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Good luck to kevin. Regardless off fitness issues , how many tractor tyres were lifted or the team tactics , he seems a decent hard working bloke and good luck to him on a personal level.

Best of luck if he's got the job but take an experienced assistant with you as you need one. I think you are everything westyorkshiregull says but you need to take more interest in the things on the pitch as that is what you should be judged on.

MellowYellow wrote: 16 Feb 2018, 21:04 That is not correct. Nicho remit was to keep us in the National League - mission accomplished! Owers remit was to make us promotion contenders - mission failed! Just saying.

Is that accurate?? Are you saying when Owers took over his remit was to make promotion contenders this season??

I very much doubt that. Even Lazarus would have failed this remit.

What absolute tosh you talk most of the time.

You would rather have Nicholson in charge than Steve Evans? - Presumably cause Nicholson drives the team bus and visits people in hospital?

That might make him a nicer bloke than Evans but it sure doesn't make him a better manager that's for sure. You harangue Owers for making dross signings but he was faced with having to bring in loanees and free agents. He didn't get the chance to assemble a squad in the close season like Nicholson - and if he had have done so I doubt if he would have ballsed it up to the extent that King Kev did.

Therefore every signing is a risk. No doubt if Nicholson does get the job at Halifax when we play them at home we will be treated to people fainting at his feet and throwing flowers on the pitch.

You point out Mitchell but don't refer of course to Barnes who has been a brilliant signing so far. All I can say us that I saw the team lose to Boreham Wood earlier in the season and Nicholson quite rightly got the sack after it.

We really plumbed the depths of ineptitude in that one. Unfit, useless, no plan whatsoever - we were lucky to lose 4-2 it could well have been 10-2 on the night.



At least Owers tries to manage the team.

brucie wrote: 16 Feb 2018, 16:47 Its ludicrous to make any comparison with Nicholson and Owers should Nico get the Halifax job. Owers has had to put up with about eight players on his wage bill who were not fit purpose.

I don't think

Which 8 players? Name them Terry, then we'll see the benefit of talking about something you've only heard on the radio..............when you could be bothered that is.

Nicholson did a good job with the tools he was given. Merse does have an obsession with Nicholson and it's based on how he was given the job not on his ability as a Manager. With the ridiculous financial constraints he had to endure he still successfully completed his remit which as our former CEO has already confirmed was to keep us in the National League on a very low budget.

To be given 4 games after assembling a squad over the summer is ridiculous beyond words and we've definitely reaped what we've sown.

With the budget Halifax have given him he will be able to sign the players he targets and not get laughed out of the room when the talk turns to money.

Southampton Gull wrote: 17 Feb 2018, 07:50 Which 8 players? Name them Terry, then we'll see the benefit of talking about something you've only heard on the radio..............when you could be bothered that is.

Nicholson did a good job with the tools he was given. Merse does have an obsession with Nicholson and it's based on how he was given the job not on his ability as a Manager. With the ridiculous financial constraints he had to endure he still successfully completed his remit which as our former CEO has already confirmed was to keep us in the National League on a very low budget.

To be given 4 games after assembling a squad over the summer is ridiculous beyond words and we've definitely reaped what we've sown.

With the budget Halifax have given him he will be able to sign the players he targets and not get laughed out of the room when the talk turns to money.

Agree to give someone only four games at the start of the season then remove him without having a recognised replacement at the ready seems ineptitude of the highest degree

Southampton Gull wrote: 17 Feb 2018, 07:50With the budget Halifax have given him he will be able to sign the players he targets and not get laughed out of the room when the talk turns to money.

No expense being spared at the Shay then; I hear they're getting the Chester kitman in and all for expenses, a car parking space and they'll be using bold biological with lavender, not that shitty cheap stuff Chester got from Aldi, top bloke by all accounts too.

brucie wrote: 17 Feb 2018, 00:26 What absolute tosh you talk most of the time.

You would rather have Nicholson in charge than Steve Evans? - Presumably cause Nicholson drives the team bus and visits people in hospital?

That might make him a nicer bloke than Evans but it sure doesn't make him a better manager that's for sure. You harangue Owers for making dross signings but he was faced with having to bring in loanees and free agents. He didn't get the chance to assemble a squad in the close season like Nicholson - and if he had have done so I doubt if he would have ballsed it up to the extent that King Kev did.

Therefore every signing is a risk. No doubt if Nicholson does get the job at Halifax when we play them at home we will be treated to people fainting at his feet and throwing flowers on the pitch.

You point out Mitchell but don't refer of course to Barnes who has been a brilliant signing so far. All I can say us that I saw the team lose to Boreham Wood earlier in the season and Nicholson quite rightly got the sack after it.

We really plumbed the depths of ineptitude in that one. Unfit, useless, no plan whatsoever - we were lucky to lose 4-2 it could well have been 10-2 on the night.



At least Owers tries to manage the team.

That Boreham Wood game was bordering on embarrassing. Anyone who was at the game would not have been surprised by the news the following morning. It was weird because we ended the season with a really good 4-4-2 formation relying on hard work up front with Keating and Williams and direct wing play with Jordan Lee and Dan Sparkes and you could see finally see what Nicholson was looking to achieve in his style of play and he had something to build on for the new season. We then started this season with a diamond formation -absolutely no width, no pace and it was painful, all of the end of season momentum was gone and it felt like Nicholson had shot himself in the foot.

