League 2 relegation thread 14/15

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Adams has quit and his car was pelted with eggs apparently.

Football fans can be fucking moronic at times. Getting worked up enough over a relegation* to do that.

*I know they're not relegated yet but the point stands.

 

[shoddycollins]

I'm bricking it to be honest. I was born in '88. We were promoted to the 3rd tier in 1989 and the 2nd tier in 1991. I was less than a year old the last time we were at our current level. We've not been below that since the Third Division North was created (founder members). What the hell is in store for us?

Well it's changed a lot probably since we were there, but it's every bit a crap as everyone says it is. The Mansfield fans do seem to have a good perspective on it, some good points from them have been made in this thread.

When we went down our first game of the season was at home to Canvey Island... Jesus wept.

We picked up a point. That was tough... couldn't even beat a fairground.

And we'd been shit for years before we went down, so possibly lessened the blow. I did give it some thought while we were staring down the barrel this season, and it'll be the same thing for you (if... IF you go down)... this time last year we were both playing the likes of Wolves and Sheffield United.

 

[1884 Belmont]

Nothing official about Adams going yet but I hope to God that he has.

The right ITK's are all saying it - he's a gonner mate.

 

[1884 Belmont]

Well it's changed a lot probably since we were there, but it's every bit a crap as everyone says it is. The Mansfield fans do seem to have a good perspective on it, some good points from them have been made in this thread.

When we went down our first game of the season was at home to Canvey Island... Jesus wept.

We picked up a point. That was tough... couldn't even beat a fairground.

And we'd been shit for years before we went down, so possibly lessened the blow. I did give it some thought while we were staring down the barrel this season, and it'll be the same thing for you (if... IF you go down)... this time last year we were both playing the likes of Wolves and Sheffield United.

We were top of League 1 (Preston, Sheffield United et al) in January 2013. Bottom of the Football League April 2015.

 

[Bartonyellow]

2 games still to go though. last game is your realistic chance as i cant see you getting anything at Home Park. you will rely on others no doubt. no manager may work for you? ( maybe galvanises the team? )

 

[shoddycollins]

We were top of League 1 (Preston, Sheffield United et al) in January 2013. Bottom of the Football League April 2015.

Funnily enough I was at Rock Ferry station when the reality of being a non-league club hit home. It was during the summer following relegation and I was visiting a friend who was picking me up from the station. Being close to Prenton Park there was a bit Coca-Cola billboard beside the station. It was the year Coca-Cola started sponsoring the league (and they changed the names of the divisions) and it was that one where the Coca-Cola logo was in the colours of all 72 league clubs... so no Carlisle coloured one. It was a little thing but I had some time to ruminate over it while I waited for my lift.

 

[AdamStag]

Or by March you've got teams with six games in hand over other teams.

I mean that would never happen in the league unless you let someone truly tinpot like Crawley in.

We had 8 games in hand on newport in our promotion season. As you say, go figure

 

[shoddycollins]

We had 8 games in hand on newport in our promotion season. As you say, go figure

Crawley aren't safe in League One yet, so depending on how the last couple of games goes for them, along with how many gays get married in the run up to the rainy season you could be experiencing that sort of madness again sooner than you'd expected.

 

[1884 Belmont]

Funnily enough I was at Rock Ferry station when the reality of being a non-league club hit home. It was during the summer following relegation and I was visiting a friend who was picking me up from the station. Being close to Prenton Park there was a bit Coca-Cola billboard beside the station. It was the year Coca-Cola started sponsoring the league (and they changed the names of the divisions) and it was that one where the Coca-Cola logo was in the colours of all 72 league clubs... so no Carlisle coloured one. It was a little thing but I had some time to ruminate over it while I waited for my lift.

I bet it will hit me when the JPT draw is made.

 

[1884 Belmont]

2 games still to go though. last game is your realistic chance as i cant see you getting anything at Home Park. you will rely on others no doubt. no manager may work for you? ( maybe galvanises the team? )

Our coach has just come out and said "we can't handle the pressure of playing at home". So Bury probably ain't happening.

 

[Bartonyellow]

maybe you will win at Home Park then!

