2022/23 Relegation Thread

[Soup Ladle]

3 wins for us will do it, including one away. We have to be targeting 3 points at Newport Saturday, I don't fancy us to get much from Salford and Stockport.

Unless Crawley win all 5 then likely what they do is immaterial if one of our 3 wins is against them at the Vic.

 

[Salvador]

Happy to have been proven wrong about McNulty as caretaker. The players suddenly look arsed. I get the impression none of them liked or respected Bentley. Nice to have this little unbeaten run but the dross served up in the previous 30 odd games and especially 2 x losses to Pools and 1 x loss to Crawley will cost us. This little resurgence is probably going to be too little too late given the gap but nice to still be clinging on. Glimmer of hope that those just above us remember to be shite again. And that we have Harrogate away on the final day. Could be a pivotal game for either of us or a dead rubber.

If we carry on in decent form and go down regardless I'd not be surprised to see McNulty get the job full time. Could work out like Darrel Clarke at Bristol Rovers a few years ago, right?... Oversee just grtting relegated and bounce back... HMS Piss NL 2023/4 or summat. Probs not.

 

[Loyal Dale]

If we go down, which was 100% nailed on from end of January, but has now climbed to the dizzy heights of 85% nailed on; then I very much doubt that we will be able to mount a challenge to bounce back any time soon.

The really annoying thing is that the poor decisions that have culminated in us being where we are now have almost all come from the Board room. Firstly, the disgraceful behaviour of our last CEO David Bottomley (currently banned from football for 2 years) and latterly a series of awful decisions by our "fan owned" new Board.

At least we are back trying to compete on the pitch which makes a pleasant change to see. We are probably currently playing at a mid table level which is probably about where we should be.

 

[BarraMatt]

You'd probably be better off bringing in a manager who knows what's required at that level, even if you've never heard of them beforehand. That way you might be able to have a run at the playoffs if you get your recruitment right as opposed to having a very average season like Oldham. I think there has only been a few that bounced back in relatively quick succession, Cheltenham, Grimsby, Orient are the ones that spring to mind. They all had someone who'd had a decent history down there.

It's not over yet though.

 

[Son of Cod]

We are hated because we are not,

a) from a declining industrial area, or
b) a soleless new town, or the
c) the arse end of a big city.

We

a) have zero history in the football league, and
b) are a beautiful town of happy, healthy people

How dare we, clearly we can't be a "proper club"

We are a town of waiters, hairdressers, care workers and chefs from rural North Yorkshire. You used to be fishermen, dockers or manufactories. Now you are in a league with baristas and barbers - it's messing with your heads. Oh the shame, look how far you have fallen to have to play a team where the major industry is tea bags.

Our wages bill is £5.45/ week, the average height of the team is 5'6", a good gate is 2800, the owner has not ploughed in £millions, and yet here we are. A tinpot club of all the people you look down on so you can feel superior. We are friendly and open but most of all grateful and surprised to be in the football league. Will we stay here long term, probably not. Are we having a great time while it lasts? Oh yes.

Up the waiters, up the chefs, up the care workers, up the shop assistants, up the cleaners, up the bartenders, up the hotel staff. It's bloody good while it lasts, and long may it continue.

Hate is a strong word, however I dislike your club because you give out away allocations of 600 when in reality you could give a lot more. Absolute waste of a Boxing Day fixture that, I had to stay in with my family because I couldn't get a ticket so thanks a lot.

Hopefully if Luke Armstrong is only on £5.45 p/w we'll be able to tempt him away in the summer.

 

[Son of Cod]

You'd probably be better off bringing in a manager who knows what's required at that level, even if you've never heard of them beforehand. That way you might be able to have a run at the playoffs if you get your recruitment right as opposed to having a very average season like Oldham. I think there has only been a few that bounced back in relatively quick succession, Cheltenham, Grimsby, Orient are the ones that spring to mind. They all had someone who'd had a decent history down there.

