Overwhelming feeling of anger

One thing I have learned from all this, if nothing else, is that Town have a devoted band of VERY passionate supporters! Sometimes passion can be raucous, destructive and even counter-productive. Other times it can be raucous, highly motivating and very, very productive. I have felt all along (and sometimes said) that both success and failure are collective enterprises, sometimes only thinly divisible, and rarely, if ever, attributable to a single individual. As supporters, some days we feel collectively dejected (which I did after the 'semi' defeat home to Braintree, and not least because of the earlier league home defeats to Braintree and Chester), but at other times we're all on cloud nine; it's human nature. At the end of the season, our old friend William Shakespeare (not Craig, Grimsby Pete!) comes to mind: 'All's Well That Ends Well he wrote'. Amen to that! Let's just enjoy the moment now and look forward with optimism to the next campaign.  

Quoted from golfer

Yes !  As long as he picks the strongest team possible and doesn,t revert back to his sentimental and pigheaded ways just to give certain people a medal.  We are in it so lets win it  Halifax are going to go hell for leather to get something out of their season, lets match them with Grimsby  Grit.  Lets have another 7-0 win.

That would be a perfect post if you hadn't reverted back to the name calling. Just leave it out man!

I watched the repeat of the final yesterday, and one of the strong things came from a touch-side interview with Hurst - when asked what he wanted them to do, he gesticulated at the wembley pitch, said look at it, let's pass and use the great quality pitch. That to me suggests that he did in fact want that style of play and was adapting to the situation - but that would imply that he might have known what he was doing and adapted to the ground conditions, and created a gameplan accordingly - much like the story of the conversation with Russell Slade about how he changed playing styles.

Obviously my opinion, but I feel that the injury thing was a smokescreen, and to claim that was solely the change that made the difference is facetious. Perhaps it may have made some difference, but Monkhouse was in that Bristol Rovers team that won, wasn't he (my memory has gone hazy about that match now..)

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

But we did win promotion because injuries forced his hand!    Do you really believe that the side would have played the same way with the same tactics if Monkhouse had been fit? I don't think Monkhouse is (or more correctly was) a bad player but just his presence meant that the "out" ball to the left side was always the preferred option and Braintree dealt with that very easily indeed as would FGR. We won promotion with two very good performances and playing largely through the midfield. If we had carried on with the same side in the same way as we had for several previous games there's no way we would have had the open topped bus.

Thing is, you're actually just guessing that changes wouldn't have been made following the poor performance in the first leg. Would Monkhouse have played in the away leg? Possibly, but it's by no means certain as it was pretty clear a different style might be necessary on the day. Even if the usual formation had been played, the conditions were such that it was obvious they would sit back and play for 0-0 and tiring them out would be the way to beat them. If there was any luck involved in our promotion this season, I'd say it was that the second leg was played on such a hot day which put the ball firmly in our court as Braintree were knackered after 70 minutes of the game and couldn't keep up their usual tempo.

As for the final against FGR, Monkhouse played all 90 minutes in our victory at The New Lawn and was the one who put in the cross for the winning goal so I'm surprised you think their defence would have so easily nullified him!

Unfortunately, it appears that many of those doubting Hurst's ability have taken the, "Yes, but..." approach - the view that anything achieved is by chance and, in any case, he should have done it earlier and better. I've defended Hurst at various times this season against what I thought was unfair criticism (the ridiculous misrepresentation of the 'spoiled' comment being a particular lowpoint) but there is no doubt he made more errors this season than last year. I'm just relieved that the team was able to raise their game right at the death to win promotion this time.

If we hadn't done it this year, I'd have wanted to see a change in the summer as we're a poorer team this year than last in what I reckon was a weaker division. His failure to find the 4th striker or a useful replacement for Mackreth almost cost us. Obviously, now we're up, Hurst deserves the chance to continue in the role and will hopefully make fewer mistakes with his signings next season. We certainly need a bit more versatility in the way in which we can play depending on the situation. Not just a Plan B, but C and D as well.

Quoted from DickBarton

That would be a perfect post if you hadn't reverted back to the name calling. Just leave it out man!

There wasn,t intended to be name calling. In other posts I have said that P. Hurst has eventually changed for the better. He who has supported Hurst must acknowledge that at times he has seemed pigheaded. It was either Hurst or somebody with a Yorkie accent who phoned BIGDOG and myself up thanking us for the input that persuaded him to pick the teams for Braintree and Wembley. He also asked us for all the advice that we could muster. I was only answering his request for the good of the team. I have never received the accolades from the Fishy that my input deserved in helping to gain promotion

Quoted from Maringer

Thing is, you're actually just guessing that changes wouldn't have been made following the poor performance in the first leg. Would Monkhouse have played in the away leg? Possibly, but it's by no means certain as it was pretty clear a different style might be necessary on the day. Even if the usual formation had been played, the conditions were such that it was obvious they would sit back and play for 0-0 and tiring them out would be the way to beat them. If there was any luck involved in our promotion this season, I'd say it was that the second leg was played on such a hot day which put the ball firmly in our court as Braintree were knackered after 70 minutes of the game and couldn't keep up their usual tempo.

As for the final against FGR, Monkhouse played all 90 minutes in our victory at The New Lawn and was the one who put in the cross for the winning goal so I'm surprised you think their defence would have so easily nullified him!

Unfortunately, it appears that many of those doubting Hurst's ability have taken the, "Yes, but..." approach - the view that anything achieved is by chance and, in any case, he should have done it earlier and better. I've defended Hurst at various times this season against what I thought was unfair criticism (the ridiculous misrepresentation of the 'spoiled' comment being a particular lowpoint) but there is no doubt he made more errors this season than last year. I'm just relieved that the team was able to raise their game right at the death to win promotion this time.

If we hadn't done it this year, I'd have wanted to see a change in the summer as we're a poorer team this year than last in what I reckon was a weaker division. His failure to find the 4th striker or a useful replacement for Mackreth almost cost us. Obviously, now we're up, Hurst deserves the chance to continue in the role and will hopefully make fewer mistakes with his signings next season. We certainly need a bit more versatility in the way in which we can play depending on the situation. Not just a Plan B, but C and D as well.

We'll have to agree to differ on the Monkhouse argument but I think we are on much the same wavelength about the playing style and future needs.