Exeter v Carlisle. M5/M6 Derby

[shoddycollins]

Sheridan's post match comments were a plus a least, in that he didn't shy away from the difficult admissions about our performance. Sometimes you only really find out what players are like when you see them in competitive action and Sheridan will have learned a lot about his team today. Didn't sound like a man unsure about where we need to do better.

 

[Luke Imp]

I've still not worked out what the crack is with Carlisle.

I mean, is there a money man that no longer wants to put his money in and is looking for a buyer, like a Newcastle situation where there's a stand-off?

Or a combination of things that are coming to a head? Supporters vs the Board kinda thing?

 

[hellogregory]

The board took over when we were 4th in league 1. Their vision was to see us in the conference. Once we’re there or lower, we’ll go part time, they’ll sell Brunton Park, line their pockets and build a 3,000 capacity non league ground.

Budget cuts in recent years, selling our valuable players for peanuts, or in some cases giving them away for nothing. It’s all part of the plan.

One of our owners was once quoted as saying “it would make a nice little non league club”. I don’t think he’s too far away from getting his dream.

 

[shoddycollins]

I've still not worked out what the crack is with Carlisle.

I mean, is there a money man that no longer wants to put his money in and is looking for a buyer, like a Newcastle situation where there's a stand-off?

Or a combination of things that are coming to a head? Supporters vs the Board kinda thing?

Well none of the current owners are money men, and from the day they took over some six years ago, they have presented themselves as custodians in temporary charge of the club, so presumably the club has been up for sale since that day, but you'd never know it. The anger directed at them is that they do things in old fashioned, old men in smoky wood-paneled rooms ways. All gentlemen's agreements, only willing to work with people like themselves and doing things with layers of confidentiality. It's not clear whether they're genuinely interested in find a new owner, there have been a number of times we've seemed close to selling but then it has fallen through for some unknown reason. Nixon and Pattinson in particular are probably only willing to sell provided they can be found some cushy high-status position within the club. In the meantime everything we do is so half-assed and too little too late.

 

[Carver]

The state of our ground says it all, bird shit everywhere never gets cleaned up, moss growing, scoreboard hasnt worked in ages, asbestos in roof which is falling to pieces over fans underneath, no bog roll in toilets, old match posters from previous seasons still up, terrible catering, ripped cusioned seats. I could go on...

Then there is the likes of Fylde FC in the conference whos club and ground is run far better than ours.

Teams like that WANT to be in the football league whereas we want to be non league but we cant because there is always teams shitter than us and we had a manager in Curle who was the only staff that actually give a shit.

 

[Luke Imp]

Well none of the current owners are money men, and from the day they took over some six years ago, they have presented themselves as custodians in temporary charge of the club, so presumably the club has been up for sale since that day, but you'd never know it. The anger directed at them is that they do things in old fashioned, old men in smoky wood-paneled rooms ways. All gentlemen's agreements, only willing to work with people like themselves and doing things with layers of confidentiality. It's not clear whether they're genuinely interested in find a new owner, there have been a number of times we've seemed close to selling but then it has fallen through for some unknown reason. Nixon and Pattinson in particular are probably only willing to sell provided they can be found some cushy high-status position within the club. In the meantime everything we do is so half-assed and too little too late.

Are they hanging around because they're taking a wage from the Club as well?

 

[cufc17]

No surprise at all that we lost yesterday, it’s gonna be a long, long season. I’ve said I don’t think we’ll go down, but with Sheridan saying only 1 more to come in (a defender) then we really could be in trouble, there’s an obvious lack of goals in the entire squad. Lose at home next weekend and he’ll be massively up against it.

 

[shoddycollins]

Are they hanging around because they're taking a wage from the Club as well?

I don't think they are. For Nixon it's just really a status thing, he's the managing director and league representative on the board of the FA, you'll see him among the FA officials handing out medals and shaking hands. One of the take-over bids over the past years included keeping him on the board as the nebulously titled 'director of external affairs' which is a fancy way of saying let him keep schmoozing the FA because he enjoys it. But that fell through.

Jenkins is the largest shareholder, 40% I think. He's been on the board of directors since the 1950's and has been the chairman for most of that. The fans do appreciate and respect all he has done for the club, he's put a lot of his own money in over the years and he is often excluded from calls to sack the board, though I think the size of his stake is a stumbling block when it comes to takeovers as he wouldn't want to just walk away with nothing.

Pattinson is just a bit of a knob. His local business is in trouble, he once told a fan to fuck off if they didn't like how things were at the club and other than the fact he had his company fix our floodlights for free a few years ago, nobody is entirely sure what he does or what sort of influence he has on proceedings.

