Disingenuous was Joe Price's middle name, and he was far too wily a bird to employ Stanley Sutton's idea in the form in which Stanley had presented it to him. The pie manufacturer knew how far he could take his employees without risking open revolt, and knocking two hundred and fifty pounds out of their wages and giving them a Frogley Town season ticket in return for it was quite a few steps beyond the pale. Conveniently however, the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds was more or less the same amount as the three per cent wage increase the pie factory workers usually received each year. So, taking advantage of this happy coincidence, Price simply explained to his workforce that due to a levelling-off in the market conditions of the pie trade the company would unfortunately be unable to grant its staff the expected pay rise this year; while at the same time informing them that as he was now the owner of Frogley Town Football Club he was consequentially in a position to soften the blow by offering each and every one of them a free season ticket to the Town's games for the coming season.
