Relegation Thread 23/24 Sponsored by Sadford City

[Tinpot and proud]

I'm amazed the fans haven't already turned on the owner...most clubs that have been run as poorly as ours over the last two years would have had fans protesting and calling for the board to be sacked...although, in our case, it is more of a dictator than a board.

Not only have they not turned....many cheer for him still....very cultish, now I don’t know wether I want to applaud that loyalty or give them a shake for their naivety.

 

[FGR-Star]

Not sure we'll bounce back at the first time of asking. We're in a bit of a mess behind the scenes from what I've heard. Going to be a chaotic summer (again).

If Cotterill walks which is possible then people will turn on Vince big time. The way we've been run over the last 2 years has been a joke.

What is the mess behind the scenes mate? Is Vince pulling his money out??

 

[Chris FGR]

I don't know what his longer term plans are, definitely seems less interested.

The main issue is that the leadership and communication are piss poor, most people working at the club aren't told what's going on if there are any issues/complaints, and then suddenly get told they're sacked the next minute. Huge turnover of staff and ones still there demoralised. We're on to our third ticket office manager this season, third head of matchday etc and people wonder why complaints never get dealt with. Never mind all the changes in coaching staff. Players taking the piss doesn't help, it's never them that lose their job.

We are basically run in an extremely incompetent way which is creating an environment where players don't care. Cotterill is starting to realise what a tough job this is, only hope is he doesn't decide to jack it in this summer.

 

[Essex2Wessex]

I think it's pretty clear that Dale's head has been turned by the prospects for high ranking public sector employment once his quasi-mates in the Labour Party come to power, as one imagines they will in the months ahead. They propose forming a nationalized "clean energy" company, and no doubt need a friendly and sort of trendy oligarch with relevant experience to head it up. No doubt DV would be a strong contender even without his extensive party donations serving as a reminder.

He has clearly taken his mind off the ball, more than it was ever on it (and when he was thinking of football it resulted in such genius moves as bringing in Troy Deeney anyway ...give us strength) so that may not be a bad thing. And the "spend our way out of every problem" approach, hardly compatible with the club's ostensibly "sustainable" or "ethical" approach at least has now been seen to fail, even if more humiliatingly so than is strictly necessary or desirable.

Meanwhile planning permission for houses on the site of TNL is being advanced. Maybe he will do for us, finally, what Steve Dale did for Bury.

In any case the only chants I hear about him or his favoured projects on the terraces begin with the f-word...

 

[Greenacres]

I have often wondered whether we are in a planned decline, a bit like when you decommission something like a nuclear power station, gradually running it down to a point where it can be safely turned off...which makes the potential sale of TNL even more worrying...didn't the same thing happen to Brighton a few years ago, they ended up playing home games in Gillingham for a couple of seasons before a saviour took them home again.

Dale made a bold statement about getting the club to the Championship and probably realised at an early stage last season that it was a completely crazy idea, when he saw the teams we would be up against for promotion. That league is generally home to larger teams with significantly larger resources than ourselves, grounds and supporter base to match...even the most deluded of our fans will come up with Burton being an example of a small team that made it to the Championship, yes they were well run and had a decent first team manager, but how long did they last there?

But do you know what really hacks me off about Dale, his assumption that everyone following the team has the same views and values as him...no we bloody well don't, Hamas are fucking terrorists, they are not freedom fighters!

Edit, I have removed some of the bad language, although this doesn't alter my views of Dale or what Hamas did last October.

 

[chief]

Reading the above and all jokes aside, I really don't hope it goes tits up for FGR. Their supporters don't deserve that and neither do the staff (players aside).

Before Dale Vince, Forest Green were a cracking non-league club with reasonable support at that level. If things go wrong there under Vince, I hope that's remembered rather than the hated club they became.

 

[womble76]

Bad news for bottom 3 with grimsby one up

 

[JaredSUFC]

Sutton are out of the bottom 2 for the first time since August.

It’s going to be an interesting April. I hope my heart can take it

 

[womble76]

Colchester have games in land but look incapable of winning them

 

[JaredSUFC]

Bad news for bottom 3 with grimsby one up

Bradford’s late equaliser combined with Colchester only picking up a point at Tranmere means that Sutton are the big winners this bank holiday weekend.

