I shouldn't. I make the decision to post under my own name as I don't wish to hide behind an alies; I am proud I've posted under my own name, and no other, for over a decade.

I will apologise to Gareth and Graham next time I see them as some of my suggestions a month or so ago were unfair, I can see that now, but many of my concerns over the way in which things were handeled remain.

Above all of this though, I'm very glad Craig Pope hasn't thrown his career away over this and despite not being able to say he's "innocent" - hope that everyone can draw a line under the whole episode and move on.

Will

[bobby]

Thank you Will.
I won't ebtirely forget and forgive the posts on the Cambridge United forum, but I'll certainly see you in a slightly better light. You were under the impression, like many, including me, that Craig was guily beyond all doubt wen you posted the comments. I'm not too sure how you feel now, but I certainly know that Craig is innocent, after simply using the common sense in the matter that a player 30 yards away heard what 4 players and an official didn't hear 15 yards away.

Agree, I'm still slightly miffed over how it was handled, but hope we can move on

[willjones]

Bobby,

As I've just said on the United forum (as I'm sure the secret agents will have already noted in thier book...!) if the FA can today review the video footage of Ben Farrell's sending off for violent conduct on Monday and UPHOLD the decision of the referee then the mind really does boggle. It was one of the worst decisions I've seen in almost 20 years of watching the U's, I'd have put any amount of money on it being overturned.

I'm not saying Craig is innocent, nobody can say that for sure and when you've had somebody give evidence saying they did hear racial slur you have to be really careful how you approach things. Perhaps that's the point I was making, poorly, in some of my posts. I fully understand why Gareth, Histon and now the fans are backing him and would expect United to do exactly the same in your position.

It does make you wonder and for something as serious as this - the consequences for the lad - then of course you would have expected them to be 100% sure in order to uphold the charges.

It really is time to move on though, and as you say a lot of my comments were made when I was under the impression it was all being swept under the carpet and Pope's guilt was beyond doubt - I'm of a different view on both counts, but would also suggest a campaign saying he is definatly innocent has quite a few risks attatched to it as well. It's best to just move on which I hope will happen.

Oh, and finally - just to address one of the various swipes at me and my character in this thread, yes I did help the lads organise the "Red Cards" from the match last season - as I said on here (again in a thread which was deleted) it was something they were advised to do by the Kick Racism Out group, to channell the "energy" down a positive route at the time as opposed to a negative one.

Histon fans should have been invited to join in, too, in all honesty but was certainly not an attempt to score points and that suggestion is pretty insulting to say the least.

Cheers,

Will

[Deleted]

Putting the specifics of the Pope case to one side, I have to agree with Localfan's view on treating official comms often with a pinch of salt.

I have been very surprised (impressed tbh) by some of the official messages that have come through the Histon site this season and some of those that have not.

There often appears to be an underlying objective behind the message - e.g. why officially announce you 'expect' to sign Ben Farrell - Why announce that Patrick Ada is on the transfer list? - Why explain you have withdrawn an offer for Josh Simpson, when there was no official post to say you were making one in the first place?

I'm with Localfan - there is some pretty slick planning and comms going on here and as fans improved reading between the lines has to be recommended.

[bobby]

Thanks Will, agree, I really hope that we can leave this poor and depressing situation behind. Let's look to the future... Boxing Day's just round the corner

[Deleted]

Flagship2, it's good for Histon fans that someone among their number has recognised this. Slick is one word for it, and applied correctly this kind of PR and spin can help greatly, however if it is misapplied or exposed for what it is, it can be damaging.

We let our club 'get away' with spin for too long, and we're still picking up the pieces. It's concerning that some otherwise intelligent people are so stupid when it comes to their football club, judging by the comments of some on here they literally think Histon FC can do no wrong, so they'll certainly not front up to what they've already done wrong.

Whatever can be said of United fans, we certainly are not ones to sit back and be preached to by the board, we will question everything, and not out of mindless cynicism, but out of caution and always in support of the best interests of our club.

Just watch out, how much do you really know about your club?