nzlatic

Would it have to be behind closed doors if moved to another venue at this late stage?

I’ve mentioned this a few times now so it’s probably getting boring!.. Chesterfield were right at the top end of the table in Feb 2022 when their manager left and Cook was appointed. They’d played 26 and had 54 points. Cook came in and got 23 points from 18 games, they clung on for 7th. Did he improve them? Clearly not. He hadn’t won anything for 5 years. Did they give him time? Yes. Next season they were flying high but had a bad 10 games and dropped down again. Again, they didn’t panic and they won the league by miles in his second full season. The 8 above us on the league all bar one (Gateshead) have managers who’ve been there at least 1 full season. The top 4 have managers that are in their 3rd seasons at least. We just have to give someone some proper time.

Mellon did that wouldn’t you say? 11 wins and 4 draws out of his first 20 league games. Then a bad run followed. But it seems for many that bad run of 8 games is enough to get rid.

Only 2 games to go off so too early to tell yet, but there are signs with Lundstram that Mellon was right and they’ve worked with him on those issues and we’re now seeing a better player. Hopefully that can be applied to others too. We may not need a massive overhaul to the squad if so. Mellon should have enough behind him to not be fazed by the job. Might just need…. time!

This is Parkinson’s 4th season in the national league. He’s finished 17th, 14th, 17th and is now in the play offs. At a club that was part time til recently and probably had very little expectation from the fans or the board. Would he get that sort of time here? Would he be able to handle the pressure of a big club at this level? It’d be a massive punt.

Who has shown the ability to get out of this league more recently than Mellon who is also a realistic target?

Mellon?

We’ve tried young unknown coaches, we’ve tried experienced managers. We’ve tried club legends, we’ve tried outsiders. One thing we’ve not tried for a decade is starting and finishing a season with the same manager. Even if we start slowly I’d be surprised if we’re in relegation trouble so I’m of the view that Mellon needs to be given the full season next year.

Exactly. No one, no matter how positive they were (myself included), was crowing about things being brilliant.

Perfect summary.

They’ve got to play 3 games in 6 days on that pitch starting Wednesday. Surely any sort of rain on the day puts any of those games in doubt.

Some grade a stuff here eyresy. You said he hasn’t lived up to expectations. Just to check, is it your expectation he’s not lived up to or the board’s with his 1 in 2?

Was looking at Chesterfield centre mids… Naylor 12 goals Dobra 10 (is he centre or wide?) Banks 8 Jacobs 5 Oldaker 1 36 goals from central mid, or 26 if I’ve got Dobra wrong. For us… Sheron 6 Dickenson 5 Gardner 2 Shelton 1 14 goals. 6 of those from players pretty much not played in 2024. Looks even worse if we start comparing forwards/wide players.

Looks like he’s scored 5. So Norwood would be on 12 and Sheron on 11. If Hudson had taken them then he’d be our joint 4th top scorer.

Penalties aren’t open goals. Sheron wouldn’t have scored them all.

Sheron being our 3rd top scorer is more an indication of our problems than it is of his ability.

It wasn’t a penalty so it definitely counts!

Conlon has pedigree at a higher level. There’s a reason he’s not played well so far. It’s up to the coaching staff to work out what that is and fix it rather than just making an absolute judgement that he’s shit and needs binning off.

Sheron isn’t shit. He gives his all. It’s just that if we want to have a proper crack at the title next season we need an upgrade on him.

Conlon for Gardner. Then a proper footballing holding mid.

Kidderminster looking an absolute shadow of the side that played us.

Nuttall scores.

This. If Kiddie win now my hope will be restored for the next few days

With Unsworth I understood why the board stuck with him over the summer given the results in the 2nd half of the season and I liked the idea of giving people time in a new job. But I wouldn't have lost sleep if they did decide to get rid of him pretty much any time from Aldershot away. With Mellon I feel much more confident that giving him time is the right thing to do. He's done it before. I'm pretty sure I remember a Tranmere fan saying his second spell didn't go well because of something to do with the chairman not backing him or something along those lines. We know that Mellon will get full support here so hopefully he makes good use of that. If we sacked him off the back of this run then I would be a bit concerned about the direction we were taking in terms of giving managers time. Just about every other team in the play offs has had a bad run this season. Unfortunately we've had 2 - at the start and at the end.