On the surface there's nothing terrible there. No mad Bechetti or crooked Oyston types but there is a total lack of dynamism and ambition and they still control too much about what happens at the club, they've turned away prospective investment or take-overs that the fans have been keen on and not given adequate reasons why, and then there is the secrecy. They're old men who run the club the way you might have run a bank in the 40's. They appointed David Holdsworth as director of football in the summer but refused to acknowledge he had anything to do with the club, even though fans had seen him coming and going at the stadium.

 

[shoddycollins]

No surprise at all that we lost yesterday, it’s gonna be a long, long season. I’ve said I don’t think we’ll go down, but with Sheridan saying only 1 more to come in (a defender) then we really could be in trouble, there’s an obvious lack of goals in the entire squad. Lose at home next weekend and he’ll be massively up against it.

Surely you'd think with the freeing up of Stockton's wages and the sell-on fee from Bradford for Wyke there'd be room for a least assembling a realistic squad.

 

[Grecian O'Grecian]

Think we were good value for the win yesterday.

1st half we played really well and played some nice football. Carlisle halving the deficit was against the run of play but even then we had opportunities to add more goals before half time.

2nd half we couldn't really get going and Carlisle applied most of the pressure without really threatening our goal. Stockley should have really buried at least one of his chances in the second half but the third goal was a really good counter attack and finish from Abrahams.

A midfield of Law, Boateng, Taylor and Holmes gave us a real attacking threat which we lacked last season. Law especially was very good & Forte should be a really good partner for Stockley. Abrahams off the bench fit his description, quite raw but he'll work his socks off and has power and pace.

Good start and onto Morecambe.

 

[hellogregory]

Jesus fucking christ look at that second Exeter goal yesterday.

That is the worst defending I think I’ve ever seen. Even the most pessimistic side of me didn’t think I’d see us concede a goal as bad as that.

This squad (if you can call it that) has relegation written all over it.

 

[Sydney Posse]

Fantastic start for us. A lot of expectation and the manager / players must have been a bit nervous. Very confident 1st half performance and definitely deserved the win. Not sure what to make of Carlisle, not as bad as some have said on here in my view, played okay in patches in the 2nd half, but never really looked like properly getting back into it. Think we are going to be very good this year

 

[hellogregory]

It sounds exactly as many including myself predicted, we’ll look ok at times because we have some decent midfield players. But where it matters, at each end of the pitch, we’re shite. We are absolutely terrible at the back and toothless in attack.

All season we’ll be reading comments from opposing fans like the ones in this thread... e.g.

“Carlisle played ok in patches but never looked like getting back into it”

“Carlisle applied pressure without ever threatening”

“We had opportunities to add even more goals”

 

[Carver]

It sounds exactly as many including myself predicted, we’ll look ok at times because we have some decent midfield players. But where it matters, at each end of the pitch, we’re shite. We are absolutely terrible at the back and toothless in attack.

All season we’ll be reading comments from opposing fans like the ones in this thread... e.g.

“Carlisle played ok in patches but never looked like getting back into it”

“Carlisle applied pressure without ever threatening”

“We had opportunities to add even more goals”

I think we should join our owners in wanting to look down instead of up the leagues because losing is much easier and less expensive than winning right?

So the more we lose the happier we are!

Let's try and get to the bottom of the most bottom non league division there is.

 

[Luke Imp]

I don't think they are. For Nixon it's just really a status thing, he's the managing director and league representative on the board of the FA, you'll see him among the FA officials handing out medals and shaking hands. One of the take-over bids over the past years included keeping him on the board as the nebulously titled 'director of external affairs' which is a fancy way of saying let him keep schmoozing the FA because he enjoys it. But that fell through.

Jenkins is the largest shareholder, 40% I think. He's been on the board of directors since the 1950's and has been the chairman for most of that. The fans do appreciate and respect all he has done for the club, he's put a lot of his own money in over the years and he is often excluded from calls to sack the board, though I think the size of his stake is a stumbling block when it comes to takeovers as he wouldn't want to just walk away with nothing.

Pattinson is just a bit of a knob. His local business is in trouble, he once told a fan to fuck off if they didn't like how things were at the club and other than the fact he had his company fix our floodlights for free a few years ago, nobody is entirely sure what he does or what sort of influence he has on proceedings.

On the surface there's nothing terrible there. No mad Bechetti or crooked Oyston types but there is a total lack of dynamism and ambition and they still control too much about what happens at the club, they've turned away prospective investment or take-overs that the fans have been keen on and not given adequate reasons why, and then there is the secrecy. They're old men who run the club the way you might have run a bank in the 40's. They appointed David Holdsworth as director of football in the summer but refused to acknowledge he had anything to do with the club, even though fans had seen him coming and going at the stadium.

