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Post by Dan on Jan 18, 2020 20:47:11 GMT
Well we are 4 points behind 7th spot with 2 matches in hand. Taking our average points tally over the whole season the 2 matches in hand will reap 4 points and guess what put us into the play offs (admittedly on goal difference). So not exactly mid table stuff but just about scraping into the play offs. A drop in form will see us fall away to mid table or a little below, maintain it and we may just scrape in the play offs, improve and we do better still. So not quite the catastrophic state of affairs some supporters are painting after this shabby performance. Just disappointing that's all. The season has hardly finished after today, when it does finish will be the time to judge the efforts of John and Hakan.
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Post by porkystone on Jan 18, 2020 20:50:35 GMT
Interesting tweet from Ross Marshall just now:
' Ross Marshall
@rossmarshall05 · 45m
Just want to apologise to everyone involved and the supporters. I know exactly how important today was for us to get the win. I hold my hands up for today and take full responsibility! I’ll be back
Thank you for the travelling fans once again
We go again Tuesday '
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Post by jdl on Jan 18, 2020 20:57:04 GMT
Well we are 4 points behind 7th spot with 2 matches in hand. Taking our average points tally over the whole season the 2 matches in hand will reap 4 points and guess what put us into the play offs (admittedly on goal difference). So not exactly mid table stuff but just about scraping into the play offs. A drop in form will see us fall away to mid table or a little below, maintain it and we may just scrape in the play offs, improve and we do better still. So not quite the catastrophic state of affairs some supporters are painting after this shabby performance. Just disappointing that's all. The season has hardly finished after today, when it does finish will be the time to judge the efforts of John and Hakan. All very true - but not how you feel when you watch a cracking performance one week, and then a load of bollocks the next (and probably the next as well). We know this side can play well, what frustrates us so much is that they can also turn off completely and play like they did today (or against Tonbridge or at H&R). Knee-jerk calls for the manager to go clearly aren't helpful, but if you've got a team who can play well - really well, sometimes - and they don't, all too often, surely the root of that problem is the management style? When you look at the talent in this team, when you watch the way they move and pass in the good games, when you see the passion (in the good games), you know that this lot should already be in the play-offs - and with a good chance of winning promotion. So, why aren't they? It's the manager who turns a bunch of players into a team, it's the managers, ultimately, who wins the games. That's where the buck stops.
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Post by shamstone on Jan 18, 2020 21:00:02 GMT
I said at the start of the year i had a brief chat with Teryy pre season an he admitted the club could not afford to be in the National League an did not want to go back up this year, now thats fine but why do they have to hide these things from the fans, they expect us to follow them week in week out all over the country which I dont mind doing but it would be really refreshing if for a change there was honesty across the board. No lies no false promises, because if they keep trying to pull the wool over fans eyes sooner or later gates will drop dramatically yes we have a lot to be thankful to the owners for but let,s not forget we as fans have helped them a lot in getting to where we are today by keeping the faith an showing our loyalty to the club. Your spot on mate. I gave my season ticket away today hopefully for someone else to appreciate it more. I can’t stomach the shit that’s being fed. I think we have some very good players, but they aren’t a very good team. Or maybe the management are just blagging it. Still is starting to remind me of Basset and Pleat. Yesterday’s men
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St Albans
Jan 18, 2020 21:03:16 GMT
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Post by Dan on Jan 18, 2020 21:03:16 GMT
Agreed with everything you say as I am one of those supporters who feel there is just about enough talent in the team but consistency has been sadly lacking. Just dont see how it helps anybody to be moaning about Management Players Owners pretty much whenever we lose a match Their future depends on how we finish the season
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St Albans
Jan 18, 2020 21:04:29 GMT
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Post by shamstone on Jan 18, 2020 21:04:29 GMT
How will we finish
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St Albans
Jan 18, 2020 21:06:58 GMT
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Post by shamstone on Jan 18, 2020 21:06:58 GMT
Agreed with everything you say as I am one of those supporters who feel there is just about enough talent in the team but consistency has been sadly lacking. Just dont see how it helps anybody to be moaning about Management Players Owners pretty much whenever we lose a match Their future depends on how we finish the season Sorry for going on one. Lose a match. St Albans. Did we have a goal attempt. Fcuk Sake
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Post by stonepaperscissors on Jan 18, 2020 21:09:32 GMT
Interesting tweet from Ross Marshall just now: ' Ross Marshall @rossmarshall05 · 45m Just want to apologise to everyone involved and the supporters. I know exactly how important today was for us to get the win. I hold my hands up for today and take full responsibility! I’ll be back Thank you for the travelling fans once again We go again Tuesday ' Hacker?
