the_mighty_bosh

From what I saw of him, I thought he showed that he had something to work with (albeit sporadically). Hopefully the loan works out for all parties.

Or was it Simply Red mist?

They signed Effiong the day before we played them last time, now they've sold their other big striker before we play them this time.

I'm assuming that he's not going to be sacked, I've got no problem if the board decide to make that call between now and the end of the season. Obviously he needs to keep us up as a bare minimum, but he also needs to show clear signs that he can take us forward next season. One of the most damning stats so far is that he has not achieved back-to-back wins in 90 minutes in his 27 games in charge (I'm including cup games because we've fielded as good as full strength teams). This club needs to be looking to push up the league next season and that stat is not something that shows progress at all.

Callum Whelan signs for Gateshead ahead of tomorrow night.

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After the missed opportunity to push into mid-table last Tuesday, at least today's win (however poor it was) has given us an unusual 2nd bite of the cherry on Tuesday night. With Dorking playing Torquay on Tuesday, a win at Gateshead would guarantee an 8 point minimum gap from the drop zone. And with them having a threadbare squad (including a suspension from today) and not a lot of time for it to recover, we really can't ask for a better opportunity to get into mid-table. We have to take the game to them and dominate it as a bare minimum. Unsworth is starting to pick up a few results and credit to him for that, but performances between now and the end of the season need to improve for him to have any sort of future as manager.

Expectations have sunk so low that I'm surprised that he's even managed to do that!

Thanks for letting us know, we're here for you if you need to talk.

That sounded really poor, but at least we got the minimum expectation of 3 points.

Doesn't sound pretty, but we're ahead and a lot of scores are going our way so far. Gateshead a goal down with a player sent off at Southend.

The only two teams around us that played tonight (Torquay and Yeovil) both picked up a point each tonight. Although Aldershot lost too, despite being 14th they are only 6 points ahead of us and we have 4 games in hand. Only two teams have conceded fewer than Yeovil in 18th, but they are the lowest scorers in the league. Saturday's opponents Halifax have only scored one more than them though (hopefully that's not jinxed it )

This I completely agree with. Ebbrell was always going to do the next win, I respect Unsworth for making the point.

...I mean it's kind of what he does (rightly or wrongly).

The Trophy is clearly not as important as the league, but it was such a bad defeat that it caused an uproar from fans demanding Unsworth's sacking, so it definitely counts. you clearly haven't. With two poor Trophy performances after the last two wins, it's patchy form at best. This happy-clapping mindset is what keeps our club in the such a bad place, the fanbase needs to raise our expectations of what "good" is.

You realise that Shez is gone don't you? He can't hurt you anymore. Not convinced by Unsworth but glad for him that he picked up a win tonight. Win at Aldershot and we may be putting some semblance of a good run of form together.

Take care mate, hope all goes well at the hospital.

Strangely of all the things this was my turning point. He wants players in, he gets a player in (whether he wants him or not) who is known to score goals at this level when in a 2 man strikeforce. He then starts him when the team is playing 1 central striker and immediately benches him whenever we go 2 up front. I'm gutted for the board that they made a big commitment to a manager that had decent logic to it, all for it to backfire so spectacularly. But he's shown many signs that he's not up to being a manager and could easily take us down. Sooner or later the board will need to act.

Not many relevant matches last night, although Aldershot losing to Dagenham is a positive.

And he quite wrongly went public with that opinion. 11 points from 9 games isn't a slide, Unsworth's 9 points from 13 league games is certainly a slide. Unsworth is proving that he can't manage with someone else's squad, nor that he can manage with his own squad of "fine" players.

To be honest with the way we've plummeted in recent years, they aren't far wrong.

I agree, I'm not convinced at all about Reid being replaced by Fondop after 60 mins in the last couple of games when surely the best thing to do would be to play the two together?

So I don't rate Holden as a manager (can't say if he's a good coach or not), but that season we were still in 9th when LJ left with Holden as coach including being 5th a fortnight before Johnson went. Also after we pressed the Ched Evans self-destruct button, all the positive feeling around the club had gone and the squad which I think Johnson overachieved with (barring a couple of exceptions) reverted to type. 15th at the end of the season wasn't great but Holden was swimming against the tide and I didn't expect him to do much better. We just needed him to get us through to the end of the season and let someone else take us forward with a fresh start. Enter Darren Kelly and David Dunn...

The two games that he's suspended for? I hope he's good but I don't expect him to be that good!

As gutting as it is, it's simple. He's shown nothing to convince fans that he knows what to do, despite having the best backing that any manager has had at the club...probably since Shez first time around in the late 00's. I'd give him until the end of the month to show any legitimate sign that he's going to turn it around, but I know that's being very generous with the lack of evidence that he has what it takes to be a manager on show.