Weekend Match Thread 4th-5th March

[WokingTillIDiet]

I mean, I'd like to see more up-to-date accounts to see how things might have changed, but yeah, it's irrelevant now and on second thoughts how much of a swing could have happened in a year. The proof will be in what happens at Aldershot. Then we'll know whether we missed out or not. My main gripe is how it seemed to be handled. Sure, Read didn't cover himself in glory, yet I think it was partly down to frustration that talks weren't progressing. Why did it take so long for an NDA to get sorted? We'll never know, I guess, but it irks me that something as serious as a potential takeover had to be leaked to the press in order to get things going. Then there's the resignation of Peter Jordan, and subsequent U-turn. What went on there? Maybe I'm wanting to know too much, but in the last year the distance between the 'club' and fans has grown IMO which makes it all the more difficult to fork out for Boost the Budget etc.

We've always had these ongoing problems, although it really seems to have heightened in the last year. I desperately hope something is being done about it, albeit I'm not quite sure what or how judging by the way a potential takeover was handled. The thought of losing GH and ST because the budget is getting lowered below 300k, which it has been for the past five years, would be such an incredible waste. All good things have to come to an end, of course, I just didn't see it ending in this way - following Chris Ingram sending us on our way and saying we must be self-sufficient - after we've been told that we're running a tight ship off the field (at a loss but with the shares covering it). GH's post-match interview today echoes similar worries.

We'll be laughing in August when GH and ST are still here and the budget stays the same, I hope.

It'll definitely be interesting to see what happens at Aldershot. But already it seems to be following a similar pattern: news of a potential takeover bid by Ashley Read is mysteriously leaked to the press, which obviously is seized upon by supporters, which forces the club to hastily issue a statement. Read once again claims that the club in question approached him rather than the other way round. My gut instinct is that the guy should be given a wide berth. And of course, he never did get to tell us the identities of the other members of the alleged consortium, which he said he would reveal the following week. For what it's worth (probably not much) I was told that we asked him to come up with proof of funds, and he was unable/unwilling to do so.

The key to me is what Peter Jordan's intentions are. He apparently said that he wasn't able to fund the club any longer and would be resigning at the beginning of January - but then changed his mind and continued as a club director. But has he just changed his mind about staying at the club, or about providing funds as well? He's a proud man, and I can't see him being willing to stay on at the club if he's not able to contribute financially.

I found Garry Hill's interview after today's game quite encouraging. I'd assumed that he would have got so frustrated this season that he'd almost certainly be off at the end of it, but he spoke once again about how hard everybody works at the club, and that his feelings for the club remain unchanged. It did sound as if he'd be willing to carry on if (obviously that's a big if) we can keep the funding at the same level. I know he's said privately in the past that this would be his last job in management, and he's turned down jobs at clubs with more money than us in the last year or two, so hopefully we can sort out the financial aspect in the next few weeks and go again with the same management team at the helm.

 

[DT-the-gull]

How's Nathan Smith doing Torquay fans? See he scored today?

Nathan Smith is doing very well, he's been one of the highlights of an utterly shite season, in my view a good shout for our player of the season award. Would suggest he has a very bright future in the game.

 

[valefan16]

Nathan Smith is doing very well, he's been one of the highlights of an utterly shite season, in my view a good shout for our player of the season award. Would suggest he has a very bright future in the game.

Good to hear! Might be needed at VP next season if Smurf cuts the budget!

 

[Sparrow]

It'll definitely be interesting to see what happens at Aldershot. But already it seems to be following a similar pattern: news of a potential takeover bid by Ashley Read is mysteriously leaked to the press, which obviously is seized upon by supporters, which forces the club to hastily issue a statement. Read once again claims that the club in question approached him rather than the other way round. My gut instinct is that the guy should be given a wide berth. And of course, he never did get to tell us the identities of the other members of the alleged consortium, which he said he would reveal the following week. For what it's worth (probably not much) I was told that we asked him to come up with proof of funds, and he was unable/unwilling to do so.

The key to me is what Peter Jordan's intentions are. He apparently said that he wasn't able to fund the club any longer and would be resigning at the beginning of January - but then changed his mind and continued as a club director. But has he just changed his mind about staying at the club, or about providing funds as well? He's a proud man, and I can't see him being willing to stay on at the club if he's not able to contribute financially.

I found Garry Hill's interview after today's game quite encouraging. I'd assumed that he would have got so frustrated this season that he'd almost certainly be off at the end of it, but he spoke once again about how hard everybody works at the club, and that his feelings for the club remain unchanged. It did sound as if he'd be willing to carry on if (obviously that's a big if) we can keep the funding at the same level. I know he's said privately in the past that this would be his last job in management, and he's turned down jobs at clubs with more money than us in the last year or two, so hopefully we can sort out the financial aspect in the next few weeks and go again with the same management team at the helm.

