Please help my club

[Windsor Rebel]

I went to North Leigh last night and I have to say i left shell shocked. After a good performance against Burnham on Saturday, we

were taken apart by what is basically a village team. Hopefully this is just a one off, but any more performances like that and we are in for a torrid season

 

Up The Rebels

[Martin]

Totally agree with Chris' comments. In the cold light of day now I have recovered from the horror show of last night that is exactly how I feel.

 

Driving home last night as sat nav took me down a single track country road because it was "quick" I was starting to question my sanity in following Slough and was thinking that Cinderford might be a step too far.

 

But I'll be there Saturday as will the vast majority of us and hopefully the performance will be markedly improved. It frankly can't be any worse.

[Barry Scott]

Originally Posted By: Chris

Facts are yesterday was bad, we need some more and better players and more competition for places and a couple of players have shown nothing since pre-season to convince me they are any good.

and who chooses the players we sign? The manager! Why do people constantly look for excuses when what's wrong is staring you all right in the face? Our squad is poor and our players are average at best... and who is doing ANYTHING at all to change that? No-one, and that's what's wrong. This is the pretty much the same core of the squad who did so badly last season, this is a team who does the same things wrong time and time again, this is a squad who can't even do the basics right? And whose fault it that? Come on, answer that question?

In the four matches I've seen under Sweets, we've been under pressure for 90 minutes all the time, failing to clear our lines, unable to mark, unable to string a few passes together, unable to tackle with the sole exception being Newport. And yet none of those things seems to have changed. We threw away a lead TWICE against Burnham on Saturday, and a team that is hoping to not get relegated can't do that. How many lost opportunities, defeats, drubbings and the odd win is it going to take before some sweeping changes are made? When we're five points adrift at Christmas, when we need 9 points from 12 at the end of the season? The sooner someone says that this isn't good enough and has to change the better. But even then I doubt the changes will come.

So keep believing that all the off-the-pitch stuff is great and our future is rosy all you want, because our present is looking awful and the outlook doesn't look like it's going to change.

[Guest Anonymous]

Have to agree, of all the games I've seen when Sweetman has been in charge this is the first BAD result. Didn't go last night but thought we looked good against Burnham and we will do better than last year. Talking in the pub after the game the off field management has improved, Steve Easterbrook is putting a lot of effect in.

RWG I agree with lots you have said but give Sweetman a chance, we have improved under him. One result does not make a season, but if we have only one point after eight or nine games then you can really start to moan....

[Barry Scott]

Okay, one more question. Exactly HOW have we improved under Sweets?

[Guest Anonymous]

Liam,

I've trawled through your diatribe above and for the life of me I cannot see a single proposal from you as to how the club should go about things differently to turn this sutuation around!

 

 

Whether you like it or not, and unless a Russian billionaire happens to be flying over the trading estate on his way to buy Tottenham and upon spying The Park decides Slough Town is a much more desirable option, things aint going to change over night.

 

Read your own posts and the clues are there as to why it will take time to turn things round,a steady and constant decline over the past 8 to 10 years, culminating in the club escaping relegation by the skin of our teeth last seasn....not exactly going to be easy to attract top quality players and turn a "relegated" side into league champions is it mate!!

 

The new Chairman is putting his money where his mouth is and attempting to get this club back up the pyramid system, but unlike you, he is not stupid enough to think he can wave a magic wand and turn us into Wycombe Wanderes by christmas.

 

As for your criticism of the youth team and stall in the Observatory, you should be ashamed of yourself. The people that man (and woman!) that stall do so entirly voluntarily and it is a positive step to raising the profile of the club in the town to try and get people interested in the club again. However I await with baited breath your alternative proposal.

 

As for the youth team, words fail me as to how anyone capable of walking upright can possibly think this is not a positive step.

 

The fact is that we are where we are, and if you cannot see that things are changing for the better you are a bigger fool than your rhetoric would have us all believe.

 

You are the living embodiment of the stone cold fcat that two things always come free in life, that is criticism and advice, and, as with most things which are banded about freely, they are both totally worthless!

 

Chelsea Rebel

[Barry Scott]

If he's putting his money where his mouth is, why is our squad so poor? If we're raising the profile of the club, why are attendances falling? If we're doing all this good stuff behind the scenes, why are we doing so badly? Why can North Leigh produce a team that can do the basics properly, why do Slough play like a team of strangers? Why do we go for the cheapest option for a manager, when we need an experienced manager at this level? These aint hard questions, but as soon as a gobby little [****!!****] like me raises them it's easier to go after the source than actually answer them. Life's like that some times.

