• 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.

fbm

Blue tinted optimist⭐
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
10,024
Location
Cloud cuckoo land
All those 185 supporters who paid to watch that rubbish at Stevenage should have a free ticket for the next round.

Let's get a movement up.

#justsaying
 
Surely these people have suffered and been punished enough - do you want to turn the thumb screws and watch them hurt more? That is just cruel! :stunned:
 
Not sure that works, as many are probably season ticket holders.

A freebie for the next round is easy to do and a good PR call.

Has PB bought those pints yet, by the way?
 
We go because we follow the club, thick and thin, rain or sunshine. Not for a free ticket, but we love the friendship on the travel regardless of whether league or competition

UTS
 
The 185 IMO are exceptional supporters of our club,you lot deserved much better,doesn't matter what the game meant as those playing were required to play to their level.
 
Sorry but they were naive if they thought we would bother making a game of this. Phil has made clear from the way he treats Essex Senior Cup games that he is not interested in dead rubbers and the players would have been told to under no circumstances get themselves injured ahead of the League, which must rightly take priority. The fact Cox was taken off "injured" after nine minutes says it all.

Fair play to those that made the journey but I think a refund is taking it too far.
 
Sorry but they were naive if they thought we would bother making a game of this. Phil has made clear from the way he treats Essex Senior Cup games that he is not interested in dead rubbers and the players would have been told to under no circumstances get themselves injured ahead of the League, which must rightly take priority. The fact Cox was taken off "injured" after nine minutes says it all.

Fair play to those that made the journey but I think a refund is taking it too far.

I'm not complaining, after he came off Mr Cox came and sat right in font of us. Seems a good lad, happy to chat with us fans. Mentioned his house buying and we even had a bit of punditry, so that might be his future. :winking:

Free soup and rolls at half time and some good company for the journey including a door to door service, what more could anyone want on a November Tuesday night.
 
So Barratt didn't make a game of it? That must be a first. He played very poorly but I can't think for a moment he went out there to throw it. Nor the likes of White, Fortunè, Timlin, Thompson, McGlashen and others. Timlin has an excuse as this was his first game, and even maybe the youngsters. But they are all still professionals. What it says that we have no strength in depth.
 
Has Napster posted about Barrington Belgrave in that Essex Senior Cup game under Buzz yet?
 
A free ticket for the next round? Jeeez, you still don't understand where the football authorities want to take lower league football in the future do you? This is step one of a plan to get us used to higher league 'b' teams as opposition. Next step is to bring them into non-league, and then into Leagues One and Two.

Please get a grip, please get some wisdom, and please get the hell away from the Checkatrade. To engage it is to engage everything that's wrong with football today. Those that went last night have got to understand they hold hands with the devil.
 
A free ticket for the next round? Jeeez, you still don't understand where the football authorities want to take lower league football in the future do you? This is step one of a plan to get us used to higher league 'b' teams as opposition. Next step is to bring them into non-league, and then into Leagues One and Two.

Please get a grip, please get some wisdom, and please get the hell away from the Checkatrade. To engage it is to engage everything that's wrong with football today. Those that went last night have got to understand they hold hands with the devil.

Ok, reality check time.

First off, I would have thought that the spoof-ish thread title and the "justsaying" hashtag might have given a clue that my post was far from a "Mr Angry" type rant. It WAS a dreadful performance, as I alluded to on the match ratings thread. However, I know a refund/free ticket is far from likely. I've not lost the handle on anything that I need to "get a grip" on, but thanks for the tip.

Secondly, I am well aware that the football authorities have, in the past, suggested a Division 5 type arrangement for Premier League B teams. That however has been rejected and if this is their attempt at trying to rejuvenate it then they've done an appalling job.

a) This new format is a 1 year experiment in order to prevent the competition dying. I'm pretty sure they won't repeat it (although I'm convinced Checkatrade are delighted with the coverage as their name has been mentioned thousands of times more than Johnstone's ever was)
b) Most Premier League U23 teams haven't bothered to enter. Would you not think that if they were banging at the door to get into the lower echelons as you predict, they might choose to walk through the bloody thing when it's opened for them?

Hardly holding hands with the devil, is it?
 
A free ticket for the next round? Jeeez, you still don't understand where the football authorities want to take lower league football in the future do you? This is step one of a plan to get us used to higher league 'b' teams as opposition. Next step is to bring them into non-league, and then into Leagues One and Two.

Please get a grip, please get some wisdom, and please get the hell away from the Checkatrade. To engage it is to engage everything that's wrong with football today. Those that went last night have got to understand they hold hands with the devil.
How about you get a grip? "Holding hands with the devil" indeed!!! Slight overdose on the rhetoric!

B teams in the league will not happen because the number of clubs which have to agree to allow it to happen is an almost impossible target.
 
I'm not complaining, after he came off Mr Cox came and sat right in font of us. Seems a good lad, happy to chat with us fans. Mentioned his house buying and we even had a bit of punditry, so that might be his future. :winking:

Free soup and rolls at half time and some good company for the journey including a door to door service, what more could anyone want on a November Tuesday night.

Did you tell him he is shot shy and can't hit a barn door? Or was you star struck and did a bit of butt kissing....the latter I would say.... troll bla bla bla.....
 
Did you tell him he is shot shy and can't hit a barn door? Or was you star struck and did a bit of butt kissing....the latter I would say.... troll bla bla bla.....

Actually we had a chat about Shrimper zone. Apparently the players do read it and they reckon you are the biggest P*** who posts on here.
 
Premier League B teams in the league is not going to happen. I was worried about it last summer but a number of things have happened since then which have changed my opinion.

Firstly, the Football League (and I accept this is not a popular view) have been quite clever about it. By agreeing to the EFL Trophy compromise, they've put the ball in the court of the Premier League clubs. Their take up has been so embarrassing and half-hearted, it has put the EFL in a much strong negotiation position. If the Prem does come calling for B teams in the league, they can honestly say "look, we gave you the chance to put your B teams in and you've shown your clubs don't even want it". I attended the Shaun Harvey talk back in August and found it very interesting and I don't believe he deserves the pelters he is getting for this season. It almost seems that he's deliberately engineered a failing pilot to show that B teams don't work.

Secondly, we've seen there is no appetite for Premier League B teams among the Premier League clubs themselves. When the idea was floated, they liked the idea. However, liking an idea and actually doing it in practice are different things. It is logistically an absolute nightmare in a congested English fixture programme and what with internationals and Premier League 2, there's no chance of B teams in the league. The rub is this - the Premier League teams are very concerned about their 'brand', almost more than the actual football team. It's become clear that B teams are struggling against teams of a standard that you just don't find in the lower leagues elsewhere in the world. Losing heavily on a weekly basis to provincial teams is embarrassing. In fact, Spurs pulled out of the EFL Trophy for that very reason, they didn't want to be humiliated.

Thirdly, and perhaps most obviously it has already been ruled out of the Whole Game Solution. It is off the table. Not even an option.

This EFL Trophy has been an absolute farce but it needed to happen. It has proven that B teams can never work in English football, it is a football system unlike any other in the world.

My personal view on this competition is I won't watch my teams play against a B side as it is an insult, but actually going to games against real clubs makes it more obvious to the powers-that-be that it is B teams that people are against, not the competition. So call me a scab if you want but I went to the Orient game as I wanted to watch some football. I do think the Trophy is hard to support as there are so many problems with it, beyond B teams, so whether I'll go to any more matches I don't know. Especially in light of today's announcement about Kent Elms corner, not sure I can deal with much more transport chaos this season!
 
Back
Top