It's not over yet though.

We did this recently in another thread I think, but you can add Bristol Rovers/Darrell Clarke to that list of recentish bounce backs too.

 

[JaredSUFC]

We are hated because we are not,

a) from a declining industrial area, or
b) a soleless new town, or the
c) the arse end of a big city.

We

a) have zero history in the football league, and
b) are a beautiful town of happy, healthy people

How dare we, clearly we can't be a "proper club"

We are a town of waiters, hairdressers, care workers and chefs from rural North Yorkshire. You used to be fishermen, dockers or manufactories. Now you are in a league with baristas and barbers - it's messing with your heads. Oh the shame, look how far you have fallen to have to play a team where the major industry is tea bags.

Our wages bill is £5.45/ week, the average height of the team is 5'6", a good gate is 2800, the owner has not ploughed in £millions, and yet here we are. A tinpot club of all the people you look down on so you can feel superior. We are friendly and open but most of all grateful and surprised to be in the football league. Will we stay here long term, probably not. Are we having a great time while it lasts? Oh yes.

Up the waiters, up the chefs, up the care workers, up the shop assistants, up the cleaners, up the bartenders, up the hotel staff. It's bloody good while it lasts, and long may it continue.

I don’t hate Harrogate. Tinpot solidarity and all that. My non-hatred, and hope that Harrogate stay up, has got nothing to do with our perfect record against them in the EFL, not a bit. Same with Crawley. Tinpot solidarity all the way, without a thought for those 24 points we’ve gotten from those two clubs.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

If we go down, which was 100% nailed on from end of January, but has now climbed to the dizzy heights of 85% nailed on; then I very much doubt that we will be able to mount a challenge to bounce back any time soon.

The really annoying thing is that the poor decisions that have culminated in us being where we are now have almost all come from the Board room. Firstly, the disgraceful behaviour of our last CEO David Bottomley (currently banned from football for 2 years) and latterly a series of awful decisions by our "fan owned" new Board.

At least we are back trying to compete on the pitch which makes a pleasant change to see. We are probably currently playing at a mid table level which is probably about where we should be.

I disagree about you not be able to challenge next year.

The NL will potentially be at its weakest for quite some time if both Wrexham and Notts County go up.

For the first time in a long time there aren’t an hugely backed hobby clubs with Solihull seemingly scaling back this season and Fylde if they return not spending the huge amounts they were at one point. Ex league club wise two went up last season and then at least one if not two this.

That would leave Oldham, who have a terrible manager and have spent a lot of money putting together a not particularly great squad. Southend will never manage anything until they change owner and Chesterfield who would be promotion favourites under Cook.

You’ve got multiple players in your squad who have excelled in the NL previously and they are all still at a really good age. Decent managerial appointment and recruitment and can definitely see you in the top 5.

 

[Son of Cod]

I disagree about you not be able to challenge next year.

The NL will potentially be at its weakest for quite some time if both Wrexham and Notts County go up.

For the first time in a long time there aren’t an hugely backed hobby clubs with Solihull seemingly scaling back this season and Fylde if they return not spending the huge amounts they were at one point. Ex league club wise two went up last season and then at least one if not two this.

That would leave Oldham, who have a terrible manager and have spent a lot of money putting together a not particularly great squad. Southend will never manage anything until they change owner and Chesterfield who would be promotion favourites under Cook.

You’ve got multiple players in your squad who have excelled in the NL previously and they are all still at a really good age. Decent managerial appointment and recruitment and can definitely see you in the top 5.

I don't think Solihull scaled back, did they? They brought in Ryan Barnett and kept hold of Dallas and Sbarra in the summer...admittedly Dallas and Barnett have now gone elsewhere but I think that's a case of them just sacking off the rest of the season and shuffling the pack a bit. Unless I've missed something? I reckon they'll be bringing in players in the summer that they can't really afford again. They've brought Mark Beck in already. Woking seem to be going for it a bit too. Despite that though, I agree with what you're saying in that the division will be a bit weaker than the last few seasons if Wrexham and Notts go up. Chesterfield should be rubbing their hands next season if that happens.

