Thetownend.com

For me it's promotion.

I know we don't know the make up of the squad, but the size of the club would suggest that league 2 isn't our natural home.

I don't care how we do it, but getting up has to be acheived this season.

promotion

just fucking do it, innit

Promotion is the minimum requirement. The double over the scum is much needed too

Promotion and finishing higher than Oxford.

1-Promotion. :nod:

2-Hang on to Di Canio if we get it. :hmmm:

3-A good cup run. :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

4-To get served within five mins at the County Hotel if we are flying in the leauge :no:

I agree with all of the above. Although I think setting a few shorter-term goals is also key. Building a squad would be a good place to start!

Agree about promotion. Just hope we get some players in soon.

Straight back up, can't afford to be messing around in div 2. Leave poxford and rovers to languish there for a few seasons though.

Promotion, promotion, promotion.

If we win promotion, who gives a shit about whether or not we built a squad?

Champions

Unbeaten

120+ points

Of course anything short of promotion would be a disappointing failure.....but I just don't know what to expect at the moment - we barely have half a team so have no idea who will be turning out for us, let alone whether they can play together successfully and be motivated by PdC.
I can't wait to find out but I honestly don't know what to expect right now.

Promotion..... Double over Scum and Wovers, would make it a incredible contrast of last season.... sounds familiar  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I remember a thread similar to this last season about how the play offs is the minimum requirement and automatic should be our aim so I'm keeping quiet.

The voice of reason! Totally agree.

I'd settle for never having to consider relegation, with a sniff of the playoffs by early 2012. Seeing a home win or two would be nice as well.

 Getting back to being competitive at home....having some players who look like they give a shit...some signs of recovery as a club...and avoiding another relegation dogfight.  Anything else a bonus.

Yeah a first home win of 2011 would be a good place to start, given how far we've sunk the start of the season will certainly be no cakewalk.

Having said that with the resources at our disposal I think promotion as a minimum target is realistic.

I've not seen us win since the start of december, so righting that would be a start

Anything less than promotion will be a failure.

There is so much to do it's a difficult target to hit. The thought of more than one season in division 4 fills me with dread.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

4 teams go up from this league, so anything other than promotion is a failure.
Surely we can finish in the top 3.....can't we?

At the moment no, see where we are after making more signings

Having enough players to start a game. :)

In reality, the expectation must be promotion, don't really care if it's top 3 or play-offs.

Major concern that we are effectively going to have a new team, so will be critical that they gell & we get off to a good start.

Ive got a feeling its all going to go Colin Todd.

Being there, or there-abouts, by Christmas would do me for starters.

I think number 4 is never going to happen

We have to get promoted this season...anything else will be a failiure and I fear we could end up doing a bradford and being stuck there

Promotion via play offs minimum.

Winning the championship of league 2 is a possibility with some good players coming in.

3rd round of the league and FA cups.

Beating Pox home and away.

Not losing to the Bristhole Dogs.

A striker that can score 25+ a season.

Players that want to play for the club and not just pick up the large wages week in week out for fuck all performance.

Winning more games at home than drawing and losing put together.

Getting an atmosphere back at the CG to intimidate opposition teams.

Getting fit players.

Not conceding stupid late goals to lose or draw games, especially at home.

I don't want fucking much do I? :D

Presume there is a plan going on behind the scenes, we just arent been involved in it at the moment. Lets be optomistic and believe in Wray and the Italian - no question we will take this division by storm.

anything other than promotion wont be good enough in my eyes.

not interested in cup runs etc.

but we must beat the pox home and away

Realistically for the mighty Oxford, serious play-off contenders. I feel our midfield might be a bit light for auto-promotion.

As it stands, I really don't know why any of you think STFC should be auto candidates. (OK, I haven't read the thread, maybe you don't!  8)) As I understand it you haven't even got a first team at the moment, and Di Canio is hardly proven.

For derby matches, our record at the CG is abysmal, but as it's an early season fixture I fancy a draw. Far too early to predict the score at the Kassam.

I don't think it's a case of thinking we're auto promotion candidates, more a case that if we don't go straight back up it would deemed a failure.

Nail, head, hit.

this

Top 3 will be tougher than most expect, if we are talking realistic then i think top 7 is a minumum requirement.

Realistically for the mighty Oxford, serious play-off contenders. I feel our midfield might be a bit light for auto-promotion.

As it stands, I really don't know why any of you would think it a failure for STFC to not get promoted. As I understand it you haven't even got a first team at the moment, and Di Canio is hardly proven. After last season's disaster, I'd have thought a whiff of a play-off place would be acceptable.

For derby matches, our record at the CG is abysmal, but as it's an early season fixture I fancy a draw. Far too early to predict the score at the Kassam.

There.

Have you just repeated exactly what you posted earlier?

you suffering from amnesia dave?

No. One whole paragraph was changed to reflect others' comments about what would be "failure" for STFC. I was making the point that the rest of my original post still stands. Do keep up.  8)

Possibly. Can't remember.

