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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2016 13:00:15 GMT
SS - I totally get the bit about going to football for personal enjoyment. That's why i've stopped going recently. I'm just not enjoying the whole days experience anymore. It used to be a great laugh at every game, home and away, sadly, it isn't for me anymore, but i'm talking about my whole match day experience, not really about the 90 minutes of football. I can put up with good and bad football on the pitch, every fan should. It happens to me from time to time, no matter how things are going on the pitch and no matter what results the team are getting, i just fall out of love with it all. I'll get the buzz back at some stage, but it is concerning if people are tuning out, or are no longer going to come to games because they no longer enjoy the game or style of football being played. If the turn off is happening amongst fans who have been coming for a while, then you would expect you would have a far higher turn off of people who are relatively new to the club, when things start going the wrong way. I think the club work so hard in attracting new fans and in the main those new fans have stayed and seem content. I hope they continue building the fan base and we retain the majority of them each week. Whether they will all put up with poor performances next season, whatever the results may be, then we'll have to wait and see how our attendances go. You could argue that the club can adopt the "we'll lose a few fans but we'll gain a lot more", and if so, then so be it, that's business i guess, but when fans start to voice their concerns on the performances & the enjoyment they are no longer getting from it, then i feel that's a different issue all together & is a situation that would need to be addressed by the owner & manager. Performances, not just points, could be critical to ensuring whether the manager is here next season or not. I suspect when it comes down to it, the board are more interested in points & gaining promotion, but that's not necessarily the punters no.1 criteria when they buy their season tickets or turn up on match day.
Edit: I read my post back after i posted and i recalled a conversation i had with SD a while back about my lack of enjoyment. He did say to me, please bear with us, as i hear what you are saying and i am going to do something about it. He mentioned the facility improvements and the large bar area he has as part of his vision in the new main stand. I'm not sure if that has changed with the "latest stadium plans", but i do accept that SD hears what us fans are telling him, and he is a man who will do all he can, to get us all back to enjoying the match day experience, as we once did, both on & off the pitch.
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Post by westendspitfire on Mar 31, 2016 13:12:49 GMT
I've seen plenty enough to think that CT can do a good job at Eastleigh and thoughts of sacking him at this stage seem very premature and a little disrespectful (to me). No problem with people paying their money and having their view, but he is a young Manager, we knew that when he started, he has been in the job 6 months has more than a 50% win ratio in the league and we are still within a shout this season, them's good apples. Not sure what the expectations are from above in respect of his targets for this season but I guess that is what he will be judged by and if SD was expecting promotion then the decision is already made, however I would hope that if he was trusted with the position in September then we would give him at least 18 months as a target not 6! Are there many Managers/Players around who are going to be able to provide free flowing football on the pitch we have had since the beginning of the year? Before then I thought the style of play was enjoyable (the draw with Aldershot was a very entertaining match from where I stood). Appreciate that some may think we should be further along the journey by now, but in my view we are still galloping forward at this level.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2016 13:23:11 GMT
The one thing that has not been mentioned here in relation to whether Toddy stays or goes, is that i believe Toddy only has a contract up to the end of this season. So come June 1st, SD has a decision to make. Does he renew Toddys contract, or does he look elsewhere?
