Who do you want up/down?

[ShrewdBlue]

I think there is a difference in that when the backers of Ebbsfleet, Barrow and FGR walk away, there are enough people concerned with the club to sustain it at Conference or Conference North/South level afterwards. With Eastleigh, Whitehawk and Fylde that won't be the case.

As an example; what happens when the Eco-warrior walks out of FGR? They'll be left with a playing squad and staff on huge contracts for at least a season, there is no chance their attendances can cover that.

Not to mention all the other costs they would need to cover to keep it going.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I think there is a difference in that when the backers of Ebbsfleet, Barrow and FGR walk away, there are enough people concerned with the club to sustain it at Conference or Conference North/South level afterwards. With Eastleigh, Whitehawk and Fylde that won't be the case.

Barrow have been Liquidated at least once before, I think it may even be twice

none of these clubs are able to sustain it, neither are bigger clubs......Leeds is the prime example or Portsmouth.

the only difference is that if you can get into the FL they will allow your corpse of a club to drag itself along until it hits the conference where they then finally bury it......but you may hit lucky in that corpse period and find a new owner

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I'm sure many Carlisle fans would still latch onto it. They would latch onto it accidentally, after declaring out loud for the 94th time that Barrow are bankrolled chancers and a tinpot pub team. They'd sneer and scoff that they can't believe they're playing the Raiders in the league all Friday, secretly getting more and more petrified for the match their team's playing in front of the BT cameras that night.

Honest. It happened to us to some extent with Guiseley. They're much smaller than us but when it comes to it they're the next Yorkshire team down from us, and we had to deal with that for two seasons.

Carlisle fans won't mind a barrow game if we got relegated purely as its close and for Carlisle that is always a good thing.

but its not really a derby due to getting to the wayward route to get to barrow, it is quicker to get to Morecambe as you do not have to go off out the way to get to it.

but Carlisle has no derby since Workington collapsed and never will so any close games like Hartlepool, Darlo, Barrow, Morecambe, Accy etc, etc are always welcome and will always get good numbers from us.

 

[Sparrow]

Everyone should just copy the model of Halifax. They're the future of the Conference FFS.

 

[Greenacres]

I think the stark fact here is that there are very few, if any, clubs that are truly sustainable in the country, at least at a higher level. How many teams in the Premier League would survive without the vast amounts of money that Sky and the league itself throw at them, to say nothing of an occasional Russian oligarch or Middle Eastern prince with very full pockets. In the history of the game it is arguable that pretty much every team will have been given a financial advantage by some rich backers who helped them to become more competitive than their rivals, that remains the case today, and that allowed them to progress. I really doubt if there is a way to make a club totally sustainable, where income and outgoings are a perfect match, at least not if you have ambitions of being a bigger team or climbing the leagues. Even though the Fair Play rules should guarantee precisely that happening I have no expectation that it will.

 

[B2TF]

Every club is sustainable if it's run properly. That will never happen as long as nothing clubs like yours are allowed to live on some wanker's bottomless bank account.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

to be air B2TF is spot on, clubs down here could on the whole run themselves fine, but the wages get inflated by a small percentage of clubs who splash out.

but that isn't blaming the current crop its been happening since the mid 90's when Wigan/Fulham started it in the lower leagues and many others have done similar since.

but I think if moneybag teams were not about in the lower leagues most could run within limits, but like with top flight players/agents know they can demand this, that and other, is little can be done now really.

as someone who hates moneybags teams watching Wigan decline back to their pre-spending levels is an enjoyable thing.

 

[shoddycollins]

Barrow up (so they get lumbered with Gateshead at xmas if they can be bothered to play). Mansfield and York down would potentially add a couple of bumper crowds. Losing a couple of the cockneys wouldn't harm our travelling so if Welling can join Dartford then that wouldn't be too bad. Still not been to New Bucks head and i have a mate who lives on outskirts of Cov so I'd be happy to see Teflon (if they could just sack Kittrick to do so) and Nuneaton stay.

I'm sure Hartlepool will take Gateshead off your hands... your biggest fear would be if Gateshead go up and you don't, and you'll get lumbered with Hartlepool (we'll probably get Barrow)

 

[Richard Cranium]

Surely Hartlepool will get Gateshead?

 

[shoddycollins]

Surely Hartlepool will get Gateshead?

drat... ninja'd

 

[Vanni]

Not one single fan wants us down. Good. We'll do our best to comply with your wishes

 

[rudebwoyben]

It would be a bit mean wishing you down one season after you spent so many years toiling to get into the Football League!

 

[slaphead]

Not one single fan wants us down. Good. We'll do our best to comply with your wishes

Nope you can stay where you are, our games against you were always a ballache being on Tuesdays coz the Cambridge rozzers didn't like us. Do miss the Thai curry in the Wrestlers though..

 

[Luke Imp]

Surely Hartlepool will get Gateshead?

Come on, you know how it works down here. They probably wouldn't!

 

[CFC2010]

If Tranmere came down from league 2 I couldn't care less who else came up or down. Chorley wouldn't be bad, mind.

 

[mnb089mnb]

to be air B2TF is spot on, clubs down here could on the whole run themselves fine, but the wages get inflated by a small percentage of clubs who splash out.

but that isn't blaming the current crop its been happening since the mid 90's when Wigan/Fulham started it in the lower leagues and many others have done similar since.

but I think if moneybag teams were not about in the lower leagues most could run within limits, but like with top flight players/agents know they can demand this, that and other, is little can be done now really.

as someone who hates moneybags teams watching Wigan decline back to their pre-spending levels is an enjoyable thing.

I agree with the sentiments, but the difficulty is if you support a club and a sugardaddy arrives and starts pumping money in, what do you do? You can't actually stop it happening so you may as well go with the flow and enjoy the football.

