.................................to survive ? Yes .................................to progress ? No We'll scuff our way through, picking up the odd wins by one or two goals, but I can't see us doing much better than mid-table. We've a young loanee in goal still learning his trade, uncertainty as to who is our best RB, Tom Parkes blowing hot and cold, Lines spraying out lovely passes but failing to go on driving runs where it hurts, Sinclair covering acres of ground but to little purpose, Easter playing with tired/old legs, Taylor looking the part but missing so many, and the headless chicken that is Ellis. We need to go up a gear to compete. We're a tidy team in the least important third of the pitch, but we commit gaffes at the back and we don't really have a GOOD striker.
After last season, mid table isnt so bad. Issue is we all want another promotion. So bad results and performances will make us angry. However to if we are all honest mid table consolidation isnt so bad in our 1st season back up. Therefore we will get some bad results and performances along the way. The reason why I get pissed off is because I have seen us dominate the opposition many times but can't score to win the game. Then that puts pressure on our defence and keeper who makes 1 mistake and we lose. I feel we are good enough to challenge the top 7. We are already close to it with a game in hand. That's with the errors and lack of goals. If we had a striker who can convert half of these chances then we would be right up there now. It's not too late for DC to get this striker in the door to move us up a gear.
Pirate49 we have 2 good R/bs we have in tom Lockyer a good C/B and we have a good L/B. We have in Monkana Gosling and Bodin good players who can play out wide, we also have Mansell Ollie Clarke who form a good basis for C/M. Matty Taylor misses a lot of chances but like Harrison gives 100% every time the put the quarters on. Chris Lines reminds me of JJ O'Toole once he got his contract he stopped putting the effort last weeks game against Carlisle was the first decent performance I/ve seen this season from him, McCrystal has experience and very little pace Parkes seems to have lost his way this season and Easter is I think past his sell by date, We have been shouting for a striker for the past three seasons and either Lines ups his game or we get a M/F who can create something from M/F and 2 new F/Bs if he is going to play James Clarke as a C/B which would be my choice with Lockyer We have the basis of a good league 2 side, if we do through some fluke make and win the playoffs with the present squad massive investment would be needed to keep us in the higher division If we don't get a striker then an injury to Taylor or Harrison could see us in a relegation battle, I know they don't score a massive amount of goals but they score a few which helps us pick up odd points. I totally support DC but the board have to make serious funds available for him to take the club forward
Not too over concerned at the moment, in my opinion, we do not have the consistency or fire power to mount a serious challenge at the top of the league and as OT says, if we do somehow fluke ourselves into Div 1, then a massive injection of money would be needed in order to avoid a long,embarrasing season next year and I dont see that happening. We are all guilty of thinking the team are better than they actually are - theres nothing wrong with that and our recent away results have fuelled our optimism even further. I'm not saying we are a bad team,far from it, we are easily in the top half in this league, if not the top 10, and a nice consolidating finish in the top 10 would be a good first season back. Lets not forget this time last year we were a non-league club and looking at a pretty dismal future. It was only a rather fortunate win against Grimsby at Wembley that elevated us back into the league. As long as we continue how we're doing and dont take our eye off the ball and let our results play second fiddle to court cases,new stadium plans etc, then I think we'll be fine. A good settling in season this year will hopefully give us a spring-board to mount a serious challenge next season, but for now, I think its a case of 'small steps' and being patient.
I prefer Ledbitter at RB and he causes lots of problems going forward. I also think Easter needs to step up a gear. If he's not going to score then he needs to create. But he's not doing either very well. I think we're almost there, apart from another striker. And I think we need to sign a better keeper. But at least no one's going to be sniffing around and trying to buy our star players during the transfer window! Some of our rivals may lose some of their star players. And Northampton are heading for a points deduction unless their finances are sorted out very soon. I'm not worried because we're still close enough to the pack to be contenders...
Everyone says we need a new striker, but who else apart from them and Bodin are scoring the goals? I don't see any midfielders and defenders chipping in.
I get tired of this 'Fortunate Win At Wembley' statement, crumbs how many times have I heard that from City fans since last May. When you consider the whole of last seasons games Rovers were up there vying with The Bees for the best part of it and we did finish five points clear of third spot just missing out on Automatic promotion by the solitary point. I dont think that anyone can begrudge our elevation back to the football league and as for fortunate I think it is very much the wrong word when you consider the season long campaign. It would of been a travesty if say Easleigh or FGR had of gone up, Grimsby can count themselves unlucky on the day but it is all about taking your chances, we did, they didn't. Anyway and back to the thread, mid table is good enough for me this year, the play offs would be a bonus and anything after that, gravy.