 

[joethegill]

I don't think Solihull scaled back, did they? They brought in Ryan Barnett and kept hold of Dallas and Sbarra in the summer...admittedly Dallas and Barnett have now gone elsewhere but I think that's a case of them just sacking off the rest of the season and shuffling the pack a bit. Unless I've missed something? I reckon they'll be bringing in players in the summer that they can't really afford again. They've brought Mark Beck in already. Woking seem to be going for it a bit too. Despite that though, I agree with what you're saying in that the division will be a bit weaker than the last few seasons if Wrexham and Notts go up. Chesterfield should be rubbing their hands next season if that happens.

Solihull definitely reached a point this season where they said 'fuck it' and lost a lot of their better players - not just Dallas and Barnett, but Kelleher and Moulden left as well, plus several squad players. Weirdly they're actually in a better position now than they were in January with most of those players still there, although they won't make the play-offs. Sbarra will leave this summer and it'll be a bit a clearout they'll have had within 6 months ready to try and challenge again next season. As a lot have stated, next season looks very much up for grabs in the National League, there's no obvious title challengers bar whichever of Notts and Chesterfield don't go up through the play-offs (possibly both!) so I wouldn't rule out Solihull being up there again next time. Then you've got the likes of Daggers who I think can challenge but they're SO inconsistent. It'll be interesting to see what the bookies think if the league loses the current top two.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

I don't think Solihull scaled back, did they? They brought in Ryan Barnett and kept hold of Dallas and Sbarra in the summer...admittedly Dallas and Barnett have now gone elsewhere but I think that's a case of them just sacking off the rest of the season and shuffling the pack a bit. Unless I've missed something? I reckon they'll be bringing in players in the summer that they can't really afford again. They've brought Mark Beck in already. Woking seem to be going for it a bit too. Despite that though, I agree with what you're saying in that the division will be a bit weaker than the last few seasons if Wrexham and Notts go up. Chesterfield should be rubbing their hands next season if that happens.

As you say Dallas and Barnett went as did Reid. A few others went as well I think. Aren’t they having potential ground issues as well?

Even if they continue to have a healthy budget it’s going to be hard to get players with the quality of the first two.

It seems like they peaked last year. I’m not saying they or Fylde won’t be in the mix with the league looking open but they will both be weaker than when they were at their peak of their powers.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Solihull definitely reached a point this season where they said 'fuck it' and lost a lot of their better players - not just Dallas and Barnett, but Kelleher and Moulden left as well, plus several squad players. Weirdly they're actually in a better position now than they were in January with most of those players still there, although they won't make the play-offs. Sbarra will leave this summer and it'll be a bit a clearout they'll have had within 6 months ready to try and challenge again next season. As a lot have stated, next season looks very much up for grabs in the National League, there's no obvious title challengers bar whichever of Notts and Chesterfield don't go up through the play-offs (possibly both!) so I wouldn't rule out Solihull being up there again next time. Then you've got the likes of Daggers who I think can challenge but they're SO inconsistent. It'll be interesting to see what the bookies think if the league loses the current top two.

I think they wanted to keep Kelleher but we brought him back as we got a small fee from Colchester, crazy really as he’s garbage at FL level.

 

[Loyal Dale]

I disagree about you not be able to challenge next year.

The NL will potentially be at its weakest for quite some time if both Wrexham and Notts County go up.

For the first time in a long time there aren’t an hugely backed hobby clubs with Solihull seemingly scaling back this season and Fylde if they return not spending the huge amounts they were at one point. Ex league club wise two went up last season and then at least one if not two this.

