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brucie wrote:Portugull - sorry but there is NOT a single thing that the supporters can do. Its down to the players and they are proving that they are not up to the task.

Why bother turning up then? Why not play in a morgue? Lovely to read your pessimistic rant again.

Didn't expect anything yesterday but still gutted we hit the bloody woodwork twice When your lucks out and all that Still, it ain't over yet but 3 points next week is an absolute must otherwise it probably is and we begin a long exile in non-league football. Still, well done you gulls that were there and to the lads for keeping it to one nil.

Nope, got to put a stop to this 'kept it down to 1-0' malarkey. No one, including Rice, did anything yesterday that would be out of the ordinary for any team in the top 7 divisions in order to keep the score down. Rice made two good but not especially noteworthy stops and Manse made one similar tackle on the edge of the box. We could have had Peter Schmeichel in goal and conceded the one we did and we could have had the bloke from Truro in goal and have conceded one also. The goal they scored wasn't even on merit, given the devastating deflection it took.

Matt.

What's this? Yet again it's misfortune dictating our league position? No of course it isn't. We have been absolutely dreadful, and to keep harping on about our misfortune and other teams relative fortune is pointless. Of course we've suffered moments this season where we've not had the rub of the green. But you can be absolutely certain that every other team can rightfully claim the same. We're where we are on merit, and if we go down, 'luck' or lack of it will be an irrelevance.

If you're sure.

Think back to the only other time we were relegated to the Conference, we were simply awful for 46 games. We have been that bad on, maybe, 6 occasions this time round.

Moments where we've not had the rub of the green? What, like losing our manager to illness, a hitherto unprecedented situation in the Football League. That's not 'not the rub of the green' that is a blow from which very few clubs could emerge unscathed, let alone a club with precisely zero pounds and zero pence with which to fund a replacement.
None of our rivals have had their flagship loanee recalled. Again, this is not 'rub of the green', its a hammer blow.
I'm not suggesting that we are the greatest side in the world and have been robbed every week, but I'm not sure how many other clubs in England managed to beat the opposition goalkeeper 4 times on Saturday and still score 0 goals. I'm generally pretty honest regarding our performances relative to the opposition and there have been many more occasions this season where I have left a match wondering how we have not won than there were occasions last season where I came away wondering how we had managed to win.
We are where we are on merit, although I still feel we have been more than good enough not to count ourselves among the three worst sides in English professional football. However, I would suggest that the situations which have caused that merit are so outside of the norm, so major ad so unforeseeable that we could count ourselves most hard done by to be relegated to the Conference when, but for one or two of those major occurrences, we would be a comfortable mid-table side (which, with the division the way it is this year, means just outside the Playoffs. Oh what a difference to our current situation for the sake of a dozen points).

Matt.

We did ok, didn't think Gillingham were all that much but saying that no team in this league is any good. I liked our shape and setup, it was the best option for this particular game and after an edgy start we had the best two chances in the match really when Howe hits the post and Downes put a free header over, we had to score one of these chances and get our noses in front. Said to my mate at half time this is the sort of game we'll lose 1-0, 30 seconds in ahh there it is.

One criticism of Knill is in my opinion he panicked a little bit and changed our system when we were still in the game, soon as we changed we were clueless because we don't have the personnel to play 4-4-2 without Labadie. He took off Chappell and Lathrope who for me were two of our better players, Morris was pretty good but having not played for God knows how long it was suicide going with him as one of the 2 CM's, he ran out of steam unsurprisingly, our defense lost it's bit of cover and we could have ended up losing 3 or 4 if it wasn't for 2 good saves by Rice and a bit of last ditch defending.

Just like the Northampton game, nothing much between the two sides but these games we were winning 1-0 last year we're losing them 1-0 this year, next week is a must win now.

We've been bad on '6 occasions'? I guess that really depends on your initial expectancy levels. I can only assume yours are very low. Which is fine. It protects from a lot of disappointment I imagine.

As for losing the manager. Yes, it's pretty unprecedented, but how far up the table do you imagine we'd be had he not had these problems? Because I think the warning signs were there a good while before he left. His introduction of a style of football which was both boring for those watching and baffling for those playing, certainly provided an obstacle. Like I said, I expect fans of all the other clubs down around us would have similar sob stories (though would concede none can contend with losing a manager who preached a style of football which was up to that point, cutting a swathe through League 2 defences)...

