surprising...

[slack_pie]

So much can change after just one game. Lose on Sunday with another insipid performance and people on here will be asking questions again - and rightly so.

It's actually a really big game. If we can avoid defeat, it will start to look like we're getting our **** together. Lose it in the manner of the Barnet defeat and we'll be back to square one.

Last season under Ardley, we'd pull the odd surprise win out of the hat, usually away, and then go straight back to being awful the next game, making the win look like a fluke. It'll take a run of decent results for me to see that this season is going to be any different.

As others said, I would bloody love Ardley to succeed here. But until he proves he can put out a side that wins more games than it loses, I'll have no choice but to think that, ultimately, he won't.

[ncfcog]

Whole heartedly agree with everyone on this thread … except the OP!

[Bartlett's Dust]

His points per game ratio is still awful (Relegation form)

Hardly anyone on here actually wanted him sacked after 2 games but plenty of questions were asked and rightly so. Let's not have another season of I told you so posts after a win or a loss.

We all want him to do well, we are after all Notts fans.

[Elite_Pie]

We all want him to do well, we are after all Notts fans.

That's spot on, but the OP and TSANHO don't seem to understand that at all. I am now in my 50th year of supporting Notts, and I realise that I am still a junior compared to some. The notion that any of us would be happier with a defeat rather than a victory just so we can score messageboard points is way beyond laughable, not to mention rather insulting.

[TSANHO]

"Lose on Sunday with another insipid performance and people on here will be asking questions again - and rightly so"

This sentence alone illustrates perfectly what baffles, and amuses, me about the typical football fan.

I'm neither pro or anti Ardley at the minute because I am level headed and rational enough to understand that the conditions the manager has been working since he arrived have not been congruent with those of a fit for purpose football club.

Just as I wasn't going over the top on Tuesday night thinking we would now be marching our way to the title, I wasn't too downbeat last Saturday after the defeat to Barnet either. I understand that the manager needs time, proper time, to build a squad under conditions that are necessary for any successful foundations to be built upon.

If, by Christmas at the earliest, it becomes apparent that the manager hasn't got the minerals to build a functional, competitive squad for this division then in all probability I would be in agreement that maybe we need to look elsewhere for someone to take the reigns.

The quote at the top of this post made me laugh because they are already set in their mind that after the next poor performance then the manager's position will be open for debate - "and rightly so" Why?...what kind of conditions are they to work under?

No pro Ardley voice I have seen are burying their heads on the sand, they just have the common sense to realise that Neal Ardley has by no means had a fair crack of the whip yet and should be given a decent amount of time, starting from the first game of this season, to prove his worth.

I'm looking forward to the game this weekend, should be a good crowd, we had a good result on Tuesday with half a performance and it gets me out the house.....and even if it goes tits up and we get smashed I can at least look forward to the vitriolic fall out on Notts County Mad later in the evening after a nice roast dinner!

[Reading_Pie]

Tsanho, absolutely bang on.

[Elite_Pie]

I am level headed and rational enough to understand that the conditions the manager has been working since he arrived have not been congruent with those of a fit for purpose football club.

Yet you aren't level headed and rational enough to understand that just because some of us have serious doubts about Neal Ardley, it doesn't mean we hope Notts lose just to prove our point.

[Reading_Pie]

Yet you aren't level headed and rational enough to understand that just because some of us have serious doubts about Neal Ardley, it doesn't mean we hope Notts lose just to prove our point.

I don't think the OP suggested that, I think he was inferring the Ardley-out crew would be happy to pounce on the opportunity to post IF we lose.

[upthemaggies]

we're all Notts supporters as such not Ardley supporters

Right. To paraphrase the Luton Town chairman's quote that has been posted on this forum a few times, the club is more important than who the manager is.

I just feel it's a shame we have a thread like this after a win, right at the very moment when everybody begins to unite in feeling a little more positive about the unfolding season. What are TSANHO and the OP hoping to achieve with these posts?

[Elite_Pie]

I don't think the OP suggested that, I think he was inferring the Ardley-out crew would be happy to pounce on the opportunity to post IF we lose.

I wasn't talking about the OP, I was talking about the first reply from TSAHNO which said some of Ardley's critics would think this way:

"Ah well, at least I can start another Ardley out post on Notts County Mad tonight, yeaahh, I'll show em, I'll use capital letters and mix some letters around in some of the words so they know what swear words im using....yeeaahh, can't wait!"

The "capital letters" jibe is especially ironic as that's exactly what he chose for his username!