County boy

That git always scores against us. Always. Get your money on him to bag one. It's inevitable.

If you could get Larry, Curly and Mo in there as well I'd be grateful.

Over the whole season, no, nowhere near 2000, but for local games it would be pretty close. Bury, Rochdale, Chester (the first abandoned game) and Accrington off the top of my head were packed out. Some of those were limited by the amount of tickets given to us. It's a shame it's all ticket next week as I think we'd have taken well over 2000 then. TBH I'm expecting 1800-2000, depending on the extent of your tax fiddle !!!!

Gannon is quoted as saying he has 3 loans agreed and is just waiting to see who we get shut of in the window. Pilko will almost certainly go so we would be on the look out for a right sided player. Time will tell I suppose.

Rumour our way is that we're flogging Pilkington to Ipswich and replacing him with your Mr Smalley on loan. I saw he was in your 11 on Monday and scored. What are the chances Sheridan would let him out a la Davies ?

I wouldn't be so sure abot County. Under Gannon we've acually been much stronger in the second half of the season when his squad rotation policy sees us fresh whilst others are flagging. When Davies goes we'll bring someone else in, probably on loan, but I can tell you for certain that we'll find a good un. Gannon has an outstanding record in the transfer market.

Strange thing is he rather divides opinion at EP as well. Can you believe that, hey ? He's had some corking games, Crewe away for instance he was different class, and in others he's been really poor. Today, in open play he was average, but in front of goal absolutely clinical. He's been far from clinical before today however, so make of that what you will. Unless the loan gets extended he won't be coming here permenently but to be honest if he comes back to you I don't think your old frustrations with CD will have gone away.

You might be in for a shock on that score.

The £300k figure is plucked out of thin air. I'm told you are looking to recoup what you paid for him. County want to take him on loan for the rest of the season but with his rumoured wages not much chance we'd take him on permanently.

I'll absolutely echo the sentiments about Luke. He is the nicest man I've ever met in football, an absolute star. Even when our former owners treated him with utter contempt he still loved the fans and we loved him. If only he'd had a yard of pace he'd have been a Championship quality player. You'll always be welcome back at EP Luke.

I doubt you'd find a single County fan who is unhappy at our progress. That might change if we flog a couple of our best assets in January, but we've tended to do well in replacing them when we've done the same thing in the last couple of years. Punching above our weight ? Before being raped by Cheshire Sport I'd have said L1 was our natural level. Whilst we're rebuilding the whole structure of the club at the moment, I think we can justifiably say we're at our natural level again.

Sometimes a fresh start is all the motivation one needs.

Absolutely right re: maximising success. Our crowd increases from circa 2000 around the mid 80's was directly on the back of promotion and Wembley visits in the early 90's and then again with promotion to the championship in 1996. After an initial drop off after our first relegation (mainly due to less travelling support) we've kept a constant base of 4500-5000 hardcore fans. Given that we plummeted from the champ to the basement in horribly embarassing fashion (yes, I'm looking at you Carlton Palmer) I'm astounded we kept that level TBH.

Hard of thinking types ? Nah, those will be the 'fans' who boo their team whilst they are in sight of an automatic promotion place. Still, have a look at CD's movement prior to his goal at Crewe on Saturday. Quality. Rough edges ? Yep, plenty of them, still, so did Liam Dickinson prior to him coming to us. We might just be doing you a favour, or maybe there's already a deal done. Who knows ?

So by analogy, you are ?

Oh, deary me. Don't change the quote to fit getting a dig in will you !

That's quite breathtaking arrogance. I'm genuinely surprised someone associated with your club has come out with that. Why the hell should you be beating and finishing above clubs of a similar size ?

Mmmmmmm, but why don't you see us as a rival in light of events this season ? Back up your 'interesting' POV.

Still, a pretty daft thing to say when you look at the table though and cast your mind back a few Fridays, isn't it ?

He's a squad player now TBH. Had a nasty foot injury which kept him out towards the end of last season and re-injured it again pre season, just coming back into the picture now. Frankly, whilst he's a decent 'ratter' we are, as a team, getting better than him now. He needs to bring more to his game in terms of passing ability and composure if he wants to be with us next yeat IMO.

You are serious as well aren't you ?!?

Well, we've got no money so it would maybe be a nominal fee, unless we get something decent for your old boy Gaz Owen when he joins Yeovil permanetly in January. Can't see that being anything more than £50k though.

Yeah, he did OK. Considering he was playing a new formation to him, and with only having trained half a day with us beforehand he did pretty well. He suits our point striker system and the first signs look promising. He had one decent chance to score, used his pace to get away from his marker but the ball was whisked away as he was about to shoot. Generally, he worked hard and looked useful. CD said after the gae he *thinks* he's been given permission to play in FA Cup for us next week. If true, that might signify Sheridan's intentions for him in the future (ie. bye, bye).

Don't think you can recall in the first month of a 3 month loan but after that I suspect there will be such a clause. Pretty standard.

Sounds just like Gannon's kind of project. We rarely loan players in without having a view on taking them permenantly down the line. We won't pay any money mind you. Does he have a future at your place ?