Final Nail in the Coffin?

[greb46]

It doesn't give me any pleasure in posting this but it seems week by week the calamities increase.The general standard of players skill factors (or lack of them).The mismanagement of the club overall with more updates likely to be heard from the Marie Celeste.Somehow it seems the five year plan wasn't to get back in to the football league but more the demise of the club as a whole which we all know for what reason the intention is.Who knows if the owner has told the management to be complicit in what they intend to do and they will retain all until they get what they want.Overall rather depressing when you look back to the Mike Bateson days when he knew the clubs limitations but had the best interests towards it and ran a steady ship.What are others views on if we are likely to survive and if not how long they think we have?

[Dazza]

Today could actually be a Godsend. The team aren’t good enough at the moment given injuries which have flung team line ups all over the place. I don’t think further games in this competition would have done us any favours. We need to find some stability from somewhere and for that we need league games only.

[The Great Muta!]

I always thought that Mike Bateson was alright, yes he was pretty dour, but very much a realist and he knew TUFC's limitations, but he never tried to fool the fans or you ever thought he was up to something, this current mob running the show fill me with zero confidence, after hearing CO talk recently with that Q&A session, you'd think he was some hot shot entrepreneur, he seemed to gloss over a lot of the reasons other ventures didn't have stadiums...Mike was Mike, Ihe knew TUFC had a hardcore of around 1600 to 1800 that come every week no matter what, and if we're near the top challenging it's around 4500 to 5000 max, he kept us solvent, debt free, I forget the reasons how it came about, but we seemed to get lots of young players from the midlands, plus Goodridge and Jack from the Caribbean, it wasn't all great under MB I'll admit, but in the main he was good for us, plus he communicated, unlike this current mob now who are tight lipped and come across very suspicious.

[culmstockgull]

There have many final nails in our coffin, not least the bookie from newton abbot who nearly put us out of business, as football goes this is a different world, something as a club we have yet to grasp, Johnsons pre season comments were all about outright promotion and logically with the squad we had it was achievable, Injuries and many, many poor acquisitions and we hover just outside of the playoffs, johnson has said many time he would rather take points than games in hand, these last few weeks he now takes the contrary view that games in hand can change things, he is an old man, with old ideas, past his sell by date and now a dishonest hypocrite which I think we have known all along, we are saddled with him until the end of the season what ever happens, yet another season wasted, but we can prey for a total backroom clear out, the few reasonable players we possess will be off like a shot and who can blame them, stay any longer than they have to and johnson will ruin them.

[Dave]

Don't think the final nail has gone in the coffin yet, not on yesterdays result, many may not have realised on league position Hereford went into this match as the higher ranked team, with home advantage considering how poor our team have been away all season, defeat for me was hardly a surprise, the performance as gleaned from the radio a shocker, which isn't acceptable.

We all agreed only promotion straight back to the NLP would be the only thing that suffice from this season, those of us who said back in mid November top spot had already gone were scoffed at, 29 games to go we were told,100% confirmed 8 games later, now we're in serious danger of missing out on the play-offs all together, yet no one at our club seems to give a monkeys chuff.

Hasn't escaped my notice we've still got 7 of the current top 9 teams to play, and our record against current top 7 teams is dire, this includes.

Maidstone
Bath
Worthing
Yeovil all away from home.

As well as tricky away games at Braintree and Truro. Failure to make the play-offs would be a complete disaster.

[Chelston TUFC]

I always thought that Mike Bateson was alright, yes he was pretty dour, but very much a realist and he knew TUFC's limitations, but he never tried to fool the fans or you ever thought he was up to something, this current mob running the show fill me with zero confidence, after hearing CO talk recently with that Q&A session, you'd think he was some hot shot entrepreneur, he seemed to gloss over a lot of the reasons other ventures didn't have stadiums...Mike was Mike, Ihe knew TUFC had a hardcore of around 1600 to 1800 that come every week no matter what, and if we're near the top challenging it's around 4500 to 5000 max, he kept us solvent, debt free, I forget the reasons how it came about, but we seemed to get lots of young players from the midlands, plus Goodridge and Jack from the Caribbean, it wasn't all great under MB I'll admit, but in the main he was good for us, plus he communicated, unlike this current mob now who are tight lipped and come across very suspicious.

John James was an excellent scout for TUFC and later PAFC

[MaxLL]

Failure to make the play-offs would be a complete disaster.

Why do you think failure to make the playoffs would be a disaster? In my opinion, it would just be another bad season. And a reason to think about making changes. They'll happen one day.

[happytorq]

Why do you think failure to make the playoffs would be a disaster? In my opinion, it would just be another bad season. And a reason to think about making changes. They'll happen one day.

