Blinkjim Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 true, just following on from the previous postings where his name was mentioned. He is out of price range, IF we were looking. Unfourtunatly i think kinnear would be one of the favs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 I agree with what FF said about us being similar to Dagenham. Very similar clubs in terms of fanbase, both with an average gate of just below 1500. The Daggers find it hard dragging fans away from West Ham, we find it hard dragging fans away from Charlton or the Gills. Both clubs experiencing what is probably their best decade in their history. Both close in the league at the moment. And yet the Daggers have proved that you can succeed at this level as a club of our size. And I do believe that the key to clubs of our size doing well, is cup runs. With little chance of gate receipts being high enough to do anything other than pay off the cost of wages, cup runs are our only way to generate revenue. How was it we managed to do so well at the end of last season? By bringing in new players with the money from our cup run. Enough said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Where do you guys get the idea that Hill is succesful. One decent season and some cup runs. Last year he brought a load of old has beens and was forced out.Remember9-0 against Hereford Then goes to Hornchurch and buys success with a load of old has beens who are ok at confsouth level. Was'nt one of his star buys turned failures a certain Mr Jackson. The guy is a poor manager imo. Definately cannot coach-ok he can shout a bit. You are alot better off with AF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hempstead Gaz Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Now that we have all calmed down after Saturday's dissapointment, the concensus (apart from Daz, but I respect your opinion) is that now is not the time to panic and sack Andy - but allow him the chance to bring in the new blood he has so desperately been aiming for. Harrhy needs time to settle in - maybe start him in the cup game against Stevenage alongside Roy (I guess Manny will still be injured (again!!). Get Drury fit again, Prothers at right back, and perhaps, just for once experiment a little with the formation. I keep banging on (and boring everyone) but 4-4-2 just isn't working. On saturday I thought Roy and Manny might have started up front with Pinns in the hole behind,but no - same old tried and failed formula. Let us try a diamond in midfield Jay sweeping in front of the back 4, Drury behind the front 2 and two wide men (perm Surey, Jacko, Pinns, Moussa. Depending on fitness why not try Wilko Protheroe Bunce Pops Skinner Saunders Sidebe Pinnock Drury Essandoh Harrhy. Anything but 4-4-2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hempstead Gaz Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 I should hasten to add that whilst I think that Pullen is the in form keeper, we must continue with Wilko for the cup games, to keep him fit and interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimGNFC Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Agreed the football hasn't been good of late and results neither but at the end of the day I still firmly believe Andy Ford is the best man for the job. Nobody else is going to do a better job with the budget available. Having said that the season so far has for me hinged on Andy's apparent refusal to play Lee Shearer at centre half when available, preferring Jay Saunders instead. With Lee at centre half I'm sure we would have picked up more points at a time when we were play-off material. Jay would have bolstered the midfield. Instead we decended into freefall. If Andy is to take the Club to the next level he NEEDS to put clashes in personality aside and pick his best eleven. Andy can clearly spot talent, Jimmy Bullard (Wigan), Adam Miller (QPR), Mark Bently (Southend) to name but a few quality players he has signed. His ability to attract good players is not an issue - its a question of whether the Club can keep them. Rather than blaming Andy (I've always been pro-Andy and defended him to the hilt) I feel the Club/Board needs to take a good, long hard look at itself, concerning certain off-the field activities and its communication with the fans. To summarise: 1) During last summer the club proclaimed it would be trying hard to attract new fans. What to date has the Club done? Meanwhile Charlton are shipping potential Gravesend fans to the Valley! 2) The Chief Executive goes. 3) The Club Website is defunct. Potential new fans can't even find out when the next fixture is! 4) Paul Harrison, the programme editor goes. The Chairman, is clearly working hard to arouse interest in "The Fleet First" Campaign with the local Media but no-one person can do everything. To re-ignite the season, the Club needs to try something radical: a) Let all school kids accompained by a paying adult in for free to *ALL* remaining fixtures. The Club could write to the local schools, circulating thousands of leaflets to them for the kids to take home and advertise in the local press to make people aware of this special offer. Get the Website sorted! c) Appoint a member of the Fleet Trust committee to the Club board. I've sensed the "Club" has over the last year distanced itself from the fans, typified by the Club's uncaring policy regarding lost season tickets. For me the Fleet Trust represents the voice of the 1000+ Fleet fans and as such should have representation at Board room level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hempstead