Friendlies 2013

[suttonred]

They want to play the west ham way. I.e yoyo between divisions and win bugger all. Clever fanbase..

[dalumpimunki]

They want to play the west ham way. I.e yoyo between divisions and win bugger all. Clever fanbase..

Brighter than you clearly. They are clearly even less likely to win anything following Sam's doggedly pragmatic "play the reserves in the cup and scrap like hell to stay in the big money in the PL" strategy.

I'd take Wigan's FA cup win and relegation rather than a dull 15th placed finish myself.

[Stevens]

Brighter than you clearly. They are clearly even less likely to win anything following Sam's doggedly pragmatic "play the reserves in the cup and scrap like hell to stay in the big money in the PL" strategy.

I'd take Wigan's FA cup win and relegation rather than a dull 15th placed finish myself.

Birmingham 2011 league cup and double relegation, bet their fans would think differently.

Premier plastic fans  whose side face dog fights every season are more than happy just to survive with the big boys than win trophies. You only have to hear them when they speak down the pub about their premier side and how they look down their noses at sides in the lower tiers.

[kerry red]

You can apply that to any team.

Would you prefer to support STFC in L1' middling around for years, or drop to L2 and compete at the top.

In short, would like to support Oldham?

[OrangeTransits]

Anyone off to Feltham tomorrow or Bromley at the weekend. Think I'll do both. Feltham 10 mins away. Bromley about 40 f0r me. Probably the 2 closest matched I'll have all season :-(

[suttonred]

3 or 4 of the London guys off to the game tonight,  and quite a few of us going Saturday and meeting here.   http://www.shepherdneame.co.uk/pubs/bromley/bricklayers-arms   from around 1pm.

[Bob's Orange]

Anyone off to Feltham tomorrow or Bromley at the weekend. Think I'll do both. Feltham 10 mins away. Bromley about 40 f0r me. Probably the 2 closest matched I'll have all season :-(

I'll be at Feltham tonight.

[JanTheMan]

Me too.  Five stops on the dark blue line for me.  Meeting three others.

[Frigby Daser]

This is hardly my main point. You argued that Stoke fans were happy regardless of the type of football they played, and the evidence is that a sizeable enough proportion of them were unhappy enough to make sufficient noise to get the manager sacked.

Ask West Ham fans if all they're interested in is winning. Most of the Boleyn booed their team off the park after a WIN last season for chrissake.

My point is, it's a question of balance. The policy really is extreme at the moment - exclusively young players, and (seemingly) not a lot of focus on blending that wih some experience and a 'spine'. Cliches maybe - I'm fully supportive of having a young side from a commercial perspective, but for them to develop in order to perform well and for their value to rise, I think that we need a core of "senior" players. It doesn't look like we'll get that.

[DRS]

My point is, it's a question of balance. The policy really is extreme at the moment - exclusively young players, and (seemingly) not a lot of focus on blending that wih some experience and a 'spine'. Cliches maybe - I'm fully supportive of having a young side from a commercial perspective, but for them to develop in order to perform well and for their value to rise, I think that we need a core of "senior" players. It doesn't look like we'll get that.

I would argue that these so called senior players actually let us down last season bar Jmac,arguably the youngsters actually excelled. Just my opinion but players like Ward and Harley proved to be poor and players like Stephens and Thompson stepped up when replacing them.

[Batch]

I would argue that these so called senior players actually let us down last season bar Jmac,arguably the youngsters actually excelled. Just my opinion but players like Ward and Harley proved to be poor and players like Stephens and Thompson stepped up when replacing them.

I think I'd largely agree with that.

But I can also see just having youth makes things more difficult, you clearly can win things with kids but its more difficult. The problem as I see it, and its just my opinion, is that with our budget constraints its going to be hard to bring in the "right kind" of experience. McCormack, J Mac, a fit TAH, that kind of player.

So I don't think there are a lot of options, lets hope the exuberance of youth can see us through.

[Riddick]

In my opinion you need 2 or 3 experienced players at least in the squad but better in the team. You can get away with it if you have real leaders in the team, i'm not sure we really do though? I'd except some journeyman league one 30 year olds just to give our lads the tips and know how they need for those difficult games

[JanTheMan]

Not including cooper, the subs and the girls sat in the bedfont dugout, there were 91 people at tonight's game. Got to be some kind of record?

[Bob's Orange]

Not including cooper, the subs and the girls sat in the bedfont dugout, there were 91 people at tonight's game. Got to be some kind of record?

Place looked about half full! What record?

[4D]

What score?