|
Post by jdl on Jan 28, 2023 20:52:48 GMT
They have proven several times that they ARE good enough to stay up. But to succeed, you need a manager who can get the best out of his players - all the time. Hak clearly couldn't do that at NL level. When did they prove they are good enough to stay up? Early season - W3 D1 L3 - 12th - 10 points in 7 games (1.43 ppg - equiv to 9th in current table) Late Oct-late Nov (return of B-W, Greenidge joins) - W2 D3 L1 - 8 pts in 6 games (1.33 ppg - eqiv to 13th in current table) Hak leaves - Trophty win at NC + close game with Wrexham (which should have been a draw at least!) Only in patches, but still proof that they can play well enough to stay up - given a chance.
|
|
|
Post by jdl on Jan 28, 2023 20:54:05 GMT
Sadly - VERY sadly - this is something I've been thinking (but not daring to say) for some time. T&O are fans, they don't (appear) to know any more about running a football club than I do. They were lucky with Jay's appointment, and consequently didn't have to much more for the next few seasons than sit back and enjoy the ride. Then the realities of NL came home and they didn't know what to do. But that was OK, because they had Bill to take the football decisions. But that hasdn't exactly worked out too well... There's no one at the club who knows more about the game than Bill. I suspect the issue comes more from the owners overuling or going against sound advice as they did when they hired Wheeler I hope you are right.
|
|
|
Post by jdl on Jan 28, 2023 20:55:23 GMT
Can we not just turn up, wave, chant, bounce, enjoy ourselves knowing we are complete and utter dogs and anything other than that is a bonus. Sing when we're losing and we don't care. Sounds good to me,I may even come to a game before the end of the season and do some bouncing😁 Can the stand take that??
|
|
|
Post by pwoodstone on Jan 28, 2023 21:09:32 GMT
When did they prove they are good enough to stay up? Early season - W3 D1 L3 - 12th - 10 points in 7 games (1.43 ppg - equiv to 9th in current table) Late Oct-late Nov (return of B-W, Greenidge joins) - W2 D3 L1 - 8 pts in 6 games (1.33 ppg - eqiv to 13th in current table) Hak leaves - Trophty win at NC + close game with Wrexham (which should have been a draw at least!) Only in patches, but still proof that they can play well enough to stay up - given a chance. I’m not just being contrary but this is a fairly specious reasoning.
|
|
|
Post by Raymondo316 on Jan 28, 2023 21:40:36 GMT
I remember those 3 wins in August, and we certainly didn't look a good team, we were actually very lucky to win them games.
So I wouldn't be using them games to show we are good enough for this level.
|
|
|
Post by jdl on Jan 28, 2023 23:51:03 GMT
I remember those 3 wins in August, and we certainly didn't look a good team, we were actually very lucky to win them games. So I wouldn't be using them games to show we are good enough for this level. Luck is part of football - I thought we were unlucky to lose against Wrexham. And we've certainly not had our share of good luck this season.
|
|
|
Post by jdl on Jan 29, 2023 0:15:11 GMT
Early season - W3 D1 L3 - 12th - 10 points in 7 games (1.43 ppg - equiv to 9th in current table) Late Oct-late Nov (return of B-W, Greenidge joins) - W2 D3 L1 - 8 pts in 6 games (1.33 ppg - eqiv to 13th in current table) Hak leaves - Trophty win at NC + close game with Wrexham (which should have been a draw at least!) Only in patches, but still proof that they can play well enough to stay up - given a chance. I’m not just being contrary but this is a fairly specious reasoning. It's perfectly good reasoning - based on facts. I'm not saying we had a good season or would have definitely ended up in mid-table or even that we would have stayed up - just that we showed, on several occasions, that we were good enough to stay up. It wasn't the quality of the players that caused us to go down, it was a multitude of other factors. My theory is that the Wrexham defeat was the start of it. We didn't look brilliant before that, but we were holding our own, but that defeat was a big blow, psychologically. We still won a couple of games after that, but the rot had set in and we'd started to lose confidence. Then the 1-4 loss at Gateshead really knocked us back. After that we still got the odd result, but the damage was done. Although we drew at home to Wealdstone, we lost the next four games, briefly recovered with another home draw (Halifax), and then crashed out of the Cup. The return of Binnom-Williams gave us a boost for a while, but we couldn't keep that going, and our only win after that was Worthing in the FAT. I don't think we became a bad team - although the injuries didn't help - I think we lost self-belief, and that Hak couldn't get it back. He was the right man in the right place with the winning team we had last season, but he didn't know what to do with a fragile squad that had lost their belief in themselves. Whatever he did just seemed to make things worse, and eventually the relationship with the players spiralled down into a disfunctional mess. Had we replaced him in November, there would have been time to pull things round and the players would still have had enough confidence to recover - as we saw briefly when George took over. But leaving things until there was already little or no hope meant the season was lost.
|
|
|
Post by jdl on Jan 29, 2023 2:42:33 GMT
2018/19 & 2022/23 relegation seasons compared: Just out of interest, I've overlayed our progress this season on my 2018/19 progress graph to see if there's much difference. (Spoiler alert - there isn't.) Click on graphic to enlarge:
|
|