Parkgate hope for pick-up in ticket sales for Rotherham United friendly
PARKGATE FC hope signs of progress at Rotherham United can help ticket sales for their pre-season friendly next week.
Sales have been slow so far due in large part to Millers supporters ‘dismay at the direction of their club.
After its relegation to League Two, the long wait for the appointment of a Head Coach and lack of new signings has reduced the appetite of fans who usually jump at the chance to see the traditional pre-season curtain raiser at Parkgate.
By the time the match takes place on Friday, July 10 (7pm), the expectation is that there will be more interest in the fixture. Capacity at Roundwood, now named the Rotherham Hospice Community Stadium, is usually around 1,000.
"Tickets sales haven’t been going as quickly as we wanted,” said Parkgate manager Scott Mason.
"I know it’s not as big a thing for Rotherham but it’s massive for us and helps us financially and we’d like to get more people in.
"We want all the fans there, Parkgate and Rotherham, and we’ll have a good evening like we usually do.
"Now they’ve a new manager (Alex Bruce) and players coming in then I’m sure people will get on it.
"I hope sales start to improve and the tickets fly out.”
Tickets are available here
Parkgate have two pre-season outings before then at home to Wakefield AFC on Saturday (3pm) and away to SJR Worksop on Tuesday (7.45pm).
They’ve lost Alister Haydock and Haydn Goddard to Retford FC and Belper Town respectively but retained many of last season’s group which more than held its own in the NCEL Premier Division.
"The two friendlies will give us a chance to see where we are before the Rotherham game,” said Mason, who will again lead the team with assistants Jamie Housley and Joe Austin.
" We have not lost many players at all, which is brilliant, and we have had a few trialling in pre-season.
"We’ve had some young lads come in because every time they hit that age we need to go and have a look.
"Of course we have lost that little bit of experience with Alister but it’s not the end of the world.
"We got a few players back last year and they’ve stayed; we’ve kept the vultures away on them.”
Numbers have been helped by the return of Jack Humphreys, fresh from winning a promotion with Beverley Town.
Added Scott: “We had 24 at training this week and a few more who couldn’t make it due to holidays etc.
"Jenson Ridge has come back from a toe injury and although he won’t be ready to play ‘90s’ for a while, probably going into the season, he’s like having a new signing. We are looking good so watch out for our new faces coming in over the next few weeks.”