 

[Bartonyellow]

today was your golden chance. win and you would have been out the bottom two.

 

[shoddycollins]

I bet it will hit me when the JPT draw is made.

Funny thing is we still got to play in the JPT (or whatever it was called at the time) because there was a short period where they allowed Conference sides in.

It's not over yet though, the other two sides you're in the fight with are at least as bad... it's just they hold the higher ground going into the last couple of games. I wouldn't expect any favours from us though, we have a pretty poor record when it comes to finishing the season well once we've nothing left to play for.

 

[daviejones]

I reckon we'll stuff Hartlepool to be honest, could even be a rout if we take the lead and they realise that they're going down.

 

[dedwardp]

We were top of League 1 (Preston, Sheffield United et al) in January 2013. Bottom of the Football League April 2015.

This is what makes it so concerning to be honest, it's amazing how quickly things can change. Wouldn't be surprised if our team of kids are struggling in this thread in twelve months' time...

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

We were top of League 1 (Preston, Sheffield United et al) in January 2013. Bottom of the Football League April 2015.

Be thankful you've had the former. Many clubs experience the latter.

 

[T.A]

Only tinpot ones.

 

[LondonOrn]

I've read a lot of comments on here and its predecessor TFF (and also the Conference forum, wherever that has got to) about just how bad the Conference is for ex-league teams, but specifically what is it about that division which makes it worse than getting relegated to any other league higher up the pyramid? Apart from the usual factors, worse football, shit grounds, fewer home/away fans etc?

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

More melodrama mainly.

 

[hellogregory]

I bet it will hit me when the JPT draw is made.

When we went down, It hit me when the league cup first round draw was made before the season starts.

 

[Kim Mitten]

What is different is that there are now Mickey mouse clubs like forest green and Eastleigh who have money and can skew the league, added the fact you've got so many ex league clubs down there its really hard to get out of it.
.

Whoever the 1 of 3 are that avoid the Conference next season will be very very happy. Could be a nightmare trying to get out, not only with the current money of Eastleigh and FGR, but coming up are moneyed Bromley, one of moneyed Barrow of Fylde, the other most likely to win the playoffs. in the South playoffs is the possibility of $hitehawk, another team who would not struggle at the wrong end. Throw in Bristol Rovers, Barnet or Grimsby not going up and suddenly next season looks much trickier than many.

 

[hellogregory]

I think tranmere do need to sack Adams. He obviously isn't going to get results out of this group of players.

Sack him now, get a new guy in for one final roll of the dice.

 

[1884 Belmont]

Whoever the 1 of 3 are that avoid the Conference next season will be very very happy. Could be a nightmare trying to get out, not only with the current money of Eastleigh and FGR, but coming up are moneyed Bromley, one of moneyed Barrow of Fylde, the other most likely to win the playoffs. in the South playoffs is the possibility of $hitehawk, another team who would not struggle at the wrong end. Throw in Bristol Rovers, Barnet or Grimsby not going up and suddenly next season looks much trickier than many.

What do you class as 'moneyed' though? What would a typical Conference Budget be at the top end?

 

[1884 Belmont]

I think tranmere do need to sack Adams. He obviously isn't going to get results out of this group of players.

Sack him now, get a new guy in for one final roll of the dice.

He's already gone. He's resigned.

 

[shoddycollins]

specifically what is it about that division which makes it worse than getting relegated to any other league higher up the pyramid? Apart from the usual factors, worse football, shit grounds, fewer home/away fans etc?

For the fans the above things are massive. Because we were already on the mend as a club by the time we went down we saw it as a bit of a novelty at first but even then it wore off fast. With the exception of the promotion-chasing teams in League One, Leagues One and Two are much of a muchness really. The Conference is a much bigger drop in terms of what the fans experience, the sorts of places they visit etc. than League One to League Two. It's a psychological barrier too, you become a 'non-league' club, and to most of the national media become an irrelevance.

It's also a financial hit. Clubs in the conference get a lot less money, kind of like the drop from Premiership to Championship, but with no parachute payments. There are a number of different factors, but financially it's difficult for a League-sized club to support itself in the Conference, let alone mount a promotion push.

