Relegation confirmed    

Quoted from arryarryarry

It depends on how long talks take with those players that PH wants to keep but are out of contract and those that PH doesn't want who are contracted for next year, are we going to be lumbered with players remaining but not playing?

I think Hurst will ensure no unwanted player remains; even if it means sacrificing some of the budget. Everyone on the books needs to be pulling in the same direction.

The likes of Danny Rose and his tinfoil hat need to be gone. Montel Gibson and his disregard for the law can go too (not just the baby showers but filming himself driving). Waterfall should never have been given an extension. A 3 year deal for Sam Russell was bizarre. Hurst made a comment early doors that Russell sees himself as a keeper but he sees him as a coach so I think he will be moved on too.

Having a coach that wants the shirt of the player he's coaching can't exactly be the best situation for McKeown.

Quoted from arryarryarry

Barrow had a bigger budget than we did?

I don't know did they, maybe they had round balls and a training pitch that didn't break your back when you run on it.

I know we’ve had a long time to come to terms with the likelihood and I know (almost) no-one wanted to admit it was probable rather than possible but it feels a bit like after the Bristol Rovers penalty shoot out defeat in 2015.   We should have felt gutted, but we were done, Lady Luck was against us and we knew we’d go again the following season.

I know the incoming consortium provides for renewed optimism and I believe Shorty’s team restored some pride in the last dozen games or so.  Yes we go again.

I know we are all drunk off that Cheltenham will play Sheffield Wednesday next season whilst we’ll play Borehamwood.

Looking ahead, I’m thinking about trips to Notts County, Stockport, Halifax (!), Hartlepool, Wrexham, Southend and maybe Torquay all more exciting than Crawley, Stevenage, Salford and Village Green Rovers.
I’m thinking about having a few pints with members of the B&W Army before games, rejecting the suggestion to stay in the pub because I want to go have my balderdash frozen off and because I like bovril.
Then afterwards enduring a rail-nightmare and getting back to Cambridge two and a half hours late, in the early hours of the morning.

Still the thought of another 250 mile round trip next week for another bovril “keeps us going”

UTM

A few years back a friend of mine was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was as if he died twice. Once when we learnt he was dying, and once when he passed away.

Without wanting to trivialise bereavement, yesterday was a similar double whammy. I had resigned myself to relegation some time ago. Like many others the ridiculous manner of the home defeat against a Stevenage team without an away win for a year, was the day my head said we were going down, even though my heart kept hoping otherwise.

It wasn't that one game. It was the fact that we had just completed two months worth of fixtures against several poor or badly out of form sides that should have yielded a huge points haul.

In December we played 9 games. I thought we could realistically have come away with something like 15 points.  We got 5, 1 win, 2 draws and 6 defeats.

In January we had 5 games, and 9 points was by no means out of the question. We ended up with 1. So in two months we had collected 6 points from a possible 42. That's is when I thought we were going down.

We did rally recently, but it is still only 3 wins in the last 16 games. Averaging a point a game. No enough when you are starting off adrift at the bottom.

So last might, despite my expectations, it was still a horrible disappointment to have relegation conformed. But by far the worst thing about this is that it was entirely preventable. Fenty and co have been through this before. They saw what happened in 2010 and all the signs were that we were in for a repeat. They needed to step in and pull out all the stops to ensure we had a fighting chance of staying up.

Holloway did us a huge favour by quitting. It meant we would bring in a new manger, and we had an entire January window to bring in players that could keep us up. Hurst said we needed 7 new players. He ended up bringing in 11. But the problem is that some were crocks, some were kids, some were from lower leagues.  We needed a core of good, fit , experienced pro's. It wasn't impossible to do. Bradford did it in the same window and stormed up the table. Sounds to me like the budget we needed wasn't made available.

I have to say that if Fenty was staying on, the club would continue its slow death spiral. The only grounds for optimism is that he is going next week and the new owners will come in with a new approach and drag this club into the 21st century.  

I really believe better times are ahead once he has gone.

            

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

I don't know did they, maybe they had round balls and a training pitch that didn't break your back when you run on it.

You can come up with all the excuses you want, round balls or training pitches the simple facts are that two managers failed to come up with a team to stay up.

Quoted from arryarryarry

You can come up with all the excuses you want, round balls or training pitches the simple facts are that two managers failed to come up with a team to stay up.

One Controller of the Club has failed to keep the club in the football league. All the managers have failed here since coming back in the League except Hurst Mk I.

Quoted from arryarryarry

You can come up with all the excuses you want, round balls or training pitches the simple facts are that two managers failed to come up with a team to stay up.

Fenty has appointed 17 managers, in various roles beit caretaker, etc., in his 17 years at the club. A club needs some form of stability to go forward which given this statistic we haven't had. 1 manager on average per year of Fenty's ownership tells a story of its own.

Quoted from DB

Fenty has appointed 17 managers, in various roles beit caretaker, etc., in his 17 years at the club. A club needs some form of stability to go forward which given this statistic we haven't had. 1 manager on average per year of Fenty's ownership tells a story of its own.

Stability is over-rated. At least when the wrong man is in charge. 😆

The real damage was done 'pre-season' and the early part of the season. However, another key moment in our season came on 27th Feb away at Harrogate, days after a first win in 2 months - that was the time to have a go and build some momentum. But a negative team selection and performance cost us dear, repeated a few days later at home against a poor Orient side.  Over the last 10 games or so we've looked like a team capable of beating anyone on our day - but we left it too late to have a real go.

I must have spent twice the amount of an old person's season ticket, watching every televised game but one.
Like the rest of us I am absolutely gutted that we are relegated, but having been locked down to protect a vulnerable partner, about my only excitement has been looking forward to and watching and hoping that Town would win the next game.

I have been to grounds that I have never been to and possibly never will do again, have had some elation and a lot of frustration and woken up some nights with depression. But I have always been back in hope for the next one, even to Exeter.

I have got a few days behind on post reading, so I apologise if anybody has already mentioned this; but looking on the comments of the Exeter match report on the BBC, there are many kind comments from supporters of other teams, who have bothered to log on and post. And a lot of supporters of other clubs slagging Holloway.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56577934