If we go down it'll be because of the over-confidence from those in charge. The belief that we could safely disregard the playing side of the club and focus completely on off-field issues. It'll be because of the overly cautious nature of our performances. It'll be because the players just haven't done themselves justice regularly enough. It'll be because we didn't react quickly enough to the warning signs which were there for all to see (we wouldn't be lamenting the loss of Labadie so much if we'd adequately recruited).

There's a suggestion you 'make your own luck'. Good or bad.

Fonda wrote:We've been bad on '6 occasions'? I guess that really depends on your initial expectancy levels. I can only assume yours are very low. Which is fine. It protects from a lot of disappointment I imagine.

As for losing the manager. Yes, it's pretty unprecedented, but how far up the table do you imagine we'd be had he not had these problems? Because I think the warning signs were there a good while before he left. His introduction of a style of football which was both boring for those watching and baffling for those playing, certainly provided an obstacle. Like I said, I expect fans of all the other clubs down around us would have similar sob stories (though would concede none can contend with losing a manager who preached a style of football which was up to that point, cutting a swathe through League 2 defences)...

If we go down it'll be because of the over-confidence from those in charge. The belief that we could safely disregard the playing side of the club and focus completely on off-field issues. It'll be because of the overly cautious nature of our performances. It'll be because the players just haven't done themselves justice regularly enough. It'll be because we didn't react quickly enough to the warning signs which were there for all to see (we wouldn't be lamenting the loss of Labadie so much if we'd adequately recruited).

There's a suggestion you 'make your own luck'. Good or bad.

good post mate.

i was nervous about us when i was in the company of the nutter that is austrianandy at chesterfield.
gave a sloppy goal away cos we fell asleep at a free kick, and was lucky that rene scored as one of their defenders fell over and left him clean through!

the highlighted bit sums it up nicely - including talking about f**king plastic pitches!!

SuperNickyWroe wrote:

good post mate.

i was nervous about us when i was in the company of the nutter that is austrianandy at chesterfield.
gave a sloppy goal away cos we fell asleep at a free kick, and was lucky that rene scored as one of their defenders fell over and left him clean through!

the highlighted bit sums it up nicely - including talking about f**king plastic pitches!!

This seems to get mentioned a lot.

The Chairman made a passing remark about maybe one day having an artificial pitch.

How exactly has this damaged our season?

Apparently, Jezza, one 30 second interview with the Chairman is the root of all our problems, but losing our manager is a mere bagatelle. Baffles me too.

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote:Apparently, Jezza, one 30 second interview with the Chairman is the root of all our problems, but losing our manager is a mere bagatelle. Baffles me too.

Matt.

I think i had some of these in Italy once. Like maltesers but bigger. A bag of telle. Yes, certain of it.

No sorry it was more than just a passing remark or a 30 second interview Baker made quite a big thing about it in the local media which was picked up opon if memory serves right by talksport, however it was not the thought of a plastic pitch that was the problem. It was timing of it, wasn't not around January time ? There is your problem, that was the time when quite a few of us had already seen a problem with the team and had asked for the focus to be placed on getting some help for the team, when the Simon and Bill show seemed interested in other things.

It was not down to losing Martin Ling to illness either, we were not hampered by that, the team was already struggling, and Shaun Taylor signed Benyon on loan, so he clearly was capable and had the go ahead to bring players in, yes all to late.

Our current postion is down to nothing but blinding incompetence at the top of the club, right now I am seriuosly hoping we beat Barnet on Saturday and stay in League, because I feel at the moment I am one of only a few people who have realized just how much damage relegation will cause to the long term future of our club, and what I mean by that is, I am not sure that all the infrustructure spending has been covered and money owed to the Bristows has been paid back, the club income will drop by atleast £400k a year and the youth set funding will be lost, where will the money come from to bring us back and take the club forward.

We wouldn't lose all the youth funding.

There are "parachute payments" built in to the youth funding we receive from the league.

I believe we would get £180,000 the first year, then £90,000 for the 2 following years.

The chairman has said the board will do all in it's power to maintain the youth development system if we went down.

forevertufc wrote: It was not down to losing Martin Ling to illness either, we were not hampered by that, the team was already struggling,

We were in 13th, the very mid-table position we all thought we would end up in.

We hadn't lost more than 2 games in a row for 15 months.

Ling went off ill.

We then lost 7 games in a row.

Yet you claim we weren't affected by Ling's illness?

Jerry, i think (some) posters would point out that he had been playing rubbish since october and getting away with it.
if we could see it then why couldnt the management?

as for the plastic pitch - see forevers reply!