Texts after the game against Fitton

[Kinky Tom]

I think people are going over the top with criticism.

The board have made mistakes, and Wilson hasn't come in and made everything perfect, BUT I'd say a lot of it is down to the players. They lost all confidence under Malpas, and when Wilson came in he got them playing better football. We've seen much better performances recently. The problems are the crap performances scattered in between and the failure to stick the ball in the back of the net and finish a game off. I still think we have a great chance of staying up. Looking at this set of fixtures we could easily do the same as last season and make a nice break away from the drop zone:
Hereford (H)
Northampton (A)
Yeovil (A)
Crewe (H)
Brighton (A)
Leyton Orient (H)
Carlisle (A)
Bristol Rovers (H)

Nothing is guaranteed, but every single one of those games is winnable and I think THAT spell will be the one that decides our fate.

trouble is there's loads of people hoping you're wrong just so they can say they were right and ensure the adulation of the man they see in the mirror every morning.

there are far too many different agendas - who gives a fucking shit who is right? if we stay up then we all win don't we?  far too many people seeing our failure as a personal success because that's what they predicted.

time for us all to give a shit about the cumulative rather than whatever else anyone thinks might be important - i couldn't care less if someone correctly predicts a loss, we're either all in this together or we're not.

[yeo]

If our fan base showed more loyalty and didnt spend time skiing we'd deffintly stay up..

[Kinky Tom]

If our fan base showed more loyalty and didnt spend time skiing we'd deffintly stay up..

cunt, i'm a snowboarder...

[yeo]

Oh ,thats ok then.

[Doore]

trouble is there's loads of people hoping you're wrong just so they can say they were right and ensure the adulation of the man they see in the mirror every morning.

there are far too many different agendas - who gives a fucking shit who is right? if we stay up then we all win don't we?  far too many people seeing our failure as a personal success because that's what they predicted.

time for us all to give a shit about the cumulative rather than whatever else anyone thinks might be important - i couldn't care less if someone correctly predicts a loss, we're either all in this together or we're not.

Well said that man.

[Kinky Tom]

Oh ,thats ok then.

damn right.

[Simon Pieman]

I don't think the Board should be immune to any criticism but I do wonder how things could be different.

A lot of mismanagment has occurred with player contracts and in my opinion this has ensured the Board are stuck with a load of staff which aren't doing much. You shouldn't offer lengthy deals to fringe players at this level, yet we let Pook put a silly clause in his contract, daddy did Blair a favour and we also had to pay off the players who formed part of the previous 'takeover'.

Half our problems on the pitch stem from the fact that a large proportion of our squad are Sturrock old boys, who don't want to play for anyone but Sturrock.

We also failed to offer a contract to our best player (in that season) and Commingues took his chance at a higher level because we didn't act soon enough.

We're stuck with the shit we've got and short of the Board buying out every player's contract, there was little scope for them to bring wholesale changes. That said, who has been brought in since the Board took over:

Cox
Timlin
McNamee
Kanyuka
Amankwaah
Nalis
Marshall
Casal
Razak
Lescinel

Loans:

Greer
Kanu
Tudur Jones

(probably others I can't remember).

It's not like the Board have said we can't get anyone in. The ones which we got after trials probably aren't on much, but I reckon the others earn decent wages. We're stuck with a shit team because of poor decisions by the managers.

[STFC_Gazza]

http://forum.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5436

[STFC Bart]

The board certainly should not be immune to criticism. Yes they saved the club- which for we are eternally grateful but since they took charge there is no disguising the fact that grave mistakes have been made on the pitch.
 
1) The appointment of Malpas
2) The continuation of Byrne/Williams/Granville being coaches- under 2 new managers and still obvious that this is not working
3) Took too long to Sack Malpas
4) Took too long to appoint a successor

I am sure relegation was not part of the 3 year plan. I think the fans want to see some indication of the action to arrest our decline- which has not been evident. Lets face it if teams like Colchester who get gates of under 4000 can compete in league one then we are entitled to be pissed off when we cant .

Personally i think the coaches are a big part of the problem- Wilson must be allowed his own backroom staff. There is a bad egg in the camp and i would not be suprised if it is Byrne.

That saying- Wilsons record since he took over- by points per game is worse than Malpas.

Cannot sign of without mentioning the players- too many do not give a shit about STFC- whatever happens get rid of as many as possible in the summer. Many have played under 3 managers now and are still shit- says it all.

[pride_of_wilts]

I am extremely grateful to Mr.Fitton for saving this club and making us very well run off the pitch for the first time in years.

The board wiped out the debts and things off the pitch could not be better, they communicate properly with the fans and are open and honest, something which could not be said about the old board.

