Thetownend.com

Though I’d try a football thread!

Hold the incredulity for a moment and fantasise about next season in L1 with STFC.

Could be a cracker of a season with Reading, Bristol Rovers, The Stains, Pompey, Charlton, Sunderland, Birmingham all bringing a decent atmosphere to the CG.

Or would people prefer those yellow bellies to drop rather than play them next season? They could struggle to stay up with the top 3 to play away - but, tbh, I think they’ll stay up. Still got my double of us up, them down coughing 34/1.

When we were in league 1, I thought the standard was terrible. I hadn’t seen anything yet after some of the games this season.

To be honest i’ve seen some ‘big’ sides historically in league 1. Leeds, Wolves, Southampton, Norwich, Forest etc that I guess we’ve been spoiled a bit.

That’s a fairly tasty list of sides you mention Audrey, I know I’d be much more tempted to go - and my dad, who has stopped going as well.

Its got so much potential to be the best season in ages, lot of ifs though.

I'm still really struggling to make a case for us making the playoffs now - not mathematically, obviously,  but with how we are playing. So no doubt we'll miss out with the rest falling nicely into place

Spoken like a true Town fan but I agree with you.
The big question though is if we don't make it this season, then what?

Looking at some posts in L1 forums a lot of fans see L1 as we see L2. In that it is a shit league with a lot of shit teams in it.

If we do make it, we’ll need yet another revamped squad to compete.

I’d be hopeful that Phil Brown comes in longer term, we ship out most of the Flitcroft players (probably to Mansfield) and let him build his own side. It’s early days but Brown is better tactically and I imagine has better contacts in the football world that DF.

Vigs is out of contract at the end of next season, get him into that shop window for one last hurrah!

That's what worries me most. Will Power consider this is only big financial shot, or will he give another* "top budget" again next season?

Its not that money is a guarantee of success, but it bloody well helps

*assuming it really is.

I would rather we were promoted and MKD, Poxfraud and Northampton all relegated.

I think promotion is not beyond us still but its a massive ask and TBH I think its doubtful now, if we had got a result at Exeter I would have been much more confident but we obviously didn't.

All the games left for us are still easily winable and I think if we can start scoring then we can outscore any of our opponents between now and the end of the season, Accrington included who were nothing special when we played them but we got hit on the break...again...twice.

Goalkeeping and defence are a major concern but also so is the lack of good chances we create. Elsnik when fit and playing well creates so much for us, Richards will always score goals if given the bal in the box which he hasn't been for several weeks.

Banks return could strengthen midfield defensively and he gets into good positions too attacking.

I would like to think that even if we didn't get promoted then PB would be given/take the chance of managing us for next season where he can recuit his own players and get us playing as a unit, something Flitcroft managed to get us doing a few times but usually our lack of firepower and poor defending has cost us.

Can we still get promoted...definately, will we get promoted...doubtful at best.

Next season in L1 could well be one of the best team wise for many years if we did get there, as it currently stand though it is still a dream just out of reach.

A few of the clubs above us are playing each other tomorrow so points to be dropped. We just need to win.

Well, if we are still in the same relative points position come Monday night as we are now -  I'm dusting this off

(http://www.ctrack.co.uk/images/panic_button.jpg)

Still everything to play for but there can't be many truly optimistic town fans left.

No they are thin on the ground, my post hinted to me being optimistic but actually I am fairly far from that in reality.

Very good chance we wont go up (which could be a blessing given the playing staff) but you're right, could be some great games. I'd include Luton & Wycombe too, relatively local and potentially bigger crowds.

I don't think Reading or Brum will come down now they've got new managers, so IF we went up we'd have 3 long norvun trips in Burton, Barnsley & Sunderland.

I think you probably meant Bradford not Burton as Burton is 15 miles closer to Swindon than Southend ;)

Also Rotherham, Fleetwood, Blackpool, Doncaster, Oldham and Scunthorpe are long old trips, and possibly Blackburn.

I don't think Reading will get relegated but a good chance Brum still could.

And Blackburn too if they don't go up. Dunno what kind of numbers they'd bring but a biggish side at this level.

Think I always assume Burton is further north than it actually is! Thanks for teaching me a valuable geography lesson!

:D actually there are probably as many longish away trips if we did go up next season as we have had this season.

If we stay down then we can add Bury and Rochdale to the long trips as well as possibly Wrexham, Tranmere or/and Macclesfield to that list.

L1 does still look way more appealling on every level than L2 next year though!

 Div 3 is a long way away for us atm.

 Tomorrow against Morecambe will give us a pretty good indicator about next season.... currently there are 13 sides between us and the trap door.  

Of those 2 are clubs who've not recently been in the Conference.  Chesterfield have given themselves a chance to recover, prob at the expense of Grimsby.... all the present bottom 3 have beaten us this season.

Morecambe represent the sort of level we're now competing at for maintaining FL status.... tiny crowds, but a decent manager who knows how to keep them up against the odds.... they've lost fewer games than us.