I think you're missing the point. Going down was a massive failure, especially after being in the play-off final 12 months earlier. Not managing to put that right this season would be a failure. It's not about us thinking the players/manager/board/fans are good enough to get promotion, it's an expectation that the club will be determined to put right all that has gone wrong.

I understand that, but can't help feeling your expectation of promotion would be better-founded if the players / manager / board / fans WERE good enough.

If you accept you're NOT good enough there's really no point having a promotion expectation. The club can be as determined as it likes, but it has to have the resources. If you think you ARE good enough, fair enough.

Well just put your new comment in a new post, if every retard copied and pasted previous posts and just added little bits it would be a fucking awful forum.

I have a nagging feeling we will finish between 8th and 12th. Which will be shit.

Even with our current scratch squad made up of very few players and alot of youth I am confident we will finish above you.  Really hope we sign a striker with pace as seeing him up against Duberry will be pure comedy!

Look what happened last year. Everyone expected promotion then we finished bottom!! You just don't know. I think it will be a lot tougher than everyone thinks.

If we don't go up then we'll have to sack di canio.(unless there is something positive to take from the season) Is he here yet by the way?

My worry is that although we were shit last season we still had players that would have been good for League 2, those players are all now pretty much gone. Next season we will have a complete new squad and if they end up being poor or not up to the task of promotion we could get stuck in this league with yet another rebuild required.

Having said that I feel quite confident we will actually build a squad capable of not only winning promotion but doing well in League 1 also.

they may have been good for league 2 but clearly lacked the fight needed for league 2 hence why they've all fucked off.

has that cunt sheehan found a club yet?

Yeah he went to Notts County

So I'm a retard am I? I take it you're from the intellectual wing of the Scum support? No, really, thanks for your advice, but if you could develop a sense of humour - irony would do to start with - you might understand what's going on around you. No offence, like.

I admire your blind belief, based on nothing but blind loyalty.

It will. It always is.

Based more on the fact our players are better than yours.

can you enlighten me as to what players?

So let's see your list of our current in place squad against yours. Obviously you must have done such an in depth analysis to be able to make that comment? Or was it just hot air?

I think you know the answer already. But even I’m intrigued as to what answers he comes up with

Taking into account the resources at our disposal, speculating that we will do will is not quite what you could call blind faith.

Sorry should re-word I am confident we would have a better 11 than you even based on our current depleted squad, you can list your best 11 in your next post with legends such as Duberry in your side I am confident, here is an 11 based on our current squad:

                      Lucas

Thompson     Devera    Flint       Kennedy

        Ferry      Douglas   Smith

Caddis                              Ritchie

                   Bodin

                  

even in my eyes that is NOT a league winning team

Didn't say a league winning team, I said a team better than Oxford!

I watched St Johnstone a couple of times last year and Duberry to me is a terrible signing. He is slower than a week in prison. Put some quick strikers up against him and the guy is going to be toast!

So you're "confident" you'll be better even though you clearly don't know what our best line-up will be? I never try to compete in these sabre-rattling debates. I have NO IDEA what our preferred line-up will be, let alone how they compare man-for-man with your players. As I said before, sounds like blind faith rather than any scientific analysis on your part.

That's not really a criticism, by the way, just an observation.

Don't disagree. Hope we weren't just chasing a "name".

An experienced head yes. Not sure how much lower the standard of League 2 is from the SPL so he might not be too much of a liability.

However I hope he is! :)

Our new strike force that we don't even know the identity of yet will tear L2 apart.

FACT!

+1

Ideally we need to get out of League 2 ASAP but realistically i don't think it will be as plain sailing as we hope.  A lot of new signings are needed and Di Canio will have his work cut out to get the team to gel but hopefully he can do it starting with our preseason tour in Italy

Ironically, what we had last season on paper was NOT a relegation team... hey ho...

Douglas isnt part of our current squad yet.

Right now we dont have the players in place but we've cleared out a shit load of deadwood - which I am happy about.

Now its time to show how serious our intentions are by using our resources (which have got to be top end, if not the highest in L2) by getting in players that are quite frankly too good for L2.

Without going all Leeds United - we shouldnt be rotting away in the basement with such shit nobodies who get 2,000 fans every week like Accrington, Macclesfield and Oxford.

Anything less than total domination would be failure.

So, what was funny or ironic in your post?
Sorry if I missed your excellent jokes there!

Oops.

You missed them all. Seriously, you would have sh*t yourself with laughter if you'd got even one of them. I am so funny it hurts.

when you got relegated to the conferance did you expect to go straight back up?

Seconded.

Bah, apologies.

I could've done with them too as I am suffering from chronic constipation and shitting myself with laughter sounds just like what I need! :)

After the Fittons wasted years.  I think suvival in div 4 is a realistic expectation. Remember what you all were saying this time last year on the back of three good months in one season? Please don't go over the top again.
I would be exstatic to finish one place higher than oxford but all this could change after the rest of PDC signinings.