Even if he left the club at that stage, it doesn't mean he's been sacked or isn't good enough. It would just mean that looking at the wider picture with a blank sheet of paper, SD maybe feels that he can bring a better man in & maybe give the new guy a longer contract, so that he can build a side & maybe re-shape how we do things on the pitch and with our recruitment, rather than just give Toddy another year to have one more go. I personally don't see SD giving Toddy a long term deal, he never did that with Hilly either by the way, so this could be new ground for SD and i'm intrigued as to how he will be seeing it & what he will do. If Toddy did go, there is no shame in that for anyone involved. He will have done well in his first managerial job.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2016 13:24:28 GMT
SS - I totally get the bit about going to football for personal enjoyment. That's why i've stopped going recently. I'm just not enjoying the whole days experience anymore. It used to be a great laugh at every game, home and away, sadly, it isn't for me anymore, but i'm talking about my whole match day experience, not really about the 90 minutes of football. I can put up with good and bad football on the pitch, every fan should. It happens to me from time to time, no matter how things are going on the pitch and no matter what results the team are getting, i just fall out of love with it all. I'll get the buzz back at some stage, but it is concerning if people are tuning, or are no longer going to come to games because they no longer enjoy the game or style of football being played. If the turn off is happening amongst fans who have been coming for a while, then you would expect you would have a far higher turn off of people who are relatively new to the club, when things start going the wrong way. I think the club work so hard in attracting new fans and in the main those new fans have stayed and seem content. I hope they continue building the fan base and we retain the majority of them each week. Whether they will all put up with poor performances next season, whatever the results may be, then we'll have to wait and see how our attendances go. You could argue that the club can adopt the "we'll lose a few fans but we'll gain a lot more", and if so, then so be it, that's business i guess, but when fans start to voice their concerns on the performances & the enjoyment they are no longer getting from it, then i feel that's a different issue all together & is one that would need to be addressed by the owner & manager. Performances, not just points, could be critical to ensuring whether the manager is here next season or not..i suspect the board are more interested in point & gaining promotion, but that's not necessarily the punters no.1 criteria when they buy their season tickets or turn up on match day.. I'd have a completely different opinion maybe if I were the owner. The important part for the club is to obtain league status, but that is not an opinion I need to form, just my own. I pays my money, I takes my pick, and I get that. Fortunately the ridiculously cheap season tickets mean I can buy one and then say, you know what, I'm not freezing my ******** off in this weather today as its not going to be enjoyable. I'll spend it with the family instead.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2016 13:42:19 GMT
I've seen plenty enough to think that CT can do a good job at Eastleigh and thoughts of sacking him at this stage seem very premature and a little disrespectful (to me). No problem with people paying their money and having their view, but he is a young Manager, we knew that when he started, he has been in the job 6 months has more than a 50% win ratio in the league and we are still within a shout this season, them's good apples. Not sure what the expectations are from above in respect of his targets for this season but I guess that is what he will be judged by and if SD was expecting promotion then the decision is already made, however I would hope that if he was trusted with the position in September then we would give him at least 18 months as a target not 6! Are there many Managers/Players around who are going to be able to provide free flowing football on the pitch we have had since the beginning of the year? Before then I thought the style of play was enjoyable (the draw with Aldershot was a very entertaining match from where I stood). Appreciate that some may think we should be further along the journey by now, but in my view we are still galloping forward at this level. I'm not saying we should sack Todd. I am saying that personally, come the end of the season, a contract renewal is not just about results for me. You have to think a year ahead, and personally, on everything I've seen, I'm not sure next season would be any different.
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Post by nobadspitfire on Mar 31, 2016 15:38:58 GMT
Are there many Managers/Players around who are going to be able to provide free flowing football on the pitch we have had since the beginning of the year? I'm surprised on-one has started a thread on the pitch yet. The poor state of it caused by the rain in December & January is no-ones fault & without the sand (great job done there by Tony & others who have helped)it is possible other games would have been postponed as well. No good blaming the fact that we played Bolton, Gateshead & Wrexham on it in January & then couldn't play at all in February. We know about the water table in the winter, but we can't be the only club in the top 5 divisions with such problems. IIRC, the pitch has been poor in Dec/Jan/Feb for as long as I have been supporting the Spitfires (2006), but at the moment it appears worse than at any time I can remember when it's drying out. It's also no good pointing out that it's the same for both teams when playing any game. I bet our players hate it. I see it as a priority (even more important than stadium development) that serious money is spent on the pitch this summer, sorting out the drainage, raising the level of the pitch by a foot or so, I don't know what else. But there are experts out there to advise the club what to do to sort it out for the longer term. Oh, to answer the question "Will We Make Play Offs?", my answer is probably not, but that won't be of great concern to me. I still don't think the club set up is yet at a level for League 2. Another 2 or even 3 years in the National will do us no harm in the long run. And Chris Todd is doing a good job & should stay.
