basilrobbie

The main thing was losing Critchley so unexpectedly. He'd not long since signed a lengthy contract, but decided he wanted to be Gerrard's No. 2 at the Villa. We all know how that turned out, and he has subsequently been sacked at QPR too (more a reflection on them than him, I think). The club freely admit they had no contingency plan for his departure. They might have been able to get Duff, or even Rosenior, but appointed Appleton. A lot of fans took against him immediately because of his PNE links and when they sacked him they chose the wrong dinosaur in McCarthy - Huddersfield have had a lot more value from Warnock. Add in a terrible injury list and a very poor disciplinary record, and here we are. It's a very tough Division for a club of our size. Kieran Maguire published a list of average weekly wages for players by club in the 2021/22 season a few days ago. We were bottom, paying £3.5k per week ; Fulham were paying £44k. And we still LOST £75k per week that season.

.... I will mostly be sulking, and throwing missiles at the postman if he dares come anywhere near me. Bollocks.......

Toughest game of the four, naturally. Looking at the other two, Aldershot look to have the easier finish on paper.

Yeovil are more or less gone. Three of the last four away at Solihull, Wrexham and Boreham Wood.

I was going to mention the Southend comparison, and they are a club who are literally robbing Peter to pay Paul at the moment. Apart from the £4 up lift on on the day purchases, I think that is pretty good value, given how little you will get from TV revenue. It's a strategy clearly aimed at getting a transfer kitty in up front, isn't it?

Yeovil have been in wretched form for quite a while now and that was a very, very poor night for them. Both Aldershot and Dorking will fancy their chances against them. I'm pleased for Gateshead, who are having a momentous season already with a trip to the FA Trophy Final already booked.

Interesting. I've always thought he was alright as a target man and not bad at bringing others into play. a decent defender at set pieces too. It's confidence when the chances come that seems to be more difficult for him. It's not that long ago that high six figure sums were changing hands for him. I'm sure he could do well for you, in the right system.

I had a very quick look. Gateshead and Torquay would both lose three points, but that seemed to be about it. But I hope to God it doesn't come down to that.

It may be a bit morbid, but has anyone done a mock up of wha happens to the league table if Southend go out of business on March 1st?

I THINK so Dave. It may have been the Northern Premier League by then ; it was a very long time ago. I saw my biggest score one of those games when I saw Fleetwood beat Skem 11-0. They had a right wing called Derek Armstrong who got five.

Enjoyed that. The references to the Lancashire Combination took me back ; when I was a kid and Blackpool were away I used to bunk over the wall to watch Fleetwood home games in that League. Teams like Marine, Goole Town, Gainsborough Trinity, Workington, Skelmersdale United, South Liverpool - I've seen them all. I think you have done pretty well to get seven candidates in the elections ; I wish we'd managed that many. They will certainly be kept busy, by the sounds of it.

The Deva is indeed miles from the railway station. Last time I went there was when Billy Ayre was our manager in the "miracle" season of 92/93. We had eleven points at Christmas and were eleven points away from safety ; we won at Chester 2-1 on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year, our first away win in nearly a year. It was a long walk back, made worse by having to fight off marauding locals for much of the way. We stayed up on the last day, sending Fulham (!!) down to D4 instead. Good job you're at home.

Nuttall had a bad time with us and the crowd got on his back, which didn't help. But I always thought he could do well in the right system. He's been scoring goals at a team that looks as thought it is sliding straight through. In fact, if they are letting him go it makes you wonder whether they are already throwing in the towel.

4th mate. The weight of history will be their undoing.** ** I've no idea really. I just don't think they have much more than a lot of money going for them.

