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Think it was the last home game of 1998 season, we played in a new blue strip after having had that awful red and blue striped kit. The place was heaving with Burnley fans and it got a bit tasty. Seem to remember Garnett being controversially sent off later on in the game and this spurred us on. Two goals in two mins from Rickers and Allott.

They’re skinter than we are apparently so can’t see it happening.

Kusunga alluded to this yesterday. If he isn’t going to play for us again this move makes sense. Especially if it enables Bunn to bring in a couple of players to improve the midfield. Obviously its a shame things haven’t worked out though as he would be a star player in this league.

The last time we played them away in the league before the 3-3 game was the last game of the season in 1998. We won 2-0 courtesy of a brace from Rocket Ronnie Jepson. Grimsby went up via the playoffs a few weeks later.

We won once on our first visit there in 2005 when Ronnie Moore was in charge.

I actually thought he was a decent keeper, we had Rachubka at the time so he didn’t get a look in. Just shit at penalties, think that ball is still in orbit somewhere.

Back on topic, all hypothetical, if money was no object, the first thing I would like to see is the stadium and surrounding land belonging to the club again, no more brassbank lurking in the background. Would also like to see the club signing young hungry players with potential to develop who could help us to move back up the leagues. Hopefully they would be sold for good fees with add ons if and when the opportunity arose. Ideally a good proportion of the fees received would be reinvested in the squad budget. It would also be good to see the club being more active in the community and making efforts to boost the fan base. Obviously performances on the pitch would go a long way to achieving this.

Don’t want to change or steer the topic away from the title. Joe did a lot of wheeling and dealing and paid those fees for players from the money that had been generated from player sales rather than him just being given a cheque book. Although another poster (prozac I think) has mentioned previously that we had a wealthy director at the time who underwrote some of the fees that Joe paid in return for a cut of any future profits. Also there wasn’t such a gulf in wages between the divisions back then. A division two club could sign a division one reserve and not have to break the wage structure. I read somewhere that Denis Irwin had an offer from Chesterfield at the time he signed for us. They were in the division below and were offering him more money but he correctly chose to sign for us. As mentioned before there are youngsters in academies earning thousands a week without ever having played a senior game who would be unwilling to take a hit and drop down the leagues. This isn’t to say that it couldn’t be done again, it’d just be much harder.

He also chipped in with some crucial goals from his free kicks.

I seem to remember something being said about Wood being a local lad too. Think he was from Oldham. Macc were marooned at the bottom of the table for most of the season and as you say did the double over us. Can’t believe that was twenty years ago!

Like we ended up doing with the last striker we got from Wigan on loan.

Noticed he’s signed a new deal at Wigan today too. At least he knows how to bag at this level, a 1 in 3 strike rate for a shite Morecambe team is a decent return.

The big problem is that it seems that we are skint. What magic beans we had have been already been spent on Coke, Miller, O’Grady etc. Bunn’s hands are tied. He may be incompetent but he’s not been given the tools to do his job or it at least appears that way.

I queried what AL’s plan or vision was as soon as it was confirmed that he had bought the club. I was told by a trust board member that everything was tickety boo and to be just pleased that Corney had gone. Another poster asked a similar question soon after and other posters implied that we didn’t really have a right to know what his plan was. I know it’s early days and we’ve been dealt a shit hand with injuries etc but I am very concerned by what is going on both on and off the field. Hopefully it is just a transition phase and things will pick up. I don’t expect us to get anything of Derby but we desperately need a win next Saturday to get us up and running.

In

Nobody would realistically expect Bunn or other members of staff to scout all of our league opponents within the summer. But surely you’d keep tabs on your first two or three opponents in the friendly games that have taken place.

Fair enough then. I thought Robinson had originally signed him on a one yr deal and that Shez had offered him a new deal on the same terms after his solid performances. As you say he’d have been on a decent wedge and I don’t recall many tears being wept when he joined Crewe.

As has been mentioned previously, you can’t give the club your money sometimes. I don’t know the dynamics of the food and beer sales. Does the club profit from it? Or brassbank? Is it run in house? Or franchised out? Either way it seems very disorganised compared to other clubs. I usually have a pre match pint in the pub beforehand and turn up at 2:55 like many fans as the facilities are so poor. A couple of seasons ago before the Bolton game, due to time constraints and the early kick off, I tried a pint in the packed bar in the main stand upper. There was just one bloke behind the bar serving in what was our largest or second largest gate of the season. I supped my two pints of flat lager and haven’t bothered drinking in there since.

Was it in our hands to keep him on though? Pretty certain he was only on a one year deal and his contract was due to expire this summer. Even if we’d offered him a new deal I think it’s unlikely he’d have signed it.

From personal experience HMRC aren’t exactly the quickest organisation at dealing with cases or updating their records either.

Sad to see him leave as he was a character. Perhaps Bunn has made it clear that he won’t be number one this season. However it does free up a wage so hopefully we will see another new arrival eg Cotterill.

Not read the article but Bunn was Steve Eyre’s assistant during his ill fated spell in charge of Dale.

Absolute madness, no doubt they would’ve had to pay a fee too as he is still under contract at Aberdeen. It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on there, how long before he’s pining on a move back to Scotland?

Yet another stick for the journos to beat Abdallah with/drag the club’s name through the mud again.

Let’s just hope AL hasn’t buttered Bunn up and made him satisfied to keep the currant squad.