nzlatic

Possibly. But it's hard to pin on something simple because the team has changed so much game by game. Whether that's deliberately or forced. He might look to settle the team down going into the last few games. I think he'll need to if we're going to build enough consistency to win 3 play off games.

I thought we were heading that way but form has fallen away. If we'd carried on Mellon's 2 points per game from when I started this thread, including beating Bromley, then we'd only be 3 points behind them with 8 to play. But I think the gap is too big to the top 3 now without a serious upturn in form. My prediction is that we'll be 5th or 6th, but it looks like it'll be really tight so could be anywhere from 4th to out of it completely.

Thought I'd have another look at the form table seeing as we're on a bad run with no win in the last 3. Despite that we've not been too badly affected when it comes to league position. Over the last 4 games, only Barnet (3rd), Aldershot (4th) and Halifax (5th) are in the top 7 of the form table out of the play off contenders. Solihull are 8th and the rest are miles off including us unfortunately... Bromley (15th), Oldham (16th), Gateshead (18th) and Altrincham (22nd) Over the last 10 games, only Aldershot (4th) and Gateshead (6th) are in the top 7 of the form table. Barnet (9th), Halifax (10th), Solihull (11th), Oldham (14th), Altrincham (16th) and Bromley (18th). When looking at the 4, 6, 8 and 10 game form tables, only Aldershot are in the top 7 for all of them (4th, 5th, 2nd and 4th respectively). They're the only truly consistent team over that time, others have had good runs over a smaller number of games. I'm going to do that thing that loads of people hate... put a positive spin on things! Putting the quality of football aside, there's nothing in that data that suggests we're at serious risk of dropping out of the play offs. Purely because almost all the other teams are having equally iffy runs. So it still looks like there's every chance we'll be in the play offs. Then you look at the potential opposition and there's no one there that you'd expect would blow us away - even the best form team Aldershot only just edged us and we were absolutely woeful. I'd imagine that Mellon is looking at the end of the season as 8 build up games before a short end of season cup competition. And the only things he's bothered about achieving in that time are 1) enough points to make sure we're in the cup comp and 2) win the cup competition by whatever means necessary.

He also didn’t build his business into a big success in a few months. It would have taken time, wrong turns, ups and downs.

Agree with almost all of this except Kitch. I’d make available. I might be being harsh because that’s based on the last few weeks. He might have a knock or it could be to do with the Reid situation but I’m not convinced he’s dynamic enough for the role he’s currently being asked to play. I was going to say release but I looked it up and he’s contracted til next season. I was also surprised to read he’s only 28! I assumed he was older. We need a squad next season that has flexibility and variety. We don’t have that now.

They’re accurate in how badly we played yesterday but they lost 5-0 at home to fylde the other week so should have some idea of how inconsistent all teams are in this league bar Chesterfield and Oxford!

I don’t know why his form has dropped but it has. He now rarely tries to go outside and his crossing and set pieces are ineffective. Aldershot gave him room yesterday but he still offered little. But prior to the last few weeks he’s been one of our most important players. If he was on form on one side and Green hadn’t got injured on the other side then we’d be looking a lot better. I don’t think he’ll be here next season though. We need young dynamic players down both flanks. Ones who can play 352/343 or in a back 4.

And unfortunately the one wide player on that list has had his form drop off a cliff in the last few weeks.

I do agree that we’ve not signed in a couple of key areas but for me the blame lies with the summer recruitment team which I believe was Unsworth and Thompson. Yes these areas could have been addressed since Mellon came in however it is possible that the right players haven’t been available for the right money. So we signed a young loan and a young permanent to right back and midfield. No manager will ever get 100% of signings right so before writing off recruitment under Mellon I’m happy for him to have a summer moving players on and bringing in better quality into the first team.

I posted this a while ago. If I remember right he’s only got promotion in his first season once, but he was appointed in May so had the full summer. Every other time has been 2nd season at the earliest.