Nice to hear you all talking football and looking forward to something. A couple of things : 1) on a "renewed focus for OASF" ; we have faced this challenge at our Trust and it isn't easy. A surprising number of our fans seem to think that as we now have a largely progressive owner that the governance issues no longer matter and the Trust therefore shouldn't invest time and effort on it. It's a remarkable attitude, given the amount of change that looks as though it is just around the corner, but some people do think like that and I daresay you will be no different. So watch out for a line of thinking that goes along the lines of "stop criticising and get behind the club" (even if they are not doing so well). 2) I thought the lad from the NL Podcast was very polite. I have to confess, I have no first hand knowledge of the Division in that I don't watch it. But I do study how it goes pretty closely every season and I think you will find it hard. The squad needs a LOT of new blood from where I sit, because you look short of goals and strength in depth (you may find yourself playing fifty odd games if you go well in the two main Cup competitions). I think you may end up around 16th. If I was absolutely forced to pick a top 3 they would be Notts County, Halifax and Boreham Wood. My bottom four are Aldershot, Dorking, Wealdstone and Scunthorpe.

My question is : Have you considered designing a community share offer, of the kind used by fans of Portsmouth in the past?

I've been thrown out of a Red Lion. I've no intentions of being thrown out BY one....

I think it is very hard to say. Much of what he has said and done so far suggests that heart is struggling with head, as far as he is concerned. You will all have a far better idea than me if what assurances he might have been given, and how likely he is to rely upon them. I suppose the question I would put back to you is - do you think that he wants to play Oldham Athletic politics? He doesn't seem the type to me, but what do I know?

Listened to this earlier today, and I thought it was one of the best in a very impressive series. One of the interesting things for me was the recognition that relegation - though disastrous in itself - isn't necessarily the end of the fall. Andy really caught my attention from the beginning as he laid out the many-headed nature of the problem ; squad decimated, recruitment key, key parts of the infrastructure questionable or absent, quite apart from the acute worries about money. Equally, I thought everyone was very good at articulating why the current incumbents offer absolutely no evidence to suggest that they are up to the job that they face now. To that extent, the (interesting) discussion about whether Sheridan has the skill set that he will need to do this particular job is something of a red herring for me. He starts with one hand tied behind his back, so how good he is seems a little besides the point. I think you may be surprised by how good the top half of this Division is. I've read a lot of comment from fans of clubs like Bristol Rovers that suggests that most of the clubs at the top would be pretty comfortable in L2. I think that is probably true. It doesn't help. I share Andy's view that people should be running out of reasons to continue underwriting this regime now. You've given them time, energy, money and passion and they have let you down very badly. You deserve far, far better, but to get it I think you are going to have to force a change, rather than wait for it.

That is very likely to be true. But I am sure you want far better than that. What would you do to change things?

I don't think anyone would argue with your second sentence. But don't you think there is a disconnect from the first sentence? Put another way, until a multi-millionaire turns up, what do you think should be done? Because I don't think many of your fans think the current owner is capable of delivering the kind of coach you describe, and one way or another something needs to happen to persuade him to step aside. I don't necessarily think a multi-millionaire is the answer, by the way. Exeter don't have one of those as far as I know, and look where they are.

I'd love to hear and read your blueprint for solving the problems you face. Can you sketch it out for me?

Aaah, sorry, I understand now.

If we are talking about Shadow Boards here, the proposal is that they would be made up entirely of fans, the club would have no role in heir selection and would be obliged to meet them on a regular basis (probably 3-4 times a year). As I understand it, the SB would have a right to see information relating to business planning, financial management and corporate issues, albeit they would probably have to agree to non-disclosure of key commercial information. What they WOULDN'T be doing is using this forum to hold the club to account for the price of pies, manager tactics etc.

Another good listen, I do like a Matt Dean rant. I think what you end up using the money you raise for isn't (yet) the big issue here. The more immediate one is of how you acquire some leverage. I endorse all that was said about Salford City - a latter day Fleetwood Town, really. And they(Fleetwood) are now on the long, slow road back to where they came from. Crowds dwindling, chairman in grave danger of going to jail, over £20m in debt (most of which is owed to said owner) and losing money at the rate of around £55k per week. I agree your best target is Barrow. Especially now they have made such a disastrous managerial appointment. Panic, pure and simple.