I think it's true that Peter Jordan approached Read last summer whereas it definitely seems he's gone after Aldershot. Given how keen Read was to invest, I don't why he would bother if he didn't have proof of funds etc. at the ready. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually the other way round.

PJ isn't the type to walk off and leave us in the lurch, neither is Chris Ingram. He, they, love the club. But PJ doesn't want to continue funding in the way he has, which is obviously fair enough, so it's a bit of an awkward position to still be in. With the losses in the public domain, it isn't an attractive proposition to anyone wanting to takeover. When someone has tried to - Read - it appeared to be the most poorly negotiated thing ever. Stuff like that, and the other PR disasters, don't give me the impression the board are in total control/know what they're doing or how to improve things financially. Mike Smith, as the chairman of our club, saying in the NLP that he didn't know what was happening with Peter Jordan/takeover talks is worrying in the least. If he doesn't know what's going on, as the person to try and move us forward, then who does?

Garry Hill isn't the type to quit when the going gets tough, otherwise he'd have done so in the other difficult runs we've had in past seasons. This one has been particularly tough but the interview wasn't about that. It was more of wanting to know the direction the club is heading next season. Talk of a 'reduced budget' at the AGM isn't good. How have we managed to go from challenging for the play-offs on a circa 300k budget to having a reduced one? Desperately disappointing that we seem to have become further away from giving GH a bigger budget, somehow.

 

[ROBH]

Meltdown on the Robins Nest. It's a debacle! Pathetic! Sickening! Abject! Bottle job! Shocking! Horrible! Inexcusable! Terrible! Appalling! No way we'll win the league now, playoffs at best!!

that's exactly why a lot of us don't bother to post on there anymore.
Anyone who thought it would be a gentle breeze to the line must have been blinkered.
Its what happens and you have to scrap and scrape point from anywhere.
Should have been beaten by Gateshead but scrapped a point, lost at Eastleigh to a fluke own goal (it happens) and scraped another injury time point when we deserved nothing.
That's what it's about.
I'm not panicking.
Yet !!

 

[heedarmy]

Richard Wrigglesworth shouldn't be allowed near a referees whistle, he fucks us over every single time he is the referee. 2 penalties given: 1 which was for a powerful cross which hit Shaws hand and there was nothing at all he could do about it, the 2nd was either an awful dive or he fell over and I'm hoping its the latter.

We were missing 2 of our best players and you could tell, we never got going until Matty Pattison came on and provided a bit of creativity.

Tranmere were nothing special at all and both times we have played them the scoreline has flattered them. I'll be very surprised if they make the top 5. As for us, our season is over and I'll be shocked if we make the top 8. Somehow we have managed to stay in touch with the play-offs this season even though we have been poor since game 1.

 

[Pablosammy]

Richard Wrigglesworth shouldn't be allowed near a referees whistle, he fucks us over every single time he is the referee. 2 penalties given: 1 which was for a powerful cross which hit Shaws hand and there was nothing at all he could do about it, the 2nd was either an awful dive or he fell over and I'm hoping its the latter.

We were missing 2 of our best players and you could tell, we never got going until Matty Pattison came on and provided a bit of creativity.

Tranmere were nothing special at all and both times we have played them the scoreline has flattered them. I'll be very surprised if they make the top 5. As for us, our season is over and I'll be shocked if we make the top 8. Somehow we have managed to stay in touch with the play-offs this season even though we have been poor since game 1.

The thing is, I've yet to see a team who are 'anything special' in this league, and that includes the top three. I've heard this said a few times recently, and I'm yet to see what we're being compared against that is so brilliant.

We controlled yesterday's game comfortably and totally until we backed off in the last 20 minutes. Gateshead never threatened before their goal. I'm not sure what we could have done better except score 6.

 

[Mark kavanagh]

Every team we beat calls us nothing special, i really hope we remain nothing special for the rest of the season....

It seems the grapes are a bit sour in gateshead

 

[Greenacres]

Every team we beat calls us nothing special, i really hope we remain nothing special for the rest of the season....

I would take that...considering some of the rubbish that gets thrown our way!

 

[The_Boss]

There isn't anything special in this league (barring a few reprobates on here ), nor has there been since we came back down. You just need to be the least mediocre, hardest to beat and most consistent to be successful.

 

[eightiesrobin]

Richard Wrigglesworth shouldn't be allowed near a referees whistle, he fucks us over every single time he is the referee. 2 penalties given: 1 which was for a powerful cross which hit Shaws hand and there was nothing at all he could do about it, the 2nd was either an awful dive or he fell over and I'm hoping its the latter.

Ooh yes, he's absolutely dire. He's far too easy to manipulate / intimidate IMO. He had a shocker in our 3-3 draw with Lincoln.

