Match Day March 7th games

[Luke Imp]

It must have been quite a grip Gowling had on his neck as well, so tight that it made his legs buckle from underneath him.

Grimsby fans seemed to think Rhead going down got the sending off and penalty but you can't grab people around the throat at a set piece and not be penalised and sent off!

Seriously though, I thought non-league would be more honest than it is. I wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of niggly fouls, gamesmanship, diving, simulation and other general unsportsmanlike behaviour - it's on another level to anything I've seen before (excluding maybe Martin Allen's Notts County from a few years back). I know we have one or two players that could be accused of some of those things - we're certainly not the innocent party - but it's so widespread in this league it's ridiculous, and it ruins entire games. The refs are paid peanuts, so the league gets monkeys who can't cope. I thought I'd enjoy it down here, at least for a season or two, but it's purgatory.

That's one of the things we found in our first season down here. The gamesmanship was worse than anything in the FL. Down here, first and foremost, teams want to stop you playing whereas generally speaking in the FL, they'd fancy their chances playing their own game. The little niggly things, players throwing themselves around and exaggerating tackles, getting in the refs face etc. It's a case of 'if you can't beat them, join them'

It's not aided by refs, but you get the impression that it's just the norm for them seeing the sort of stuff you didn't in the FL.

I can remember playing Accrington in their first season in the L2 and some of the stuff they were doing was criminal with Paul Mullin at the heart of it and backed up by a young Andy Mangan and Jay Harris. They were basically assaulting players for 90 minutes.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

I'm just fed up and venting, and at the end of my tether with Tranmere. It's been year upon year upon decade of decline, and watching yet another inexplicable refereeing decision turn the game on a open terrace in the miserable pissing rain at Barrow on a Tuesday night with barely 1,000 other people and a food van with NO PIES might have been my breaking point. Yeah, my toys are well and truly out of the pram. Wah.

Jesus, wait til you've been here as long as Wrexham and us.

 

[rudebwoyben]

To be fair to Rhead he's not as bad as Akinde was. Diving his way to promotion.

Behave. Go on, give us examples. Anyway, why should you be so bothered either way, seeing that you did the double over us.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

I know what you mean, though. When we got relegated it felt like crap, but I tried to comfort myself with the thought that it would be fun; we'd get to visit new grounds, characterful little places with sun-drenched terraces and a clubhouse selling beer for £1.50 a pint. We'd turn up and outnumber the home fans, steamroller their team of plucky part-timers and be back in the league in a couple of seasons. Instead I seem to have spent most of my time on bitterly cold, rain-soaked open terraces in commuter towns around the M25, watching us struggling to even grind out a draw on a Tuesday night (the original game was postponed because of the FA Trophy or the appalling state of the opposition's pitch). As the cynical part-timers dive around and use every dirty trick in the book to get ahead, the realisation slowly reaches me that we're not getting out any time soon. It's taken us five years to learn how to get out of this shithole and I now view anything Matt Rhead does as perfectly normal. You really do become desensitized.

 

[localhero]

Jesus, wait til you've been here as long as Wrexham and us.

I'll have topped myself if we're down here as long as Wrexham have been.

 

[Master D]

Down here, first and foremost, teams want to stop you playing whereas generally speaking in the FL, they'd fancy their chances playing their own game. The little niggly things, players throwing themselves around and exaggerating tackles, getting in the refs face etc. It's a case of 'if you can't beat them, join them'

And that's exactly what Lord Cowley has instilled in your team, which is not a criticism by the way. And as we've been down here for 35 seasons now, I can tell you it's the proven way of being successful. You're not exactly approaching Crawley 2011 levels but it's still effective. FGR have always had good players but their gamesmanship/snideness is too blatant to work, they tend to just lose their heads and get sent off instead. They need to be looking for more cunning levels of shithousery.

 

[Mark kavanagh]

I quite enjoy this division to be honest, not being treated like a criminal by the police, unsegregated supporters where we can chat and communicate with ordinary human beings both inside the grounds and in the pub, loads of new grounds and new friends like south park and maidstone.... i would love to go up but its not the end of the world if we Dont.

