Posted by John Clark on February 21, 2001 at 14:09:16:
In Reply to: Re: Phoenix from the flames.... MAIDSTONE UNITED posted by Andy on November 25, 2000 at 09:08:43:
What happened to Maidstone was a disgrace. Jim Thompson was largely to blame, but the council should not have let their personal dislike of the chairman cloud their judgement when considering help for the club. After all, there's no better publicity and kudos for a town than having a football league club! The club should have been bigger than Thompson - sadly, it wasn't.
Incredibly, the fans seemed to rally behind Thommo, worshiping him as some kind of here. In reality, he sold London Road for profit - an allegation never satisfactorily countered by the man himself.
I was a real die hard in the league days, and still feel bitter and angry at losing my favourite club. When you are pationate about a team, how can you ever truly support anyone else? With the new club struggling to regain their senior status (that bloke who says they are in the Southern league is fantasising - they're in the Kent Amateur League), and no ground suitable for senior footy, what have we to look forward to?
Every day, I drive past the site in Barming where the club wanted to build a new grond. The vast piece of waste ground is still empty, save for a few horses grazing. All because Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council threw out their application, on the grounds that a tiny cluster of local residents didn't want the noise. The club bought that land for �400,000 - money they had not got. Disaster.
Let's get behind Paul Bowden Brown and his efforts to get the new Stones into a ground suitable for senior football again. A town like Maidstone without a decent team is a joke.
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