Sounds like you need a Supporters Board to have an input up there and get things rolling again.

Difficult to get out of a rut once you're in it.

 

[shoddycollins]

I think we should join our owners in wanting to look down instead of up the leagues because losing is much easier and less expensive than winning right?

So the more we lose the happier we are!

Let's try and get to the bottom of the most bottom non league division there is.

I don't personally buy into the conspiracy theories that our owners actually want us to be non-league. It's similar to the ones claiming that Nixon didn't want us promoted because he would lose his position with the FA (surely the same as if we got relegated).

I can't remember the entire context of the nice little non league club comment Jenkins made, and can't find the full quote, but I'm sure there was some content at the time. I think he was implying that we're playing above our level by being in the league, or suggesting we would stabilise in the Conference at a time when other clubs were going to the wall after relegation. Obviously a silly thing to say and a lack of ambition but I'm not sure it's as presented that he would actually prefer us to be non-league.

 

[shoddycollins]

Sounds like you need a Supporters Board to have an input up there and get things rolling again.

Difficult to get out of a rut once you're in it.

We do, but the problem is that their representatives on the board soon get lumped in with them, rightly or wrongly, and become subject to the same criticisms. The trust owns I think 25% of the club but is losing popularity among the fans. A couple of seasons ago they also appointed a fan's representative on the board, independent of the trust and voted for by all fans, not just trust members. But she quit after a year saying she was sick of having to sign confidentiality agreements all the time and not being able to report back to the fans who voted for her.

 

[Carver]

I don't personally buy into the conspiracy theories that our owners actually want us to be non-league. It's similar to the ones claiming that Nixon didn't want us promoted because he would lose his position with the FA (surely the same as if we got relegated).

I can't remember the entire context of the nice little non league club comment Jenkins made, and can't find the full quote, but I'm sure there was some content at the time. I think he was implying that we're playing above our level by being in the league, or suggesting we would stabilise in the Conference at a time when other clubs were going to the wall after relegation. Obviously a silly thing to say and a lack of ambition but I'm not sure it's as presented that he would actually prefer us to be non-league.

In our play off season Keith Curle said that someone or some people in the club did not want us to get promoted.

 

[shoddycollins]

In our play off season Keith Curle said that someone or some people in the club did not want us to get promoted.

I wouldn't necessary take that literally though, he was annoyed at the lack of ambition but whether they actually wanted for us to lose in the playoffs is another thing. Just sounds like the sort of thing people say, like when you ask HG whether he actually wants us to win.

 

[Carver]

Sounds like you need a Supporters Board to have an input up there and get things rolling again.

Difficult to get out of a rut once you're in it.

We do have a supporters trust and a fan representative on the board but they are just as useless and not arsed.

 

[Carver]

I wouldn't necessary take that literally though, he was annoyed at the lack of ambition but whether they actually wanted for us to lose in the playoffs is another thing. Just sounds like the sort of thing people say, like when you ask HG whether he actually wants us to win.

Lol

HG wants us to be like Brazil of 1970.

Anything less is unacceptable.

 

[shoddycollins]

The highlights make depressing watching. Doubt Exeter will have an easier game all season long, nice little training session for them. Grainger's FK definitely didn't cross the line, Didn't look like a foul in the run up to our goal, and at least Bennett took his header well, me and my mates listening on the radio had just assumed it must have bounced off him from a foot out.

 

[shoddycollins]

I think part of the problem with the board right now is that they're driving fans away from the club for the wrong reasons.

I say 'wrong' because it seems the majority of those on our forum are talking about not attending next week's home game, I don't know what percentage of regular attendees this translates to but the word 'boycott' is on a lot of people's lips around Carlisle. People are borrowing slogans from the likes of Blackpool and Orient, and ourselves when Knighton owned the club, not a penny more, forcing the owners out by cutting off their income, not wanting to 'line their pockets' and so on.

This can only backfire because for all the criticisms you can levy at the board, how they run the club, their lack of communication with fans sometimes veering towards contempt, the decline of the club since they took over, none of this makes them even remotely similar to those other owners.

Unless someone can prove otherwise then as far as anyone can say, the money that comes in via ticket sales is not being siphoned off to feather Nixon's pillow. It will be paying staff wages, going towards upkeep on the stadium and all the other costs. Philip Day is a canny businessman and I'm sure he wouldn't be anywhere near the club if he suspected that sort of thing was going on.

