Saturday 16th December

[LancashireTrotters]

*Comment removed by mod*

Are you ill?

Cheerio, enjoy the school holidays.

 

[AdamStag]

Are you ill?

Cheerio, enjoy the school holidays.

Cheers for that pal, i’m sure everyone would be unanimous in saying “good riddance” or something along those lines

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

A lot of the league sides who go down struggle as they normally have ownership issues, or something behind the scenes. For us, we got penalised by the 10 point penalty for entering admin (we had to so we could save the club from property developers) and not really recovered. Another 15 years or so later and we as fans were running the club, but ultimately couldn't compete with clubs like FGR or Salford as they could offer more in wages than what we could.

Luton were just unlucky the few times they missed out on autos, but eventually won the league quite comfortably.

 

[ForzaCounty]

You haven't. Chesterfield are coming up and surely welcome to post in the L2 forum?

That depends on if they still do that "f#&% off aaaaarrhh we are the tarn aaarrrh" song, if so then they're not welcome back at all

 

[Bottega Don]

The conference makes me shudder let alone the idea of the conference north - shame as i quite liked scunthorpe for some reason (sorry) but they were doing alright when i last looked at it appears that dodgy owner has gone?

Yeah dodgy owner is now gone, we're owned by a local consortium and own the ground again.

This season has been the most enjoyable year following Scunny for many years, I really like being in the NLN.

Been really impressed with the quality as well considering the majority of teams aren't full-time, there's some really good players

 

[spireite]

Grimes will be solid enough backup, but if you're only playing two CBs you'd be better off with two mobile ones from the off. We had Waterfall last season alongside Andy Smith and it was fine in the main, but Waterfall did get caught out a fair few times. Grimes is probably on a level with the Waterfall we got promoted with. Is King still your right back? Not sure he's up to it at this level either from what I've seen. Your midfield and attack are probably good to go already with minor tweaks though which will serve you well. Interested to see how Colclough does back in the EFL, always struck me as one that's has the ability all along but just not the right application. Seeing him do well at you lot makes you think he's wasted quite a bit of his career.

You might be right with Grimes, but I'd be astonished if he wouldn't be up to L2 provided there's someone mobile alongside (that's not to say Grimes is slow, he's actually surprisingly quick). Palmer and Williams would both panic me greatly, it's one position we'd need to improve should we go up. A bonafide football league right back the other, and possibly a left back, but we'll see on that. You get the idea though, defense needs levelling up. He deserves a chance too does Grimes, he's been a great servant. I think he's nearly 100 90 minutes on the bounce now or something, warrior.
Colclough has lots of ability but his problem has been outside of football. I think he ended up in the NL because he kept beating people up. Went to court a few times. Think that's all behind him now though hopefully, family man, all grown up. Nothing like 3am feeds and 10 nappy changes a day to make you too knackered to chin c***

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Yeah dodgy owner is now gone, we're owned by a local consortium and own the ground again.

This season has been the most enjoyable year following Scunny for many years, I really like being in the NLN.

Been really impressed with the quality as well considering the majority of teams aren't full-time, there's some really good players

How’s Kian Scales getting on? We never really give youth a chance but it’s still always good to see them do well when the fly the nest.

 

[AdamStag]

Yeah dodgy owner is now gone, we're owned by a local consortium and own the ground again.

This season has been the most enjoyable year following Scunny for many years, I really like being in the NLN.

Been really impressed with the quality as well considering the majority of teams aren't full-time, there's some really good players

Sometimes you’ve got to plumb those depths for you to have your club again, especially when the “fit and proper persons test” (or whatever it’s dolled up as now) isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

It could happen to anyone and even when you’re fortunate enough to have really decent owners (like ours) it’s only 1 sale away from a potential disaster - fans should be careful what they wish for.

I’m sure if you get back in the conference you’ll start heading in the right direction there too!

 

[spireite]

A lot of the league sides who go down struggle as they normally have ownership issues, or something behind the scenes. For us, we got penalised by the 10 point penalty for entering admin (we had to so we could save the club from property developers) and not really recovered. Another 15 years or so later and we as fans were running the club, but ultimately couldn't compete with clubs like FGR or Salford as they could offer more in wages than what we could.

Luton were just unlucky the few times they missed out on autos, but eventually won the league quite comfortably.

I think that's it. Proper clubs 99/100 get relegated from L2 due to things being shit at the top. It takes a change of ownership (however long that takes to happen), which is often acrimonious and messy and then a period of stableisation before they're ready to come back, and there's loads of decent well run clubs at the level waiting to smack you whilst you sort all that out. Usually takes a good few years. Injection of cash from a rich new owner surprisingly really helps

 

[Bottega Don]

How’s Kian Scales getting on? We never really give youth a chance but it’s still always good to see them do well when the fly the nest.

