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Caaamonnn Ref!!
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Second long haul in two weeks. Body is aching already, not looking forward to it on pretty much any level.
a) we will lose, conspiring to send us ever closer to relegation with only 4 games left to save us.
b)its a long was down the M5.
c) am forced to use the supporters coach as my chauffeurs have pulled out- part-timers
d) because its the supporters coach, we never have any time to look around the place, so wont actually see much of Exeter itself.
1 Dag & Red 40 44 85
2 Oxford Utd 41 28 72
3 Morecambe 41 13 71
4 York 41 15 67
5 Burton Albion 40 2 66
6 Exeter 41 12 65
7 Gravesend 40 6 64
8 Stevenage 39 7 60
9 Aldershot 40 4 60
10 Weymouth 41 -14 58
11 Kidderminster 39 -3 57
12 Rushden & D'monds 39 5 53
13 Crawley Town 40 4 48
14 Forest Green 41 -8 48
15 Northwich 36 -11 48
16 Stafford Rangers 40 -18 48
17 Woking 41 -6 47
18 Altrincham 41 -12 47
19 Cambridge Utd 41 -10 46
20 Grays Athletic 40 2 45
21 Tamworth 41 -14 44
22 Halifax 39 -5 43
23 Southport 41 -15 38
24 St Albans 41 -26 36
Burton Albion v York,
Dag & Red v Aldershot,
Exeter v Tamworth,
Gravesend v Forest Green,
Halifax v Cambridge Utd,
Northwich v Oxford Utd,
Rushden & D'monds v Southport,
St Albans v Altrincham,
Stafford Rangers v Crawley Town,
Stevenage v Morecambe,
Weymouth v Kidderminster,
Woking v Grays Athletic,
All but relegated.
16 Altrincham 42 -8 50
17 Forest Green 42 -8 49
18 Stafford 41 -19 48
19 Halifax 40 -4 46
20 Cambridge Utd 42 -11 46
21 Grays Athletic 41 1 45
22 Tamworth 42 -15 44
23 Southport 42 -14 41
24 St Albans 42 -30 36
Cant score, let alone win, if you dont shoot.
4 attacks all game.
We must win, and the others must lose around us.
Aldershot v Stafford Rangers,
Altrincham v Gravesend,
Cambridge Utd v Dag & Red,
Crawley Town v Exeter,
Forest Green v Stevenage,
Grays Athletic v Northwich,
Kidderminster v Woking,
Morecambe v Halifax,
Oxford Utd v Weymouth,
Southport v Burton Albion,
Tamworth v St Albans
Do Pollok play, dude? What about the rest of you? How are your teams getting on?
Sounds like the team is lacking a bit of drive.
No Pollok game on Saturday or today. None next weekend either!! Nightmare!
Went to see Morton v Forfar at Cappielow (is that one of yours?) on Saturday.
Morton won 9-1!!
Brilliant game. I like the club and the set-up at Morton.
Shame for Forfar as the result sent them down but it has to be said that they were appalling.
Morton are still to be visited on my merry wee tour round the grounds.
Hear today's results? Couldnt have been worse really. Cambridge and Grays both won, leaving us in the mire after all we could do was scrape a 1-1 draw, again no chances in open play, only a dodgy penalty given our way.
17 Altrincham 43 -10 50
18 Cambridge Utd 43 -9 49
19 Grays Athletic 42 2 48
20 Stafford 42 -21 48
21 Halifax 41 -8 46
22 Tamworth 43 -15 45
23 Southport 43 -12 44
24 St Albans 43 -30 37
Just a formality reallly now. We are not even attacking, let alone scoring, so we wont beat the other teams. And if we do, the others still have to lose.
Be positive
Be positive
Be positive
Is it four go down?
Seems like a lot.
Am positive
Am positive
Am positive...
..that we will go down!
Aye, 4 go down. There is an outside chance that Halifax may be booted out because of them not fulfilling ground responsibilities, but its a long shot to even finish 4th bottom.
Besides, we only survived last year on a technicality. To do so 2 years running would be extremely improper.
They are now doing fairly well.
Glad they have altered that rule now. Stupid.
If you do go down, what does the future hold?
Alfreton Town
Barrow
Blyth Spartans
Burscough
Farsley Celtic
Gainsborough Trinity
Halifax Town
Harrogate Town
Hinckley United
Hucknall Town
Hyde United
Moor Green
Nuneaton Borough
Redditch United
Southport
Stalybridge Celtic
Tamworth
Vauxhall Motors
Witton Albion
Worcester City
Workington
Worksop Town
As you can see, hardly names that conjure up great football, any of them.
Trying to be positive, I have hardly visited any of those grounds which is a plus side. The down side is that they are mostly dumps, in the middle of nowhere.
Now, I love dumpy grounds, as my travels show, but the attendances will only be in the range of 500- 1000 tops, apart from the local derbies. Smaller crowds= smaller budget= lower wages= poorer standard of football etc etc.
Other clubs have hung on by the skin of their teeth in this league for 5+ years, and are just starting to be a viable proposition, most notably Forest Green Rovers, a tiny team in the middle of the cotswolds.
