....that can happen to our club at this moment in time.

I’m sure like everybody else I can’t help but feel Stockwood and Pettit will do great things for our club. They both come across as very humble and modest and have a genuine love for our club. I know people say they’re saying all the right things which is fine but look at their history, Stockwood has built up a multi million pound, international company and year after year it has been voted the best company to work for, so he clearly practices what he preaches and pettit has built up a very successful property and investment business.

So here’s the thing, in my opinion, we have a far better chance of doing well and getting promoted next season than if we were staying in league two trying to get out that division. They have said that they will invest on the pitch to get a good competitive team together i.e. promotion.
Can you imagine the momentum Town would have if with all the positivity at the start of the season we start winning games? imagine the away days and the crowds getting back to Blundell Park? etc
I think it would be a lot easier to do that if we were in the national league.

One step back to take two steps forward.

I know what you're saying and your optimism is commendable but imagine if all of this was propelling us towards the First Division!

The trouble is there is a loss of revenue back in the National League and the longer we stay in it the worse it gets.

Yesterday has only made me more gutted about relegation tbh

Relegation to non-league can never be a good thing. Appreciate yesterday was quite emotional for some but get your heads back on.

Relegation from the football league is never the best thing and shouldn't be seen as that. Although delighted and positive over the new owners we have to remember. They haven't a fortune to pump into the club. They are new to controlling a club and will make a lot of mistakes. We may well become a National League bottom half team for a long time and we may have to be prepared for that. We have our club back yes, but at a hell of a cost.

I think that's an admirable attempt to put a positive spin on relegation into non-league, but no, regardless of the takeover I can only see relegation as a significant negative. Make no mistake, it's going to be tough getting out.

When we went down in 2010 I think most of us had a sense of naivety about the challenge that lay ahead. A league full of untraditional footballing names and a handful of basket case former football league clubs. How hard could it be?

We didn't have a full appreciation then of the kind of money that Crawley, Fleetwood and Forest Green were going to throw at it, but even then we were beaten to promotion by Wimbledon, York, Mansfield, Newport, Luton, Cambridge, Barnet, Bristol Rovers and Cheltenham. There were other, smaller clubs like Gateshead and Eastleigh who were also prepared to speculate.

This time around we already know that the likes of Stockport and Wrexham will have money, assuming they're not promoted in the meantime. Add to that sizeable ex-league clubs like Notts County and Chesterfield, plus the kind of established non-league outfits who always caused us problems. The play-off system has changed since we were last down there too, making it a lot more difficult to be promoted if you don't finish in the top 3 - something we only ever did once.

The positivity is fantastic right now, particularly given the events of the last twelve months. But it's important to be realistic - next season is going to be tough, and I'd say there's a significant chance we won't come straight back up. And if that's the case, it's important to remember and retain the optimism of today - we have excellent, progressive new owners hellbent on changing the club for the better. But change takes time, and success might not come immediately.

Poojar is right as usual. We should not expect to get out of the NL at the first attempt.

The club has been allowed to rot to such an extent that the lack of quality we have witnessed on the pitch is the tip of the iceberg, the whole infrastructure off the pitch is not fit for purpose.

Clearly we need good players to win games. But the players need high quality back up off the pitch to achieve their full potential. So we need excellent training facilities, coaching, fitness regimes, injury prevention and recovery management.  I think the new owners get that, as does Hurst.

So all of the back room issues need addressing just as much as the player recruitment.  It’s not just a question of bringing in half a dozen players. It is root and branch reform.  That will take time. It would be miraculous if it were to be achieved in one season.

So we will need to be patient. But once new systems are in place it means that success on the pitch will be sustainable. So next time we get promotion from the NL it will be the start of a climb up the league’s, unlike last time when it was merely a passport to perennial relegation battles in L2.

Yesterday was the first, but most vital, step in our recovery.

relegation out of the football league can never be anything but a disaster and heartbreaking
yes JF is gone, but the damage he caused will live with us for a while yet

Never said we will get promoted on the first attempt, all I’m saying is, we will in my opinion have more “success” in the National league i.e in or around a play-off places, as opposed to maybe finishing in mid table obscurity in league two. It is what it is, just trying to make the most of it.

I was there on our first game in the National League away to Crawley, we won 1-0 walking away thinking what a urine poor league and we’ll be promoted by Christmas, we all know how that turned out!
Just hope we got off to a good start and the momentum starts to build, I am totally behind Hurst, I think he did enough to show he can change things around, he knows the league and what it takes to get out of it and hopefully get the players he wants to do that but as you can see from my avatar thingy at the bottom (can’t be bothered to change it) at the end of his first reign I was never a big fan of his, his negativity and bigging up the opposition was too much for me.
Can’t wait for the season to start hopefully with no restrictions on crowds, just think of that atmosphere with a massive Town away day following for the first game of the season!

Quoted from Sussexmariner

....that can happen to our club at this moment in time.

I’m sure like everybody else I can’t help but feel Stockwood and Pettit will do great things for our club. They both come across as very humble and modest and have a genuine love for our club. I know people say they’re saying all the right things which is fine but look at their history, Stockwood has built up a multi million pound, international company and year after year it has been voted the best company to work for, so he clearly practices what he preaches and pettit has built up a very successful property and investment business.

So here’s the thing, in my opinion, we have a far better chance of doing well and getting promoted next season than if we were staying in league two trying to get out that division. They have said that they will invest on the pitch to get a good competitive team together i.e. promotion.
Can you imagine the momentum Town would have if with all the positivity at the start of the season we start winning games? imagine the away days and the crowds getting back to Blundell Park? etc
I think it would be a lot easier to do that if we were in the national league.

One step back to take two steps forward.

In the words of Victor Mildrew

I don't believe it!


Any relegation is bad, especially when you lose your league status.

Am I right in thinking that their isn't a salary cap in the conference?  We can pay that bit extra for players and if promoted again the league have to ignore any overspend as part of the cap.

Could someone please clarify

Quoted from mimma

Am I right in thinking that their isn't a salary cap in the conference?  We can pay that bit extra for players and if promoted again the league have to ignore any overspend as part of the cap.

Could someone please clarify

There's no salary cap in NL or L2. It got overruled by some court. I think the old version is still in play, but it's meaningless when a chairman can tick a box saying they will pay any extra themselves.