Was that the final nail in the coffin?

[slack_pie]

It looks and feels like the final nail.
0-1 up, we had to win that game. Mainly because of Macclesfield, their fixtures and our appalling goal difference.
I'm not one for quitting, where there's life there's hope and all the rest of those cliches. But almost everyone concerned
with the club this season has contributed to this disaster - one, long absolute nightmare

It has been one long, unmitigated, unrelenting disaster from the start. Even if we go down, at least this ****ing season will finally be over soon. I thought I'd seen **** seasons before, but I've never known anything like this one.

I'm trying to work out what else this team has up its sleeves for the last two games. For some reason, I don't think just losing both games would be quite their style. Perhaps we'll beat Grimsby, and then a last minute 40-yard volley own goal from Stead will relegate us on the final day, just for a laugh.

[GranthamPie]

It has been one long, unmitigated, unrelenting disaster from the start. Even if we go down, at least this ****ing season will finally be over soon. I thought I'd seen **** seasons before, but I've never known anything like this one.

I'm trying to work out what else this team has up its sleeves for the last two games. For some reason, I don't think just losing both games would be quite their style. Perhaps we'll beat Grimsby, and then a last minute 40-yard volley own goal from Stead will relegate us on the final day, just for a laugh.

lol... that would be poetry in motion and probably one of the only times you will see Stead score from open play.

[nw6pie]

I have a sneaking feeling we’re going to get relegated on goal difference - and any team with -35 deserve everything they get.

Nails in the coffin? Here are a few:

1 Stead getting a new contract
2 Lousy pre-season at poor training ground facilities, meaning the players were never fit enough
3 Scattershot approach to new signings, with no thought about how they could play as a team
4 Six points lost to Yeovil
5 Six points lost to Cambridge, including last minute concession from a corner and joke equaliser after defensive mix up
6 Stead missing penalty v Bury
7 Dropping point against 10-man Exeter in last seconds
8 Sendings off of Schofield and Barclay, forcing us to cling on for 1 point in winnable games
9 Hiring and firing of Kewell
10 Late equalisers for Port Vale and Morecambe

Lots more, of course, but I’m too depressed to add any more.

[jackal2]

I have a sneaking feeling we’re going to get relegated on goal difference - and any team with -35 deserve everything they get.

Nails in the coffin? Here are a few:

1 Stead getting a new contract
2 Lousy pre-season at poor training ground facilities, meaning the players were never fit enough
3 Scattershot approach to new signings, with no thought about how they could play as a team
4 Six points lost to Yeovil
5 Six points lost to Cambridge, including last minute concession from a corner and joke equaliser after defensive mix up
6 Stead missing penalty v Bury
7 Dropping point against 10-man Exeter in last seconds
8 Sendings off of Schofield and Barclay, forcing us to cling on for 1 point in winnable games
9 Hiring and firing of Kewell
10 Late equalisers for Port Vale and Morecambe

Lots more, of course, but I’m too depressed to add any more.

A pretty accurate summary I would say.

I think the writing was on the wall from the pre-season friendlies where we played better opposition but were still clearly and hopelessly under-prepared in terms of playing staff, fitness and focus from the management team. Things were visibly far too sloppy and laid back around the club, similar to the final pre-season under Mick Walker's management in the mid-90s (which also ended in dismal relegation). Last summer Nolan kept and signed players who were past it whilst failing to find quality replacements for the likes of Yates, Vaughan and O'Connor. Everybody has their opinion on whether Kewell should have been given longer and whether Neal Ardley should have achieved more to turn things around, but irrespective of those debates, I think the reality is that the rot had probably been setting in to an increasing degree from at least January 2018, whatever the reasons may have been.

[irishpete]

I have a sneaking feeling we’re going to get relegated on goal difference - and any team with -35 deserve everything they get.

Nails in the coffin? Here are a few:

1 Stead getting a new contract
2 Lousy pre-season at poor training ground facilities, meaning the players were never fit enough
3 Scattershot approach to new signings, with no thought about how they could play as a team
4 Six points lost to Yeovil
5 Six points lost to Cambridge, including last minute concession from a corner and joke equaliser after defensive mix up
6 Stead missing penalty v Bury
7 Dropping point against 10-man Exeter in last seconds
8 Sendings off of Schofield and Barclay, forcing us to cling on for 1 point in winnable games
9 Hiring and firing of Kewell
10 Late equalisers for Port Vale and Morecambe

Lots more, of course, but I’m too depressed to add any more.

11 Chairman wanna be Manager

Only playing with 10

[Mark_Ross]

Well, it's all quite simple. We must win against Grimsby. In which case it all goes down to the last game... regardless of other results. And then Macc will be seriously nervous.

Thing is - have the players got it in them to beat Grimsby? How many times have they let us (and, worse, themselves) down this season?
If they want to prove all the negatives / critics / slagger-offers wrong this would be one hell of a time to do it.

[Elite_Pie]

A pretty accurate summary I would say.

I think the writing was on the wall from the pre-season friendlies where we played better opposition but were still clearly and hopelessly under-prepared in terms of playing staff, fitness and focus from the management team.

Rubbish. Did you not attend the pre-season game at Rolls Royce where we scored at will against the pub team and never remotely looked like conceding???? To be serious, that game is only second to beating the inbreds as a season highlight.

[eastwoodmagpie]

11 Chairman wanna be Manager

Only playing with 10

The loan signing of Schofield & Barclay (not as good as players we already have)

[them0uf]

It's a bit like 'An Inspector Calls' with so many justifiably sharing at least a portion of the blame. The biggest slice has to go to the man who has got away scot free in the fawning media. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the utterly useless and catastrophic Kevin Nolan. If this man ever gets another job at a football club (and I include making the tea in that), then the hiring chairman needs to be locked up pronto. I can't quite work out why he went from hero (first 12 months) to numbnut (last 8, the most disastrous of which were when we weren't actually playing) but I suspect a healthy dose of ego was in there somewhere.
Living proof that Chairmen should never provide a budget unquestionably. Many top level footballers during their careers develop a high sense of entitlement and a low appreciation of other people's money.

[optipez]

Not replacing Ameobi. We've played all season without a proper No9 and wasted Krystian Dennis and Hemmings as a result.