He's brilliant, played almost every minute except for when he got a red. Essentially does the running of two CM's to allow Jacob Butterfield to run the show

Wouldn't be surprised if a few L2 teams were sniffing in Jan

 

[WilsdenBantam]

He's brilliant, played almost every minute except for when he got a red. Essentially does the running of two CM's to allow Jacob Butterfield to run the show

Wouldn't be surprised if a few L2 teams were sniffing in Jan

Good to hear two Bradford lads pulling the strings in midfield. Hope to see you back in the league soon, enjoyed our scraps when fighting to get into the championship it’s scary to think that wasn’t even long ago.

 

[Son of Cod]

So can I just check with everyone...the general consensus is that Chesterfield won't find some new and hilarious/controversial/tragic way to mess the title/promotion up this season? I feel like anyone saying yes, is doing them a disservice in that department.

You might be right with Grimes, but I'd be astonished if he wouldn't be up to L2 provided there's someone mobile alongside (that's not to say Grimes is slow, he's actually surprisingly quick). Palmer and Williams would both panic me greatly, it's one position we'd need to improve should we go up. A bonafide football league right back the other, and possibly a left back, but we'll see on that. You get the idea though, defense needs levelling up. He deserves a chance too does Grimes, he's been a great servant. I think he's nearly 100 90 minutes on the bounce now or something, warrior.
Colclough has lots of ability but his problem has been outside of football. I think he ended up in the NL because he kept beating people up. Went to court a few times. Think that's all behind him now though hopefully, family man, all grown up. Nothing like 3am feeds and 10 nappy changes a day to make you too knackered to chin c***

Yeah, don't get me wrong mate. Grimes will be okay at this level but if you're playing a back four then you may as well skip the season whereby you try and tell yourselves that he's good enough to play in a side that want to be serious challengers. The deserves a chance thing is a dangerous mindset too, as one of the Notts lot touched upon a few days ago. It's easy to fall into that trap, but you need to be a bit brutal in terms of letting go of players that have served you well at NL level in my opinion. That's a ridiculous amount of football from Grimes though, absolutely obscene. Fair play. You might well be right about him too, you know him way better than I do. It just seems like you're essentially us and Luke Waterfall at any point over the last year and a half.

 

[ForzaCounty]

They'll come up, but it'll turn out they were paying players extra with brown envelopes again, or summat

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

Or playing with extra covid funds that they've claimed or whatever. I've found since us and Notts have left, that division is left with a load of dross. Still be fairer in the whole of the footballing pyramid to get the 3 up 3 down though.

 

[OneDecentLester]

So can I just check with everyone...the general consensus is that Chesterfield won't find some new and hilarious/controversial/tragic way to mess the title/promotion up this season? I feel like anyone saying yes, is doing them a disservice in that department.

Yeah, don't get me wrong mate. Grimes will be okay at this level but if you're playing a back four then you may as well skip the season whereby you try and tell yourselves that he's good enough to play in a side that want to be serious challengers. The deserves a chance thing is a dangerous mindset too, as one of the Notts lot touched upon a few days ago. It's easy to fall into that trap, but you need to be a bit brutal in terms of letting go of players that have served you well at NL level in my opinion. That's a ridiculous amount of football from Grimes though, absolutely obscene. Fair play. You might well be right about him too, you know him way better than I do. It just seems like you're essentially us and Luke Waterfall at any point over the last year and a half.

So on the first part, if we’re still looking as comfortable at the top of the table by the end of January as we are now, then that’s when I’ll start to really believe that this year is finally our year. Until then, far too battle scarred from the previous couple of years getting so close to fall into that trap again!

Second part, I’ve already mentioned on this thread earlier about Cooks recruitment being one of his biggest strengths as a manager, he will be as ruthless as he needs to be I’m sure. He knows more than most what’s required to be successful at L2 level (IF we get the job done of course).

 

[AdamStag]

So on the first part, if we’re still looking as comfortable at the top of the table by the end of January as we are now, then that’s when I’ll start to really believe that this year is finally our year. Until then, far too battle scarred from the previous couple of years getting so close to fall into that trap again!

Second part, I’ve already mentioned on this thread earlier about Cooks recruitment being one of his biggest strengths as a manager, he will be as ruthless as he needs to be I’m sure. He knows more than most what’s required to be successful at L2 level (IF we get the job done of course).

I mean altrincham are 4th.

If you don’t get out this year you never will, you’ve beaten 2 league 1 sides at home in the fa cup so can show what you can do. You went straight from league 1 through league 2 to the conference, no reason why you can’t do the opposite way.

