Frankly Mr Shankly

There isn’t a team other than Luton to go from our level to the Prem granted. And that isn’t a realistic achievement if truth be known. However the Championship is, and that can be achieved by attracting investment on the back of momentum. I’m pretty sure the owners have gone on record to say they’re well positioned to fund us up to L1 / Championship but they would be looking to seek investment or sell the club in order to take it further. There were appointments made on the board with that in mind. If they were that bad an investment then all clubs below the Prem would be fan owned and run ultra-prudently, wouldn’t they? It’s only when the milk starts to turn sour they become a millstone for a disinterested owner.

He has, but that was 4-5bsignimgs ago wasn’t it?

If the plan is good enough and a positive trajectory is achieved then investors are there to be had. Money makes money. Rothwells achieve promotion with the initial acquisition of the club. Further investment is put in from a third party who puts enough in the pot for a run to the Championship. The investor, plus the Rothwells make much more money than a dozen Nuttalls picking splinters out of their arses when the club is sold to an even bigger investor in the Championship. This is how I translate it as. Speculate to accumulate. The plan only derails if we stay at any of those levels for a considerable amount of time. It's dependant on overall success, which, if the plan is made, forecasted properly and stuck to, then has a more than good enough chance of achieving.

He's on a contract to the end of next season so it's clearly a signing designed to try and get us out of this division by then. Bags of experience, lot of playing time under his belt and an utter pain in the arse to play against. It's a dynamic Norwood thrives on and someone who will be on a similar wavelength. It'll be interesting to see where he fits Dallas into this so it points more towards a favoured 4-3-3. Fondop's the obvious candidate to make way I would expect. I think Mike's most effective position is coming off the bench for a bit of extra physicality anyway so he should have a part to play still. As a Latics fan growing up in the 80's, having a striker called Garner still doesn't sit right with me.

Is there some inside knowledge somewhere that all hotels in London are going to be booked up on the 4th May? In any case, plenty of small Southern Leisure Centre towns in easy reach of that part of London.

It's nowhere near the city centre. The ground's just off the ring road, about half a dozen miles out. That said. I was watching their highlights recently. Someone took a corner and the fence behind was about 4 foot high. They're going to need a lot of perimeter stewards.

Total myth, with all respect. Gates are hinged on us winning, or to put it another way, success. If we played the most eye-catching football in our division, yet languished in mid table, the gates would be down. The floating fans want to see us at the top of the division, and they'd take industrial football if that's what it gave us. They want to see wins, period, and the success it brings. Gates went up when Frank took over because it offered a new chance of success. The style of football we were going to play was never the reason. FWIW I believe good football will come when we get the fucking basics right. Not before.

It illustrated just how much a dog of a division the Vauxhall Conference is. Four out of the top five all lost. All teams struggle for consistancy and players at this level are all prone to off-days. It just so happens quite a few of our players had them all on one day. For me, we just don't come out of the traps and go for the jugular fast enough. Teams come to us with a game plan and they very rarely have to change it during a match. Yesterday was a perfect example where a tepid and tame first half gave them belief during the HT team talk. That said, their goal was a touch fortunate and that's all they needed. I was more disappointed at the lack of character after going 0-1 down. We should be backing ourselves to score at least two every match against this quality of opposition. I'm not too disheartened. Could just as easily see Woking suffer a 0-2 loss at home to Boreham Wood next Saturday and us romp to a comfortable away victory at Ebbsfleet. MM's tactics are pretty sound away from home. It's the master puzzle at BP he's got to work out. Player-wise. Conlon and Dallas will get better and better the more match fit they get. I can see Lundstram losing his place to Hammond before too long too.

I suspect he may keep the team more or less as it was against Barnet but with Dallas on the bench and McGahey in place of Hogan. I still don't expect Dallas is 100% match fit and may benefit more from 30-40 minutes off the bench before he starts.

Like two bald men fighting over a comb.

Definitely. It’s bang in the half term holidays too so those with kids who may not have done otherwise will probably go for that. I’ll be amazed if we don’t sell our initial allocation within three days.

Still have him as my avatar, taken from this. What a player and Zidane weren't too shabby either.

Might be the first 4-3-3 for MM with Dallas playing.

There was a rumour on Twitter that Fylde were looking at him. Believe he used to play there too.

Did you see him going radio rental with fist pumps when Sheron made that block in the penalty area second half?

They were feared to death of him. Clearly the instruction was to give him no space and time on the ball but it just played into our hands. Every time the ball went to him it was like he was wearing an amber and black scarf. Really hope we get those chances in the play offs.

A 'must not lose' tonight for me. We need to keep in touch with them and Bromley and get that gap down to ten points, if at least 12. I'm expecting us to have a bit more resilience in midfield with new blood, so hopefully we'll at least stop being overrun.

I think three of the five will start. Five is a lot to expect to gel all at once. Sachdev, Conlon and Dallas with Walker and Hammond on the bench would be my guess. 3-5-2 with Conlon, Sheron and Lundstram in midfield.

Ooh, hope he plays against us!

I can't confess to knowing too much about the others either, although Conlon comes with ringing endorsements from Vale fans. The calibre of them feel better to me and even though three of them will go back to their parent clubs in the summer, we're seemingly arming ourselves to be able to hit the ground running in League Two when we get promoted. One step at a time though. I really want to see us properly dismantle one or two teams at home so we can see the tangible improvments rather than talking about them.

He was a standout for me that season. A great loan signing.

Baffles me too mate. Two or three of them haven’t even been on a bench for months too. It’s such a short career to just sit out and not play with your stock depreciating over time. Might be a gambit by their agents to poker face it for a couple of months and hope the club agree an early contract payoff in their clients favour. I do suspect we’ll start to see some outward movement towards the end of the month.

Dallas is a very good signing. A proven goal scorer at this level. I’m expecting the type of impact that Doyle had when he came in (and hopefully not the life threatening blood condition). He plays in a similar style and with quality like Conlon offering the ammunition, we should be able to open up stubborn teams at home a lot easier. We’ve got to play almost all the top seven at home, and we’re much better equipped to compete and overwhelm most of those than we were 3 weeks ago. Good business.

This is where I'm at on it. MM still being here is a safe bet. He's got us into the playoffs from a mid-table position from being 7 points adrift and in that time assessed who is and isn't good enough. Certainly good enough foundations for the board to approve signings taken from next season's budget.

Of course he was indicating a signing is due tomorrow. We’re not all total dickheads!