• Welcome to the ShrimperZone forums.
    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which only gives you limited access.

    Existing Users:.
    Please log-in using your existing username and password. If you have any problems, please see below.

    New Users:
    Join our free community now and gain access to post topics, communicate privately with other members, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and free. Click here to join.

    Fans from other clubs
    We welcome and appreciate supporters from other clubs who wish to engage in sensible discussion. Please feel free to join as above but understand that this is a moderated site and those who cannot play nicely will be quickly removed.

    Assistance Required
    For help with the registration process or accessing your account, please send a note using the Contact us link in the footer, please include your account name. We can then provide you with a new password and verification to get you on the site.

Is this as bad as it gets?

fbm

Blue tinted optimist⭐
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
10,024
Location
Cloud cuckoo land
So it's come to this; a couple of days after an opening fixture which started full of what transpired to be false optimism. Not for the game - I always thought we would lose this one - but in general.

Last season was comfortably the worst in our history. Surely this one couldn't be any worse? Initially, the new kit and eventual appointment of Molesley and crew provided optimism. He had worked wonders at Weymouth and through his Bournemouth work was used to working with young players, so this actually gave a little cause for said optimism. Talk of promotion was extremely premature, but a much better season surely would beckon. After all, the kids had performed well last season and we looked more of a team once they came in. The opening fixtures and friendlies had again given us some reason to smile, at least a bit. A thumping win at GWR and a cracking win at Charlton coming back from 2-0 down had been encouraging to say the least. The expected defeat by Millwall was, well, expected and a surely one-off 3-0 thrashing by a fired up Concord Rangers didn't really register much on the negativity scale as they were due to go to Wembley and keen to get one over on us.

Unfortunately I think it's the Concord result which is going to give us the greater barometer of how our season might go if nothing happens player wise!

In fairness, it's very easy to forget that we haven't even had a proper pre season. A source within the club said to me that his fear was the fact that the players would not be fit enough and would have lots of "niggles" that would delay their return. Another source confided that we were neither fit enough nor good enough and unless things changed then we would massively struggle.

And so here we are. Literally men against boys. And our captain, Mark Oxley - the only proper senior player on the pitch but who looks an absolute shadow of the keeper who performed so well 2 full seasons ago - lost the plot completely, although in a slightly different way to when he last had the armband and decided to engage in some fisticuffs with a Charlton player who had put Michael Kightly on the deck.

I am hopeful - in the old "fbm blue tinted glasses" sort of way - that the court hearing this week will be another formality, the money to HMRC will be paid and the embargo lifted. Uncle Ron has undoubtedly forgone any major consideration in SUFC in favour of his own interest and actually, I think if any of us had been keeping the club afloat to the degree he has we may well feel the same. It's his club, he can more-or-less do as he pleases because there is no credible alternative, but it is still the case that his interests align with ours and he can't afford for us to drop too far. He does need some footfall at FF, even if the development is no longer reliant on retail in the same way that it was.

We DESPERATELY need some old heads. When I say old, I don't mean of the retiring Prem/Championship prima donnas or injury affected cronies steaming in for a final payday; I mean hard working lower league players who may not necessarily cut it at L1 level but who will be fine in L2 alongside our young, blossoming talent who can do the running for them. The sort of player who can bring the best out of Isaac Hutchinson by giving him guidance and direction, telling him about positional play and when to release the ball, in the same way Ronnie Whelan did with Phil Gridele (for those who don't know, prior to that it was astonishing that Gridelet had made it as a pro). At the moment Hutchinson is one of the players who certainly has talent, but his positional play and decision making is appalling, making him a current liability. If that happens we can comfortably finish mid table and consolidate, at least.

If Ron can't deliver however and we get to the end of the window in a months time with no incomings and maybe a couple of sales, then last season may even be looked back on more fondly than this one!
 
Great Post. Although things can always be worse, Bury being a prime example.

I would take a few players coming in who are proper solid pros and genuinely work their whatsits off. And hope that we finally get the green light for fossetts and finish comfortably mid table.

