Boreham Wood chairman Danny Hunter hits out at own supporters in bizarre interview
Boreham Wood chairman Danny Hunter has hit out at their own supporters in a bizarre interview.
Boreham currently sit in 16th in the Vanarama National League; winning one of their opening five fixtures.
That win came away at Dagenham & Redbridge last week; a 3-0 scoreline thanks to a brace from Kabongo Tshimanga and a late goal from substitute Justin Shaibu.
Speaking to the 'club shop and away travel club manager' Grant Morris on the official club website, Hunter criticises the crowd of 407 who witness Boreham's narrow 1-0 defeat to Sutton on Saturday.
"You sound very disappointed Dan in regards to the lack of support today," Morris asked. "What do you put that down to, as the crowd was extremely poor. Could it just be the school holidays, people being away or other local league clubs maybe taking away the floating supporter?"
Hunter replied: "Oh do me a favour Grant, we’ve been finding excuses at whatever league we’ve been playing in and there aren’t any excuses left. If you look at the averages we are already over 500 supporters less than the next worst supported club in the National League.
"No the truth is, other than the bigger games against the big clubs who carry large away support, we are after 5 years at National League level, clearly still no bigger than a Ryman league or Southern League Club.
"Today’s abysmal crowd just makes me feel sad, as so much hard work goes into making this club over achieve every year and we just want a bit more support for those efforts.
"I suppose if you want an excuse, the lower than normal crowd could be put down to three hundred Adult and OAP £99 season ticket holders, who took up our offer but never bothered to turn up and support us.
"But it does feel that the Town will turn out for the bigger cup games and a derby against Barnet, but then seem to want to support the club from their front rooms, from the local pubs and bars who on a Saturday show illegal Premier League games that kick off at 3pm and get themselves updated on social media.
"You can put it down to whatever you like Grant, but there’s nothing more that I can do here. I’ve tried everything and if we’re honest with each other, whatever I do or try to do to increase home support nothing seems to works."
'The Wood' chairman then pointed out his investment in the club, highlighting an increase in spending before stating he could fit the crowds 'into my back garden'.
"I’m probably just feeling a bit sorry for myself," he continued. "But 407 as a gate attendance at our level is laughable.
"So I can’t keep making the same excuses to myself about the lack of interest anymore, I can’t keep spending on ground improvements and increased first team and staffing levels if nobody wants to come and watch us.
"I can’t keep wasting my money, if the apathy of a Town continues and it won’t support a club to compete at National League level.
"It should be remembered, that we’ve been a really successful community club for over a decade, we’ve come up 4 leagues since 2005/6, we came through the Southern Eastern division, through the Ryman Premier, through the Conference South and now sit as an established National League club during my tenure here.
"I've increased the playing budget in that time by more than 800%, I’ve built two brand new stands, we’ve built a new pitch, added a sprinkler system, we’ve replaced the old floodlights, we’ve built 6 new changing rooms, twice rebuilt new astro pitch training facilities, while not forgetting that this Town and club went to Wembley in a play off final.
"Most of that was done on crowds that I could fit into my back garden but you would expect them by now to of really improved."
It's not the first time that Boreham Wood have caught the headlines due to statements through official channels.
The club published a story titled 'MP's do your duty' back in January - a 1,400-word article on Brexit ahead of the Parliamentary vote on the Brexit deal.
Tickets to a Boreham Wood fixture cost £18 per adult, with a child ticket priced at £8 and OAP concessions at £13.