A very frustrating game, we never got going.

I think Gary, Matt and Joe have consistently overacheived with us. I'd absolutely settle for a mid-table finish with the odd cup run ever other season or so.

Can hopefully just write off the game and go again against a WSM side that are going well this season but we should have beaten in the FA Cup.

As for chanting and fans, it's football, you will get it. There is obviously a line that is drawn but as for bad language it is to be expected by some.

Rambler wrote:

Is this the same Blackpool Bluebird who insisted at half time that we'd go on to win 3-1 and when we went 3-0 down quarter of an hour later gave me the thumbs up and said " 3-1 win still on the cards!" ??
Oh Mr Magners, the fantasies you weave....

😂 That'll be me.

Got to have some belief every now and again!

Corner Flag wrote:

BlackpoolBluebird wrote:

I think Gary, Matt and Joe have consistently overacheived with us. I'd absolutely settle for a mid-table finish with the odd cup run ever other season or so.

As for chanting and fans, it's football, you will get it. There is obviously a line that is drawn but as for bad language it is to be expected by some.

And that sums up the lack of ambition/stagnation at the club. Another season where we're out of the cups by December, another season we're not good enough to go up but too good to go down so really only have 2 games a season to get excited about, another season where the football (at home where we should be entertained) has been poor to be polite, attendances are dropping and if you want to make a noise or vent your frustration you're not welcome.

Because Gary played for the club he can do no wrong in the eyes of some yet he picks the players and the tactics yet nothing will change, we'll just plod along as we are.

The people behind the scenes do a fantastic job and without them we wouldn't have a club so all credit to them but maybe a change of manager would be a good idea and liven things up. There's nothing to play for this season so maybe some new ideas would be welcome.

Don't believe our budget is so small that we couldn't attract a number of good candidates either.

Not really sure what people expected. Our average gate at 768 is the 5th lowest in the league, that will largely dictate the budget.

We're playing at the highest level we've ever played at. Horgan has been in charge for our best FA Cup and FA Trophy finishes, Burton and Bromley defeats. As for the football, for me you have good and bad days in football, the Bath game was a crap day and there's a chance against WSM to right the wrongs.
 

 Re: Corner Flag's comments about stagnation and lack of ambition...

Although I disagree with you, you raise an important issue, Corner Flag... when you bemoan the stagnation and apparent lack of ambition at the Club. It's based on the belief that in an ideal sporting world everyone would aspire to play at a level above their current level. As is being proved daily by the number of clubs in the whole pyramid who are in the red, that ambition can be dangerous for any club unless it is completely ready structurally and financially  to perform at a higher level. The dangers of ambition or at least over-ambition are structural everywhere across the whole Football Pyramid but particularly sharp in the divide between Premier League and Championship  as well as in the divide between National League Premier  and NL North and South . For many, including us, it's the Ambition Trap. To move from one of those Leagues to the other requires substantial or, in CTFC's case, a massive financial injection. That means substantial borrowing, and attendant and almost certainly, ruinous, debt servicing. Currently, only 3 teams in the NL Premier are not fully professional... Tamworth, Maidenhead and Boston.. the last 2 are currently in the relegation zone and Tamworth sit 15th. Only 5 clubs in the NL Prem have a gate capacity of less than 5000.. and none less than 4000. As at Sept 23 ( the last accounts I can find) 62% of all NL clubs were in the red.  Not us. Look at the fate of Oxford City... very similar to us... who went up, came straight down to find themselves  in the NL North and hardly tearing it up there. In our current League we encounter fully professional clubs who have nearly been undone by their ambitions.  Look at Torquay and before them Yeovil.. both of whom can rely on large gates and a big historical profile, neither of which we possess, and yet both of whom have had to be rescued.
It's a fairly brutal reality to have to admit that the only way CTFC could look seriously at surviving in the NL Premier is on a fully professional basis or at least hybrid professional basis, with attendant  ground impovements and significantly greater staff costs. The only way to get anywhere near that is by steady incremental growth built on a sound financial footing. That is what Neil and the Board, I assume, are trying to do . It means we have to accept that promotion may not be possible for a long time... ar at least until we might be ready to make a long-term success of it. It also means, as Blackpool Bluebird has said. that we have to continue punching above our weight just to remain mid-table... and that is ambition enough. Thinking back to Thursday... now the dust has sort of settled.. it felt painful and pretty humiliating. and here was a lot of anger swirling about. In fact, as Sofa score pointed out the stats  tell a rather different story as do some respondents on the Bath City Roman Forum who clearly didn't have quite as comfortable an afternoon as the scoreline suggested. We lacked a bit of character and missed far too many scoring opportunities.  They didn't. The margins were a lot finer than our perceptions , fuelled by justifiable emotion, allowed for. Sofa score was tying to suggest that, I think.

 

I can see both sides of the argument. On the one hand, the stagnation is suffocating. Win a game, lose a few, win another, and it's just enough to keep us out of the relegation zone, but never enough to mount any serious challenge at the other end of the table. Discontent is very often mistaken for disloyalty, and all the while, we're expected to remain eternally grateful for just surviving. On the other hand, we don't have the finances to compete at a higher level, and so gaining promotion would almost certainly be ruinous. 

There is a third way, which I've posted about before. We need a change of mindset. Let's lose the small club, over-performing mentality. Turn HP into a fortress on the pitch and a seething cauldron off of it. Use the slope to our advantage, make it a place where other teams don't want to play. Stop setting-up at home not to lose games and start having a real go at the opposition. Play more than one striker up front. Excite the crowd and let the players feed off the atmosphere generated by the fans. Focus on actual results and not statistical performance data. I could go on, but you get the idea.