Linnets' Fans' Forum

I'm here to represent the most annoying supporters - the ones who don't go as we are awaiting warmer climes and a better team.  My beef is with the manager; in a game we should certainly have looked to win to maintain any chance of a play-off place, Al, like so many managers at all levels, leaves the fastest and trickiest player, Crane, on the bench, presumably preferring some kind of Subbuteo formation to picking the players most likely to actually create chances.  I fear we have found our level.  The support, the stadium, the team, and the financial side simply don't look like an enterprise likely to go any higher.  I wish us all well, but reality is possibly beginning to surface...

Skilful players like Barrett are always accused of not being consistent, or not "putting in a shift". I only watch Bundesliga, La Liga, or Champions League now to avoid players "winning fouls" or "tactical fouls" in the macho game full of players "putting in a shift" that has developed over here...

Abi
It's is the first quality to look for.  And it only takes 5 minutes and 2 touches to spot it....

Agreed WellWisher.  I've spent the season shouting "CRANE" because speed and trickery are the best  ammunition for any team.  But I spent a season shouting "BARRETT" and got nowhere as well!  Managers  are too full of faux-tactics to see the nose on the front of their faces!

Mall- the "Get nothing for playing well" is a football cliche!  In general, playing well wins games, and not playing well doesn't.  If we can get a team that plays well we will win more matches!... Shearer and co can have the cliches, The Dillathon knows better!....

Anyone?

Al's analysis didn't quite make sense.  He recognised that P'bro' had two forwards who were "mobile and quick", then said the opponents played the game at a slower pace than we would want. Good job they did!  He should pick a team that is as quick and mobile as possible himself because it beats a stodgy defensive team 9 games out of 10...

Good one, B & G... Fair dos!  A bit like Bob Newhart's sketch "The Driving Instructor"....... "No, I'm sorry, it's my fault.  You put your left arm out, and your left indicator on, and I, well er, I more or less assumed you were going left"!....

Dilly was only seeing if anyone is operating such a thing as a raffle, or any other money-raising initiative.  It's not a raffle that the question is about.  I'm "asking for a friend" who might have an interesting proposition, but he needs to know if there is anyone to contact....

Thanks for the Bal/Jo distinction. If Jo is the money man, and Bal is his representative, is there anyone working on money-making projects at the ground/elsewhere, or organising raffles, etc?  If so is he or she contactable?

Who is Bal(Jo), and are people able to contact him?  I have long thought that the reason our finances never take off is that we only ever attempt to raise money "in club" or ground on match days. 

I confess to not having been to The Walks for quite a while, and just watch whatever is available on video. I've see enough, however, to wonder why Crane is always on the bench.  He appears to have some of the pace and skill that we completely lack on too many occasions, and he seems to fall into the trap suffered by Barrett when he was here and clearly the best player in the club at the time.  Managers often convince themselves that they possess some kind of tactical knowledge that makes them rely on their Subbuteo Board formations in which the most skilful players are surplus to requirements. It's complete nonsense!  Successful teams are those that, believe it or not, actually pick their best players!  You might not win with them, but you sure as Hades won't without them!

Is there to be a new Commercial Manager, or was it an urban myth?  If we do manage to go up, such an appointment would appear to be essential.

I feel that SC has done a great job since he has been here, even a miraculous job for a club which has never progressed as far as most of its opponents from the day the Main Stand was opened, to put a time relevance to my point.  I believe the lack of further ground development has caused disinterest in the club for locals and beyond, because we haven't reached the level to attract them.  But SC has kept us in with a chance of progress, even now....

It was nothing personal Mall, as I realise there are a lot of people who fancy a more locally based team playing at a lower standard.  That would be the end of any possibility of progress, imho.  The "food" reference was merely of the question as to which would come first, the infrastructure/chicken that would attract wider investor interest, or the investment/egg that could improve the infrastructure and the club as a whole.  Considering we built one of the best non-league stands in the 50s, it's disappointing we've basically done nothing, or reduced, ever since. And personally I don't believe "Academies" are much help at our level, because any players with potential will probably go to bigger and better clubs than ours.  I'm hoping the new Finance director will have some ideas and contacts....