As i’ve said previously, you only get up once you admit you’re non-league in the first place to get up. No offence but hope there’s no derby next season though

 

[OneDecentLester]

Or playing with extra covid funds that they've claimed or whatever. I've found since us and Notts have left, that division is left with a load of dross. Still be fairer in the whole of the footballing pyramid to get the 3 up 3 down though.

Lazy opinion IMO. There’s a huge misconception about the league this year that just because there are less big clubs with big resources in the league than there have been over last few years, that it’s suddenly had a major drop off in quality, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Far more ‘technical’ sides doing well this year than even last season. Only have to look at the current top 7 for example, all of those sides (with the possible exception of Solihull as I haven’t seen them play yet) have improved from last season, and all get the ball down & play good football whilst winning more often than not. Yes believe it or not, even Bromley are trying to get it down and play a bit more this year, ans they’re doing very well tbf to them as much as I absolutely despise them. Compare that to last years final top 7, which included likes of Boreham Wood & Woking who were about as far away from ‘footballing’ sides as you could get and definitely didn’t have anywhere near the quality some of the current top 7 have (only have to look at how both of them have faired this year too) !! I also think the eventual bottom 4 this year will be a lot stronger than last years bottom 4. No whipping boys this year unfortunately, unlike last few years with the likes of Maidstone, Dover, Scunthorpe, Weymouth, Chorley etc…

As I say, all just my opinion of course.

 

[OneDecentLester]

I mean altrincham are 4th.

If you don’t get out this year you never will, you’ve beaten 2 league 1 sides at home in the fa cup so can show what you can do. You went straight from league 1 through league 2 to the conference, no reason why you can’t do the opposite way.

As i’ve said previously, you only get up once you admit you’re non-league in the first place to get up. No offence but hope there’s no derby next season though

Your first point is exactly what I’m alluding too in my last post regarding the misconception of small clubs in the NL not being good teams. I know you probably made the comment slightly tongue in cheek, but Altrincham are actually a very good side especially at their place. Conn Clarke is a match winner for them and would be just as effective in L2 IMO, he is pure quality.

I very much agree with you that if we don’t do it this year we best get bloody comfortable down here cos it’ll never happen if not haha, especially with the points tally we’ve built so far.

You’re going well this year you lot, surely Clough has got to get the job done this year… Tbh I think you probably will (I’ve got everything crossed that you don’t, of course )

 

[AdamStag]

Your first point is exactly what I’m alluding too in my last post regarding the misconception of small clubs in the NL not being good teams. I know you probably made the comment slightly tongue in cheek, but Altrincham are actually a very good side especially at their place. Conn Clarke is a match winner for them and would be just as effective in L2 IMO, he is pure quality.

I very much agree with you that if we don’t do it this year we best get bloody comfortable down here cos it’ll never happen if not haha, especially with the points tally we’ve built so far.

You’re going well this year you lot, surely Clough has got to get the job done this year… Tbh I think you probably will (I’ve got everything crossed that you don’t, of course )

We’re a cautious bunch us lot, something clough has had a go at us previously, there’s always some clusterfuck round the corner in our heads, maybe that’s what’s led to how we’re been in previous seasons.

As for mansfield we’ve got some decent depth and we’re fortunate enough to have a decent respected manager who has the players running through walls for him, days of where home ends (though still with 2 home stands) selling out a week before the game would’ve been unheard of. That this is “the season” clough going for it involves a tough tough league isn’t ideal.

I genuinely believe covid (however awful it was for a number of reasons) was a real reset for football and football fans, crowds were up for most clubs.

You’ve more than done your time, it’s time you got back up.

 

[joethegill]

Lazy opinion IMO. There’s a huge misconception about the league this year that just because there are less big clubs with big resources in the league than there have been over last few years, that it’s suddenly had a major drop off in quality, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Far more ‘technical’ sides doing well this year than even last season. Only have to look at the current top 7 for example, all of those sides (with the possible exception of Solihull as I haven’t seen them play yet) have improved from last season, and all get the ball down & play good football whilst winning more often than not. Yes believe it or not, even Bromley are trying to get it down and play a bit more this year, ans they’re doing very well tbf to them as much as I absolutely despise them. Compare that to last years final top 7, which included likes of Boreham Wood & Woking who were about as far away from ‘footballing’ sides as you could get and definitely didn’t have anywhere near the quality some of the current top 7 have (only have to look at how both of them have faired this year too) !! I also think the eventual bottom 4 this year will be a lot stronger than last years bottom 4. No whipping boys this year unfortunately, unlike last few years with the likes of Maidstone, Dover, Scunthorpe, Weymouth, Chorley etc…

As I say, all just my opinion of course.