I think the FGR fan summed it up nicely enough. Never trust football chairmen, treat them like politicians. Expect them to be untruthful.

 

[AdamStag]

We deserved to go down, don't get me wrong, it just frustrated me that they time wasted so much knowing what is was for us. I understand the winning side of it, don't get me wrong, but who starts going down wasting time in the 60th minute? We've lost 1 game at home all season and that was for FGR, and even they barely did it, never mind that early on.

We are responsible at the end of the day, theres no denying that, but what frustrated me was that considering the circumstances, why would your players; and potentially your manager, set up as a team like that, to waste time and effectively cheat when a team is desperate for a result. If we were in the opposite side, I would have been the same - as a fan, feeling sorry for the others.. I have never sung a song (personally) taking joy of anothers relegation, but I would have been upset in the manner in which the team set up and how the scorer reacted after the game.

So a player who was playing for his future at field mill shouldn't be thrilled at scoring a bloody brilliant goal which could have changed his future? He is now at league 1 club.

Trust me, I've seen 1,600 Rotherham fans openly mock us when they sent us down here - something we didn't do in the slightest.

I hope you get back up this season and can move on from there. It was a genuinely horrible experience sending a team down here when we knew how genuinely fucking grim it is in the conference, but if you can keep it going and go up, you'll be pleased to know you did it in a season whereas the likes of Mansfield and Luton took 5 years, Wrexham are on their 7th, grimsby their 6th I think - Cambridge took 9!

Hope you make it

 

[Gladders]

This is our 5th season, so hopefully we take the same time as Luton

 

[Pliny Harris]

Would love to give those who reckon the Conference is "fucking grim" a nice, season-long team-building exercise in the depths of the counties leagues/glue leagues.

 

[shoddycollins]

We deserved to go down, don't get me wrong, it just frustrated me that they time wasted so much knowing what is was for us. I understand the winning side of it, don't get me wrong, but who starts going down wasting time in the 60th minute? We've lost 1 game at home all season and that was for FGR, and even they barely did it, never mind that early on.

We are responsible at the end of the day, theres no denying that, but what frustrated me was that considering the circumstances, why would your players; and potentially your manager, set up as a team like that, to waste time and effectively cheat when a team is desperate for a result. If we were in the opposite side, I would have been the same - as a fan, feeling sorry for the others.. I have never sung a song (personally) taking joy of anothers relegation, but I would have been upset in the manner in which the team set up and how the scorer reacted after the game.

To be fair to Mansfield, although we weren't in League Two last season, from the sounds of things that was their approach to every match.

 

[appletablepenny]

Bristol Rovers as champs, Grimsby from the playoffs probably - they've suffered enough now. I'd like Macc to stay, just to see the looks on their faces, and I'd love Forest Green to stay down, just so they have to wear a tie at Moss Lane next year, then get that would-be MP to pap on about it all over the internet.

I'm not really bothered who comes down from L2, but it would be nice to have 2 more Northern teams.

From the North - I think it will be Barrow as champs and Fylde or Hednesford from the playoffs. Guiseley to bottle the playoffs for the 5th year running.
From the South - don't really care.

 

[The_Boss]

I'd like Macc to stay, just to see the looks on their faces,

Non comprende

 

[Van Der Graaf]

Down - Don't think either of the bottom two will finish there:
- York, keep meaning to go back and is a decent trip.
- Mansfield, local game and haven't been as of yet.

Up:
- Barrow, they're going to run away with it. Like them as a club.
- Boston, (See Mansfield)
- Bromley, another trip to London.
- Whitehawk, hilarity factor.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Up:
- Barrow, they're going to run away with it. Like them as a club.
.[/QUOTE]

Wouldnt count on it. Think it will be neck and neck with Flyde.

 

[BeesKnees]

Down Oxford and Cheltenham

 

[rudebwoyben]

Down - Don't think either of the bottom two will finish there:
- York, keep meaning to go back and is a decent trip.
- Mansfield, local game and haven't been as of yet.

Up:
- Barrow, they're going to run away with it. Like them as a club.
- Boston, (See Mansfield)
- Bromley, another trip to London.
- Whitehawk, hilarity factor.

What makes you think Hartlepool will escape? They've shown nothing all season to suggest that they will and even Ronnie Moore's appointment as manager has failed to change anything.

 

[Van Der Graaf]

look at their run in. With the exception of 3/4 teams, it's mid-table fodder and teams lingering at the bottom with four of their last five games being - York, Accy, Exeter and Carlisle.

 

[rudebwoyben]

That may be so but the fact is they've hardly beaten anyone, no matter where they are in the table.

 

[shoddycollins]

That may be so but the fact is they've hardly beaten anyone, no matter where they are in the table.

True... we were bottom of the table when we went to their place and steamrollered them 3-0. Their wins have been fairly random ones, against teams all around the table, won by the odd goal where the opposition team just failed to turn up for some reason.

Since Moore came in their form has improved, and that has led a few people to predict a Hartlepool revival (not least some of our own fans who are convinved we'll be the ones that finish bottom), but all that means is that they're now keeping up with the teams above them rather than falling even further behind... there's still a huge gap for them to overcome, and every week that passes by the gap stays the same size while they have fewer games to save themselves. It's looking like it's going to be quite competitive the relegation battle this season, with a high points total to go down and someone wondering how they managed to get relegated on what they thought was acceptable form. Hartlepool don't show any signs of making it to even 40 points, which would have seen them down in all but one season since the second relegation place was added.

Has anyone seen any of the Hartlepool fans down here? They've all vanished off the League Two forum.

 

[rudebwoyben]

No, none on here, which is a shame as one of their fans always put up some very interesting and informative posts on TFF.