Toady , please do not take this stance , everyone is entitled to an opinion , wherever they are from , your ideas and views are always most welcome .

If you are so convinced about that, I find it a sad attitude. How about you, do you always tell the truth?

No, I dont, but I get more told to me, than I tell, and if I got told less, then the less I would have to tell

Its irrespective of what Wigans opinion of our SL potential is, but partnerships,special relationships , influential friends and brown nosing wont get us into or make us viable for SL

You cannot ' Social climb ' or bull**** your way in, because if you do, when you get there it will all fall apart

I think the loyal fans deserve (no demand) a fans forum so they can listen to the official signed partnership in more detail and in person.

At least attempt to allay some genuine concerns of loyal supporters who are now walking away (myself included) - I would attend and could possibly be convinced about it but at the moment I only have an ambigious statement presented to me.

The fact that the club will not arrange one probably speaks volumes and I will just add this statement before I go.

[uThe likes of TV Boy, Charlie and others who are turning my and other peoples genuine concerns about my club evolving into ANOTHER club's feeder club and twisting it into some kind of bigoted race agenda against Wiganers are pathetic.

In fact it's rather shameful[/u

I am old enough and lucky enough to have witnessed some fantastic matches between Leigh and Wigan in the 70s and 80s, some of which we won. The rivalry between Leigh and Wigan has always been intense and not just on the rugby field. The current BoD have either underestimated the hatred of Leigh for Wigan, or rode rough shod over their customers feelings. Not a penny more of my (or my family's) money will go into this club until this scandalous decision is revoked. So that's 4 adults knocked off the crowd figures each match.
Speaking to people in the street who are not fantatical fans, the perception in Leigh is we are a feeder club to Wigan. Whether that is strictly true or not is irrelevant. As a very clever ex-CEO of mine used to say: In business Perception is Reality.

I was out for a couple of drinks in town yesterday and the club have misjudged the mood of the town massively. Genuinely concerned. I am talking of regulars, ST holders, familiar faces deciding enough is enough and vowing to stay away because they have no wish to support a club which they now view is becoming more and more a feeder club for Wigan

I urge Toadstool to use his connections with Mr Barton and persuade him to call a fans forum to get some facts aired at least.

It is absolutely essential.

Harold believe me im not PATHETIC ,and im a LOYAL SUPPORTER , always have been ,always will be , and im twisting nothing , this is just my opinion , keep yours to yourself about me .

I agree with Charlie. Why are we pathetic just because we don't see it the same as you

Not going on about the partnership again as I doubt we will ever have more than a couple of loan/dc players anyways.

What stay away fans might consider however is that if we got a thousand more coming through the gate for each match the club would not need DC or loan players or agreements because we would be able to have enough squad players of our own.

Take Tom Spencer we would then be able to afford to offer him a contract. At the end of the day to have a successful team you need decent support.

We have a fine squad of players this season. They need our fans to get behind them instead of our fans thinking I will go back only if the partnership agreement is annulled.

I think they're all pathetic then. I'm not sure how many more facts you need, it's all there in black and white and in Trevor's interview with Dave Parky (for those who are interested in facts rather than believing in half-truths and imagined Wigan takeovers).

All I can say to those fans who no longer wish to support the club; what exactly have the players who pull on the Leigh shirt week in, week out, done to deserve your disloyalty?

Show your contempt for the CEO and BOD if you must but don't turn your back on the boys.

Well to re iterate and I will leave it here right now.

I have nothing against Wigan. I just do not see why my club has signed an official partnership with ANOTHER. Be it for St.Helens, Leeds, Wigan or Balmain Tigers - I don't care who it is. My stance would be exactly the same if we had signed an official partnership with any club. I can not be clearer.

We are all entitled to our opinions and I respect everyone's opinions on here regardless if I agree. I'm becoming very frustrated that some choose to twist all counter debate reasoning on twinning clubs into some kind of 'We hate Wigan mentality must stop'

That is not the real issue.

Frank again what you say is 100% right , this morning i attended my Monday Hydrotherapy session in Wigan

a former Wigan player was there and said exactly what you have just posted

.

In the pub on Thursday, I was talking to Terry Gorman he played two games for Leigh as he was brought in on loan from Huddersfield in 1962 (?) because we needed cover for Bev Risman, now that’s a little before my time I only started going a few years later.

