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Played 67 Lost 44 Drawn 15 Won 8

Many clubs have fallen through the trapdoor and struggled. Some big clubs such as Notts County. If, as likely, we go down we will not be back for quite some time. You need positive vibes and upward momentum to get out of any division and that doesn't exist at Southend right now and there is going to have to be a massive polar shift for that to change. Feeling very down and negative today. I just feel if we go down I think we will battle to stay in the National League. The likelihood is that we will just keep plunging until we finally bottom out. People once asked on this forum, where is the bottom? The truth is it's not League 2 and and we still have quite a journey to go before we find it!
 
Just look at Wrexham.

Easily the 3rd biggest club in wales and way bigger than any club in the area.

They have struggled big time since leaving the EFL Even Stockport County for that matter.

Both clubs have been consistently up the top in terms of attendance.

but have not returned since their departure.
Currently in the National League and how long they’ve been there .. Torquay (6 years), Stockport (9), Hartlepool (3), Notts County (1), Wrexham (12), Aldershot (7), Yeovil (1), Dagenham (5), Chesterfield (2). Not to mention it took 2 seasons for Col Ewe and Orient to claw back out. Make no bones about it, we aren’t too big to go down and it’s by no means guaranteed we will bounce straight back.
 
How long were Luton down there for? I think Bristol Rovers bounced straight back but I am sure Luton were down there for a few years. I also seem remember Shrewsbury spending time there. I could see us being down there as long as Wrexham are currently. Depressing thought for a club that has spent 100 years in the League.
 
I did say at the time be careful what you wish for when PB was bounced out of the job. I'm pretty sure Ron was aware but at the time it was cheaper to relieve a man of his duties with only 6 months or so on his contract than it was to overhaul squad. Looks a false economy now.
 
How long were Luton down there for? I think Bristol Rovers bounced straight back but I am sure Luton were down there for a few years. I also seem remember Shrewsbury spending time there. I could see us being down there as long as Wrexham are currently. Depressing thought for a club that has spent 100 years in the League.
Luton spent 5 years there. I think they made the play offs 3 times. Rovers bounced back yes but only via the play offs. Their opponents that day, Grimsby, spent 6 years there. It’s a ******* to get out of.
 
Win ratio in all competitions (including meaningless ones) drops below 11% across this season and last.

Alvin Martin, Dick Bate and Steve Wignall now looking like Jose Mourinho......
 
It's a truly unbelievable record. We'll have to see how it looks in January but we must be on for one of, if not the, worst Football League record over a two year period. I still think we can take a lot of Doncaster's records from when they went out of the league in 1998. I wonder if we can even have a shot at their record for lowest ever points total of 8 set way back in 1905. Since 3 points for a win its the 11 Derby got in 2008.

As for getting back out of the National League, frankly, no way, not with the current issues surrounding the team both on and off the pitch. It's been historically hard for well run clubs to get out of the division let alone freefalling shambles. Just look at Chesterfield, Wrexham, York, Stockport and Torquay as parallels to ourselves, if we go down I expect to have the same struggles they all had or still currently have.

Only five teams have ever bounced back straight away, Lincoln and Darlington in the early days of automatic promotion for the champions and then since two promotion places were put in Carlisle, Shrewsbury and Bristol Rovers are the only teams to spend one season down there and none of them won the division.
 
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It's a truly unbelievable record. We'll have to see how it looks in January but we must be on for one of, if not the, worst Football League record over a two year period. I still think we can take a lot of Doncaster's records from when they went out of the league in 1998. I wonder if we can even have a shot at their record for lowest ever points total of 8 set way back in 1905. Since 3 points for a win its the 11 Derby got in 2008.

As for getting back out of the National League, frankly, no way, not with the current issues surrounding the team both on and off the pitch. It's been historically hard for well run clubs to get out of the division let alone freefalling shambles. Just look at Chesterfield, Wrexham, York, Stockport and Torquay as parallels to ourselves, if we go down I expect to have the same struggles they all had or still currently have.

Only five teams have ever bounced back straight away, Lincoln and Darlington in the early days of automatic promotion for the champions and then since two promotion places were put in Carlisle, Shrewsbury and Bristol Rovers are the only teams to spend one season down there and none of them won the division.
For those of a nervous disposition please look away now.
I know I will be pilloried for showing these stats just after a confidence boosting first win of the season, but I was prompted to research this after Lamb Beret's earlier posting.

