Excellent Coaches

Surely you can only coach players up to the ceiling of their ability. You can't polish a turd as someone recently said.

Quoted from ginnywings

No he hasn't. Fox hasn't been fit and when he did come back, he didn't last for 90 mins. Hendrie has only been here a month and hadn't been playing previously, so was hardly likely to be match ready for a couple of weeks.

Fair point. To be honest I forgot Dixon was suspended for 3 games.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Fair point. To be honest I forgot Dixon was suspended for 3 games.

Think Dixon is injured anyway.

Think the most telling thing is that just a few games into the season and Mckeown is our only ever present!!

Even allowing for injuries and suspensions that indicates to me that there is absolutely no chance of getting the team to gel.

Get a formation/system, put the best suited players into said system and allow them time to develope their roles.

Coaches than constantly chop and change give me the impression of their own uncertainty which must pass to the players?

You make a very good point, although some changes have been forced rather than selection decisions per se. We might have had 2 or 3 more players who were ever present or who had played most games. I'm pretty sure Welsh and Cook would have started every game, and possibly Davis and maybe Rose too.

Hard to get away from the facts that : the squad is small, it lacks real quality in every department and we have no strength in depth. Sure we've had a fair bit of bad luck but our contingency planning looks very flawed. I don't know if this is all budget reliant, but we just haven't signed enough good players and we have retained too many average ones.

Quoted from chaos33

You make a very good point, although some changes have been forced rather than selection decisions per se. We might have had 2 or 3 more players who were ever present or who had played most games. I'm pretty sure Welsh and Cook would have started every game, and possibly Davis and maybe Rose too.

Hard to get away from the facts that : the squad is small, it lacks real quality in every department and we have no strength in depth. Sure we've had a fair bit of bad luck but our contingency planning looks very flawed. I don't know if this is all budget reliant, but we just haven't signed enough good players and we have retained too many average ones.

I quite like Hessenthaler but he isn't Summerfield.

I can't help but wonder if a chunk of the budget has been set aside for one or two players from Sweden to potentially join in January. If so, a big gamble on the part of Jolley.

That said, I suppose one of our main signings was Whitehouse and his loss has undoubtedly denied us a lot of get up and go in midfield. If a good chunk of your budget is spent on a player who gets crocked for the season before a ball is kicked in anger (similar to Hearn), then you're likely to struggle to some degree.

Quoted from Maringer

I can't help but wonder if a chunk of the budget has been set aside for one or two players from Sweden to potentially join in January. If so, a big gamble on the part of Jolley.

That said, I suppose one of our main signings was Whitehouse and his loss has undoubtedly denied us a lot of get up and go in midfield. If a good chunk of your budget is spent on a player who gets crocked for the season before a ball is kicked in anger (similar to Hearn), then you're likely to struggle to some degree.

I guess that's the problem the previous three managers have been trying to deal with. Lots of people have said they'd rather have a small squad with better players than a bigger squad of poorer players. But with a small squad each player out is a bigger slice of your cake.

As for coaches, I preferred Appleby's to Peter Sheffield. Or even the Lincolnshire Road Car Company.

Many happy memories of getting on the Appleby's coach at Louth Road and trundling through Marshchapel and Grainthorpe etc on the way to North Somercotes.  . Get off opposite the Axe and Cleaver.

Quoted from chaos33

Many happy memories of getting on the Appleby's coach at Louth Road and trundling through Marshchapel and Grainthorpe etc on the way to North Somercotes.  . Get off opposite the Axe and Cleaver.

You could add to that Granville Tours, Starks and The Red Bus that took us home from the Gaiety
down the coast on a Saturday night.