Come on Port Vale

[Fonda]

All I am trying to say is the margins between success and failure are not always that wide.

And of course you'd be right. My point is, you can be pretty certain everyone else has suffered pretty much the same 'near misses' that we have.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I think on the pitch we are no worse than a lot of the teams down near us and i agree that we've had some bad luck but so have other teams. What about the Brian Saah airshot in his own six yrad box that came off his own post just minutes after gifting Vale a leveller through an own goal in our game up there? That was luck we HAD and if not we'd be joint bottom with Aldershot now. It all irons itself out over the course of a season. In my opinion the critical difference is the off the field issues which we have had a plethora of and it is ironic that these issues are the biggest threat to our league survival and not necessarily because of black and white football. We cannot hope to stay up with such weak and odd leadership.

[SuperNickyWroe]

And if they WIN that game in hand...?

then we will be 2nd bottom.......

[Fonda]

then we will be 2nd bottom.......

Cheers for the clarification mate!

[SuperNickyWroe]

Cheers for the clarification mate!

you are welcome shane.

to be honest, i thought you would have realised that yourself......... =D

[Fonda]

you are welcome shane.

to be honest, i thought you would have realised that yourself......... =D

I'm no good at sums! :~D

[ferrarilover]

Its not that though is it - what other team in our position would not have signed an emergency loan by now.
Not us though - our keeper isn't fit enough to train all week, won't be able to use his arms by all accounts but come Friday might be fit enough to play.
Instead all we get is a photo of six gurning directors, having changed the chairman, for the apparent reason being "that at least she has been in charge of a football league club" for three games.
Hate to say it but I would be gobsmacked if we beat Barnet - come ten to five on saturday it will be all over bar the shouting.

Thing is, perhaps Ricey isn't injured, or sufficiently injured, to qualify us to sign an emergency loanee. And in fairness to us, this is just bloody typical of our luck, yet again this season, I don't see any other club in the division with both goalkeepers injured at crunch time.

You don't hate to say it, you say it every week.

Matt.

[ferrarilover]

And of course you'd be right. My point is, you can be pretty certain everyone else has suffered pretty much the same 'near misses' that we have.

Yup, near misses I can cope with, hitting the post etc is a case of making your own luck, but things like having your best loanee recalled (no one else has had this, Barnet have had some no mark recalled and that's it). Having the manager go sick at the worst possible moment (happened once in the history of the Football League and that was at Liverpool, a club where it hardly mattered) and now, it seems, losing both goalkeepers (find me another club in L2 with both first team keepers crocked).

The margins between success and failure are so narrow this season that it is luck and not skill which will be the deciding factor. Not once this year have we come away from a game having been dominated and battered having won. We have, however, come away from a few on the receiving end of that situation. If we were sitting here now with wins against Gillingham away and Port Vale at home (just those two, no more) which is what we would have had but for a chunk of bad luck in each, we'd be virtually assured of survival. On moments like these, situations like this occur. Who knows, had Dinger gone sick a fortnight later, he may well have left behind him a side with three loanees in it, loanees who would have scored two dozen goals between them and seen us promoted by now. Same story a fortnight earlier. We weren't pretty before he left, but the table tells you that we were a damn sight more effective than to be languishing where we are at present. To suggest that none of where we are is down to bad luck is to suggest that the departure of Martin Ling had absolutely no effect on the side what so ever, and that, to me, sounds like the chatter of a crazy person.

Matt.

[Dutchgull]

Bloody hell Matt we agree again !!

[Scott Brehaut]

Bloody hell Matt we agree again !!

[ferrarilover]

Bloody hell Matt we agree again !!

See, you're not wrong ALL the time.

Matt.

[Gullscorer]

I agree things have gone against us, but you create your own luck in football. Fortune favours the brave, and we haven't shown an ounce of that. We have set up so negatively throughout this season, until Knill's arrival, and it's still not exactly the most attacking football.