What crowds did we get then?

It seems to me on and off we’ve always had a loanee or two, but that’s not the issue, or its not my issue anyway. Nor am I calling for the board to step down. We all make mistakes, and even pretty big ones, I once run up a 3.5k bar bill (not on my own mind) and on another occasion got my Company secretary arrested (that was funny

)

Nor am I slagging people off for having another opinion.

But I’m really struggling to see a reason why this Partnership is good for my club?

Neither do I - But you will probably be told to stop hating Wigan Glow for asking that on here. Not that I believe we really do

I posted my reply to that one on about page 5 of the 40 odd page thread.

How was the Whiskey? Mines empty, think it must have evaporated

Glow , good afternoon , our crowds back in 1961-62 were around 5000- 6000 this is only a guess though , and the matches were on Saturday afternoons , i dont think many Leythers watched Soccer then either , i gave up my weekly trips to the Tanner Rush , at the Sems and Regal for Leigh RL .

And you are right loanees were around in those days to , though nobody would lend me owt



.

They weren't bad then and I am pretty sure that was the season we made top 4 in a league of 30 clubs.

Wakefield Trinity where the best in the league at the time but we beat them at Leigh 12-7. Actually it could have been 1964 .

I can remember crowds of 22000 v Wigan 18k v Wire and 16500 v Swinton Lions.

Fwiw I don't think we needed an agreement with Wigan either as last seasons arrangement was working well anyway. For me though the position is exactly the same as last season.

It's called voting with your feet, Frank. So effective Mrs Thatcher tried to make it illegal. I have nothing but admiration and praise for the players, but something needs to be done. You say we need another 1000 spectators and I agree but this isn't the way.

Mish, I have upmost respect for the work you do.

However if that is the opinion of the PSG et al then we have serious problems as they have totally underestimated the views of the general Leigh public.

That's fine if we have 1000's of fans and we can afford to ignore them, mock them, treat them with contempt and call them 'silly'. We havn't.

Look at the screen grab on the website. It's still there.

'Leigh Centurions Announce Official Partnership With Wigan Warriors'.

Straight away the fans are angry, confused, dismayed, disheartened; eyes and ears closed, 'la la la la la dont want to listen anymore'.

Whether the fans are right or wrong is actually irrelevant. As someone else has said [i'In business perception is reality'[/i.

This isn't a historic 'I am not going whilst XYZ is playing/wearing the blazer/robbing the club blind' moment.

This is serious.

Mish,

Has anyone at the club any idea of the severity of this ? Not to mention the implications that will follow.

This beggers belief when people are leaving LISA and the touchdown club then just because TB puts a video message out and thinks its going to go away, especially when not too long ago he stated this would never happen.

Where is the honesty and transparency in that?

This needs to be handled very carefully, dont underestimate the effect it has had on the supporters, dont forget without them Leigh Centurions will not survive very long.

I'm sorry but I don't speak for the PSG, nor do I know their opinions on this matter because it hasn't been mentioned in any of the meetings we've had (we only meet once a fortnight and the next meeting is tomorrow). The first I heard of this was when I read the statement from the club at the same time as everyone else saw it.

I'm just speaking as I see it from a personal point of view. I can't say I'm a big fan of it myself but there's obviously a reason behind it so I'm happy with that. I don't run the club nor do I want to - I'm just a fan who tries to do my bit, so in that respect I don't think I really have a say in how it's run, just like when I go to Asda and I see loads of working practices I'm not keen on but just because I shop there, it doesn't give me a right to say how it should be run.

Harold, I don't have any connections with TB or any of the BoD other than via the same routes as anyone else, ie email or Twitter.

However, as my day job is helping SMEs going through difficult times to make the best of their situation, I would hope that if I contacted them they would give my proposals some consideration!

Maybe not though...

People would be surprised how many businesses keep ploughing the same furrow despite the best advice - if anyone has watched the BBC 2 show "The Fixer" they will know what I encounter consistently!!!

Ps - I'm not saying our BoD are like this!

Of course it is. It is easy to be wise after the event but I think we should contact Wigan RLFC and say we must annull our agreement because too many of our fans will not attend our games if we don't.