The longer you can hold on, surviving even on goal difference, the better. As soon as you drop, unless the attendances remain static, you are in biig big trouble: Scarboro, league club less than 10 years back, all but gone bust now and may not play football next year, through little other than bad luck and the above cycle, not mismanagement on a dreadful scale.
So, all in all, not the greatest thing that could happen to us, tbh.
Once you go down, it becomes that much more difficult to get back up. especially when you are in as precarious a financial position as we.
That said, I enjoyed all the new grounds etc. But the novelty wore off eventually.
We'll see, anyhow.
Borrowash Vics tonight, is the plan for match 88 of the season.
Brilliant name for a team
I remember when Hibs were relegated and had a season in Division One, they actually got higher attendances!
That was because it was a novelty and because they actually had the opportunity of winning a title. Which they did.
Carlisle, Lincoln, Colchester, Doncaster have all gone onto much bigger better things after that year down in the basement. For the others though, who didnt escape first time( and the current dread of everyone connected to Oxford) is that they will just rot down in the Conference and the downward spiral will happen.
York and Exeter are two such teams that havent bounced back immediately.
Borrowash Victoria just sounds weird, so needs to be seen to be believed! I am foregoing Bilborough Pelican for this ew ground tonight, and I love them so much! The wee metal badge I have is just awesone, a blue pelican, oddly enough!
On the positive side, despite three gloomy seasons in division one for Dundee, the club is starting to turn around under player-boss Alex Rae.
I like what he is trying to achieve.
Once the Gretna bubble bursts, things will go back to normal up there, with the likes of Dundee, St Johstone, Partick, St Mirren and Dunfermline being the ones who perenially do a Sunderland/Leicester/Derby down here and yo-yo up and down.
Its odd. People down here love Gretna to bits and get really excited by it all, yet loathe Chelski. I dont get that bit at all, there is precious little difference in practice. Sure, Mileson supports many other clubs finanically, but the bottom line is that Gretna are only going into the top flight because it was bought success.
Good luck to them, but its just the same in my book.
No potential fan base, and they will play home games at Motherwell, so even fewer supporters.
It could become embarassing.
Caley Thistle achieved the same honestly with hard graft and because they could draw supporters from a sizeable city and the rest of the highlands.
Really hope Dunfermline escape the drop. Hate St Mirren.
If I had all his money, I too would like to do what he has done, no doubt, but where will it end? As you say, it has no future.
Then when he pulls out, it'll be an embarrassing slump all the way back down to the English Unibond again...
One hell of a ride though!
Seating at one end taken from Bolton's old ground, many years ago, and then a main stand with green seats in..odd, coz the Vics play in Stoke colours!
Never seen so many ungiven handballs in one match before, about 1 dozen clear-cut offences, but none given. We all scratched our heads as to why!
1-1 was the final score, match 88 of the season and ground 114 I believe...seem to have lost one somewhere! I'll have to go to another to make up for it!
No match tonight, it seems. Rather frustrating!!!!
Its to be called the blue square premier league, blue square northern and blue square southern as of next year.
YUCK!
That was one of the marvellous things about the Caley promotion (once the SPL finally agreed to let them go up). The chairman was also chairman of a local building firm. When they got the agreement that if the stands were built by mid-January, they could play the rest of the season in Inverness, he pulled out all the stops and built the 2 x 2500 capacity stands in about 8 weeks.
Watching the progress (I can see the ground from my house) was amazing. I went up north hillwalking one day - there was no stand when I drove past in the morning, and by the time I came back, they had the frame up and 3/4 of cladding on it.
Probably shot himself in the foot a bit though - who is now going to believe it really takes 12 weeks to build a wee house, when they can do that?
I still need to do Caley and Ross. I managed all the others in the NE when I lived in Aiberdeen, but ran out of time for that pair, sensibly leaving them both for a single visit one time.I've touched Caley's ground though, in a bizarre ritual of finding new grounds and getting them engrained in my heid!
I'd like to get to Clachnacuddin too while I am there.
Lovely place Inverness.
Unexpectedly, match 89 is just about to take place for me. Mate is off work, so its off to Oadby Town to see them play newly crowned champions Leamington in the Midland Alliance League, to a wee village, Oadby, just outside Leicester!
Yippee!
Its a new ground for me too, even better!
:-D
*takes a big run-up*
*places the 00 casually in top-left hand corner of the goal, way out of the keeper's reach*
He shoots, he scores!
:-D
Can't beat going to a new ground and getting an unexpectedly great game dandan.
Chop and I went to East Kilbride, home of EK Thistle on Wednesday night to see a friend between them and Lok, a game intended to help our one and only Brian Dingwall back to health.
Sadly, we got there to find not a soul there and a bemused barman telling us the game was on Thursday! groan.
That said, we did have a nice pint and a chat with the locals. Not a bad wee set-up.
Nessie - that is true but Caley are a far more sustainable club, with a strong backing from Inverness and the surrounding area.
Gretna, are not.