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Post by westendspitfire on Mar 31, 2016 15:56:48 GMT
I've seen plenty enough to think that CT can do a good job at Eastleigh and thoughts of sacking him at this stage seem very premature and a little disrespectful (to me). No problem with people paying their money and having their view, but he is a young Manager, we knew that when he started, he has been in the job 6 months has more than a 50% win ratio in the league and we are still within a shout this season, them's good apples. Not sure what the expectations are from above in respect of his targets for this season but I guess that is what he will be judged by and if SD was expecting promotion then the decision is already made, however I would hope that if he was trusted with the position in September then we would give him at least 18 months as a target not 6! Are there many Managers/Players around who are going to be able to provide free flowing football on the pitch we have had since the beginning of the year? Before then I thought the style of play was enjoyable (the draw with Aldershot was a very entertaining match from where I stood). Appreciate that some may think we should be further along the journey by now, but in my view we are still galloping forward at this level. I'm not saying we should sack Todd. I am saying that personally, come the end of the season, a contract renewal is not just about results for me. You have to think a year ahead, and personally, on everything I've seen, I'm not sure next season would be any different. You say Tomatoes I say Tom'a'toes!!! I think he has the potential to grow with the Club, but it's all a very steep learning curve and given the life span of any football Manager is heading towards a 12 month average I wouldn't be surprised if change happened, just a bit disappointed at this stage
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Post by michaelefc on Mar 31, 2016 16:02:10 GMT
FWIW I think come the end of the season we should say thanks to CT, and goodbye. I think he has done okay, but in 2016 as manager of Eastleigh you have to do better than okay. For me whether we win the play offs or come 8th, I will still feel exactly the same. As for squad changes, these will be enormous come what may. Every season is about progress, and to significantly progress next season will be very very hard indeed. I don't buy for one minute that next season will be easier. Fylde have an enormous budget, Ebbsfleet a big one; I would expect Barrow to be a much better team.
Obviously I don't know the figures, but I doubt we will be have a budget in the top 4, possibly not even top 6; so not quite sure how anyone can expect it to be easier, it won't be. We could double our budget, get in the worlds top non league manager (whoever that is), average 3,000 crowds at the Silverlake, and still come well short of winning the league.
So back to Saturday. Lets start by beating Guiseley.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2016 16:59:12 GMT
I had been hoping that the confidence gained from the recent run of results would lead to a more attractive style of play. That hasnt quite happened yet of course but I will always try to remain positive even if different people have different opinions and expectations. Re the atmosphere at the Silverlake, it has been very good in a few of the recent evening games but to be honest against Welling it was poor.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2016 17:26:35 GMT
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if we hadn't reached the 3rd of the Cup and thrown EVERYTHING at getting the game v Bolton played, I'm convinced the momentum we had built would've continued and we'd be a shoe-in for the play offs at least.
The wheels didn't exactly come off, but they started spinning far less easily around that time as the disappointment often cup defeat, followed by the rash of postponements certainly took its toll.
Whatever happens, I will be VERY disappointed if Chris Todd isn't still the boss at the start of next season.
When he was given the job I believed he was the right man for it & I still believe that. Getting us to that historic 3rd round (and just 2 or 3 minutes from the 4th round) and finishing in or around the play offs is far from a failure.
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Post by tenacres on Mar 31, 2016 21:30:48 GMT
This season has probably gone about as I expected, it was always going to be tough to replicate last season (though of course we could still get 4th and 82 points!).
Of course it is quite plausible in 6 weeks or so we could gain promotion & equally we could quite easily do another 6 years in this league without going up (even with well above our current budget). 1 automatic place between 24 is the worst odds in football.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 14:16:30 GMT
Everyone in the top 6, with exception of Dover, have started to go kaput over the last 5 games, Grimsby being the worst of them, which is interesting, as have they now taken their foot off the pedal and settled for play offs and lost their momentum ?
I actually think they have now lost 3rd and Dover take that. If they are not careful then they have a run in that could easily see them slip out of the play off picture altogether.
We have to take this as a positive going into next week.
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Post by tenacres on Apr 3, 2016 20:56:16 GMT
I suppose I look at it as who is getting to 80 points?
you've got the top 2, then: Grimsby - almost certainly Dover - probably Tranmere -unlikely, would need all 4 wins Wrexham -unlikely, would need all 5 wins
which potentially leaves one of us and Braintree!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2016 5:57:32 GMT
That has a certain logic to it Rendel, as Alex Ferguson once said, "Football, bloody hell".....and this is a roller coaster for sure. I'm not convinced, but if it happens it happens.
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Post by taylov on Apr 4, 2016 8:06:38 GMT
I suppose I look at it as who is getting to 80 points? you've got the top 2, then: Grimsby - almost certainly Dover - probably Tranmere -unlikely, would need all 4 wins Wrexham -unlikely, would need all 5 wins which potentially leaves one of us and Braintree! 5th would do nicely, thank you.
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