That would leave Oldham, who have a terrible manager and have spent a lot of money putting together a not particularly great squad. Southend will never manage anything until they change owner and Chesterfield who would be promotion favourites under Cook.

You’ve got multiple players in your squad who have excelled in the NL previously and they are all still at a really good age. Decent managerial appointment and recruitment and can definitely see you in the top 5.

And there's the problem.

Dale don't have a sugar daddy or even decent crowds, so the decent players (Lloyd, Brierley and Mullarkey) will very likely be off elsewhere. This will leave us with the dross that Stockdale signed on 2 year deals and no real room to bring good replacements in.
Rochdale is a very poor (financially) town with a very large non local population who don't give a toss about the area they live in or it's team. Our support base is mainly elderly and dwindling.
Rather than maintaining our current crowds, I can forsee us attracting less than 2000 on a regular basis with season ticket numbers of less than 1500.

Really hope I'm wrong ...and better still; clinging to the hope of a miracle, but I can't honestly see us pulling it off.

 

[Optimistic Poolie]

3 wins for us will do it, including one away. We have to be targeting 3 points at Newport Saturday, I don't fancy us to get much from Salford and Stockport.

Unless Crawley win all 5 then likely what they do is immaterial if one of our 3 wins is against them at the Vic.

Don’t expect anything from Salford or Stockport away either, so we have to be heading to Newport to get no less than three points imo. They have nothing to play for and we should be well up for it.

I know they’ve got pumped last couple but Crawleys next two games worries me in Tranmere and Colchester.

This game on the 22nd is going to be huge

 

[Chief Rocka]

Don’t expect anything from Salford or Stockport away either, so we have to be heading to Newport to get no less than three points imo. They have nothing to play for and we should be well up for it.

I know they’ve got pumped last couple but Crawleys next two games worries me in Tranmere and Colchester.

This game on the 22nd is going to be huge

Salford and Stockport are both write offs for me, but saying that, who thought we'd come out of Northampton, Orient, Bradford, Stevenage with four draws, Askey came in at the start of a stinking run of games against promotion challengers and we're still unbeaten.

I think even a scabby draw at Newport wouldn't be a disaster for us, I'm very confident in us beating both Crawley and Barra at home.

Fancy Crawley to beat an already on the beach Tranmere, but Colchester will get them on the ropes and we'll knock fuck out of them the week after.

 

[RiftHouseLad]

Don’t expect anything from Salford or Stockport away either, so we have to be heading to Newport to get no less than three points imo. They have nothing to play for and we should be well up for it.

I know they’ve got pumped last couple but Crawleys next two games worries me in Tranmere and Colchester.

This game on the 22nd is going to be huge

Think Colchester can make themselves safe at creepy, Tranmere should have enough about them
Especially if a new Gaffa is on the way in.

 

[joethegill]

In theory Crawley's fixtures are exactly what you'd want in their position. A couple of 6 pointers and 3 sides on the beach

 

[Casey]

Anyone who saw our performance v Barrow will know the fight has gone from us....unless he gave the players some time off to recuperate and said sod it to that game...the lack of caring was palpable.

Unless we get some big players back sharpish we're toast. If we don't beat Colchester at home we don't deserve to stay up.

Casey

 

[dedwardp]

My main concern at the moment would be a bit of complacency - after Saturday there felt like a huge, collective sigh of relief almost that it had finally clicked for once, but I think we have the toughest fixture at the weekend and it wouldn't surprise me to be just a point ahead again going into the six-pointer at Crawley on Tuesday night.

I think we'll be either all but safe come 10pm on Tuesday, or massively in trouble.

 

[Kauto Star]

Anyone who saw our performance v Barrow will know the fight has gone from us....unless he gave the players some time off to recuperate and said sod it to that game...the lack of caring was palpable.

Unless we get some big players back sharpish we're toast. If we don't beat Colchester at home we don't deserve to stay up.

