Royal Rother Disbelieve all you like MMMmmm, I don't mean to go all Snowball on you but look at the facts below.FroomesRoyal Rother Things are looking a bit rubbish right now but I said at the start of the season I'd be more than happy with mid-table finish and a group of our youngsters being well-blooded. For me that would be a better season than a near miss / play-off loss.
Looks like it's panning out that way so (as someone who doesn't go to games so has a minimal frustration of current performances) I don't have much of a problem. 6-1 isn't nice but I suspect there'll be some harsh but useful lessons learned from that experience.
I'm not suggesting there's an easy solution but the best way a club of this size can really progress is become largely self-sufficient for players and selling them on. Blocking their progress by bringing in players from outside in the chase for promotion year on year at the expense of financial stability is folly.
I don't really care much whether Adkins stays or goes myself, but I do rate stability in the managerial position highly, and when times are hard a lot of patience is required.
That's in very short supply in the football world these days.
I agree with the first paragraph completely, sadly not too many of the youngsters are being blooded though. Cooper is in simply because Pearce has been horrific, Tanner, Kuhl etc rarely feature after some early season promise. It now looks like they were only played because our injury problems were so catastrophic rather than being used to get some much needed experience. In all honesty most of them would have benefited from a season out on loan...
As for 'learning useful lessons' from a 6-1 humiliation I wouldn't hold my breathe seeing as Adkins clearly learnt nothing from our equally humiliating 6-0 loss to Peterborough last year!
I would be ok with a mid table finish if I even remotely thought we could push on next season but that isn't the case, under Adkins reign we've gone backwards and if we carry on our current trajectory WE WILL end up in league one.
Sorry to be a bit clinical about it but I can't go along with that.
On the 8th November we were 5 points above the relegation zone.
On the 29th November we were 6 points above the relegation zone.
Today we are 7 points above...
The gap between us and 6th place has only grown from 7 to 10 points over that time.
I am in no way disputing the assertions that performances have been dull, uninspiring and downright shite at times but the trajectory is not as bad as you seem to think.
That says more about the teams below us failing to capitalise on our cr@p form than it does about our own ability to pull away from the relegation zone, we're fast getting to the stage where we are relying on there being 3 worse teams than us in the division. That, I'm afraid, is not progress.
We were told that sacking McD when we did was so the new guy could come in and get used to our players ready for an attempt at an immeadiate return or failing that a concerted push the year after. This clearly has not happened. Dispite what anyone says we are going backwards, in terms of playing style, performances, results and league position. That is what I meant by our current trajectory. I also firmly believe with the results we are currently seeing a relegation battle is not as far away as some on here would have us believe...