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Post by hammerstone on Jan 18, 2020 21:24:14 GMT
Realistically the board don’t want to go up, we aren’t threatened with another relegation so JS and HH will be here regardless till summer.
Most stones fans know us going up would be a disaster in our current situation, but for me the thing I struggle with is already mentioned...we are capable on the day of playing great stuff, but “on the day” is usually one game in 5, with a few losses and draws sandwiched in between.
We are one of if not the most supported club in the league, and have a very high gate considering our rivals who have half what we do yet have better squads getting results week in week out.
Teams like Wealdstone and Havant more often than not go to others and from the off you know they mean business and usually have a good control and it’s clear they are the better side. That’s something we don’t have which is a let down considering our budget (which IMO has been very poorly used) and style of play.
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Post by jakeyboi on Jan 18, 2020 21:51:14 GMT
It,s very difficult not to blame the managers when things dont go our way but who else is to blame? Players may play badly but it,s still the managers who pick them in the first place, look at HH previous record as a manager he,s hardly been good has he. Under JS I think his weaknesses have been hidden by JS previous achievments.Yes they were good managers back in the day but the way the games played has changed an it,s obvious sometimes that HH has no idea on how to use the subs effectively to change a game or to swap things around during a game to come up with a plan B. We need to become consistent as we should be beating the majority of these teams in this league week in week out. As hammerstone said we have a fantastic support generating a lot of money yet we seem to have a really poor budget which has been spent poorly.
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Post by jdl on Jan 18, 2020 22:35:53 GMT
Realistically the board don’t want to go up, we aren’t threatened with another relegation so JS and HH will be here regardless till summer. Most stones fans know us going up would be a disaster in our current situation, but for me the thing I struggle with is already mentioned...we are capable on the day of playing great stuff, but “on the day” is usually one game in 5, with a few losses and draws sandwiched in between. We are one of if not the most supported club in the league, and have a very high gate considering our rivals who have half what we do yet have better squads getting results week in week out. Teams like Wealdstone and Havant more often than not go to others and from the off you know they mean business and usually have a good control and it’s clear they are the better side. That’s something we don’t have which is a let down considering our budget (which IMO has been very poorly used) and style of play. Pretty much sums it up. I don't want to go up until we're ready. But what I do want to do is watch some decent football, get excited by two or three real talents, enjoy the games, and see us win games we should win. So far this season, I haven't enjoyed going to JWW that much more than I did last season (although tha might just be bad luck, as I've missed quite a few games).
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Post by wolvesstone on Jan 18, 2020 23:36:48 GMT
No doubt now. The way forwards is backwards. The way football is now our club needs to recognise that it should be part time, with a young ambitious manager guiding young ambitious local players; players who play for the shirt, the fans and the excitement of the challenge. Maidstone is a lovely town but too small to attract more than 2500 fans on a regular basis. There are some excellent local derbies (ys?) with clubs like Tonbridge, Dover, Welling, Darford and Margate to be enjoyed.
The most recent signing tells us what is happening now. A 35 year old coming here for pasture, his biggest fan being John Still, his manager at Barnet. Where else could he go? Will he guide us up? No.
This was a wasted opportunity to promote some of our players in the under-23s, etc. Perhaps we could have recruited some local youth from some of the smaller clubs around about. There will be local players chomping at the bit.
