National League table after tonight's games

[CraigUnder]

All 3 teams with us in the relegation battle won tonight..

Eastleigh 0 - 2 Braintree
Woking 2 - 1 Solihull
Guiseley 2 - 1 Sutton



National League table after today's games

Pos. Team P GD Pts.
15 Solihull Moors 32 -4 40
16 Braintree 31 -14 37
17 Sutton United 30 -9 36
18 Torquay 32 -9 34
19 Woking 32 -15 33
20 Guiseley 32 -13 32
------------------------------------------------
21 Maidstone United 32 -25 30
22 Southport 32 -32 30
23 York 31 -20 27
24 North Ferriby United 32 -30 27


It's getting tight at the bottom!

[SuperNickyWroe]

We're the same number of points above the bottom 4 as we were before tonight's games.....

[CraigUnder]

We're the same number of points above the bottom 4 as we were before tonight's games.....

Indeed we are, it was more to show that now everyone has more or less played the same games, the points separating teams in and around us are so tight now our -9 GD might have to come into play at the end of the season! Also it shows that teams around us are picking up valuable points and some teams have improved in form, I.e York, Guiseley, Braintree and Woking.

Saturday now seems to be more important now than ever to get something from the game and improve our atrocious away form.

[TUST_Member_Rob]

An we play Sutton, Guisley, Solihull Moors & Southport in 4 of our next 5 games!

[SuperNickyWroe]

An we play Sutton, Guisley, Solihull Moors & Southport in 4 of our next 5 games!

Well, we need to win a few then Rob......

[Neal]

If we are in the bottom 4 after the next 5 games Nicho should go. Doesn't mean a new manager would save us but might just might give us some hope.

But he wont be sacked because GI don't care what league we are in unlike the fans.
Wont want to spend money paying him up, less profit for them and less for development.

[merse btpir]

If we are in the bottom 4 after the next 5 games Nicho should go. Doesn't mean a new manager would save us but might just might give us some hope. But he wont be sacked because GI don't care what league we are in unlike the fans. Wont want to spend money paying him up, less profit for them and less for development.

I think you're wide of the mark there; their acquisition becomes more of a liability in a lower league with lower crowds and less revenue coming in and if the manager is on the standard type of contract common in today's game; a place in the relegation slots makes him cheaper to fire than ever. As it is he must have missed most if not all of the targets in his contract and be skating on thin ice.

As it was Pete Masters who directed the manner in which he was engaged; I see no reason why Nicholson should be on any other type of contract and would be surprised if he wasn't......one more defeat should do for him.

I trust the club have already got the replacement lined up and ready to hit the ground running; I know Masters had but he didn't acquire the club as he expected to and so Nicholson survived.

[westyorkshiregull]

Great reply merse. I'm still confused with this council meeting and the ratify bit... I'm not business minded but assuming once past that bigger moves will be made with the club....I'm very stuck on it...he had not really had a full season on a decent budget. I feel sorry but other hand a change might be better. But having said that who will do it for peanuts and peanuts to spend

[tomogull]

Yep - you sum it up in a peanut-shell ......

[merse btpir]

who will do it for peanuts and peanuts to spend

You'd be better off asking who in the football club knows the people who undoubtedly exist who could and would within those constraints, have already worked within those constraints....it is my contention that the inability of the boardroom to recruit and select the right sort of qualified person to manage the club that is the root cause of the problem. Twice gifting the job as a retirement sop to their favourite ex player was not the road to go down and Thea Bristow (for Hargreaves) and the Balsons and Philips (for Nicholson) have to carry the can for that.

I know these managerial selections have been very popular amongst the same mind set in the fan base; and to some of you to criticise either of these unsuccessful appointments, the individuals themselves or the people who appointed them is tantamount to sacrilege but for God's sake look at the state of the club; wake up and smell the coffee!

It has positively the worst footballing infrastructure of any professional or semi professional club that I know of; an undeserved but reasonably loyal fan base it is incapable of utilising and a commercial dept that is incapable of maximising the facilities it has been gifted yet many other clubs in this league would die for.

[nickbrod]

Just to be clear are you of the opinion the owners should be looking to recruit a 'proper' manager to hopefully secure safety only or be a long term appointment?
Maybe somebody like Ian Atkins did some years ago to be brought in as a fire fighter?
Or somebody who can do that and take the club forward?
I only ask this as who is Clarke Osborne going to rely upon for advice? Apart from Geoff Harrop I wonder who else he knows in the football world.

[westyorkshiregull]

Paul Cox springs to mind ....manager with some pedigree in the league....BUT unlike nicho seems wanted us just for a shop window for his benefit. No one can argue that nicho has the club at heart but where does the line draw between loyalty and poor results and under achieving. I know it's sitting on fence but part of me would be happy for him to go if we got a manager with the proven record and or potential. However part of me thinks to be given a proper chance he should have a decent budget and sign players that are just not rejects. If he goes I think he has just been a captain of ship that's taken on water and not had chance to sail one that floats.

[Scott Brehaut]

Are we really, with the budgets set and the club pretty much in administration before the buyout, actually underachieving though? I'd argue that for a club with next to no money for much of the season and a manager preforming every role in the club for much of it too, that we are achieving pretty much as expected.

It's not where I WANT us to me, but I think we are dreaming if we thought we would be anywhere else than where we are currently, based on the above.

[merse btpir]

No one can argue that nicho has the club at heart but where does the line draw between loyalty and poor results and under achieving. I know it's sitting on fence but part of me would be happy for him to go if we got a manager with the proven record and or potential. However part of me thinks to be given a proper chance he should have a decent budget and sign players that are just not rejects.

My point of view too........no-one can argue he hasn't got the club in his heart or that the budget is low but that is immaterial if you take a businesslike and dispassionate view of it.

The job is NOT one for a learner, it is one for someone who HAS managed a low budget club and made a good job of it. The two implacable arguments will remain and there will always be those who love having a guy like that as the manager but also recognise there are those who believe it is a business and needs to be someone who CAN do the job under these circumstances.

There's no point in going round and round in circles. The club will either go down under him or just escape again and he'll be lauded as a hero by those with those expectations.

[tomogull]

Paul Cox springs to mind ....manager with some pedigree in the league....BUT unlike nicho seems wanted us just for a shop window for his benefit.

Just to put in a word for Paul Cox. As I remember it, he was working for expenses only with a promise that he would be offered a contract 'at the end of the month'. I can't remember if it was September or October. Even though he worked a fortnight after the promised time, no contract was forthcoming and not surprisingly, he walked away from the club. The team was struggling at the time because he had been allowed only a small player budget and so he was only able to bring in a host of hopeless hopefuls. Cox is now at Barrow of course, where he has a more realistic budget and he is steering a rather unfashionable club in a north-west outpost towards the play off places. They are fortunate to have an ex-Barrow guy making money in America who is financing the club.