Gaz Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Well said, Jim. The team is paying the price for the shambles that appears behind the scenes. a)Why restrict the Free to kids only to kids? Why not OAP's as well? The non website is a disgrace. Most computer literate 16 year olds could set up and run a website. Is it relly that difficult for Fleet to resurrect the old one. I believe Dave H still has most of the data for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blinkjim Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Totaly agree with the above points raised, apart from the lee shearer one, IMO he wasnt the as good as most people make out, electing to hoof the ball even when under little pressure, although that seemed to be the general tactic, especially from kickoff. also did any one know what glen aitkin job role was as cheif executive? The web site has gone to complete rubbish since Dave left the controls. Although Dave's site was rudimentry in design (no crticism ment there), it was updated regulary and worked, then the curse of the robot came with its over complexity, also with it being officialy linked with the club very little update about Gravesend appeared, no doubt leaving some fans in the dark? Also if you read the review of our Ground, as mentioned in a previous post, it states that the programme contains numourous mistakes, at least one on every page is what the site says? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wobbly Wayne rides again Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Quote: Agreed the football hasn't been good of late and results neither but at the end of the day I still firmly believe Andy Ford is the best man for the job. Nobody else is going to do a better job with the budget available. Having said that the season so far has for me hinged on Andy's apparent refusal to play Lee Shearer at centre half when available, preferring Jay Saunders instead. With Lee at centre half I'm sure we would have picked up more points at a time when we were play-off material. Jay would have bolstered the midfield. Instead we decended into freefall. If Andy is to take the Club to the next level he NEEDS to put clashes in personality aside and pick his best eleven. Andy can clearly spot talent, Jimmy Bullard (Wigan), Adam Miller (QPR), Mark Bently (Southend) to name but a few quality players he has signed. His ability to attract good players is not an issue - its a question of whether the Club can keep them. Rather than blaming Andy (I've always been pro-Andy and defended him to the hilt) I feel the Club/Board needs to take a good, long hard look at itself, concerning certain off-the field activities and its communication with the fans. To summarise: 1) During last summer the club proclaimed it would be trying hard to attract new fans. What to date has the Club done? Meanwhile Charlton are shipping potential Gravesend fans to the Valley! 2) The Chief Executive goes. 3) The Club Website is defunct. Potential new fans can't even find out when the next fixture is! 4) Paul Harrison, the programme editor goes. The Chairman, is clearly working hard to arouse interest in "The Fleet First" Campaign with the local Media but no-one person can do everything. To re-ignite the season, the Club needs to try something radical: a) Let all school kids accompained by a paying adult in for free to *ALL* remaining fixtures. The Club could write to the local schools, circulating thousands of leaflets to them for the kids to take home and advertise in the local press to make people aware of this special offer. Get the Website sorted! c) Appoint a member of the Fleet Trust committee to the Club board. I've sensed the "Club" has over the last year distanced itself from the fans, typified by the Club's uncaring policy regarding lost season tickets. For me the Fleet Trust represents the voice of the 1000+ Fleet fans and as such should have representation at Board room level. Some good points and ones that reflect a great number of Fleet fans views. Well the ones that seem to congrgate around where I stand anyway. In regards to the Trust having a place at board level , I thought that jessica already had that .. Up the Fleet... And may Andy Fords red and white army rise again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
American FLEET FAN No1 Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Well the club has a proffesional(full time) manager, the rest of it is very amateur, or a joke, to fans ,even our own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan W (GNFC) Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Cant see us playing as many 1st teamers as that - this is a good opportunity to blood players such as Luke Moore, who got such good reviews for his 10 minutes or so at Eastbourne, yet found himself ignored completely yesterday (ok, we need to avoid going overboard about him after just 10 minutes, but equally we shouldnt avoid giving him a chance, just because he's still only 16) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColtheJock Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 See what happens when you are away from the PC for a few days. Saturday's result was a disappointment and I have read the comments on here with interest. It would be a very dangerous knee-jerk reaction to sack Andy Ford at the moment, what the man has done for the club is immense. My only criticism of Mr Ford and this comment was made somewhere above, is that he seems to stick with the 4-4-2 formation. Try something different and if it works then great, if not then at least it shows imagination. I