Jump to content

The long road ahead...


Recommended Posts

14 hours ago, simplythemostimportantkick said:

This bigging up of non league players is becoming a bit weird. It sounds like the standard is better than champions league ? There will be the odd player in the league that might be good enough. Not 3 or 4 at every single bleeding team. They are, the majority anyway, mainly not going to be good enough for the football league. They look better playing against dogshit defenders etc. Put them up against league players and I’m fairly sure they would be found out (the vast majority). 

Peter Taylor (ex England under 21 coach) was of the firm belief that technical skill levels in "non-league" were, in many instances, on a par (and often better) with league players. He said the only differential, generally, was fitness levels.

 

He knew many non-league players whom he thought good enough to play at the highest levels. However, they were in a dilemma i.e. some players in their early to mid 20s who had jobs. They just weren't willing to take the gamble and give up their jobs to then be rejected by a club after a year or so and be on the dole. So, they stayed in non league.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 64
  • Created
  • Last Reply

A mate of mine who played for Chadderton in the 60's, when they had a decent team, tells me of an FA Cup preliminary round at home to a non-league team from the North East.

As they took the field they noticed a "little old fella" who was skinny and about 45 years old ( they actually thought they were a man short and had drafted in the coach driver ).

 

As the game progressed it became apparent that he could play and although not moving much out of the centre circle was controlling the game. After they went 2-0 down the call went up to nobble him but despite their best attempts they couldn't, he avoided all their increasingly reckless attempts, and went on to lose the match.

 

On having a pint or two after the match they discovered he'd played full back for Darlington ( 4th Division ) for about 15 years. 

 

He said that after that it was obvious that there was a gulf between good amateurs and low grade professionals at that time and although it's a different game today still maintains that a gap remains. 

 

It's great to watch non-league football but to suggest none from a league team, however poor, couldn't catch a non league team is pretty ludicrous in my opinion.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/13/2020 at 2:21 PM, No Pyro No Party said:

The worst I ever (thought) I saw us play was back in the 2012-2013 season. Remember we didn't win for months over Christmas. Genuinely think even that squad would comfortably win against the current lot.

 

It's so depressing, especially for us younger fans who have no glory days to reminisce about. According to this, we're the lowest we've ever been since 1970:

 

1920px-OldhamAthleticFC_League_Performance.svg.png

 

So, prior to being relegated in 2018, we'd spent the grand total of 7 seasons in the basement division in our history, 5 consecutive seasons being our worst spell between 1958 and 1963. You reading this Barry? Next season will be our 10th and 3rd in succession [if we don't get relegated of course]. Tick Tock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, wiseowl said:

Peter Taylor (ex England under 21 coach) was of the firm belief that technical skill levels in "non-league" were, in many instances, on a par (and often better) with league players. He said the only differential, generally, was fitness levels.

 

He knew many non-league players whom he thought good enough to play at the highest levels. However, they were in a dilemma i.e. some players in their early to mid 20s who had jobs. They just weren't willing to take the gamble and give up their jobs to then be rejected by a club after a year or so and be on the dole. So, they stayed in non league.


I think it was the All Things Latics Podcast, but Pete Wild I seem to recall said words to the effect there was no difference in quality between League 2 and the National League, in his opinion. 
 

Definitely something in the job aspect as well. All well and good for Premier League player, but how many on League 1 or 2 get long contracts? Not many, guess this is fine when you are early 20s, but as you get older, family, commitments , etc must get more difficult to not have the certainty. 
 

Wasn’t this type of thing mentioned about Danny Rowe previously, that he had a decent job he didn’t want to leave? 
 

This a said, not convinced there are a massive amount of players who could be at the highest levels but for fitness. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/13/2020 at 10:40 PM, Magic Mikey said:

Friendlies count now to justify this we're shitter than non league bollocks. FFS

Whilst we would undoubtedly struggle against the teams in the top half of the Conference there is no denying we were given the warning signs losing to those teams in pre season, of course friendlies are meaningless but they have gone some way to defining our season. Wheater was a bit of a panic signing on the back of those defeats but in truth that was like sticking a plaster on a compound fracture.

 

To put it into perspective Stockport sit very close to us in the football pyramid and would probably turn us over, now who'd of thought that a couple of years ago, total lack of leadership and incompetence has us where we are, nothing more and nothing less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, yarddog73 said:

Whilst we would undoubtedly struggle against the teams in the top half of the Conference there is no denying we were given the warning signs losing to those teams in pre season, of course friendlies are meaningless but they have gone some way to defining our season. Wheater was a bit of a panic signing on the back of those defeats but in truth that was like sticking a plaster on a compound fracture.

 

To put it into perspective Stockport sit very close to us in the football pyramid and would probably turn us over, now who'd of thought that a couple of years ago, total lack of leadership and incompetence has us where we are, nothing more and nothing less.

 

Good job we don't have to play the mighty Dorking, they went Stockport last night and thrashed them 4-0.

Could we have done that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

Whilst we would undoubtedly struggle against the teams in the top half of the Conference there is no denying we were given the warning signs losing to those teams in pre season, of course friendlies are meaningless but they have gone some way to defining our season. Wheater was a bit of a panic signing on the back of those defeats but in truth that was like sticking a plaster on a compound fracture.

 

To put it into perspective Stockport sit very close to us in the football pyramid and would probably turn us over, now who'd of thought that a couple of years ago, total lack of leadership and incompetence has us where we are, nothing more and nothing less.

And Stockports average attendance for home games, so far this season, is 4,218 !

 

Shows how far we have plummeted as a club.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...