Time for turning

Quoted from Maringer

I feel a bit sorry for Hurst, really.

In the past 2 games, our players have squandered half a dozen great chances to score, have conceded 2 stupid penalties and a few other really soft and easily avoidable goals and we have now suffered two injuries to strikers.

Now, Hurst picked the team and signed the players, so the buck stops with him, but you'd have to say we would be looking at a couple of decent results if a few of the players had done their jobs properly!

The lack of forward signings looks like it will be coming around to bite us in the bottom as we're likely to be left with the non-firing Hannah as our only available striker on Tuesday night!

Quoted from KingstonMariner

That keeps happening every now and again. With different mixes of players. Over the past few seasons. The one common factor?

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

I'm not turning, just like I didn't eat humble pie. And I have no intention of saying I told you so those who had a go at me for negativity about the manager a week or two back. No need is there?

The problems that were clear in the first few games are still there, just disguised by a couple of good performances and outstanding results. Of course the manager is the hostage of his players. He cannot prevent individual mistakes and he cannot put the ball in the net for them. But he signed them. He  picks them and he dictates the formation and style. He subs them or doesn't. He changes the tactics in mid-game or doesn't. Their attitudes are his attitudes. The way the team performs reflects him and the way he performs.

Good managers can have bad runs, bad referees and bad luck, but I have never seen a successful team with a bad manager. PH may not be bad but he sure ain't successful when you consider the opportunities he has had to sort out glaring deficiencies in his team and his inability to get consistent performances from players as individuals and as a team.

What will happen now? Predictably he will be excused a defeat on Tuesday at Halifax because of the "injuries to key players" or if he gets a loanee it will be "you can't expect miracles when he only joined the side yesterday". Or if we get a point or a miraculous 3 he will be a hero again. Then we will have a run of mixed results that will keep us just within touching distance of the play-offs or the relegation zone depending on your point of view. Certainly we will not be challenging for any titles will we?

Cue the usual posts about budgets and "being realistic" and "we are where we are". By the time JF decides we are going nowhere this season it will be too late.

There will be people who think it would be grossly unfair to sack PH now. They will say he should be given more time. Wait until the end of September/October/November/2014 ........ then if we are not within X points of the play offs ........ forgetting that it will take JF an age to "find the right man" who will have to "take time to assess the squad" and what do you know ...... it's May and we are watching yet another two sides escape the dungeons.

We are not in the proverbial ....... yet. But the odd loanee is not going to fix things. I don't know what you think but to me a play off spot is not success. A play off final is not success. Promotion is the only measure of success for this club.

Can anyone truthfully see that happening? Even the most rose tinted customers from Specsavers must surely have big doubts.

Quoted from barralad

I may be a bit behind when it comes to understanding the finer points of football-having never made it past Sunday League Division 9 but could you expand on the stubborn nature of his ways involving today's team selection and tactics?

I didn't see/hear any pre match build up but was at Lincoln and thought Clay had got a knock which was why he was substituted. If that was the case then perhaps Hurst didn't think it was a good idea to play someone from the off who might not last. I think the problem is for us fans that we don't always understand the level to which players have to be prepared to play for 90 minutes. It could be that Clay would have managed the whole game but had he started and aggravated the knock Hurst would have got stick for that. Sometimes he appears to be in a lose/lose situation. That being the case there was little option other than to play the latest scapegoat Disley. Other than that were there any surprises? Paddy played which was one of the things Hurst was castigated for not doing against Lincoln. LJL got a chance to build on his blossoming partnership with The Pope (well for 30 minutes...) Pearson had recovered from what I expected would have been an injury that would have kept him out for at least a week or two (see what I mean about not understanding what goes on behind the scenes?)