Where do we go from here?

[Rainbowpie]

Just watched Ardleys post match interview and that just confirms to me that he doesn’t have a clue. Didn’t know the answers to any questions asked and claimed sticking 4 attacking players on the pitch is enough to win games. Try defending balls into the box and not conceding a ridiculous amount of goals. It doesn’t matter how many attackers you have if your already out of the game by half time because we can’t deal with anything into the box. Stop the crosses, stop the set pieces. Have everyone helping when it’s time to defend. He then moans about not have a target man up front and can only work with what he’s got. He brought them in? It’s ok though cos he’s angry

[navypie]

4-1 against Nam. Does it get any worse?

[rorylee]

Haircut 100!! Crikey it'll be stuck in my head now!

[slack_pie]

To answer to OP's question: where do we go from here?

Well, if we're lucky, we go down to the Conference and start the season on zero points. Then my guess is we do what we nearly always do and settle into a comfy relegation battle.

If nobody wants to buy us, we start next season with a large points deficit and probably get relegated, or we are forced to play in the National League North (I don't know the rules about administration down there).

Whatever happens, we'll plumb new depths. You can be sure of that.

I guess it all depends on whether someone wants to buy us or not. The thing is, anyone willing to take on a non-league club in £millions of debt and losing money by the day must either be insane or insanely rich. If the former, we're doomed. If the latter, who knows.

Maybe dropping out the league will be the kick up the backside we need. It might allow us to shed all of the crap and the hangers on and just start from scratch - new owners, new coaching staff, new players. Maybe we'll one day return to the league, and like Lincoln and Luton and Bristol Rovers we'll use that momentum to climb our way back. Or maybe we'll just become another Stockport County. Who knows.

One thing's clear though: nothing will ever be the same again. The club is broken beyond repair, and whatever emerges from the ashes will have to be something fresh and new.

[dam617]

Apart from the obvious answer of down to non league...

Manager: I'm always one of those who is slow to call for managers to go but Ardley's competence is seriously under question.

Realistically he's not going to walk, managers just don't do that anymore, or be sacked, we can't afford it. However much the idea of Mad Dog for 10 games does sound like a viable last throw of the dice for me now, the team is so unbalanced it probably wouldn't make any difference.

What Ardley absolutely must do though is change the plan for the next game. Do something. Anything. Whatever you do don't serve those tactics up again. Oh and I don't want to hear about the players smiling in training or what happened at Wimbledon, I want them to be angry, at the opposition, at the crowd, at you and anybody else who gets in between them and a win.

Tactics: we are physically inferior to almost every team we play in terms of height and body strength. We don't win high balls, we don't win 50 50s (the days of Doyle and O'Brien snapping into tackles seems like a mirage) but the one slight advantage we have is in terms of speed with our attacking players. Therefore it's suicide to play high balls upto Gomis / Enzio / CMS or even Stead. We need them to pack the midfield, stay compact and deep, then burst forward on the counter with the ball played IN FROM OF THEM to run on to. I don't think it's a surprise that we played well against the better teams doing EXACTLY THIS. Keeping them deep seems counter intuitive as we need goals but as we keep seeing, leaving them high just means they barely get the ball out of their feet before they come up against the massed ranks, before the inevitable sideways / backwards pass or loss of possession.

If we are going to insist on putting high balls into the box we either need to commit way more players into the box or put the centre backs forward or pick a centre back up front. The second half was poor today but at least we caused a few nanoseconds of panic in the Cheltenham box and got a cheap penalty.


Players: despite all the problems with the system, the off field problems and whatever else, these players are not playing to their full potential. Simple passes go astray way to often, 50 50s are regularly lost or not contested. Once again we've conceded four goals in ***** game and how many rousing tackles can you remember? How many bookings?

Today was an insult.

Where do you go from here?

Is it down to the lake I fear?
Aye ya ya ya ya ya
Aye ya ya ya ya ya ya yaaaaaa.......

[Scanlon's Hatrick]

My Grandad supported Notts
Sadly he is no longer with us
Another family member supported and worked at Notts
Sadly no longer with us
I have been watching Notts home and away for nearly 50 years.
Sadly my passion is no longer with us.
Watching these wage thieves is so disheartening I may not bother with another game.
I was very much in the Neal Ardley camp but that too has changed.
Really nice chap but he hasn't improved anything.
Not sure I will be bothered about the National League.
Let's hope we can do a Macclesfield or a Bristol Rovers.
I just can't see it.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

4-1 against Nam. Does it get any worse?

What makes it worse is they beat us 3-0 at Meadow Lane so it’s 7-1 overall we’ve lost to them over both games this season.

Utterly depressing and one of the many reasons why we deserve to be bottom of the entire football league.

[jscarr]

Ardley has to go. We need a fresh start and he hasn't shown enough to keep his job.

[Elite_Pie]

What makes it worse is they beat us 3-0 at Meadow Lane so it’s 7-1 overall we’ve lost to them over both games this season.

Add that to the 0-6 aggregate against Yeovil.

Too depressed to seek out anything worse.

[nottsun]

I've a feeling that, despite lots of shouts of the opposite, the off field problems are getting to the players and coaching staff. It's the only reason I can think of for a squad that did so well against 3 of the top 4 of the division to suddenly become near carbon copies of the squad they replaced. I'm not sure changing anyone would make any difference at this point, apart from getting someone new in the Chairman's seat, with all of the bills settled, and a nice fat bonus on offer for retaining league status.

Exactly this