 

And again, you can spout about all this off-the-field crap, but there are teams that are better run than us, on smaller budgets than us that our doing it better. Hell, look at Wealdstone and Maidstone, two teams that haven't had a home for longer than we have and there they are, in the division above! The fact is, that something needs to be done NOW to get people in through the gate as results and decent coverage in the press will do a hell of a lot more than a few leaflet drops. Of course, I could be wrong about that, I usually am.

 

PS And while you're having a pop, could you ask the team for a whipround to refund my petrol and attendance fee last night. I think that's the least they can do.

[Guest Anonymous]

As your so keen on quick fixes , how about you fix this whole debate quickly by outlining what you would be doing differently.

 

 

But before you do may I suggest you check out Brighton Rebels earlier post and click the link to his blog it may help you to form an informed opinion instead of the remarkably ill-informed one you currently hold!

 

 

Chelsea Rebel

 

 

 

[Barry Scott]

Yup, read it and its all well and good and there's no doubt that in the future it may pay dividends... but not if we're relegated or keep losing. However, the other point I've continually brought up and which you seem to be constantly ignoring concerns the squad. Now Sweets targeted the players he has signed, and the board sanctioned those signings, so why is our squad so paper-thin and lacking in both quality and comprehension of the basics? You've asked questions of me, so I'll ask this one of you as you seem to be another of the mindless majority who will defend the club...

 

PS I'm STILL waiting for someone to explain how Sweets has improved the team

[Chris]

Quote:

PS I'm STILL waiting for someone to explain how Sweets has improved the team

Well, and no offence to these players but replacing:

Matt Platt with Jason Marney
James Pritchard with Christian Metcalfe
Danny Jordan with Jermaine Gumbs
Ryan Fenton with Adrian Brown

All better players than we had under previous managers

[Barry Scott]

and they've been fantastic so far... 5 defeats from 10? You can all wax lyrical about the massive strides the club is making off the pitch, but if the side keeps losing those people won't come back, attendances will fall, and you'll be back where you started, changing the manager, going through the honeymoon and then results start to tank... need I go on?

[HorshamRebel]

From my post above

 

Under Sweets

Played : 10

Won : 2

Drew : 3

Lost : 5

Goals for : 10

Goals Against : 18

Goal Difference : -8

 

That's a 50% loss rate instead of a 74% loss rate for the other games before he came

 

[Windsor Rebel]

So what is your solution to the problem Liam?

[Barry Scott]

hmmm... so if we take that form over the course of a season we will finish with 21 defeats, 9 wins and 13 draws giving us.... oooh 40 points! Maybe 42! That's such great form, I must applaud him for that!

 

Actually, you can all keep your delusions that we're one result/day/week/month away from turning the corner because that's all they are. This club will be lucky to finish with 30 points if this squad stays as it is, but as long as everything off the field is being run right, we're okay? We can be the best run side in the Combined Counties League! Now that is a dream you can ALL believe in, I'm sure!

[Windsor Rebel]

Liam: you seem to have a lot to say for yourself but lack any

concrete ideas for solving the issues- maybe you can enlighten us

with a positive plan to tackle the issues?

[Barry Scott]

Originally Posted By: Windsor Rebel

So what is your solution to the problem Liam?

Get some decent players in for a start. Every other team in this division seems to be able to do it, why not us? Oh, and I would fine every single player that started that match as they were nothing less than an embarrassment to themselves and this bitter young man who still has fond memories of walking 60 miles for this club (and I won't be doing that again in a hurry, this club doesn't deserve such devotion). Then I'd get rid of everyone over the age of 30 in the squad and start again fresh. If it's a team full of teenagers and players that actually cared for the club rather than just looking for drinking money, then I'd be happy. But there's no passion, no commitment, just fighting and tactical ineptness running right through the team.

[charlie]

just one minor point - I thought the attendance for the burnham game was one of the best we'd had wasn't it? So maybe attendances are improving? (if only marginally)

[Barry Scott]

Originally Posted By: Windsor Rebel

Liam: you seem to have a lot to say for yourself but lack any
concrete ideas for solving the issues- maybe you can enlighten us
with a positive plan to tackle the issues?

well if you're content to watch that crap week in, week out, that's your loss not mine

[Tom]

Originally Posted By: Barry Scott

Then I'd get rid of everyone over the age of 30 in the squad and start again fresh.

So 2, possibly 3 players at most who probably wouldn't be playing anyway if we had a bigger squad. Radical change there then.

I do agree the players shouldn't get paid after last nights performance though.

[Windsor Rebel]

So we wont be seeing you again then?