So starving the club financially is not going to force the owners to walk away and let someone else take over, as many of the fans seem to believe. Instead it will force them to tighten their belts even more, cut the footballing budget further and make the club a less attractive proposition for investors.

I just wonder how all these fans talking of boycotting will feel when instead of heralding a new era under new ownership, their actions just see the club fold and cease to exist?

 

[Carver]

I think part of the problem with the board right now is that they're driving fans away from the club for the wrong reasons.

I say 'wrong' because it seems the majority of those on our forum are talking about not attending next week's home game, I don't know what percentage of regular attendees this translates to but the word 'boycott' is on a lot of people's lips around Carlisle. People are borrowing slogans from the likes of Blackpool and Orient, and ourselves when Knighton owned the club, not a penny more, forcing the owners out by cutting off their income, not wanting to 'line their pockets' and so on.

This can only backfire because for all the criticisms you can levy at the board, how they run the club, their lack of communication with fans sometimes veering towards contempt, the decline of the club since they took over, none of this makes them even remotely similar to those other owners.

Unless someone can prove otherwise then as far as anyone can say, the money that comes in via ticket sales is not being siphoned off to feather Nixon's pillow. It will be paying staff wages, going towards upkeep on the stadium and all the other costs. Philip Day is a canny businessman and I'm sure he wouldn't be anywhere near the club if he suspected that sort of thing was going on.

So starving the club financially is not going to force the owners to walk away and let someone else take over, as many of the fans seem to believe. Instead it will force them to tighten their belts even more, cut the footballing budget further and make the club a less attractive proposition for investors.

I just wonder how all these fans talking of boycotting will feel when instead of heralding a new era under new ownership, their actions just see the club fold and cease to exist?

They have driven me away, I can make the game on Saturday but I am not going and not because i'm boycotting, but I just feel like if they don't care then how am I going to care? They have sapped almost all my interest in going to watch them and the only thing left in me is to come on here and moan a bit and even that is feeling quite lethargic now.

I just think why would I want to waste £20 of my hard earned money watching that shit, in a shit facility, that's run by shit, that doesn't even give a shit?

Our club right now is a total embarrassment to look at.

 

[shoddycollins]

They have driven me away, I can make the game on Saturday but I am not going and not because i'm boycotting, but I just feel like if they don't care then how am I going to care? They have sapped almost all my interest in going to watch them and the only thing left in me is to come on here and moan a bit and even that is feeling quite lethargic now.

I just think why would I want to waste £20 of my hard earned money watching that shit, in a shit facility, that's run by shit, that doesn't even give a shit?

Our club right now is a total embarrassment to look at.

People seem to be complaining a lot more about the ground now they're angry at the owners. It's in pretty much the same condition as it was ten years ago but back then it was cherished and just a bit rough around the edges. Now there's a whole thread on the forum about what a crumbling shit-hole it is.

With the right ownership you can make almost anything work.

 

[hellogregory]

Don’t blame you carver. I’m going but that’s because I stupidly committed to a season ticket so might as well. if I didn’t have one then I wouldn’t be bothering on Saturday.

 

[hellogregory]

People seem to be complaining a lot more about the ground now they're angry at the owners. It's in pretty much the same condition as it was ten years ago but back then it was cherished and just a bit rough around the edges. Now there's a whole thread on the forum about what a crumbling shit-hole it is.

With the right ownership you can make almost anything work.

I think when your team is decent on the pitch you can turn a blind eye to just about everything else.

But when they appear to not give 2 fucks about the state of the squad and results on the pitch, people get angry, worried and frustrated so look for every fault with the way they are running the club, and with these clowns there’s a whole catalog of faults to pick.

 

[Carver]

Don’t blame you carver. I’m going but that’s because I stupidly committed to a season ticket so might as well. if I didn’t have one then I wouldn’t be bothering on Saturday.

Seriously! you of all fans still buy a season ticket?

What were you expecting us to do this season like? lol

 

[shoddycollins]

Seriously! you of all fans still buy a season ticket?

What were you expecting us to do this season like? lol

The same as he's expected every season for the past twenty years to be like no doubt. I'd have HG down as one of the last to give up because if he's managed to keep going despite his low expectations for so long then one wonders what it would take to stop him.

 

[Carver]

The same as he's expected every season for the past twenty years to be like no doubt. I'd have HG down as one of the last to give up because if he's managed to keep going despite his low expectations for so long then one wonders what it would take to stop him.

Wow, that's a good point actually Shoddy.

Maybe if we were good by his standards? His whiney voice would no longer be heard.