Shame we’ve got Stockport next weekend really

 

[JaredSUFC]

Colchester have games in land but look incapable of winning them

Colchester’s games in hand are Stockport, Grimsby and Doncaster.

Perhaps my bias and hope are speaking here, but that’s not an overly worrying set of fixtures from a Sutton perspective.

Of course this is reliant on Sutton maintaining our current form….

 

[Son of Cod]

Bradford’s late equaliser combined with Colchester only picking up a point at Tranmere means that Sutton are the big winners this bank holiday weekend.

Shame we’ve got Stockport next weekend really

Are we allowed to be annoyed at that SCANDALOUS penalty decision you got against us yet? More refereeing incompetence has cost us again today. Should be sitting on 44 points and 5 ahead of you but here we are only 1ahead.

 

[JaredSUFC]

Are we allowed to be annoyed at that SCANDALOUS penalty decision you got against us yet? More refereeing incompetence has cost us again today. Should be sitting on 44 points and 5 ahead of you but here we are only 1ahead.

Don’t make me get the photo of the ball clearly making contact with the Grimsby defenders arm again….

 

[Son of Cod]

Don’t make me get the photo of the ball clearly making contact with the Grimsby defenders arm again….

A single frame picture proves absolutely nothing. Again though, the non-incident wasn't the scandalous part of it.

Sutton's form has been absolutely superb, lots of credit deserved there but if we end up in a position whereby we go down and you stay up and there's a point or two in it then we'll have been completely diddled out of our place in the EFL.

 

[chipmunx]

A single frame picture proves absolutely nothing. Again though, the non-incident wasn't the scandalous part of it.

Sutton's form has been absolutely superb, lots of credit deserved there but if we end up in a position whereby we go down and you stay up and there's a point or two in it then we'll have been completely diddled out of our place in the EFL.

every team can say that about at least 1 big result. We can say it about Stockport away and the Knoyle non red card that could have got us 3 more points - but as the saying goes things do tend to even up over a season.... so stop moaning and win a couple of games....

 

[クレイグ]

A single frame picture proves absolutely nothing. Again though, the non-incident wasn't the scandalous part of it.

Sutton's form has been absolutely superb, lots of credit deserved there but if we end up in a position whereby we go down and you stay up and there's a point or two in it then we'll have been completely diddled out of our place in the EFL.

Luck works both ways though. Like your only chance of the game which went in due to a deflection.

Think you'll stay up mate and hope you do.

 

[Son of Cod]

every team can say that about at least 1 big result. We can say it about Stockport away and the Knoyle non red card that could have got us 3 more points - but as the saying goes things do tend to even up over a season.... so stop moaning and win a couple of games....

Yes but that decision didn't have EFL survival riding on it and you haven't already gone down to the NL twice in the last 15 years. And Knoyle's non-red card wasn't a decision made by a lino trying to take centre stage after being dressed down by the ref earlier in the match. You're also referring to a game in August, which isn't comparable to a 6 pointer in mid-March.

Me moaning about it of course has absolutely no bearing on whether we win games either so I will continue to whinge about this until the Sutton fans take ownership of WHAT THEY DID, thank you very much.

 

[JaredSUFC]

A single frame picture proves absolutely nothing. Again though, the non-incident wasn't the scandalous part of it.

Sutton's form has been absolutely superb, lots of credit deserved there but if we end up in a position whereby we go down and you stay up and there's a point or two in it then we'll have been completely diddled out of our place in the EFL.

Personally I would lay blame more on my team’s inability to beat an utterly mediocre opponent on the day in question rather than anything else, if that hypothetical scenario does play out.

 

[Son of Cod]

Personally I would lay blame more on my team’s inability to beat an utterly mediocre opponent on the day in question rather than anything else, if that hypothetical scenario does play out.

Too rational.

 

[JaredSUFC]

Yes but that decision didn't have EFL survival riding on it and you haven't already gone down to the NL twice in the last 15 years. And Knoyle's non-red card wasn't a decision made by a lino trying to take centre stage after being dressed down by the ref earlier in the match.