 

[Luke Imp]

There isn't anything special in this league (barring a few reprobates on here ), nor has there been since we came back down. You just need to be the least mediocre, hardest to beat and most consistent to be successful.

Mills' York side were decent, as were Kiddy under Burr the season they had that horrid start. Wrexham under Morrell, too.

But yeah, I'd agree that generally speaking you don't find many outstanding teams that you've gone away thinking, 'wow'. There were times that happened in L2 but not down here really.

 

[Sparrow]

The standard of the division has decreased year on year, hence why club's with bottom eight sized budgets like Braintree and Woking are able to overachieve even more than they normally would do.

 

[Mariner2015]

Richard Wrigglesworth shouldn't be allowed near a referees whistle, he fucks us over every single time he is the referee. 2 penalties given: 1 which was for a powerful cross which hit Shaws hand and there was nothing at all he could do about it, the 2nd was either an awful dive or he fell over and I'm hoping its the latter.
.

He is like Howard Webb compared to Ross Joyce.

 

[Shotsfan1993]

The standard of the division has decreased year on year, hence why club's with bottom eight sized budgets like Braintree and Woking are able to overachieve even more than they normally would do.

 

[Sparrow]

Yes, less than Aldershot's budget too.

 

[Shotsfan1993]

Yes, less than Aldershot's budget too.

Sorry, but everytime you mention your tiny £300k budget with losses of £400k+ despite having similar gate receipts to us last season I find it hilarious!

 

[Sparrow]

Sorry, but everytime you mention your tiny £300k budget with losses of £400k+ despite having similar gate receipts to us last season I find it hilarious!

Ok.

 

[veggieeater]

The standard of the division has decreased year on year, hence why club's with bottom eight sized budgets like Braintree and Woking are able to overachieve even more than they normally would do.

Not sure thats right, The teams from last season that went up are doing allright in League 2 arent they?
Top 2 could still get over 100 points, when did that last happen?
Cant really say the standards worse cos low budget teams are doing well, maybe they have been more canny with signings and management than others. ?

 

[Luke Imp]

332 at Boreham Wood?

 

[veggieeater]

332 at Boreham Wood?

Sorry thought we were talking of standard of play/ games, or are we back to willy size?

2242 on a Friday night at FGR, game wasnt a great advert TBF.... (1900 home fans by seats not noise ) overall I would argue that the standard of play is far better than it was, firstly due to the two up two down, brings more competitive edge surely, second the huge number of overseas players in the upper leagues- over a whole divisions worth probably. That must mean what were league 2 players now have to move down a division to get to play?

 

[Luke Imp]

Thanks for your reply, but my post has precisely zero to do with your post, hence the lack of quote.

It was just an observation as I was checking the home attendances from the Saturday games.

 

[GuiseleySteve]

Fingers crossed that our pitch drains enough to play our game v Tranmere tomorrow evening. The forecast is good, cool, sunny and dry!
This was Friday afternoon:

 

[EnglishRed]

Mills' York side were decent, as were Kiddy under Burr the season they had that horrid start. Wrexham under Morrell, too.

But yeah, I'd agree that generally speaking you don't find many outstanding teams that you've gone away thinking, 'wow'. There were times that happened in L2 but not down here really.

And interestingly of those 3 sides York scraped up through the play offs and this particular Kiddie and Wrexham sides both fell at the first play off hurdle to 'inferior' teams.

Consistency gets you out of this league. And a dangerous striker doesn't hurt.

 

[GTFCfish]

I will give everyone on this forum £1000 if Grimsby win the league.

If we do you don't have to give me £1000 as I'm about to come into some money.
Got an email saying I have won the Nigerian lottery, I've sent off the £2000 admin fee they asked for, now just waiting for the money to be put into my bank, kerching!

 

[Chris FGR]

Got an email saying I have won the Nigerian lottery, I've sent off the £2000 admin fee they asked for, now just waiting for the money to be put into my bank, kerching!

In that case I've got some magic beans you might like to buy.

Also, you should be expecting a call from your bank later. Don't worry it's nothing serious, you'll just need to have your online banking passwords to hand, so a few minor security issues can be "resolved"

 

[GuiseleySteve]

Looking good for tomorrow

 

[GTFCfish]

Also, you should be expecting a call from your bank later. Don't worry it's nothing serious, you'll just need to have your online banking passwords to hand, so a few minor security issues can be "resolved"

I'ts funny you should say that as I have also had lots of emails from banks saying I need to update my security information, but I don't even bank with them.
Guess they all must have just sent them to the wrong email address eh, silly sausages!

 

[Monkey Tennis]

332 at Boreham Wood?

And just to point out, 116 were Barrow!
Sounded like a shambles of a club, shambles of a team too.

 

[B2TF]

332 at Boreham Wood?

Less than travelled 70 miles to watch a REAL team in the bottom 4, away at Southport. Remind me, what is the point of clubs like these?