A few things that bother me

There is always one team that drops like a stone and goes down.
I think we will stay up just.
In all of Hursts years here i still have no idea of his style of play.
But it is not great to watch.

Quoted from Teestogreen

I don’t think we will see Town pick up until the FA Cup run is over and the money is in the bank.
If we win the Cup - Town could have bizarrely been relegated.
Just seems how it is - defeating the higher league teams in the Fa Cup and losing to the lesser ranked clubs in Towns division.
To win the FA Cup would sugar the pill for me.
UTM

You are course nuts - Southampton will be our cup final.
Still  - dreams are made of this & I am with you .
UTM

Quoted from Poojah

The same will be true this season if second-bottom Hartlepool persist at their current rate of 0.84ppg. Still, it’s dangerous to assume they, and others, won’t improve on that. I’d want to build an 8 or 9 point safety buffer into calculations, which means we really want to be aiming for high 40s.

4 wins and 3 draws from our final 19 games should do the trick, and when you think that still allows us to lose another 12 it feels eminently doable, though I remain quietly nervous. Above all else, I’m frustrated and disappointed that I felt motivated enough to even do the maths.

I think this is what’s eating at the pragmatists at the moment. I’m fully behind the staff and squad but it is hard not to be affected by the sentiments expressed in abundance in threads that we are not kicking on at all and are giving the impression of being perennial L2 strugglers (when we’re here) and this really is disappointing and below what I think are realistic expectations and ambitions given our overall resource and fan base. We have some good players I think, and on our day we can beat anyone. L2 is fairly evenly matched but the longer it goes on, the more your ‘true’ position takes shape, and this really isn’t where we should be. I won’t be lashing out or panicking or overstating things but I think we all expect a better standard, and rightly so. Things have to improve, and quickly.

Finally joined the club, hey everybody, international fan here!

Hope we get the twitter account running again, we are 0-2 since then, thats where the problem lays!

Jokes aside,
I think we shouldn't panic too much. We still have 4 games less than Hartlepool and are 7 points clear.
On the other hand I believe the last thing we should do is relying on mistakes of the others around us.

Last 2 games were played like everybody was visualising themselves at St. Marys already. PH gotta put the pressure on the team that every game counts and no one is set for Southampton. Hope things improve asap. There are still so much games to go and archieve better than so far.

Quoted from chaos33

I think this is what’s eating at the pragmatists at the moment. I’m fully behind the staff and squad but it is hard not to be affected by the sentiments expressed in abundance in threads that we are not kicking on at all and are giving the impression of being perennial L2 strugglers (when we’re here) and this really is disappointing and below what I think are realistic expectations and ambitions given our overall resource and fan base. We have some good players I think, and on our day we can beat anyone. L2 is fairly evenly matched but the longer it goes on, the more your ‘true’ position takes shape, and this really isn’t where we should be. I won’t be lashing out or panicking or overstating things but I think we all expect a better standard, and rightly so. Things have to improve, and quickly.

I’m not into all of the ins and outs at each individual club during the transfer window but I suspect that if someone rated the relative signings at each club, we’d be somewhere near the bottom. Given that we’d be in the playoffs for home (and away) support, this is really disappointing.

Quoted from Heswall Mariner

You are course nuts - Southampton will be our cup final.
Still  - dreams are made of this & I am with you .
UTM

Of course I’m nuts Heswall Mariner
UTM

Quoted from JBazza

Finally joined the club, hey everybody, international fan here!

Hope we get the twitter account running again, we are 0-2 since then, thats where the problem lays!

Jokes aside,
I think we shouldn't panic too much. We still have 4 games less than Hartlepool and are 7 points clear.
On the other hand I believe the last thing we should do is relying on mistakes of the others around us.

Last 2 games were played like everybody was visualising themselves at St. Marys already. PH gotta put the pressure on the team that every game counts and no one is set for Southampton. Hope things improve asap. There are still so much games to go and archieve better than so far.

Welcome Bazza.

Quoted from Yoda

There is always one team that drops like a stone and goes down

Always? Sometimes, not even very often

[quote=140776]I must say that the bounce we had during the promotion gave me optimism for a repeat performance, albeit without Fox. You could see the enthusiasm, never say die till the final whistle is blown that won us marvellous victories against more fancied opposition

Effort and motivation in parts but the ethos of that squad has not been repeated this term. The nucleus of the squad is the same but something is different and has changed, and I don't know what it is. Hunt without McAtee or McAtee without Hunt, permanent additions of Holohan, Green and Morris not blending in well after the first few games. Smith having unusual off days? You could say one or all of these but something is not right this season.

Hurst's tactics, but he gets them right for cup games! Is/has the cup run distracting the squad? No new permanent signing in the window to revitalise us, but as we now know it wasn't for the lack of trying by Hurst.

We're playing against more physical and taller/well-built teams. The questions are endless for the reason why and if anybody knows the answers then you're our next manager.

So where do we go from here? I have reduced my expectations to mid-table and have to reflect on what we have. Firstly and foremost is a club that has risen from the ashes and the new owners give us hope for the future. They have said that they will cover the losses and that they are not in it to make money, unlike the Glazer family. They may have millions but are not going to indefinitely fund the club, but want it to be self-sustainable in the long term, which like it or not is a very good long-term option ( ask Bury, Macclesfield, Darlington etc fans if you don't agree).

Then we have the structure of the club in terms of staff and BP. Understaffed for a professional club and a derelict stadium that the paint is holding together which has had no real investment in decades. Staff have been replaced and added to and the stadium has increased maintenance to try to drag it into the 21C. They are trying but because of the lack of investment in the past most work wants 6 noughts, if not more spending on it. Safety is paramount so I presume this is the reason the Osmond roof was shot-blasted last year.

Cheapside has been improved and so has the BP pitch, but a one-year makeover won't last forever. We are then left with Hurst who some say is living a charmed life given our recent results. I seem to recall Sir Alec was given one last game as the grim reaper's scythe had been raised; he won that game and the rest is history. Continuity in management is something this club has not had for many years and that is what 1878 is giving us with Hurst. 1878 are building a club out of ashes and need stability and that is what we have in Hurst. Given his words at the forum, he's not an idiot. nor a temporary crowd-pleaser, but he is Grimsby Town through and through.

So we are where we are, in a different place than last year and the 5th round of the FA Cup, and middling in league 2. Would you have taken that last year at this time? of course you wouldn't would.

UTM.................Forever[/quote
Not to be pedantic .But we are 19th not middling

Football is a fickle game, We could still end up in a relegation battle, we could end up bottom half, we could end up mid table and heck, we could even sniff around the playoffs however unlikely.

At the start of the season I think people looking for playoffs were being a little overly optimistic and that a mid table finish (possibly the highest since 05/06 if we finish above 15th I think) would be more realistic. I personally think that would definitely be a step in the right direction from where we were a couple of years ago. Add to that our FA cup run and I think some fans are being a bit childish in spitting their dummies out. We were never going to suddenly start running up through the leagues with the new owners at the helm and to think otherwise is setting yourself up for disappointment. If we are still kicking around league 2 in 10 years having gone nowhere then I might start to ask questions but for the time being I think most fans should be fairly happy with where we are.

In Hurst and 1878 we trust.

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