The 'fans' who sit behind Ling

[MH91]

I really think that we should consider ourselves lucky to have such a great manager. Some people are obviuosly forgetting where we were last year after Buckle left. Some of our key players left and with a very tight budget we were in a bad position to be in. At the end of the day, even though according to bookies we had no chance of promotion we nearly got it thanks to Martin. We were just quite unlucky. Let's not forget that Ling has sold about 600k and now after all these years we started building a decent training ground (this is a huge thing for our club after so many years of training on the rubbish training ground).Obviously we are moving forward. It is probably thanks to him that the expectations are so raised (because of the great season we had) and now people are expecting even better stuff. The moaners are obviously forgetting all of this. I think Martin is doing a cracking job and should be given a chance. I do not really think that we have had a better manager in recent years.I am just amazed how people can boo or swear him after all he has done and is still doing. I realize that people are paying for tickets and are travelling all over England to support the team, but at the end of the day we are a small team and performances cannot be great all the time. I am sure that we would get better and more importantly consistent by time and would finish at least in the play-off positons (I even think that we can get an automatic promotion but let's not be too optimistic) but right now we should all be patient. Ling knows what he is doing..after all he has done it (promotion) quite a few times both as a player and as a manager... Trust in Lingy!!!

[Neal]

These moaners get on my nerves as well. Im as frustrated as the next fan when we dont win but I dont spend the entire time bl**dy moaning about it and making everyone around me aware of my frustrations. Buckle even had to move dug outs becuase it got so bad, hopefully that wont be repeated. But trying to do your job while there are a handfull of whingers moaning at you all the time hardley helps the cause does it.

[brucie]

Neal - were you behind the dugout then? - I doubt it because there were only a few comments made about half way through the second half. We were absolutely appalling and fans were just expressing their disatisfaction.

MH91 - if you thing we will get automatic promotion you are barmy. Noone swore at Ling during the second half of the Burton game either. Yes Lings done well and has lost his best players from last year. But moving forward? come on - we have had two years in the play offs and are now in 14th place just above Plymouth. Thats hardly progress in my book - the worrying aspect is the standard of performances.

[royalgull]

it's what happens when your squad gets weaker, lose your best players and have expectations raised. We shouldn't have been top 7 last year really, we didn't have a great side but we had 2 or 3 outstanding players that carried us a wee bit. Especially Bobby. We overachieved/did better than anyone realistically thought but then that changes the goalposts for this year. Admittedly I didn't see us as much as most people last season but in the games I saw, we were 'functional' at best and average at worst, I thought we were a more fluid attacking side under Buckle but a more disciplined side under Ling. In the year we got to the PO final I thought we were a good side on our day, I saw some outstanding performances that year really entertaining and we bulldozed quite a few sides. Last year we were set up for 1-0's. it wasn't always pretty but in the main it was effective. This year is the same just without our best outfield player from last year.

We are where we should be this year. We are one of the lowest payers, have a threadbare squad of limtied ability so to be midtable represents a good season.

Being a midtable side involves not always playing well and not always winning so we'll have to get used to that. I am convinced Ling is the right person to get the maximum out of this squad, help improve our young players and maintain us as a solid League 2 side. It's all we can realistically achieve this year. anything more and he's done utter wonders yet again.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Royal is right in saying that expectations have been raised. I expected us to be around 15th place at the start of last season because it was a summer of upheaval and we lost players in Bevan, Branno, Zebs and others so what Martin did was an amazing feat. The same has happened this summer in terms of losing key players so perhaps we should all have set our sights lower and allowed for this. I certainly didn't expect us to be pushing for promotion at the start of this season and again i have been conservative in my estimate which should put us around 10th place come the end.

What i do disagree with Royal is the manner of our performances and Brucie has a valid point about them. The key game for me last season was our defeat to 10 man Bradford away where we didn't get out of half for 69 minutes against 10 men. That stuck in my mind and i have to say that the away games i have seen so far this season (all bar wimbledon) the performances have echoed that sorry day in the West Yorkshire rain. It really has been poor and although you could argue that we have played some good teams and there were perhaps mitigating circumstances in terms of injuries for the Vale game, how do you also explain the home performances against Plymouth and Burton? Last season we executed our gameplan to perfection. We hit on the counter with most teams having a lot of the ball but after that Bradford game we attacked sporadically but with purpose. That's the difference, our attacks are pathetic and peter out as we have no support. We tore Crewe apart at Gresty Road with a masterclass of counter attacking football, we did the same to Burton away ripping them apart 4-1, we defended resolutely against many teams and used our attacks to good effect by grabbing the 1-0's. You can argue all you like about changes in personnel but for me the performances have been absolutely atrocious. Not just one game but most and that isn't acceptable. It is like reliving that sad day at Bradford all over again and although we have only lost the once, a kick start is definately required but i have no idea where it is going to come from. A bit like last season after the dour defeats by Bradford, Shrewsbury, Southend, Gills at home. We hammered AFC Wimbledon 4-0 on a tuesday night out of the blue and didn't look back.

I can accept 15th place, i can accept bad defeats now and again and i can accept bad preformances now and again. I can't accept forking out money i struggle to afford watching negativity on a regular basis though. I hope that isn't too difficult to understand.

I believe in Martin and nobody can argue with the job he has done but i think he needs to let the reins go a bit sometimes and suck it and see.

[MH91]

I think it is too early to look at the table or at the positions at our Devon rivals. The league is just beginning with just 8 games played, and as has been said earlier we have had a very tough program so far. As far as I can remember we were in a similar position last year in terms of the position in the table...and we nearly missed on automatic promotion. Lingy knows the abilities of his squad best and since he said that we are aiming at automatic promotion I believe him. He nearly did it last year being in even worse position in the beginning of the season than the one he was in this season.