If you want him banned then just say the word

Cheers, let's give him a chance, but I want some proper jokes goddamnit!

I'll be honest with you, even our more thoughtful and intelligent fans thought we'd walk it. There weren't as many biggish ex-league teams in the Conference and we adopted a very arrogant posture.

And to start with it looked like we were OK. 18 games without defeat, by far the biggest crowds at home, large away support at all the sh*tty little non-league grounds and winning even though we weren't playing well. Then we lost away at Gravesend and it fell apart. We deservedly lost to Exeter in the play-off semi-finals.

Second season was awful, but most of our fans stuck with us. Third season Wilder came in half way through and things started picking up. Fourth season we won at Wembley ( :D).

That's a bit precious, isn't it? Take a look at my posting history. You'll find I'm very reasonable. Is the thought of an Ox fan on here too much for you? According to your fans on the "Navyred stfc" thread moderation on here is good, apparently.

you lot are obsessed with your fucking away support...every forum I read some boring fucker is banging on and wanking over the fact that you took 0.2542 more people per game last season than coventry even though they were in the championship and you had to travel and extra 10.23 miles average per game, giving a total ratio of fans per mile per game per arsehole per...fuck off.......zzzzzzz...

are you lot going to be the new Wendies?

would a good run in the FA cup be to much to ask for ?

Yeh, I mentioned our away support once, in context. I guess that is a bit obsessive. Sorry.

"....every forum I read..."

and I thank you for keeping up this 100% record....

Recent history would suggest yes, yes it is.  That run to Saints in 96 (?) the last one of any note. 

Fuck it, these days I call 5 minutes of injury time in the First Round a cup run.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Yep, one mention, in context, certainly qualifies as "banging on and wanking over" the fact. Chill out Mr Onions.

I'm testing Godwin's law

 The key word in all this is "realistic". 

 Last season was a train crash, and as such has claimed a lot of victims, who will need to be nursed back to health.  Some might look OK on the surface but will be suffering post traumatic stress symptoms, and that's just the fans.

 Wray has opted for getting in the equivalent of a fit nurse....to turn heads and raise spirits, in the hope of a quick return to normality.

 He might have been better off getting in a more matronly type figure....for a steady improvement.

 Hattie Jacques or Barbara Windsor?

 

 :D Good man.

Sadly, I agree. If I was a Scummer ( and thankfully I don't put it up the wrong 'un ) then I would fancy their chances at the CG this year. They won't win obviously but I can see them being optimistic. 

Personally I reckon we'll come out firing on all cylinders and put a great run together thanks to the gaffer's motivational spiel.

What I'm more concerned is how Di Canio's lack of experience will make him handle the inevitable loss of form at some point in the season.

At least you have't got to worry about that with your manager....

Joan Sims please Reg.

Turns a head but the sort that at least has a head screwed on.

I like Dave.  We should keep him. 

I think we should change his name though. Too many Daves

Scummer Dave?

Still a Dave

3 sided Dave

Let's call him Susan

SusanDave gets my vote.

OK then, compromise

SusanDave

MisguidedLoyaltyDave

Or simply Pet Dave.

Hello Dave!

[url width=383 height=282]http://blogimages.project76.tv/blog/old/papalaz.jpg[/url]

David

Daffyd.

we should deffo keep Dave but we do need a name change.

he's dave, he's a yellow - "daffyd-il" ?

He's Pox ridden... Daffyd-ill?

Give me a break! I'm already in danger of being hung, drawn and quartered for posting on here without abusing you lot, without giving me some gay Welsh name!

Banana Man?

Best so far

How about purely just 'Cunt' in time honoured TEF tradition? He should feel honoured to be called this on here.

JoeyBeauchampsGotVD.

Quite like that. Short and to the point, if somewhat lacking in style. Eric's equally punchy though.

Gets my vote. All you want to know about oxford in two simple words.  After "there glory years were funded by Daily Mirror pension fund" apparently.

"THEIR glory years".

PS That was 2004. Is that REALLY the most up to date you've got?

I would go for babe!  We all know what that means but babe won't!  Has a touch of class I think.

http://greenwichgull.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/league-2-fixture-tapestry.png

interseting visualisation of the league two fixtures with clubs put into groups determined by their season's goals, assigned a colour and then using the fixtures showing how tough their fixture lists are.

Some of the teams probably are in the wrong category but worth a look.

going off that we've a nice little run from end of Sept through to end of Oct

And a nightmare run in !

Interesting way of looking at things. Though clearly pointless too :)

Just read something about the Gills having 14 pre season friendlies because last season they started slowly and they are aiming for more match fitness. On the other hand we have 2 in Italy (listening to the interview, one of these doesnt even sound like a proper team) and three when we get back. Wonder which approach works best, we do seem to have very few this season!!

Anything has to be better than that shite last season!