think that Mr Kilcullen has more sense then to react to the current situation, he and Andy Ford have brought the club forward together. Let's hope things turn round before the end of the season and we can continue to move forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Totally agree ColtheJock. Andy has to stay until the end of the season and then the situation can be assessed once it's finished. OK, it's pretty dire at the moment but what with the gap to the bottom three as it is (10 point cushion), fingers crossed we'll be alright and will not do a 'Southport'. We are desperately in need of a striker (or two) but if the chances are not being created from the midfield, then we could have Michael Owen up there and he would be struggling. We lost the game on Saturday in the middle where we badly missed McKimm. In the first half, Aldershot must have won about 95% of clearances from either keeper. Strikers will not score if they get nothing played up to them. Individual errors did not help either (Skins and Gledhill). Teams in this league seem to have figured us out and let's face it, it's not too difficult. Pass it through us to get chances, wait for unforced errors and deal with the long balls pumped up when we are (inevitably) chasing the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColtheJock Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 I agree with you Jeff, I think the continuity of having all the players here in pre-season helped with the start to the season, and I think our fighting spirit shocked alot of teams once, but not now. We do seem to be a little one-dimensional and that needs to change. We have struggled up front and need a 20 goal a season striker, but they are not easy to find. I had hoped that Roy Essandoh was the man, but he is not getting the chances he needs. Essandoh is a striker who needs to be in the box and be fed with crosses. Manny should be close to him to take any knock downs, I sometimes feel our front two play too far away from each other. Hope we can cut out the mistakes and get some goals before the end of the season!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number 8 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Are the views expressed here been aired soley because we lost to Aldershot. If we beat them, would the story be different?... I think so. AF has got a tough job, even more so now that Ade has split. Developing players new and old to gel together in such a short space of time and during heavily competitive matches is a tough job for any manager (look as Jose what's his name from Chelsea). You have to agree, it takes at least a season for a team of players to get comfortable with each other on pitch. Prediciting who is going to pick up a decent cross or pass is tough when players are unfamiliar with each others playing styles/habits. Give AF a break and get behind him. Knowing his fan base is p***ed off will do nothing for his or the teams confidence. We will be great, it just takes time to develop. We won't be moaning when we reach play-off position next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Quote: The web site has gone to complete rubbish since Dave left the controls. Why doesn't the club get someone like Whitebucket or Dave H to do it, who's proved they can do it? Both have/had their sites updated regularly and are likely to know the cluib better than that robot guy they bought in last time?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColtheJock Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 I would be more than happy to help the club get it's official web-site back up and running with some help from others. Whitebucket has done a great job on his site and I offer to help him as well. Dave H seems to know alot and would do a good job. I think it needs a group of us to get together and make the effort. I am happy to give it a go if others are. As for the quotes above from Number8, I don't disagree with whath they have to say. But I don't think we will be pushing for the play-offs next season as I believe the only way we will be able to do that is for the club to go full-time, and I don't see that on the horizon yet. Hopefully, and maybe in the summer we can get a core of players to go full time, say 8-10 and start from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry J Allstars Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 I'll help, I'd love to get involved with something like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Quote: Hopefully, and maybe in the summer we can get a core of players to go full time, say 8-10 and start from there. The finances probably won't be in place even for that, I would have thought. Quote: Are the views expressed here been aired soley because we lost to Aldershot. If we beat them, would the story be different?... I think so. Exactly - as I have said elsewhere, it seems odd that a defeat to the third-placed team in the table (albeit with a poor performance from us) should spark such a soul-searching reaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wobbly Wayne rides again Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 If you take out the Carlisle away game, the next couple of months games don't look the toughest. Admitably we need to show a bit more passion than we did on Saturday, but theres every chance we will be looking down the table from a higher perch in the not too distant future. Keep the Faith.. And get behind the team. We are the Fleet . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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