There was optimism about new signings but there is every season, that’s what fans do! It’s up to the qualified to sign the right players and with hindsight we signed too many already injured players on big wages (Clarke, Gowling, Klukowski), too many players who didn’t settle into the area (Higgins and Gray) and too many players who had questionable quality! (Anderson, Reid, Chaney). There’s 8 players and I haven’t mentioned two more star strikers, Pittman and Fallon...

As is often the way on here this thread has been hijacked by members keen to try and score points with one another and claim they know best rather then actually offer views on the subject matter.

Im delighted to hear Kev could be getting this job as think he deserves another crack at management at this level. Always felt he gave it everything he had feel although he made mistakes I feel he did well with the cards he was dealt.

Strengths- Unquestionable passion and desire to succeed, very articulate and seemingly knowledgeable. Always tried to be positive and when possible didnt come up with the same old excuses.

Weaknesses- In my opinion he does seem to unit placid characters that dont challenge him but Im not sure he dealt so well with senior pro's who may confront. I also felt at times he tried to run the football club rather than the team, which I although is admirable I felt detracts from the focus of a young manager, may not have been his choice as I felt the club used and abused his passion to get him to do everything at times which should never be his role but he board at that time didnt seem to understand this.

Genuinely hope he gets another chance to prove himself as to be judged on his performance with all that was going on would not be fair in my opinion.

JamieE wrote: 17 Feb 2018, 09:25

That Boreham Wood game was bordering on embarrassing. Anyone who was at the game would not have been surprised by the news the following morning. It was weird because we ended the season with a really good 4-4-2 formation relying on hard work up front with Keating and Williams and direct wing play with Jordan Lee and Dan Sparkes and you could see finally see what Nicholson was looking to achieve in his style of play and he had something to build on for the new season. We then started this season with a diamond formation -absolutely no width, no pace and it was painful, all of the end of season momentum was gone and it felt like Nicholson had shot himself in the foot.

There was optimism about new signings but there is every season, that’s what fans do! It’s up to the qualified to sign the right players and with hindsight we signed too many already injured players on big wages (Clarke, Gowling, Klukowski), too many players who didn’t settle into the area (Higgins and Gray) and too many players who had questionable quality! (Anderson, Reid, Chaney). There’s 8 players and I haven’t mentioned two more star strikers, Pittman and Fallon...

Jamie, Clarke started the season and was performing heroics UNTIL he got injured. Gowling played against Tranmere in the opening game and got injured, so that's 2 you can wipe off your list of 8 straight away. Both are no doubt good players at this level but have been hampered by injuries since signing, hardly bad signings when you factor in the wages we are able to offer as you aren't going to get that kind of quality unless there is a risk element to it.

Players not settling doesn't equate to poor signings by the manager so that's another 2 you can scrub off the list. Fallon was never a drain on the budget so was another risk worth taking, he had designs on playing in the World Cup so I wouldn't beat the manager for trying to polish that turd. Pittman, poor signing as it's turned out. You mention Reid but Owers has always preferred him until he got lucky and Williams returned. So were Nicholsons signings really that bad when compared to some of the dross brought in by Owers?

In pre-season there weren't too many unhappy fans and most of us were positive about the season to come. To sack him after 4 games with a rebuilt squad was madness.

merse btpir wrote: 17 Feb 2018, 08:41 No expense being spared at the Shay then; I hear they're getting the Chester kitman in and all for expenses, a car parking space and they'll be using bold biological with lavender, not that shitty cheap stuff Chester got from Aldi, top bloke by all accounts too.

Was that supposed to be humour? Their budget dwarfs what Nicholson had at his disposal while with us and I've always credited Nicholson with having a good eye for a player, it was just unfortunate for him that he could offer £500/week for players who laughed and then went to the likes of Ebbsfleet for double the salary.

I think there are some people on this thread who would be happy for us to be relegated rather than have to give any credit to Owers for keeping us up.

Southampton Gull wrote: 17 Feb 2018, 10:25 Was that supposed to be humour?

Sorry if not up to the usual
intellectual standard!

merse btpir wrote: 16 Feb 2018, 20:11 You think so?

Frank O'Farrell managed us on three separate occasions and he was far more talked about as well as accomplished and being being a proper legend.

You don't think that he is in some way responsible for the current poor league position? ( If he was still manager we wouldn't be where we are now)

I hope Nicholson does get the Halifax job, if even only to shut this debate down once and for all. On paper his managerial record at Torquay was more than sackable and his popularity was more about who he was than for his success as a manager. But the context behind his time as manager will probably need some examination once the club historians of the future (if there is a club) look back on his time here.

I heard he had written a book and it would be useful to actually read it but in the meantime, if he is approximated at The Shay, then I would like to see him do well. He is a decent bloke, and whilst I thought his departure, after the Boreham Wood debacle, was correct, it was also sad in some ways. Owers, with an improved budget - probably in the shape of loans that GI will use to cripple us at some point - has not been any better, possibly even worse.

If he has a decent budget, then it will be interesting to see how he does and then the excuses of his time here will be irrelevant. I’m not hoping he fails - I’d like him to do well, as long it is not at our expense and if he is appointed, then I wish him luck.