To be fair to lincoln and wrexham they probably felt the same in their second season and my opinions may change

 

[Pablosammy]

...I tried to comfort myself with the thought that it would be fun; we'd get to visit new grounds, characterful little places with sun-drenched terraces and a clubhouse selling beer for £1.50 a pint...Instead I seem to have spent most of my time on bitterly cold, rain-soaked open terraces in commuter towns around the M25, watching us struggling to even grind out a draw on a Tuesday night (the original game was postponed because of the FA Trophy or the appalling state of the opposition's pitch). As the cynical part-timers dive around and use every dirty trick in the book to get ahead, the realisation slowly reaches me that we're not getting out any time soon

This is exactly what I wanted! It was incredibly depressing when I discovered that Boreham Wood wasn't an adorable little club situated in magical picture postcard hamlet with a stream and a working water wheel...a fog of chimney smoke descending in the cool evening air...the local postman ringing the bell on his old pushbike while cycling over a photogenic stone bridge as we stumble out of the thatched local pub with its roaring open fire, ale in tankards, and a live folk band...dads and lads with wooden clackers and stripy scarves, and a half time gurning competition...

Was that really too much to ask?!

 

[Silver Stone]

This is exactly what I wanted! It was incredibly depressing when I discovered that Boreham Wood wasn't an adorable little club situated in magical picture postcard hamlet with a stream and a working water wheel...a fog of chimney smoke descending in the cool evening air...the local postman ringing the bell on his old pushbike while cycling over a photogenic stone bridge as we stumble out of the thatched local pub with its roaring open fire, ale in tankards, and a live folk band...dads and lads with wooden clackers and stripy scarves, and a half time gurning competition...

Was that really too much to ask?!

Ferriby is like that isn't it?

 

[GTFCfish]

I quite enjoy this division to be honest, not being treated like a criminal by the police, unsegregated supporters where we can chat and communicate with ordinary human beings both inside the grounds and in the pub, loads of new grounds and new friends like south park and maidstone.... i would love to go up but its not the end of the world if we Dont.

To be fair to lincoln and wrexham they probably felt the same in their second season and my opinions may change

I gets worse after the 2nd or 3rd play off failure, that's when it really hit home for me that sense of dread thinking I cannot take another one of these.
The worst one for me was Gateshead as I really thought that that was our year as I didn't fear any of the teams in the play offs that year (Grimsby Gateshead Cambridge and Halifax) and I was certain that whoever we got in Semi's and Final we would beat, before it all unravelled in the Semi.

 

[CrazyImp]

This division is a terrible experience, no debating it. We were all warned about the impending cold Tuesday night defeats to clubs like Alfreton, Nuneaton, Woking and the like, but you never quite truly believe it until it actually happens. Awful manager after awful manager.

Before this season, we hadn't even finished in the top half. It seems like a beautiful, emotional thing to think that our first game in this hellhole will also potentially be our last, six years of (mainly) pain later. (Southport away)

 

[Chris FGR]

I gets worse after the 2nd or 3rd play off failure, that's when it really hit home for me that sense of dread thinking I cannot take another one of these.

Know what you mean tbf, felt the same after the play off final last year.

 

[rudebwoyben]

We seem to have found the magic formula for getting promoted out of this league quickly!

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Twenty glorious years!

 

[GTFCfish]

Know what you mean tbf, felt the same after the play off final last year.

The morning of the final I was all happy and relaxed mooching around London with the family but then as soon as I left my wife and daughter in that shopping arcade near Wembley and started walking with my lad to Wembley the dread and apprehension kicked in and I was just convinced we were gonna lose because of what had happened against Bristol Rovers the year before.
All the build up before the game I was just stood there biting my nails and then when we missed those 1st half chances with Bogle's header and Arnold hitting the post it felt even worse and it got to where I started to wish I wasn't there as the thought of losing again was unbearable. The only time I started to relax again was when those 2 quick fire goals went in but then again when you got it back to 2-1 i went back to full blown panic mode.
It obviously then turned into one of the greatest days I've ever had but it could so easily have ended up different.