If we can have a couple of wins against the Os and Col u too, that would be the icing on the cake.
 
Is this as bad as it gets? No, it could be worse, we could be in the ground watching.... In all seriousness let's get past Wednesday and on to Saturday....
 
So it's come to this; a couple of days after an opening fixture which started full of what transpired to be false optimism. Not for the game - I always thought we would lose this one - but in general.

Last season was comfortably the worst in our history. Surely this one couldn't be any worse? Initially, the new kit and eventual appointment of Molesley and crew provided optimism. He had worked wonders at Weymouth and through his Bournemouth work was used to working with young players, so this actually gave a little cause for said optimism. Talk of promotion was extremely premature, but a much better season surely would beckon. After all, the kids had performed well last season and we looked more of a team once they came in. The opening fixtures and friendlies had again given us some reason to smile, at least a bit. A thumping win at GWR and a cracking win at Charlton coming back from 2-0 down had been encouraging to say the least. The expected defeat by Millwall was, well, expected and a surely one-off 3-0 thrashing by a fired up Concord Rangers didn't really register much on the negativity scale as they were due to go to Wembley and keen to get one over on us.

Unfortunately I think it's the Concord result which is going to give us the greater barometer of how our season might go if nothing happens player wise!

In fairness, it's very easy to forget that we haven't even had a proper pre season. A source within the club said to me that his fear was the fact that the players would not be fit enough and would have lots of "niggles" that would delay their return. Another source confided that we were neither fit enough nor good enough and unless things changed then we would massively struggle.

And so here we are. Literally men against boys. And our captain, Mark Oxley - the only proper senior player on the pitch but who looks an absolute shadow of the keeper who performed so well 2 full seasons ago - lost the plot completely, although in a slightly different way to when he last had the armband and decided to engage in some fisticuffs with a Charlton player who had put Michael Kightly on the deck.

I am hopeful - in the old "fbm blue tinted glasses" sort of way - that the court hearing this week will be another formality, the money to HMRC will be paid and the embargo lifted. Uncle Ron has undoubtedly forgone any major consideration in SUFC in favour of his own interest and actually, I think if any of us had been keeping the club afloat to the degree he has we may well feel the same. It's his club, he can more-or-less do as he pleases because there is no credible alternative, but it is still the case that his interests align with ours and he can't afford for us to drop too far. He does need some footfall at FF, even if the development is no longer reliant on retail in the same way that it was.

We DESPERATELY need some old heads. When I say old, I don't mean of the retiring Prem/Championship prima donnas or injury affected cronies steaming in for a final payday; I mean hard working lower league players who may not necessarily cut it at L1 level but who will be fine in L2 alongside our young, blossoming talent who can do the running for them. The sort of player who can bring the best out of Isaac Hutchinson by giving him guidance and direction, telling him about positional play and when to release the ball, in the same way Ronnie Whelan did with Phil Gridele (for those who don't know, prior to that it was astonishing that Gridelet had made it as a pro). At the moment Hutchinson is one of the players who certainly has talent, but his positional play and decision making is appalling, making him a current liability. If that happens we can comfortably finish mid table and consolidate, at least.

If Ron can't deliver however and we get to the end of the window in a months time with no incomings and maybe a couple of sales, then last season may even be looked back on more fondly than this one!
I'll be honest I'm surprised that you came into this season with any level of optimism, I think it's clear from last season and the squad we have at our dispersal that we're in a relegation battle. We know full well that L2 is a tough and competitive league, and that trying to develop a winning mentality is like steering an oiltanker that can take a whole season. We have a losing mentality and it's unlikely to change quickly.

You're right that we need some grit and experience in the team. I like White, and Oxley is solid at this level, but they don't really offer what we need. An Anthony Grant, or someone similar, who is streetwise on the pitch and experienced needs to come into the middle of the park, along with another CB and a striker or two. The spine of our team is too inexperienced and weak and no amount of coaching/man-management/youthful enthusiasm is going to make up for that. Ron needs to invest in this squad.
 