And with only two promotion places up for grabs, it's tough to get out of. You have to compete with bankrolled clubs because there are only two places, so all the pet projects can't go up into the League in the same season, and more and more keep coming up so the Conference is becoming a waiting room for clubs with more corporate sponsors than fans looking for promotion to the League.

And then every now and again you'll find yourself in the division with one of those clubs like Barnet or Torquay who have turned getting out of the conference into an art-form. So you're stuck trying to slog it out with a mix of money clubs and former league clubs like yourself for a play-off place, hoping you can keep the club financially solvent, and fend off the vultures like property developers who inevitably start to circle and all the while watching the fans becoming more and more disillusioned.

 

[hellogregory]

He's already gone. He's resigned.

For definite? I don't see anything official.

Good news for you if true. Someone else might just be able to drag a couple of performances out of your players.

Have to say I'm surprised at Adams, when you appointed him I was envious. He's the man I wanted us to get, he's proven at this level. Really strange how it's turned out.

 

[LondonOrn]

Noticed earlier that Tranmere can no longer even equal the number of points they went down with last season, in League ONE - that's absolutely shocking.

Sorry, but I don't see how they can stay up now playing two of the division's best home and away sides, unless they do something miraculous like Hereford three years ago (when they nearly escaped after getting 6 points out 6 against two automatic promotion-chasing sides) and both Cheltenham and Hartlepool slip up.

 

[1884 Belmont]

For definite? I don't see anything official.

Good news for you if true. Someone else might just be able to drag a couple of performances out of your players.

Have to say I'm surprised at Adams, when you appointed him I was envious. He's the man I wanted us to get, he's proven at this level. Really strange how it's turned out.

Several reliable sources are saying he's gone and it will be announced within 24 hours.

 

[Flaxman's Alibi]

The Conference is a strange beast. Nothing quite prepares you for it. You stumble in to it expecting the worst and within a few days it hits you right between the knackers that it's far worse than you'd ever anticipated.

You fall through that trapdoor with pre-existent notions. You'll piss this tinpot league. Then you'll find yourself 3 down away to Histon on a Friday night in front of an 800 gate (and 5000 on some satellite channel that nobody watches.)

Gone is the funding from the FL.
Gone are your half-baked 'fans' who ''won't watch non-league crap''.
Nobody will love you and nobody will care.
You'll have to take part in the ultra important FA Trophy, which will decimate your league fixtures; whilst pining for the JPT.
If you manage to actually survive, without having to form a Phoenix club, you'll return back to the league and be treated by all of your former contemporaries as ''that non-league club'' - talkSport recently called us a non-league yo-yo club after spending 85 of the last 90 years in the FL.

Though an odd thing happens whilst you don't even notice!

You discover just how really important your football club is to you and your community.
You discover an odd charm that goes with non-league (despite the infuriations that can go alongside it).
It can provide the almighty kick up the ring that your football club has needed.
And if you're really careless you can actually gain a care for a distinctly different type of level of football with a sort of humility about it.

It's not the scary beast that you think it shall be. Your club will still be alive and kicking (maybe only just). But when you eventually return back to the Football League you'll appreciate it far more for just what it is, and you'll also have found a new found respect and appreciation for a league that you previously scoffed at and never looked at its league table.

Nobody deserves to drop to the Conference - and Tranmere, Cheltenham and Hartlepool have my best wishes - but everybody deserves to sample it to really know the blood, bones and bollocks of their chosen team of gutless wonders.

Good luck to whoever the chosen two end up being.

 

[Kim Mitten]

What do you class as 'moneyed' though? What would a typical Conference Budget be at the top end?

About £1M+ i think. In the 2013/14 season FGR had the 2nd biggest budget behind Luton. I would expect that maybe only Bristol Rovers have a bigger budget than FGR and Eastleigh this season. Next season expect Bromley, Barrow, Fylde and Whitehawk (should they be promoted) to have top 10 budgets, they might even be top 6 depending on whether their owners want an immediate challenge top end . I don't know what Tranmere have budgeted this season but if you slip down you may well have to budget just as much or more to even compete for 5th.