Before us, several clubs have had dire runs in the league, but they generally have only lasted one season:-

Newport County 1970/71 (First 25 games winless).
Barrow 1970/71 (First 16 games winless).
Rochdale 1973/74 (Two league wins all season).
Doncaster Rovers 1997/98 (First 20 games winless).
Derby County 2007/08 (One league win all season).

However it is the longevity of our poor run that prompted me to make a comparison with a perennial struggler back in the late 1960's, Bradford Park Avenue who were everyone's whipping boys, culminating with them failing to be re-elected in 1970, ironically to be replaced by our opponents this Saturday, Cambridge United.
In the three seasons from 1967/68, they finished bottom of the league each time, with an overall record of 15 wins, 36 draws and 87 defeats. Using the current 3 points for a win, that works out at 0.586 points per game.

Interestingly (and unfortunately) the comparison since our win on New Year's Day 2019 is depressingly similar. Since that day we have P67, W8 D15 and L44. This gives a total of 39 points, or 0.582 points per game.

As an aside, just to show our benevolence to the opposition is not just a recent characteristic, recalling some of those one season failures I quoted earlier:-

We were the opposition in Newport's first win in their 26th game.

We were the opposition in Barrow's first win in their17th game, and they also went on to get the double against us.

One of Rochdale's two wins in 1973/74 was at Roots Hall.

Oh yes, and in Bradford Park Avenue's last season in the league they beat us at home and drew at Roots Hall.

Now when is that positivity course I am due to go on?
 
For those of a nervous disposition please look away now.
I know I will be pilloried for showing these stats just after a confidence boosting first win of the season, but I was prompted to research this after Lamb Beret's earlier posting.

Before us, several clubs have had dire runs in the league, but they generally have only lasted one season:-

Newport County 1970/71 (First 25 games winless).
Barrow 1970/71 (First 16 games winless).
Rochdale 1973/74 (Two league wins all season).
Doncaster Rovers 1997/98 (First 20 games winless).
Derby County 2007/08 (One league win all season).

However it is the longevity of our poor run that prompted me to make a comparison with a perennial struggler back in the late 1960's, Bradford Park Avenue who were everyone's whipping boys, culminating with them failing to be re-elected in 1970, ironically to be replaced by our opponents this Saturday, Cambridge United.
In the three seasons from 1967/68, they finished bottom of the league each time, with an overall record of 15 wins, 36 draws and 87 defeats. Using the current 3 points for a win, that works out at 0.586 points per game.

Interestingly (and unfortunately) the comparison since our win on New Year's Day 2019 is depressingly similar. Since that day we have P67, W8 D15 and L44. This gives a total of 39 points, or 0.582 points per game.

As an aside, just to show our benevolence to the opposition is not just a recent characteristic, recalling some of those one season failures I quoted earlier:-

We were the opposition in Newport's first win in their 26th game.

We were the opposition in Barrow's first win in their17th game, and they also went on to get the double against us.

One of Rochdale's two wins in 1973/74 was at Roots Hall.

Oh yes, and in Bradford Park Avenue's last season in the league they beat us at home and drew at Roots Hall.

Now when is that positivity course I am due to go on?

Absolutely remarkable. Great statting, but how depressing!
 
I think Cheltenham rather surprisingly bounced straight back after one year down only two or three seasons back? But yes it is now very rare for that to happen. I look in particular at clubs like Stockport and Chesterfield as very similar clubs to ourselves in terms of general size, fan base, league positions certainly over the past 30 or 40 years. Both of them like us were comfortable in L1 (Stockport not long out of the Championship I seem to recall) before suddenly and without warning dropping like stones straight through L1, then L2 in successive seasons into the NL. Then Stockport kept dropping and struggled in the NLN for a few years before I think only last season getting back up into the NL. I mean seriously thats Billericay Town / Chelmsford City level. Look at Chesterfield now, near the bottom of the NL. Its a scary prospect. I think our next two games are massive. If we get something out of them, even a point or two, I'll keep hoping. But if we go back to getting soundly beat I fear its going to signal our turn to experience the delights of the NL.
 
