Things that should never happen again...

[SwalePie]

Having just watched the 'highlights' Fitz doesn't even deserve the title goalkeeper any more. Last season I thought he was OK, bizarre.

[nw6pie]

The fact he was astonished that he was given a red for his shocking two footed tackle sums him up, the man is brain dead.

"But ref, I have a scratch on my leg!" Kellett shouldn't have been dropped, considering he was one of the only positives from the Lincoln game.

It was a stupid challenge by Jones that deserved a red - but if Alessandro hadn’t underhit a simple 5-yard pass to him, he wouldn’t have needed to dive in.

A team devoid of confidence and character. Let’s hope Oxlade-Chamberlain fares better than the other newbies, although I still think Kellett can be a decent signing, too.

[LaughingMagpie]

Did Nolan or Hardy decide that we'd let Collins go and leave his reserve in goal instead?

From what Hardy said, all transfer activity was down to Nolan. He just sanctioned the payments.

[irish_pie]

Everyone's gutted today, but I'm going to try to sound a different note.

Fans should recognise we aren't going out of L2 this year, at either end of it. But we're much better off than 2 years ago when we did have the squad/owner/manager to send us out the league. There's too much on the books now to worry about 23/24th. Comfortably.

For the promotion goal, most fans identified up front and on the wings as the priority areas for recruitment. Sure, many have been mentioning centre defence for a long time now, but Duffy, Brisley and the defence overall had a pretty good record last year. And there's still Hall to come back. It looks like any overhaul of the defence will have to wait til January at the earliest. Why has it collapsed this year, well I think it's got most to do with AH saying Nolan wasn't the same person. That was plain for all to see, no need to focus on unkind rumours, some people don't handle the stress well sometimes.

If Kewell's the man we need, he's probably going to need this season and next to get us up. Patience everyone, we'll get there.

I like your optimism but make no bones about it we are in serious danger of going down this season... ok it's early door but the absolute shower of rubbish we have is all we have to play with until Xmas where we could be so far adrift it wouldn't matter who we get in the door... getting sick of it at this stage.

[Old_pie]

From what Hardy said, all transfer activity was down to Nolan. He just sanctioned the payments.

AH set a budget, KN had let better players go than he recruited to stay within that budget. 3 transfer windows (last summer, last winter, this summer) screwed up with no L2 defenders and a lightweight midfield. I know you can't get them all right but it takes some doing to get most of them wrong giving AH's backing. KN was carried by Yates and Grant. Very sad, very disappointed and AH must be gutted to see his money going down a black hole.

Only time will tell if HK is going to be a positive influence. AH is hoping that we'll see some turnaround after 6 games. A boring mid-table will now be an achievement and a relief. No wonder we're the most stressed supporters in the land.

[LaxtonLad]

...A boring mid-table will now be an achievement and a relief. No wonder we're the most stressed supporters in the land.

Until Nolan arrived I would have been happy with a miserable draw home or away. Things changed then didn't they? I anticipated a win every game - until Januarygate. Excepting Nolan, every man and his dog could see the weak and amateurish defending needed strengthening. Now we have gone downhill faster than an eel on a well-buttered ski-slope. On my way to the match yesterday the old Black Dog descended again, hoping for a win but would have been well satisfied with a draw and thinking surely not another three goal shambles. Sure enough, a three-goal shambles it was.

However, I have come up with a plan to deny me the dubious pleasure of seeing three easy goals every match. I arrive at the ground with my fishing gear in the boot just after the two o'clock line up announcements are given out, and if it's still the same old, same old, the day won't be entirely wasted - hello canal! On the other hand if we put out a decent DEFENCE I can still buy a ticket and turn up.

[Little15]

AH set a budget, KN had let better players go than he recruited to stay within that budget. 3 transfer windows (last summer, last winter, this summer) screwed up with no L2 defenders and a lightweight midfield. I know you can't get them all right but it takes some doing to get most of them wrong giving AH's backing. KN was carried by Yates and Grant. Very sad, very disappointed and AH must be gutted to see his money going down a black hole.

Only time will tell if HK is going to be a positive influence. AH is hoping that we'll see some turnaround after 6 games. A boring mid-table will now be an achievement and a relief. No wonder we're the most stressed supporters in the land.

Agreed. Never understood when people said Nolan recruited well. The last 2 windows have been abysmal and now we have probably the most imbalanced, over-hyped squad in our history. We need to salvage a mid-table finish if possible this term and start afresh next season following a major clearout in the summer.