The pre-season expectation was that we would get immediately promoted back to the National League - several factors made this assumption feasible; first, for 90% of our history we have been a league club, so being only a single level below that should not be a pipe dream. Second, we kept most of the players that were (for the last 7 or 8 weeks of the season) one of the best teams in that division. Yes, we were crap for 2/3 of the season and the table doesn't lie, but when most of those players stayed I think we ere legitimtely optimistic. Third - the attitude of the ownership and management has always been (outwardly, at least) highly suggestive of a similar expectation.

Unlike the last time we were in this division, there is another 'big club', comparatively speaking - that means one of us was always going to be in the playoffs. Even so, not being one of the best 7 teams in a mostly part-time division featuring clubs at their highest ever level? Yes, that would be a disaster.

If we had said pre-season "look, we're starting again with a new vision, manager, and squad, so please give us time" I'd hope that most of us would have been understanding in the event on inconsistent results/performances. Alas, this season has been a continuation of the decline ever since that fateful day in Bristol; a horrific, oft-unexplained injury list, a revolving door of useless loanees, glaring weaknesses in the squad, and more. It's the manner of the failures to date that have been damning more than anything.

We are between a rock and a hard place; if we do somehow get ourselves promoted I fear we'll be in the same boat as last season once again; a poor squad struggling to avoid relegation.
If we stay in this division it's not a massive leap to assume the owner will 'have to make the difficult decision to turn the club part-time' and I don't think there's a way back from that.

[SuperNickyWroe]

That's the problem happytorq - Its the start-of-season hope that kills you....

[MaxLL]

We are between a rock and a hard place; if we do somehow get ourselves promoted I fear we'll be in the same boat as last season once again; a poor squad struggling to avoid relegation.
If we stay in this division it's not a massive leap to assume the owner will 'have to make the difficult decision to turn the club part-time' and I don't think there's a way back from that.

I understand your hopes for the best. And I understand that you want the best for the team.
Maybe the club management doesn't have the extra finances and/or motivation to make a difference. Who knows for sure? In any case, regardless of the events in the future, everything will be fine. Even if the players have a half time job. Whoever is not happy with that will find a new club.
Someday another person will own the club and he will want to revive the team. It happens so often

[desperado]

I'm getting a bit tired of hearing after every away game , how disappointed the players are with their performance and apologising, it's gone on too long . Johnson says " It's a very strong changing room in terms of passion for this football club ". ?? Sorry but I don't see a lot of passion out on the pitch, they must leave it in the changing room, you just read about lacklustre performances in away games .
As Herefordgull says the opposition win 75% of the second balls and picking up scraps.
A lot of our tackling is 'after you Claude'
If the players.cant motivate themselves and the manager and coach can't motivate them what chance have you got ?

[Dave]

Why do you think failure to make the playoffs would be a disaster? In my opinion, it would just be another bad season. And a reason to think about making changes. They'll happen one day.

Happytorq, Sets it out and words it well in his reply as normal. In football as I'm sure you/we all know for growth a club needs to lay good foundations with a fair amount of ambition built on top, this can be followed by higher gates, greater revenue through sponsorship etc and general income that comes from being further up the divisions , the team finished last season very well even though it wasn't enough to avoid the drop, for many it gave a great deal of confidence we'd see our club match Yeovil stride for stride, in reality we've been miles off.

If this season was to fizzle out and we see a failure to even make the play-offs, confidence drops further, I don't think we'd us going part-time next season, but what do you/we/all think if next season see us struggle to compete at the right end of the NLS, gates drop, revenue drops, harder to get sponsorship for a club that doesn't have national coverage, or consistent success etc.

Then we see the clubs ownership potentially having to bring forward restructuring, usually means to downsize, go part-time, shed staff etc, no one wants that , and, as said no way back.

[MaxLL]

Happytorq, Sets it out and words it well in his reply as normal. In football as I'm sure you/we all know for growth a club needs to lay good foundations with a fair amount of ambition built on top, this can be followed by higher gates, greater revenue through sponsorship etc and general income that comes from being further up the divisions , the team finished last season very well even though it wasn't enough to avoid the drop, for many it gave a great deal of confidence we'd see our club match Yeovil stride for stride, in reality we've been miles off.

If this season was to fizzle out and we see a failure to even make the play-offs, confidence drops further, I don't think we'd us going part-time next season, but what do you/we/all think if next season see us struggle to compete at the right end of the NLS, gates drop, revenue drops, harder to get sponsorship for a club that doesn't have national coverage, or consistent success etc.

Then we see the clubs ownership potentially having to bring forward restructuring, usually means to downsize, go part-time, shed staff etc, no one wants that , and, as said no way back.

Yeah, that's not a good way to develop. It's more like degradation. If the worst happens, the members of this club will simply look for new options for their future life. Life will not end there.