I think Cheltenham rather surprisingly bounced straight back after one year down only two or three seasons back? But yes it is now very rare for that to happen. I look in particular at clubs like Stockport and Chesterfield as very similar clubs to ourselves in terms of general size, fan base, league positions certainly over the past 30 or 40 years. Both of them like us were comfortable in L1 (Stockport not long out of the Championship I seem to recall) before suddenly and without warning dropping like stones straight through L1, then L2 in successive seasons into the NL. Then Stockport kept dropping and struggled in the NLN for a few years before I think only last season getting back up into the NL. I mean seriously thats Billericay Town / Chelmsford City level. Look at Chesterfield now, near the bottom of the NL. Its a scary prospect. I think our next two games are massive. If we get something out of them, even a point or two, I'll keep hoping. But if we go back to getting soundly beat I fear its going to signal our turn to experience the delights of the NL.
,
I’m desperately trying to be optimistic,Rob....let’s think right back thirty years or so,when a totally crap club with very few supporters,came almost straight back up and that with a rather strange manager—Roy McDonough.
 
...

As an aside, just to show our benevolence to the opposition is not just a recent characteristic, recalling some of those one season failures I quoted earlier:-

We were the opposition in Newport's first win in their 26th game.

We were the opposition in Barrow's first win in their17th game, and they also went on to get the double against us.

One of Rochdale's two wins in 1973/74 was at Roots Hall.

Oh yes, and in Bradford Park Avenue's last season in the league they beat us at home and drew at Roots Hall.

Now when is that positivity course I am due to go on?

Whilst we were unable to assist Doncaster in ending their long winless run in 1997/98 (simply because we didn't play them; I'm sure we would have done if we could), we did, as a consolation, provide them with their first ever FA Cup win as a non-league side just a few months later.
 
For those of a nervous disposition please look away now.
I know I will be pilloried for showing these stats just after a confidence boosting first win of the season, but I was prompted to research this after Lamb Beret's earlier posting.
Interestingly (and unfortunately) the comparison since our win on New Year's Day 2019 is depressingly similar. Since that day we have P67, W8 D15 and L44. This gives a total of 39 points, or 0.582 points per game.
Now when is that positivity course I am due to go on?

Thanks Stuart - quite incredible stats that deserve a wider audience. I’ve updated the title of this thread so that we don’t forget what a total cluster**** Ron has presided over since 2019....
 
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,
I’m desperately trying to be optimistic,Rob....let’s think right back thirty years or so,when a totally crap club with very few supporters,came almost straight back up and that with a rather strange manager—Roy McDonough.

Super Roy McDonough, I was only a teenage kid when he played for us , absolutely loved him.
Remember him hitting the bar against Spurs when we beat them 3-2.
Also the proud record holder for the most dismissals in a career (22)and for red cards in the Football League.
Wouldn’t mind a wily old bugger like him in the team now
 
Super Roy McDonough, I was only a teenage kid when he played for us , absolutely loved him.
Remember him hitting the bar against Spurs when we beat them 3-2.
Also the proud record holder for the most dismissals in a career (22)and for red cards in the Football League.
Wouldn’t mind a wily old bugger like him in the team now

I get annoyed with Roy McDonough, he's always banging on about how he should be managing the team. But he's spent the last 20 years on his backside in Spain. No coaching badges, no contacts, just seems to think that because he's a self-proclaimed "hard nut" who likes to drink 16 pints in a session and shag some birds, that should qualify him to manage a football league club. I have read his book and if he hasn't exaggerated half of it I am Dolly Parton.

Unfortunately there seems to be an element of our support mostly present on Facebook that agrees with him presumably the same people who think anyone who shouts a lot on the touchline and gives people a bollocking without any social skills whatsoever would make a top, top manager. Sure, a great player for us in his time. But if he thinks he could be a manager now, he's a relic.
 
I get annoyed with Roy McDonough, he's always banging on about how he should be managing the team. But he's spent the last 20 years on his backside in Spain. No coaching badges, no contacts, just seems to think that because he's a self-proclaimed "hard nut" who likes to drink 16 pints in a session and shag some birds, that should qualify him to manage a football league club. I have read his book and if he hasn't exaggerated half of it I am Dolly Parton.

Unfortunately there seems to be an element of our support mostly present on Facebook that agrees with him presumably the same people who think anyone who shouts a lot on the touchline and gives people a bollocking without any social skills whatsoever would make a top, top manager. Sure, a great player for us in his time. But if he thinks he could be a manager now, he's a relic.
I don’t do Dolly Parton or FB
 
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