I've said it since last season and stand by it.... all you realistically need in league 2 to give yourself a chance of winning a game at this level is wingers with serious pace, a decent delivery, and a big and little combination up front. The rest of the side just need to be physical and capable of competing, especially from set pieces. We've spent most of this season with wingers who like to come inside far too much and don't posess pace (Bodin, Craig and Jarvis). We rely on a passing game that we can't execute properly, and we don't have the right forwards to go direct and gamble. Rene is ok at winning flick-ons, but he rarely threatens the goal with a header. It's a shame we can't sacrifice some of the supposed 'quality' which our players possess for some extra height, strength, and aerial ability, because that is the dogged characteristics which can help create your own luck, in my opinion. Downes looks like our main goal threat, and surprise surprise he's big and physical, and good in the air, as was Labadie. Most sides always have a chance from set-pieces, yet I never really feel that we threaten the opposition unless it's Downes getting his head on it.

I think that we're perhaps too soft, try to be too fancy, and we don't seemingly battle as hard as the other sides in the relegation mix. They make their own luck, and unless we put in the biggest shift of these players' lives on Saturday, we won't get anything in the way of luck or points.

I'm looking forward to the game, and I fully expect the players to put in the necessary shift. I reckon it will be one hell of a nervy and very close game.

[Fonda]

I agree things have gone against us, but you create your own luck in football. Fortune favours the brave, and we haven't shown an ounce of that. We have set up so negatively throughout this season, until Knill's arrival, and it's still not exactly the most attacking football.

I've said it since last season and stand by it.... all you realistically need in league 2 to give yourself a chance of winning a game at this level is wingers with serious pace, a decent delivery, and a big and little combination up front. The rest of the side just need to be physical and capable of competing, especially from set pieces. We've spent most of this season with wingers who like to come inside far too much and don't posess pace (Bodin, Craig and Jarvis). We rely on a passing game that we can't execute properly, and we don't have the right forwards to go direct and gamble. Rene is ok at winning flick-ons, but he rarely threatens the goal with a header. It's a shame we can't sacrifice some of the supposed 'quality' which our players possess for some extra height, strength, and aerial ability, because that is the dogged characteristics which can help create your own luck, in my opinion. Downes looks like our main goal threat, and surprise surprise he's big and physical, and good in the air, as was Labadie. Most sides always have a chance from set-pieces, yet I never really feel that we threaten the opposition unless it's Downes getting his head on it.

I think that we're perhaps too soft, try to be too fancy, and we don't seemingly battle as hard as the other sides in the relegation mix. They make their own luck, and unless we put in the biggest shift of these players' lives on Saturday, we won't get anything in the way of luck or points.
I'm looking forward to the game, and I fully expect the players to put in the necessary shift. I reckon it will be one hell of a nervy and very close game.

Top post Smiffs.

[gullintwoplaces]

I agree things have gone against us, but you create your own luck in football. Fortune favours the brave, and we haven't shown an ounce of that. We have set up so negatively throughout this season, until Knill's arrival, and it's still not exactly the most attacking football.

I've said it since last season and stand by it.... all you realistically need in league 2 to give yourself a chance of winning a game at this level is wingers with serious pace, a decent delivery, and a big and little combination up front. The rest of the side just need to be physical and capable of competing, especially from set pieces. We've spent most of this season with wingers who like to come inside far too much and don't posess pace (Bodin, Craig and Jarvis). We rely on a passing game that we can't execute properly, and we don't have the right forwards to go direct and gamble. Rene is ok at winning flick-ons, but he rarely threatens the goal with a header. It's a shame we can't sacrifice some of the supposed 'quality' which our players possess for some extra height, strength, and aerial ability, because that is the dogged characteristics which can help create your own luck, in my opinion. Downes looks like our main goal threat, and surprise surprise he's big and physical, and good in the air, as was Labadie. Most sides always have a chance from set-pieces, yet I never really feel that we threaten the opposition unless it's Downes getting his head on it.

I think that we're perhaps too soft, try to be too fancy, and we don't seemingly battle as hard as the other sides in the relegation mix. They make their own luck, and unless we put in the biggest shift of these players' lives on Saturday, we won't get anything in the way of luck or points.

I'm looking forward to the game, and I fully expect the players to put in the necessary shift. I reckon it will be one hell of a nervy and very close game.

Completely agree, you are spot on. The only bit that doesn't apply for me is looking forward to the game. I am not looking forward to it at all, I have been here too many times and still the team keep doing it to us. I will be there with Mrs Gullintwoplaces, and we will of course get behind the team, but it is all a bit like masochism for my liking.