I'd agree with all that, there are some good sides in NL who just don't have the big name. Alty have been good for a couple of years now, their recruitment has been very good and they're an entertaining side to watch. Solihull aren't as free flowing as in previous years, opting for a more pragmatic approach which can look a bit dour when they aren't winning games. Bromley have been knocking on the door for several years now and probably deserve a crack at the EFL, Barnet have some cracking players like Gorman and Brunt in midfield who are good to watch, Gateshead can play some stunning stuff and Aldershot are doing far better than expected thanks to some impressive recruitment with the likes of Stokes and Tolaj scoring freely.

Not too many sides in the league who you'd class as EFL sized clubs anymore either, so natural balance is slowly being restored. Oldham or Dale could easily find their way into the play-off picture (although both concede too many goals), and other than that it's only Hartlepool and Southend who look to be lingering for another season at least. If FGR and Sutton were to drop down, and no disrespect to those clubs - I think the clamour for 3 up, 3 down (which is already MUCH quieter this season - I wonder why?) will almost disappear until such a time as the NL is a graveyard for established EFL clubs once again.

 

[GTFCfish]

If Chesterfield somehow bottle this and let the scum at Bromley come up instead then I will personally drive to Chesterfield and wipe my arse on every Chesterfield players shirt.*




*If I can get my hands on their shirts of course.

*In fact even then I might not ACTUALLY do it in case I get sectioned, but the thought is there at least.

 

[Chris FGR]

Will be interesting to see if Deeney starts himself on Friday. Been a while since we've had a proper player-manager.

 

[Indian Dan]

You still haven’t got one!

 

[loz]

He's brilliant, played almost every minute except for when he got a red. Essentially does the running of two CM's to allow Jacob Butterfield to run the show

Wouldn't be surprised if a few L2 teams were sniffing in Jan

Pleased to hear that BD. He's a naturally fit lad and I would liked to have seen him given a chance here. I certainly think he could make it at this level and progress as he gains experience. One of the best players we have at the moment is a 19yrs old who cannot even make the bench because of the system we are playing. If he goes the same way as Scales, someone will have a real catch.

 

[EnglishRed]

Your first point is exactly what I’m alluding too in my last post regarding the misconception of small clubs in the NL not being good teams. I know you probably made the comment slightly tongue in cheek, but Altrincham are actually a very good side especially at their place. Conn Clarke is a match winner for them and would be just as effective in L2 IMO, he is pure quality.

I very much agree with you that if we don’t do it this year we best get bloody comfortable down here cos it’ll never happen if not haha, especially with the points tally we’ve built so far.

You’re going well this year you lot, surely Clough has got to get the job done this year… Tbh I think you probably will (I’ve got everything crossed that you don’t, of course )

I like Conn Clark a lot. Has he looked any fitter this season? last year he always looked a bit out of shape and didn't seem to be able to mange 90 minutes, which is poor from a young lad who at the time was at a league one club.

Looking at the table at the moment even Chesterfield shouldn't be able to mess this season up right? Brilliant points total so far and easily the strongest squad in the league... and at least with Cook he's unlikely to do a Rowe.....surely to God.

 

[THE LAST WALTZ]

Why the B

If Chesterfield somehow bottle this and let the scum at Bromley come up instead then I will personally drive to Chesterfield and wipe my arse on every Chesterfield players shirt.*




*If I can get my hands on their shirts of course.

*In fact even then I might not ACTUALLY do it in case I get sectioned, but the thought is there at least.

Why the Bromley hatred?

 

[Posh Harry]

Why the B

Why the Bromley hatred?

Can only be said by a man who has never had the displeasure of coming up against the prick gob shite Andy woodman or one his horrible wind up, kick you and goad the opposition fans as much as possible, teams.

 

[Son of Cod]

Pleased to hear that BD. He's a naturally fit lad and I would liked to have seen him given a chance here. I certainly think he could make it at this level and progress as he gains experience. One of the best players we have at the moment is a 19yrs old who cannot even make the bench because of the system we are playing. If he goes the same way as Scales, someone will have a real catch.

Is that the lad that played up front against us? Looked decent if so.

Why the Bromley hatred?

Spot the supporter of a club who has never had to watch his side in the Conference. I would never wish them upon the good people of Gillingham. Bromley are a massive massive bunch of shithouse c*** who will never be forgiven for what they did to us.

 

[Meadow]

We have long-standing (two events going back to 2006ish and 2009) previous with Bromley. No idea about their current management but please no? That said, it's easy to get to.

 

[northstandexile]

We never played Bromley in the conference, but Friday night visits to Dartford were not pleasant