The season ticket deal was good, the pitch looks great, the seats in the arkells look so much better and the paint job makes it look a lot better too so off the pitch there is no problem and the board can take the credit for that.

However a lot of mistakes have been made and they can be criticised, i believe that not dealing with agents is an important factor and one of the main reasons why we struggled to sign players in the summer, this will be the case this summer too and it will prove even more difficult if we are relegated, i think Fitton should start dealing with agents otherwise we are only going to sign piss poor players like casal, marshall etc.

Appointing Malpas was obviously a terrible mistake and Malpas is partly responsible for how things have turned out this season, he should have been sacked way before he was actually sacked, i personally expected him to be sacked when we lost at home to Huddersfield, that was after losing at home to Millwall, Leeds and Colchester, Danny Wilson is a much better manager with a better track record and i don't blame him for our results because he has to work with a shower of shite.

The board dithered and messed around far too much with Malpas, they should have seen the warning signs earlier, we all saw them early in the season when teams kept beating us at home, they should have dismissed him much earlier and they should have lined someone else up before sacking him as we took weeks to appoint a new manager, it was a mess and a shambles and that could really cost us although i'm not sure because the players we have got are terrible and have not perfomed all season apart from one or two.

The board have said things which will come back to bite them on the arse such as the 3 year plan to get into the championship which has totally gone down the shitter and we are going totally the opposite way to where we should be going, we have gone backwards dramatically on the pitch under this board.

Also Watkins saying we are good enough to stay up or we shouldn't be in this position, that's deluded, this team is so poor if we went down no-one could honestly say that we didn't deserve to be relegated this season has been a total shambles, after all the expectation in the summer and people's hopes were built up and it has turned into a nightmare.

Also i feel that the coaching at the club is something that really does need to be sorted out, why has Fitton kept on the three clowns Byrne, Williams & Granville? They are poor coaches and should have been shown the door when Malpas was sacked, I believe that Wilson should have been able to bring in his own coaches, it has obvious that those 3 are just not good enough, for a start the goalkeepers have been truly awful this season and Granville has to be responsible for that.
I believe we would be much better off getting rid of them and also i think Fitton made a bad mistake by keeping them on when Malpas went, his judgement on them has been poor.

The players have no passion, no fight and no bottle whatsoever and don't seem interested but they are not bothered if we get relegated, they are only bothered about their pay packets but Malpas's signings have been awfully crap, until Wilson gets rid of all the dead wood and makes this team his own only then will things change for the better.

We need a massive cull in the summer regardless of whether we stay up or not otherwise things will not improve.

Players like Marshall, P.Smith, Aljofree, Mcgovern, Pook, Easton, Paynter, Sturrock, Corr, Lescinel, Casal, Nalis, Peacock etc need to go, Cox is really the only decent player we have and he will be gone in the summer, being in League Two will lower his value as well.

There's a lot of things that need sorting, the board have done a lot of good things but i can't help but feel they have let us down on the pitch with poor decision and maybe a lack of investment in the team.

I feel that this is a fair and honest opinion.

[Bob's Orange]

Look at Peterborough United. Their chairman (albeit he sounds dodgy as hell) has thrown money left, right and centre at their team and look at where they are now. Darren Ferguson has done a great job there and he has had the backing of the chairman to bring in whichever players he wants.

And what do Posh get for this backing on the pitch? Almost guaranteed promotion to the Championship and a young talented squad capable of pushing on.
 

[pauld]

Conversely, look at Cheltenham, a model many of the fiercest critics (yes, I'm looking at you Bart) wanted us to follow. Got in Martin Allen, gave him money to spend on the squad, which he did with some abandon, albeit on loan players' wages and all they've got to show for it is well adrift at the bottom of the league, the entire first team squad up for sale, staff being sacked left right and centre and struggling to stave off administration, never mind relegation. Just throwing money at it doesn't work.

[Mexicano Rojo]

bart thats the best post you have ever made on the tef. good arguements with well reasoned points to back them, keep it up.

[fatbury]

Has to be judged at the end of the season ....

I predicted defeat last night and on Saturday but I feel we will win the majority of the home games and get enough points to survive ... just!

If we dont then Fitton will find out just how few people will go to the County Ground in League 2!

[Colin Todd]

Trouble is the players arnt shit. We played Franchise of the pitch. We've drawn with Leicester home and away. When they are in the mood they can give anyone in this division a game as our record against the better teams shows - its almost play off form.

The issue is clearly psycological. I'm not sure it comes from the management, as its been the same since Sturrock really.  its an issue with the group of players being weak willed and "nice" in my opinion.  I know most lower league players are incosistant by nature, but other sides mangae to put runs together. Our team cant as they get out-battled by poor physical sides.