Steve_R

And the pre season means nothing (which it doesn’t) lot getting all excited now

You’re probably right, but I tend to look at us and not worry about what anyone else gets up to. Our history shows if we hang about anywhere for a while we get stuck there (or worse) and the new found fans do one if we’re not winning every week. Hopefully things are different now with Frank, but I remember thinking that when Blitz and co arrived, but once he got fed up look how that turned out. I know it could take a while to get out of here, and if we are right up there for a couple of years until we make it then crowds should hold up, but I don’t want to take that chance.

This is bang on. It pisses me off when people go on about ‘it took Wrexham, Notts County etc ‘x’ years to get promoted, as if that’s a good thing for us and there’s no rush. We need promotion as soon a possible before that hope disappears, crowds start falling and we end up marooned down here.

Bristol Rovers did it in one year, as did Grimsby, and it only took Orient two. I think that’s the option we should go for. We need to get the fuck out of this league as soon as possible before we get bogged down it, cos that’s what we do

I’m 63 but I’ll happily give being under 40 a try

it’s pre season. It’s about getting the players sharp for the season ahead. We can only comment on what we see though. My view having seen both games is that we look solid, organised at the back, the Altrincham lad looks decent in the middle, but we look lightweight upfront. Despite plenty on here pulling their pipe over Nuttall I’ve still yet to see it, but I’m not writing him off yet. in short, nothing to get either exited or worried about, which is what I expected really

Same here, and I’m not totally convinced by the centre forward we signed from there yet either

Exactly. Anything less than aiming to win the thing is unacceptable in my eyes. The play offs should only get mentioned if the top spot becomes out of sight. I’m not saying I expect us to win it because many things can happen over the course of a season, but we should at least aim for that.

In a league where only the winner goes up automatically I think it’s vital we make a decent start. Once the league starts to take shape after 10 or 12 games I expect to be firmly in the mix and to stay there so we can have a right crack at winning the league. A slow start, while not fatal, could seriously hinder this.

I treat pre season in much the same way as the players should, to ease me back in and get ready for when the season starts. As someone else said, it’s more social (for me) than serious. People will overreact, as some would the other way if we’d put six or seven past them. If I had to make an observation, I’d say we looked pretty much like we did in the second half of last season, solid, organised, but fairly dull. I expect us to get better each game, as the side becomes more settled with a lot fewer changes as the games tick off, but friendlies are basically just a public training session.

Someone will always be offended on behalf of someone who isn’t even offended

Big Dunc sacked. I wouldn’t fancy being the one who had to tell him

I’m guessing (as I’ve no idea) that Macc want to sign him but can’t afford what we pay him, we want him gone, so he wants a pay off to make up the shortfall. A loan looks the way round it, but nothing is agreed hence no announcement.

It was great when you got the Chronicle on a Friday and knew the team for Saturday.

There probably will, but if we look shite after10 games it will probably be justified. People have been banging on about our improvement in the second half of the season so there’s no reason why we should go backwards in the first ten games. In reality, the only table that matters is the one after 46 games, so as long as we’re top then he’ll get no chance mlaints from me!

Well you obviously did. I was hoping our centre back pairing would be Yarney and Sutton, but now it looks probably neither of them. But fuck it, everybody’s happy

I didn’t think he was that bad at right back either, so I don’t think Unsworth’s comments were that wide of the mark. When he played at right wing back though, he was way out of his depth

Promotion

We might as well leave McGahey in recovery because that’s where he’ll stay, like the bulk of his time here.

Nah, we’ve got to be in it to win it

We’ll if it wasn’t right under previous regimes it shouldn’t be right under this one

Apparently our new recruitment strategy looks into players background, attitude, character etc. must have misread it in those two then. We’ve no idea whether we’ve replaced with better (and Rooney hasn’t gone anywhere yet). Time will tell and we all hope so.

Exactly . I’m not saying what I said is right, or that I particularly believe it, it’s just that it might not be as straightforward as people think. I probably prefer our recruitment policy than , say Chesterfield’s, who seem to go for names even though they may be well past their best. We’ll see next season though Hopefully most of the other teams are still as crap and Unsworth has learnt from last season (which he seemed to be doing). More entertaining football wouldn’t go amiss though

So it seems that Rooney, Tollitt and Yarney are on their way out. Rooney was our only midfield player who could put his foot on the ball and play a bit, Yarney was the player of the year and Tollit top scorer until Unsworth dropped him. We’ve no idea if the replacements are better but everyone seems happy with it all.

Whatever his motives, he has an opinion that plenty agreed with a few months ago when Unsworth waa spouting all sorts of shite, now not many do