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Post by efc21 on Apr 27, 2021 20:45:41 GMT
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Post by callumefc on Apr 27, 2021 22:09:21 GMT
This season 36 games 56pts Last season 37 games 46pts Strevs Play off Season 36 games 53pts 37 games 56pts 1st year Conf Play off season 36games 60pts
We are there or there abouts. But the progression McDonnell, Bird and Tomlinson have added this season has been huge.
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Post by goderz3 on Apr 28, 2021 6:32:50 GMT
Just over a week ago I looked at the fixtures and thought theses next three games will define our season and I honestly thought that if we get three points we would have done ok. How wrong I was. Our team is now playing with confidence and it's great to see.Momentum is with us now and you never know this could be the season. Well done to every one involved in those three great wins.👍
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Post by ballboy on Apr 28, 2021 11:19:35 GMT
We’ve done the double over Notts County and I honestly think we can do the same with Torquay. If only we can win against the likes of King’s Lynn who did the double over us.
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Post by callumefc on Apr 28, 2021 11:22:47 GMT
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Post by back4more on Apr 28, 2021 18:52:20 GMT
The transformation we've seen over recent weeks almost deserves comparison with our NL South winning season when we looked adrift at Christmas but were home and dry in the end. We have seen major improvements across the team, driven both by the management team and also from the on field leadership shown by the more experienced players. Younger players whom I have doubted have come on in leaps and bounds. Sadly over recent years any player who has played well for more than a few games has gained the monicker "he should be playing at a higher level". Luke Coulson comes to mind and hasn't really done very much since his departure. I would be trying to encourage the squad we have to look to a strong future together and, even if we don't gain a play off promotion this season, to stay at Eastleigh with the expectation of winning the league next year - providing we can pick up just two or three strong new signings.
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Post by unknownquantity on Apr 28, 2021 21:06:53 GMT
I would not say that in our NL South championship win we looked adrift at Christmas. At that time we had a playing record of W11 D3 L3 and proceeded to win the next three games. Then away defeats at the hands of Weston, Concord and Tonbridge in the second half of the season put Bromley in a good position, but when it was their turn to drop points we were able to capitalise. That season I believe we had the squad that were expected to win the league.
This season it is perhaps also worth pointing out we had another spell from late January to late February where we picked up 17 points from 7 games including home wins against Stockport and Hartlepool. This season though we do not have the biggest budget budget in the division and are competing with former football league clubs some of whom were playing at a very much higher level not so long ago.
However the one thing relating to the NL South title success that I think is worth repeating is to make the testimony of players a valuable tool in the recruitment drive.
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Post by back4more on Apr 28, 2021 21:59:12 GMT
Oops. Thanks for correcting me Malcy. Perhaps I should've said "well adrift by Easter". Anyway.
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Post by unknownquantity on Apr 28, 2021 22:32:03 GMT
As we clinched the title with a win against Basingstoke on Good Friday I would not say we were adrift at Easter. I think there was a time in that season where we had played fewer league games due to our F A Trophy run, but had dropped more points. However once Bromley had a bad spell of results in March that certainly no longer applied.
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Post by callumefc on Apr 29, 2021 10:40:25 GMT
Back4More you mak a good point re players leaving. Other than Rob Atkinson I genuinely can't think of a player who has deemed himself better than us, that has gone on to do anything. McCallum and Joey Jones, wasters. Southwood? Nothing, Stryjek performing ok for a league that's our standard, Aaron Martin getting relegated from Scots Prem, Coulson never did make it big in the Premier League from what I can see. Hare? Hmm, Free agent in a week's time. The money might be better but the grass isn't always greener.
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Post by unknownquantity on Apr 29, 2021 19:36:59 GMT
Mark Marshall has played 332 league games since leaving Eastleigh, while Steve Cook who had a brief spell on loan to the club has now made over 350 league appearances, almost half of them in the Premiership, while Aaron Martin has made nearly 200 football league appearances during the course of his career.
I do think it is debatable as to whether the Scottish Premiership is no stronger than the National League and clubs in the Scottish Premiership do have the incentive of possibly qualifying to play in European competition.
I do however agree that a lot of players leave non-league football to play in the football league and then play the majority of their subsequent career in non-league football and we have examples of this at our club, some of which have already been documented.
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Post by ballboy on Apr 29, 2021 20:39:00 GMT
Apart from Rob Atkinson (who has a real chance to improve)I believe that Michael Mandron now at Crewe, Josh Hare still at Bristol Rovers and Sam Matthews now at Crawley haven’t done to bad and have consolidated their higher league status to date.
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Post by back4more on Apr 30, 2021 22:56:59 GMT
Sam Matthews was all too briefly a loanee from Cherries. I think the only other mentioned players I recall playing regular games at the Silverlake in the 12 years I have supported Eastleigh are Mandron and Atkinson. That's probably about par for your average National League side. My point was that we seem to get at least two or three players every season whom are deemed "should be playing at a higher level". As for Scottish football I don't seek it out on TV I must admit, so I wouldn't want to offer a judgement on its standard. That's not arrogance. I don't seek out Spanish, italian, German or Brazilian games either. I'll go with Callum's judgement as I believe he has seen more football at every level than any of us. I am old enough to recall the days when Scotland supplied the cream of English Football League talent. Sadly that motherload of excellence seems to have dried up.
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Post by unknownquantity on May 1, 2021 20:50:42 GMT
I actually think that Sam Matthews played more games for Eastleigh than either Michael Mandron or Rob Atkinson. Aaron Martin and Steve Cook left Eastleigh between 10 and 12 years ago and Mark Marshall longer sgo than that.
What night have helped Rob Atkinson's cause at Eastleigh was that Jason Bristow had previously worked with him and some current Eastleigh players are also in the same position.
Actually in the past Eastleigh have on several occasions signed players on the basis of how well they have played against us and the signing has not worked out, and I think that for players such as Mark Yeates, Paul McCallum and Joey Jones we were able to find a role for them that utilised their strengths, which might be harder to do elsewhere. Similarly it may be more difficult for players joining us to adapt to a different style of play.
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Post by tenacres on May 1, 2021 22:55:17 GMT
Sam Matthews had 3 different loan spells with us totalling 60 appearances. Was suprised to find that this is more than he has played for all the other clubs in his career combined!
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