I'm afraid to say that the current management team is a combination of old hat, favouring old mates, and someone who failed at a National League club and can go no further. The current team is a collection of old and declining donkeys (Elokobi, Wishart, Clovis, Hoyte, Knight, Cole, Edwards, Pennel and Amaluzor) with players trying their best to further their careers in higher clubs having failed elsewhere (Chesmaine, Marshall, Allen, Khan, Kyei and the Turkish bloke). There are a few stand-ins like Embury, but nothing from the local area or of any interest from the youth squad.
The answer is a new young local manager. Reversion to part time. Quit the idea of bringing in "seasoned professionals" because they are on the way out. Local players.
This will end the current merry-go-round of players, the inconsistency, the misery of poor performance and the, damning, lack of atmosphere at local games that has been so obvious all season.
And for those that support the current management team (who I consistently refer to as The Comic Duo), ask yourself what is their win to lose ratio since they took control at the Leyton Orient away league match last season? What is consolidating about removing an entire squad (except one) and creating a merry-go-round squad of oldies and trainees from the league?
Maidstone United needs to be united. It needs a group of local players united in the cause of the club. It will lose, it will win, it will fail, blah, blah, blah. But the local people will back them because they belong to us. And the atmosphere will return.
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Post by jdl on Jan 19, 2020 0:52:18 GMT
Excellent (and brave - you'll get jumped on!) post. Don't agree with it all, but there's a lot of truth in there.
We lost our way when we went full-time. Not so much because full-time is right or wrong, but because of the effect it had on the club. We started to believe in our own myth - we were a big club, who deserved to be back in the NL, and were on our way to the EFL. We were back, and in style, but this time we were going to learn from our history and do it right. No more Jim Thompson cock-ups.
But instead we very nearly did a Jim Thompson - far less of a disaster than he managed, of course, but born of the same loss of touch with reality.
I don't hold anyone to blame for this, I was as caught up in the self-deception as the rest of us - all that talk of new stands and getting the EFL to accept 3G, before we'd even been in the NL long enough to realise just how different it was to the old Conference.
What we should have done was to take stock at the end of the first season, learn the lessons of that season, and build on what had got us there (mostly Jay Saunders). We proved that we could survive in the NL (with difficulty, but we had done it), but we'd also learnt what a hard league it was. But instead of learning from how we'd got there, we jumped feet-first into the unknown, by turning 'full-time' and losing touch with our roots (the players and spirit that had got us so far), and, finally, sacking Jay.
This season has in many ways been a repeat of the last one - rebuild the team with journeymen, and players going up or down, and pay them (collectively) more than we could afford. We've done it more slowly and carefully, but we've effectively done the same thing as last year - with similar results. OK, so this time we've survived (but then survival in the NS should be the least of our 'achievements'), but we haven't consolidated, we haven't built a platform for the future any more than we did last season.
We've got a bunch of players, to whom we are just another job, or a last hurrah, or a springboard to greater things, but none of whom sees MUFC as anything more than a temporary stop in their career - and none of whom have any local connection. All our best players will be gone by the summer, and many of the others too, so, once again we have to rebuild from scratch.
And our management team consists of an old guy who came out of retirement, and another bloke who most of us have very little faith in and who appears to have very little ability to build or motivate an effective team. And even if you think HH is better than that, ask yourself if you really see him taking us anywhere over the next few seasons.
Somehow, we need to get back to basics and rebuild, not a NL side of journeymen we can't afford, but the sort of team(s) – and manager - that got us there last time around.
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St Albans
Jan 19, 2020 7:27:33 GMT
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Post by 61666 on Jan 19, 2020 7:27:33 GMT
Amen to the above. Both posts.
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St Albans
Jan 19, 2020 8:27:37 GMT
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Post by 61666 on Jan 19, 2020 8:27:37 GMT
Further to the above, would nevertheless like to see a few of the current team stay on next season, contracts permitting - for example Lewington and Elokobi, maybe staying full time with coaching roles?
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