Other matches thread

Quoted from RonMariner

I totally get where LH and LCL are coming from. After seeing Town competing in the second tier for almost two decades to endure this seemingly endless battle to survive at the bottom of L2 is just soul destroying.

To misquote Lady Bracknell, to get relegated to the NL once is unfortunate, to do so twice is careless, but to do so three times would be disastrous. It would I think define us as an EFL/NL yo yo club.

Long gone are the days when our rivals were Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves, Newcastle and others. Instead we would have to dread visits to Dagenham, Eastleigh and Boreham Wood. And yes, Scunthorpe.

The next dozen games or so could constitute an era defining change in status.

Quoted from LocalLadGTFC

I don't think I could ever stop following Town, what on earth am I meant to do on Saturdays? Speak to the wife? No thanks. I think you have to roll with the punches. We've seen a lot of excrement over the past 20 years, well around 17 years of the 20 have been mediocre. I drew a line under it all when the new owners come in and gave them a clean slate, we've had two very good years and still find ourselves back where we were to start with and we've all experienced this feeling before. I believe they've done so much good for the club due to the old regime just outright abusing the club. We've all seen and heard the figures required to be spent on the ground just to keep it up to a ' okay ' standard. A million pounds this year and that's without the 750 thousand going into the main stand in the summer. As much as they want to say it wont, it will catch up with you. Even a quarter of that money on the squad would make a massive difference. We'll always be playing catch up due to the mismanagement of the previous tenure and it flipping sucks.

Quoted from Poojah

I don’t think I’ve seen much maudlin or self-pity. I’ve seen, and felt, exasperation that we’re here again. We’re here again, ffs. And we are. Make no mistake.

Despite everything that we’ve achieved in the past couple of years. Despite everything we had going for us at the beginning of the summer. Despite the backing that the club gets home and away. Despite all of this, we are in danger of being relegated into non-league for a third time. And that makes me sad and angry in equal measure.

Yes, we have a 6 point cushion and a game in hand, but our form is dismal and our performances, for the most part, not much better. So far in 2024, we’ve registered 3 defeats, 2 draws and 0 wins. We’ve won one game in over 2 months. The only reason we’re not in deeper shít than we already are, is that the two teams at the bottom have been so abject. Forest Green, incidentally, picked up their first win since the end of October last night, and convincingly so by the sounds of things. They now have what they’ve lacked all season; an experienced manager and a bit of confidence. Relying on them, and Sutton, to keep dropping points isn’t gonna cut it.

I just think the past few days have been a real wake up call. We concede goals for fun, and the players seem bereft of confidence. That’s not a formula for winning games, and we need to win games. Especially forthcoming ones against Donny and Forest Green.

Do I have confidence in the manager and players to turn things around? Honestly, as of right now, I don’t. I think we’re genuinely in trouble. I’m contemplating what until very recently has been absolutely unthinkable. That we might go down again.

And going down now would be an absolute disaster. The first time was the first time. The second time, came at a fortuitous time, if there is such a time to be relegated into non-league. Fenty was fresh out the door, there was the optimism of new and progressive ownership, Covid lockdown had only just been fully lifted and people, by and large, had a bit of disposable income in their pockets.

If it happened again, a third time for crying out loud, there would be no such optimism. And economically, life in the summer of 2024 is going to be drastically different to summer 2021. Going down, in the best case scenario, sets the club back years, already on the back of two and a half decades of failure and stagnation. In the worst case, it is a terminal death knell for GTFC. It would kill the spirit of the club and the town.

Is all this maudlin? Is it melodramatic. I don’t think it is? I think the threat of relegation is real, and the consequences grave. Ultimately, there’s little the fan base can do directly to affect change on the pitch, but they can, to some extent, influence what happens in the boardroom. I have no agenda against Dave Artell, and I’d be absolutely delighted if he were to win 2 out of the next 3 or 4 games, but I think the notion that he simply needs time to make things work is a dangerous one. We don’t have time, and if it’s not working now, we may need to look to someone else to bring about a change in fortune.

Quoted from Mappers

I agree

They must be 5 or 6 million quid in with what they have put in + buying the club . Just to  maintain , right wrongs and bring the ground upto a reasonable standard .

Tough gig

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Yes you're right, but it was a tough gig they have chosen. Nobody held a gun to their head.

(and that isn't implied criticism, I am 100% behind S+P)

Quoted from Nelly GTFC

FGR practically playing it out from the back with their emergency goalkeeper Vicente Reyes for their first goal, good build up play.

Second vid - FGR with a excrement pass, good goal though from Barrow.

Tweet 1757499873924907189 will appear here...

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Our manager says that we are good enough to stay up.  This view is not supported by results and performances.   It was supported by a safety net of points,  This net is reducing,  There is potential for this to disappear as there are plenty of games to play.

The players are not playing well enough to get results consistently.  Also too many errors being made (eg Stockport first half).  The manager said that we all make mistakes,  True - but it is the high number of mistakes made that stops us winning.  And the inability to learn from mistakes or avoid making basic errors.

The fight element in a relegation battle is the key part that the team have rarely shown.

The fans’ collective views of extreme risk comes after all the above.  To me, this is a realistic conclusion of what they have seen week in and week out.  We can have nightmares about falling into NL for a third time,  Surviving and next season is a fresh start.