[Plymouth Gull]

Indeed. Far too early to look at the table for me.

It also seems that the club are massively working towards the future, so as long as we can keep competing at this level, and well, I'm happy.

[Glostergull]

I can understands fans frustrations when supporting the Gulls. But if I was taught one thing that has served me well over the years it's this. it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool. than to open it and remove all doubt.
I wonder what Martin Ling thinks when he hears what some of the moaners come out with. I don't mean to say they cannot think that play is good when it clearly isn't. but to constantly moan about anything and everything Brucie Style Is counter productive. I can imagine that he feels shackled by not being able to defend himself. If truth be told I would suspect that there are many things that happen behind the scenes we cannot know about. We have to accept that fact and I always felt that to attack a man when he cannot defend hismself is more than a bit cowardly. Kicking a man when he is down is not really on is it. When things were going well we are all over them with praise. but have a bad start to a season and we really have a go. while all the time they have to sit there and take it. Who would be a manager. Lets give him a bit more time. Have we not forgotten that just a few years ago we nearly went bust. We were then sold down the river by a Walter Mitty Character who tried to move our club and sold off our best player when he said he wouldn't and dropped us out of the league. Since then it has been a consistant rise. We have gone from strength to strength and if you can show me any team which has had such a long period of comsistancy with so little resources as we have I will take everything I have said back. put it on a piece of paper and eat it with tomato sauce.
No team can have such a period without a blip now and then. This is ours just as we started last season. It will come good. we can have a pretty good season again and then start to build on for the future. With new talent coming through. A new training facility and scouts in place we can sell on new talent and survive and prosper. Nothing to stop us now. No need for despondancy. We are not in the same position as the 1980's with David Webb in charge. or The Period with Roberts in control. so stop behaving as if we were.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Good post GG but as a born and bred Yorkshireman i've always been told to say what you feel and then everyone knows where they stand. I believe that old adage is the best way of doing things even if it's not really 'the way things are done anymore'. Can you imagine Brian Clough managing in todays Premier League? He wouldn't last 5 minutes with all the PR crap and media friendly bulls*it. If soemthing is bothering me then, within reason, i will air those concerns. I just think the people who moan every week have no concept of what is and what isn't reason so therefore they are always going to whinge even if we were Barcelona.

[PlainmoorRoar]

i maybe alone, but i wouldnt mind a 12th place-midtable-nodrama season

[Glostergull]

Good post GG but as a born and bred Yorkshireman i've always been told to say what you feel and then everyone knows where they stand. I believe that old adage is the best way of doing things even if it's not really 'the way things are done anymore'. Can you imagine Brian Clough managing in todays Premier League? He wouldn't last 5 minutes with all the PR crap and media friendly bulls*it. If soemthing is bothering me then, within reason, i will air those concerns. I just think the people who moan every week have no concept of what is and what isn't reason so therefore they are always going to whinge even if we were Barcelona.

I hear what your saying Austrian but There is a time and a place. I contest that at the match right behind Martin ling is neither the time or place. it can only serve to destroy the good relationship that has built up between the supporters and The Management
It's ok on here as there is little likelyhood he can hear what we are saying. But Mr Candy probably does and that serves if neccassary to get the message across. Personal abuse is not whatever.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Yeah that's fair enough GG and i generally agree with you about dishing out the constant abuse with Lingy within earshot. What it's important to remember is that most fans know what we're up against as a small club trying to make it's way in the RIGHT way on and off the field of play and are, for the most part understanding and forgiving. As always it takes a minority of folk to spoil it. Anyway, hope you get a lift up here on saturday GG and safe journey up.

[brucie]

So everyone should sit down and say nothing. I paid the best part of £60 (fuel, admission and food) to attend the Burton game. I have attended every home game including the cup tie against Leicester with the exception of the Plymouth match.
Ling should not have reacted - we were piss poor against Burton. We could not get out of our half and it did not look like we were bothered in the second half. Danny Stevens looked like he couldn't be arsed to be on the pitch. Its that percieved lack of effort which caused the unrest amonst the fans (and as I say it was nothing more than a few comments).
As I say possibly the worst peformance since the Roberts era.
Everyone appreciates that we have injuries/lost our best players/blah blah blah.
It doesn't alter the fact that we are being overrun in midfield every game and that needs addressing.
Believe me if we turn out the same sort of garbage against Aldershot there is going to alot more of the same.

[Glostergull]

Good post GG but as a born and bred Yorkshireman i've always been told to say what you feel and then everyone knows where they stand. I believe that old adage is the best way of doing things even if it's not really 'the way things are done anymore'. Can you imagine Brian Clough managing in todays Premier League? He wouldn't last 5 minutes with all the PR crap and media friendly bulls*it. If soemthing is bothering me then, within reason, i will air those concerns. I just think the people who moan every week have no concept of what is and what isn't reason so therefore they are always going to whinge even if we were Barcelona.

I suppose I should have added I can accept that as a Born and bread Yorkshire man you are going to be somewhat Miserable. A right grumpy old Git cos that what Yorkshire men do. Hey i wonder if Brucie is as well. and Dave Pougher They must all come from Yorkshire.

[ferrarilover]

So it's your prerogative to make comment because why should you sit there and say nothing, but Dinger (for reasons unspecified ) has forfeited the right of reply?

If you paid to get into a pub, then saw a particularly ugly barmaid serving drinks, would you feel it appropriate to pass disparaging comment upon her, entirely free of consequence?

If what was said was sufficiently persistent or vile to cause Dinger to react, then it was unwarranted. We weren't good against Burton, but we weren't THAT bad.

Matt.