So it's come to this; a couple of days after an opening fixture which started full of what transpired to be false optimism. Not for the game - I always thought we would lose this one - but in general.

Last season was comfortably the worst in our history. Surely this one couldn't be any worse? Initially, the new kit and eventual appointment of Molesley and crew provided optimism. He had worked wonders at Weymouth and through his Bournemouth work was used to working with young players, so this actually gave a little cause for said optimism. Talk of promotion was extremely premature, but a much better season surely would beckon. After all, the kids had performed well last season and we looked more of a team once they came in. The opening fixtures and friendlies had again given us some reason to smile, at least a bit. A thumping win at GWR and a cracking win at Charlton coming back from 2-0 down had been encouraging to say the least. The expected defeat by Millwall was, well, expected and a surely one-off 3-0 thrashing by a fired up Concord Rangers didn't really register much on the negativity scale as they were due to go to Wembley and keen to get one over on us.

Unfortunately I think it's the Concord result which is going to give us the greater barometer of how our season might go if nothing happens player wise!

In fairness, it's very easy to forget that we haven't even had a proper pre season. A source within the club said to me that his fear was the fact that the players would not be fit enough and would have lots of "niggles" that would delay their return. Another source confided that we were neither fit enough nor good enough and unless things changed then we would massively struggle.

And so here we are. Literally men against boys. And our captain, Mark Oxley - the only proper senior player on the pitch but who looks an absolute shadow of the keeper who performed so well 2 full seasons ago - lost the plot completely, although in a slightly different way to when he last had the armband and decided to engage in some fisticuffs with a Charlton player who had put Michael Kightly on the deck.

I am hopeful - in the old "fbm blue tinted glasses" sort of way - that the court hearing this week will be another formality, the money to HMRC will be paid and the embargo lifted. Uncle Ron has undoubtedly forgone any major consideration in SUFC in favour of his own interest and actually, I think if any of us had been keeping the club afloat to the degree he has we may well feel the same. It's his club, he can more-or-less do as he pleases because there is no credible alternative, but it is still the case that his interests align with ours and he can't afford for us to drop too far. He does need some footfall at FF, even if the development is no longer reliant on retail in the same way that it was.

We DESPERATELY need some old heads. When I say old, I don't mean of the retiring Prem/Championship prima donnas or injury affected cronies steaming in for a final payday; I mean hard working lower league players who may not necessarily cut it at L1 level but who will be fine in L2 alongside our young, blossoming talent who can do the running for them. The sort of player who can bring the best out of Isaac Hutchinson by giving him guidance and direction, telling him about positional play and when to release the ball, in the same way Ronnie Whelan did with Phil Gridele (for those who don't know, prior to that it was astonishing that Gridelet had made it as a pro). At the moment Hutchinson is one of the players who certainly has talent, but his positional play and decision making is appalling, making him a current liability. If that happens we can comfortably finish mid table and consolidate, at least.

If Ron can't deliver however and we get to the end of the window in a months time with no incomings and maybe a couple of sales, then last season may even be looked back on more fondly than this one!
Totally agree. @OldBlueLady and @OllieSteph44 have also covered this so I'll be brief and say that Hutch is the sort of creative player who is suffering from the lack of movement ahead of him and is too lightweight to keep hold of possession for enough time to mentally come up with a Plan B. Which is a serious problem when he plays in a deeper position.

It's something Sam Mantom suffered last season as well. He is a rhythmic player who thrives on good movement around and ahead of him. Mantom had a swagger about him when he first joined and enjoyed playing with the likes of Demi, Coker, Cox and Hopper because their movement meant he knew in his mind where each one would be at a given time. He was the sort of player whose first touch was better than his second. The difference between the Mantom who joined us and the Mantom of last season was huge and he looked drained of confidence by the end.

Hopefully Hutch is willing to listen and adapt to the situations he found himself in on Saturday. To be fair he shouldn't be playing in that position/system anyway.
 
If we get wound up on Wednesday then the football on the pitch wouldn't even matter.
 
Back
Top