2-0 down

M25 service stop. Not at the races today, scored a very good goal but  Thurrock deserved victory, Richards on the bench bit strange to me against such a big side. Due to travelling miss Colliers interview, any listeners ?

I think blackandamber's posts sums up the current plight perfectly. Clearly we have player's who are just not up to the task, or simply cannot be bothered. To loose to the second from bottom team is the ultimate insult to us CTFC supporters, and clearly things are not as good within as they should be. There must have been a reason to keep Will Richards on the bench, and I also noticed Brad House did not play ! Why not ? It will be interesting to see who the Management Team have in mind recruiting wise for next season. The reason I ask this is due to works commitments I could not get to East Thurrock on Saturday, so went to watch Cirencester Town v Evesham Utd. Seriously that was one of the best games I've seen this season, with both teams totally committed. At 38years old Alan Griffin still gives 150%, and scored a superb opener for Ciren. Michael Pook looks a different player to when he played for us, and is 2 stone lighter. However, the player who caught my eye was the Evesham No.9, a guy called Kayne Simpson. If our Manager reads this Forum, I would suggest he goea and takes a look.

In response to Toyboy - I know we can all get a bit carried away where footballs concerned, and we can all shoot from the hip sometimes, but are you seriously suggesting we have players who can’t be bothered or who are not up to the task when we sit comfortably mid-table at the highest true level of non-league football?    How can it be an insult to lose to a team scrapping for all their worth to stay up?  Did we not beat higher ranked teams when we were staring relegation from the Southern Prem in the face only a few short years ago?  Any team can beat anyone on the day – look at Barnstaple v Yate on Saturday for a random example.
On Saturday we had a starting XI missing Ferguson (how we’ve missed his goals from midfield), McDonald (class act, any team would miss him), Compton (talented but temperamental?), Guthrie (divides opinion but is a very good player).  Also, in my eyes, our star man Richards of whom I’ll take an educated guess and suggest is carrying a knock, and probably has been for a few weeks.  Greg Tindle’s loan at Melksham came to a timely end (although in truth he could probably do with a few more games at that level as he regains full fitness) and has come back in.  I’m willing to bet he put a shift in.  I do know that Karnell Chambers played 120 minutes in the National College Cup Final just 48 hours before Saturday’s game, so that’s another example of what players have to cope with sometimes.   As for Brad House, league clubs who loan out players can have all sorts of reasons that prevent them from playing any given match, but we’re not privy to that.  I’m sure there is a valid reason.  When you add tortuous journeys to away games on top of their ‘day’ jobs, and the sheer physical and mental effort it takes to perform consistently at this level it beggars belief to see them get such random and unjustified criticism.
Now we come to next season.  With respect to the players you’ve mentioned they are nowhere near National League South level so we’ll leave that there.  Of the current squad there will be some departures I’m sure, but that always happens.  I guess it all depends on what the short to mid-term aims of the club are in terms of infrastructure.  We all want us to keep improving on the pitch, but we also want to see the ground developed as well.  It’s a fine balancing act.  Presumably the development of the new car park behind the stand is still in the pipeline, along with the development of offices etc to replace the current dilapidated buildings on the top left side of the ground.  Notwithstanding the possible grants for some of this work it’ll still cost serious money, so I suggest something has to give unless we get serious additional investment.  The pitch also needs serious investment of course and I’m sure that will be addressed in the summer.  Our Chairman and Board, who do an unbelievable job by the way, can only do so much so here’s another educated guess.  We might have to reduce the numbers of senior players in the squad to 14 say, then make up the shortfall with loans and some of the talented U19’s coming up.  This is not being negative, this is reality.  The U19’s, if not on the bench, can get valuable experience at the numerous Southern League clubs in our area, so it’s a win-win from that point of view. 
There’s still a lot to play for.  Players will be looking at next season and trying to earn new deals with us, or put themselves in the shop window so to speak.  Get behind them all if they pull on the shirt.  We’ve got a club to be proud of.  

inthebox wrote:

Inside left, that was a great response, and obviously have inside knowledge. It is a pity that the official web site does not update the fans as we do not have a clue why player A is not playing or injured, it is all conjecture and rumour.  The fans need to know what is going on.  Mark stated that some players are already on the beach, well, what is he going to do about it, same old team week in and week out.

On checking back not had the same team for 5 weeks.