There will come a time in the future where the general consensus among the fan base will be that it’s time for Mellon to go. At that point eyresy’s algorithms (which must put google’s to shame) will tell him to start backing the manager to the hilt. Often using such phrases as “best fans in the land” in a sarcastic way to try and get bites. It’s tried and tested.

I can’t remember seeing a collective performance that full of mistakes. Falling over, mishitting passes, bad control, slicing clearances, floating cross after cross straight to the keeper, strikers making a run the opposite way to where the ball went. It was embarrassing to watch. I don’t think a single player was immune to it. A couple of games ago they put together a 17 pass move for the 2nd goal at Eastleigh. I think they tried. The effort was there they just simply couldn’t do even the basics when it came to finding space or finding another player.

Very poor half of football, deservedly behind. The only obvious thing to do now is to fold the club, chop up Frank’s boat for firewood and release chaddy to live wild on the moors.

OASF are told often enough they don’t represent all fans. It can’t then also be argued that any conversation they have with the club has to be shared for free with all fans. The CEO has met with a shareholder rep who has then updated the other shareholders on what was discussed.

I think that was the plan under Unsworth. To build the infrastructure and the identity of the club from nothing with a 3 season plan of progress and ultimately promotion. But they picked the wrong man unfortunately. This season Mellon has come in half way through. Building an identity will have been put on hold whilst he was trying to turn form around and get into the playoffs. I’m expecting to see something different after the summer.

100%. Our home form isn’t sustainable long term if we want to be successful as a club. But in the context of the 2nd half of this season only, it’s not as crucial because of our away form. Getting promoted from where we were when Mellon came in would be a great achievement. This would be our first play offs in 17 years ffs! Yet the general tone of conversation feels no more positive than this time last year.

I’m finding the possibility of promotion pretty exciting. But each to their own.

Looking like our first play off finish in 17 years but theres a stream of negativity on here and twitter. In the games I’ve been to if we don’t score early it can get quite flat despite the valiant efforts of some trying to get an atmosphere going.

One minute you’re telling everyone how dour it is, the next complaining about the lack of excitement in the fan base.

Go back and read the Dagenham at home thread. Almost identical complaints all round in terms of the quality of the football. You could argue from a results point of view that Thompson may have done as well as or better than Mellon but I don’t see how you can claim the quality of football at home was any better.

It may not have been a good night for the form table lads, but it seems it was an absolute banger for the WUMs and permanently miserable.

It would be better if we were, obviously. It would be great to go into the play offs as the only team with chesterfield levels of results. We aren’t at the moment but neither is anybody else. In a one off game, are there any other the teams from 2nd to 9th who you wouldn’t fancy us to have a decent chance of beating? To be in that position by the end of this season is a really good outcome considering where we were. Again - this isn’t celebrating or accepting current form is fine or definitely enough, it’s just not the unmitigated disaster that some make out.

The number 1 short term goal of the manager is clearly not to play attacking football to entertain our home fans. It's to get promoted this season. I'm sure he's not happy with the home form, but when he came in the realistic best we could have hoped for is promotion via the playoffs. He's got us into the playoffs, we're picking up enough points regularly to stay in them and we've got a manager and a number of players who have play off and promotion winning experience. Next season will bring about different goals. But for now it's about one thing only however that needs to come about. We should all know that by now, Mellon refers to it often enoguh, so I really don't see the point in having the same meltdown after every home game.

Good interview by Mellon I thought. Decent point, could have played better, should have taken chances, ref blowing every few seconds doesn’t make for a good game. His leadership and experience in tight play off games could make all the difference.

This is very true. Mellon has even told us all this recently, yet it’s seemingly a shock to many every time we play this way. It was a bit frustrating last night, but on reflection I’m convinced now that his sole focus is the end of season and the play off matches. Especially with resting Hammond and rotating all the strikers last night. I think he knows his preferred 11 and wants all players fully match fit and sharp for the very end. Then it comes down to having everyone available to go out and win individual games against other teams with similar form to us.