With the rump of this season squad, being very much Div 4 journeymen, it will only be through significant strengthening that a challenge next season can be mounted.... and there's no evidence that Power will commit to that. Once Power lost the serendipitous TT Spurs link, it's been a more or less season on seaon decline, so it's likely that it will continue that way.

You'd like to think, that with the aim of buying the CG, that having a FL club in it might focus attention.... but who knows.. Power showed last season a complete misjudgement.

Perfectly summed up. Them's the facts and our leader wouldn't mind it, if he managed to add another relegation to his CV. Has any club been promoted under LP management?

Waterford.

Went out with a lass from Burton for about 2 years, she was absolutely fucking bat crap crazy!

I assume that we are just ignoring Accrington then as its convenient and doesn't meet the woes of doom narrative? Likewise Morecambe is a strange example as the only thing we probably have in common with them is an abject lack of interest in the club from the local community, their season has been characterised by off field bollocks of the type we used to speacialise until (ironically) Power took over.

Ultimately if we stay down or go up we will likely have an 80%+ new playing staff next season so making any projections going forward is essentially futile. Accrington have proven it can be done on a shoestring, plenty have shown it can be royally fucked up with a decent budget. In this league there are a whole lot of essentially meh budgets and even the split between the top budget and the lowest is not enormous so the league will always be a lottery and depend on a decent share of managerial ability and simple good fortune.

I do like the ‘we’ve lost lots of games this season’ scenario, when the opposite ‘there are only a couple of sides who have won more than us’ is also true.

Maybe the truth is that we haven’t drawn enough games this season. Off the top of my head there aren’t too many games which we’ve won that we haven’t deserved to, but a fair few we’ve lost when we’ve deserved something.

If the worst happens and we stay down I don’t think there is a huge amount of tinkering to be done.

Div 4 is a pretty even league, so it's about small margins whether you contend or struggle, we've a fair few who will be here next season, especially up front, and in goal. These lads have been OK, but have come up a bit short, it's entirely possible that they've peaked at 9th/10th in Div 4. Maybe the likes of Kaiyne and Keshi have got a further gear to find, but I'm far from convinced.  It's a bit like Jonny Goddard syndrome... looks to have potential but can't deliver it on a regular basis.

So they have, but too what level? So I'll redifine the question.Has an English league club run by LP ever been promoted. It looks like STFC have been in steady decline since LP has been at the helm, although i wounder whether we'd even exist if Jed had stayed in charge.That said looking at our current trajectory were only a couple of seasons away from non league and however we look at it this season (unless we blag it via the playoffs) has been a massive disappointment. Further more if we're in Div2 next season will the budget need cutting as we'd have no relegation ballon payment. Just don't see the Mupward momentum in the club even with our current manager. who's most likely gone in the summer. My only silver linning if we don't go up would be seeing Mansfield spunk up their promotion push and Flip flop get sacked.

You’ve been banging on for months about how only 3 clubs below us haven’t recently been in the Conference, but then the same applies to only 2 clubs above us. This isn’t 1984, the Conference is effectively just Division 5. Your point is irrelevant.

On a related note, these days you get 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw. Morecambe play to draw and, fair enough, they often manage it. But the fact that they’ve lost one less game than us is entirely irrelevant.

We haven’t quite hit the mark for two reasons. Firstly, key players have been injured too often / for too long. What team isn’t going to struggle when the 3 best centre backs are injured long-term, and the one half-decent keeper has been abandoned? Secondly, and on a related note, your mate ‘Flitters’ was in charge for too long. Bollocks to your ‘we are where we are’ bullshit, and calling Mansfield as favourites for automatic when he went in - he is fucking hopeless, and is making an immediate impact over there.

As we all know, you drop an annual hint (carefully worded, because you don’t have the balls to actually call it) that we might go down. This season, you were still doing it as recently as December, though I think we might just about be ok. Now and again we do, of course, and you then delight in referring us all back to your mystic call.

Fuck knows what ‘serendipitous’ means, so I’m too ignorant to comment on that point.

  You miss the substantive point of the OP.... fantasise about being in Div 3 next season.  I think we're a long way off of that.

 I don't see the Conference as Div 5, and I've no desire to find out if it feels like that.

 As regards Mansfield, BO asked my opinion of how I thought things might pan out at the top and I gave it.... doesn't mean to say it will be right... but I'll carry on offering my opinion. Similarly do feel free to question it

 

Yeah, it’s pretty unlikely. But we are 3 points off the playoffs, and 27 points off the relegation zone. League 1 is a far more relevant level to fantasise about than the conference.

Perhaps next season, when we no longer have the 3rd choice keeper in goal and the 4th / 5th choice centre back paired up with a right back in central defence, we will totally collapse and get relegated.

I predict that we won’t.

The right back actually being a decent centre back

I’ve seen worse, but the goal yesterday was his fault, as was the one at Cambridge.