Me moaning about it of course has absolutely no bearing on whether we win games either so I will continue to whinge about this until the Sutton fans take ownership of WHAT THEY DID, thank you very much.

Cool, can I moan about every officiating decision which I incorrectly believe led to my team’s current precarious situation?

 

[JaredSUFC]

Too rational.

It’s something new I’m trying out.

 

[Chris FGR]

Crucial win for us today, if we hadn't won we were as good as gone.

Can see Sutton getting another 4-5 points from their fixtures, Colchester about 6 and Grimsby possibly more, if they find any sort of form. So 45 points is probably the target for safety, which means we need 3 wins out of our last 5, 4 of which are against promotion contenders. At least the Notts game looks a banker.

 

[PaulHaddock]

It’s not the form of others that is the worry for me - we are just going backwards again and having 1 meaningful shot against a not arsed Bradford just shows we are not capable. Newport been handed their arses 4-0 today but you can guarantee we will concede at least 1 sloppy goal on Saturday whilst struggling to put any chances together.

Sorry FGR lads but I don’t see you guys as the worry, it’s Sutton now - luckily three of their games are against promotion chasers but I worry that MK Dons will rest players on the final day.

So so depressed with football today.

 

[BarraMatt]

Battle has been the tightest all season, looking at the table you can't predict with any confidence who's going to go down.

 

[gary]

Got to give Sutton credit. Looking at their fixtures I still think they will get relegated. However I hope they stay up as it's a local game for us at Wimbledon. The league is northern enough as it is .

 

[The Jovial Forester]

I think it's pretty clear that Dale's head has been turned by the prospects for high ranking public sector employment once his quasi-mates in the Labour Party come to power, as one imagines they will in the months ahead. They propose forming a nationalized "clean energy" company, and no doubt need a friendly and sort of trendy oligarch with relevant experience to head it up. No doubt DV would be a strong contender even without his extensive party donations serving as a reminder.

He has clearly taken his mind off the ball, more than it was ever on it (and when he was thinking of football it resulted in such genius moves as bringing in Troy Deeney anyway ...give us strength) so that may not be a bad thing. And the "spend our way out of every problem" approach, hardly compatible with the club's ostensibly "sustainable" or "ethical" approach at least has now been seen to fail, even if more humiliatingly so than is strictly necessary or desirable.

Meanwhile planning permission for houses on the site of TNL is being advanced. Maybe he will do for us, finally, what Steve Dale did for Bury.

In any case the only chants I hear about him or his favoured projects on the terraces begin with the f-word...

Dale is in the middle of another divorce too, by all accounts from my local contacts on my jaunt home just, which will explain some of the distraction.

 

[Gunit]

Another good win. Should have really put 6 or 7 on Swindon. We’ve had a good run but it’s got to be remembered we’ve played the worst (current) sides in the league as part of this batch of wins - Notts C, FGR, Swindon and Accrington. Add Salford who aren’t setting it alight and you can see how it has come together. That said it’s not easy to put them all away and indeed we’ve struggled all year to get over the line in games. We now go with confidence into a tougher run. I think we have to get a shock win against Stockport to stay up. I wouldn’t yet put our chances at more than 15% given our run in. We need MK in the play offs and not going for autos on the last day and to be in with a chance - I’d take that right now. Still don’t think either Grimsby or Colchester bad enough to lose enough.

 

[dedwardp]

I would have taken four points this weekend going into Friday, and I thought these were Sutton's two most winnable remaining fixtures so, even though we've now dropped into the bottom two, I don't think we can be too disheartened with the weekend really.

We now have our trickiest three games left coming up back to back, with Wrexham and Stockport next weekend before a trip to Crawley. Four points from those three games would bring us up to 1ppg before finishing the season with three home games from four. A surprise win at home to either Wrexham or Stockport would be a huge boost if we can get it.

 

[Chris FGR]

Dale is in the middle of another divorce too, by all accounts from my local contacts on my jaunt home just, which will explain some of the distraction.

Wonder if his missus will get half the club in the divorce settlement then....

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Wonder if his missus will get half the club in the divorce settlement then....

She's really nice if what relatives who met her at school gate say, so we might get lucky.