Casey

There was no lack of effort from your lot on Good Friday against us. You were all over us in the first 20 minutes of the first half

 

[Chief Rocka]

There was no lack of effort from your lot on Good Friday against us. You were all over us in the first 20 minutes of the first half

They actually have a decent home record which is worrying for us lot at the bottom, it's their abortion of an away that's keeping them down.

 

[Sestonpoolie]

Salford and Stockport are both write offs for me,

A month ago,I'd have agreed,but not now.
We're a match for any team in the league now.

 

[Casey]

There was no lack of effort from your lot on Good Friday against us. You were all over us in the first 20 minutes of the first half

Score and we give up.

I've honestly thought we were down since the January transfer window. A bit of hope when Mutch came in but we've been desperate for a centre forward and box to box midfielder and we didn't even try.

Casey

 

[Salvador]

My main concern at the moment would be a bit of complacency - after Saturday there felt like a huge, collective sigh of relief almost that it had finally clicked for once, but I think we have the toughest fixture at the weekend and it wouldn't surprise me to be just a point ahead again going into the six-pointer at Crawley on Tuesday night.

I think we'll be either all but safe come 10pm on Tuesday, or massively in trouble.

My mate has been going on for weeks saying "Colchester are the ones to aim for they'll get dragged into this". So we found it funny to see your massive win the other day.
Not that it's good for any of us if we go down but from the outside looking into ColU it could be a disaster with all your debt and losses. What's going on down there? I remember seeing some of your fans pissed off with the owners last year or so but i think that was more around over zealous covid rules than any financial issues.

 

[Salvador]

In theory Crawley's fixtures are exactly what you'd want in their position. A couple of 6 pointers and 3 sides on the beach

Crawley's are ideal. Ours are mostly horrific!

Bradford home. Going for promotion so need a win. We have already beaten them once though so who knows...
Tranmere home. On the beach. Hopefully another Walsall like win.
Stockport away. Promotion contenders need a win. We have an awful record v County. Nil points.
Sutton home. On the beach.
Harrogate away. They'll either need a win to stay up or they're safe already. If the latter, we're probs already down.


If we manage to crawl over the line after that I want a stand naming after Jim McNulty.

 

[Boz]

I don’t think Rovers are on the beach, as some still have contracts to play for. After The Cobblers, think we’re the worst hit by injuries in L2 8 experienced players out probably the rest of the season and a very small squad to begin with. A point from trips to Crawley and Rochdale at best.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Harrogate might be the team Pools have to aim for in this, after Tuesday's games they have Northampton, Newport, Mansfield all away, we need to be within three points of them still after the next round of games.

Gonna need a huge Colchester favour on Tuesday and somehow get something at Salford were I don't think we've ever won, simply must win our remaining two home games and try and scab anything away at the other two.

Commiserations to Rochdale who are all but done.

 

[Salvador]

So long League Two and the EFL! Bar an absolute miracle we are done and dusted. A few decent resukts prior to this means nowt given the shite beforehand.
I could handle losing today against a promotion contender. But when games are running out and results keep going against us its a shitter. The board really fucked us with Stockdale and Bentley. Here's hoping for even a slightly better season next year in NL and to one day return to the Rochdale Division.

 

[GTFCfish]

So long League Two and the EFL! Bar an absolute miracle we are done and dusted. A few decent resukts prior to this means nowt given the shite beforehand.
I could handle losing today against a promotion contender. But when games are running out and results keep going against us its a shitter. The board really fucked us with Stockdale and Bentley. Here's hoping for even a slightly better season next year in NL and to one day return to the Rochdale Division.

Commiserations, as a supporter of a team who’ve been down there twice I’ll let you know briefly what to expect, first season a bit of a novelty playing teams you’ve never played before but after that it pretty much turns into hell until you get out of there.
Best of luck though.

 

[Salvador]

it pretty much turns into hell until you get out of there.

Unless it's out in the same way as Scunny!