43 years

Quoted from diehardmariner

I think there's a real danger of apathy setting in and I think it's lingered for a while to be honest.

It's an interesting observation, at the start of this season I stayed off here for a bit when I stopped there was a distinct air of expectation  that we'll be successful this year and in some people's mind take up our divine right in our place as the Regions top club.

There has always been a nuance of (paraphrase) "we're a proper club with great history so we deserve success" posters used to use the term "once great club" where we ever a great club? Or just a good club who every 10 years or so would have some success until JF arrived of course.

Now I've come back a bit it feels like expectation is lower and for some their view has changed to be a bit more realistic. Quite often you start watching a team when they're having success, I've often wondered if that programmes and expectation from the off that as a supporter you really don't want to let go of and face onto relaity?

I think the original post is completely over the top. I’ve been on this forum recently being somewhat gloomy and challenging those who think we’re not in a relegation scrap, which right now we certainly are, but out of those 43 years the OP has been supporting town, there have been some that were exponentially worse than this one has so far been.

I am down right now about our prospects, but there’s 22 games left and a win at Salford - as unlikely as it currently seems - would have us all buzzing again.

Harrogate was a horror show, one that I didn’t see coming, but Mansfield are clearly class act as they showed at BP earlier this season. We’re clearly not at that level, but we’ve seen glimpses of what we can achieve.

Onwards and upwards. Let’s hope we extend the gap over the bottom 2 in the coming weeks - I certainly haven’t given up hope.

Quoted from Heisenberg

I think the original post is completely over the top. I’ve been on this forum recently being somewhat gloomy and challenging those who think we’re not in a relegation scrap, which right now we certainly are, but out of those 43 years the OP has been supporting town, there have been some that were exponentially worse than this one has so far been.

I am down right now about our prospects, but there’s 22 games left and a win at Salford - as unlikely as it currently seems - would have us all buzzing again.

Harrogate was a horror show, one that I didn’t see coming, but Mansfield are clearly class act as they showed at BP earlier this season. We’re clearly not at that level, but we’ve seen glimpses of what we can achieve.

Onwards and upwards. Let’s hope we extend the gap over the bottom 2 in the coming weeks - I certainly haven’t given up hope.

Of  course we've had worse, far worse to be honest.  I'm not concerned that we're heading back to the Conference.  As I said on another thread after the Mansfield game the rest of this season will be full of good and bad performances as we adjust, but I don't for a second think we're in trouble.  There's more than enough to comfortably lift ourselves away from the relegation spots and I think we will do so.

But personally it all just feels, at this minute anyway - not just post Mansfield, a bit of Groundhog Day.  Hope, optimism, misguided belief...and then getting let down.  HertsMariner points out the ten-year cycle, well it's 25 year since we've had success really.  Again, that play-off run was just epic and once in a lifetime stuff.  But, perhaps arrogantly, it restored us to a level I've always regarded as our bottom.  I probably do need a reality check and I'm quite certain that I'm truly spoilt, but the achievement of winning promotion to the fourth tier isn't all that.  

That's completely unfair on Artell because he's inherited this position rather than contributed to it.  I really got my hopes up under 1878 that we were going on a journey, which was probably an elevated belief with the promotion in the first season and the emotional journey that was.  Last season I tolerated because I was still basking in the glory a little of the previous season.  But the letdown from this summer really knocked it out of me.  I hope and I'm sure it's nothing more than a bump in the road, but I can't deny how it's left me feeling flat and I don't think I'm alone in how I feel at the minute.

Football's a game of passion, it always has and always will be. You take that out of it and it's just 22 blokes kicking a bag of wind about.  The last 18 months have felt a real slog with largely little to play for and limited entertainment on the way.  I'm sure my enthusiasm for Town will come back, hopefully starting tomorrow night with a good result and performance!

Let's face facts when 1878 took over. Town was on the rocks both on and off the field, I think the learning curve was steeper than they expected, along with ground improvements at BP and Cheapside; likewise, the squad was poor.

For whatever reason the recruitment in the close season has been proven to be poor but we are where we are. PH lost his job because of this and now we have DA. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither is a football club.

We are now in a better place than we were so let's be thankful for what we have. Ground improvements and a League 2 team.

UTM

I hope we are still not employing that recruitment expert we employed to help.Paul Hurst out... He was a great help!

All I want is a team of players who are not only proud to wear the Town shirt but proud to play for the club, at the moment I think we have a few players who can’t really be bothered about either. UTM

The January transfer window is needed to fix nearly every problem  in the squad.  The number of issues is growing. It is critical to get it right.  Difficult to do with no funding or very little money.

Quoted from DB

Let's face facts when 1878 took over. Town was on the rocks both on and off the field, I think the learning curve was steeper than they expected, along with ground improvements at BP and Cheapside; likewise, the squad was poor.

For whatever reason the recruitment in the close season has been proven to be poor but we are where we are. PH lost his job because of this and now we have DA. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither is a football club.

We are now in a better place than we were so let's be thankful for what we have. Ground improvements and a League 2 team.

UTM

This keeps getting repeated, but still isn't true for me.

I don't think anyone has got a consistent tune out of them yet, which is a different matter. When a team is struggling, it's easy to say that the players aren't good enough, but that isn't always the case.

I watched Chelsea last night, and despite spending a gazillion pounds on some of the best and most promising talents out there, they are struggling to get any cohesion in the team.

I know we are not in their orbit, but the point is the same. I believe we have perfectly adequate league 2 standard players in the squad and all that is missing is a bit of direction and belief, with maybe a smidge of luck thrown in.

Yes, we do need two or three in certain areas, mainly in the spine of the team in my opinion. Centre back, centre mid and a forward would be my preference as a minimum.

I think we have a better squad than last season, but they just aren't performing consistently to the levels they are capable of, and the manager has his work cut out correcting this.

I would also argue that performance levels of existing players has been more of an issue than recruitment in the summer