Dick Knight doesn't want us to go up

[Titanic]

I would trust MM to spot the weaknesses and improve the squad through loans and freebies... he's already doing a good job with little money... I have no reason to believe he couldn't do the same in Div 1.

 

[the right footed denilson]

i reckon our first team this year is as good as last years.

a first team of-

kuipers/roberts
virgo/el abd cullip ANOTHER harding
chippie ANOTHER piercey
knight benjamin
iwelumo

would easily survive in div one.

 

[Titanic]

TRFD,
Totally agree.. and the two ANOTHERs could be a fit BLACKWELL and RODGER in my book. Obviously it would be great to have a couple of quality signings, but not essential to have a squad fit for the fight!

 

[Marc]

i reckon our first team this year is as good as last years.

a first team of-

kuipers/roberts
virgo/el abd cullip ANOTHER harding
chippie ANOTHER piercey
knight benjamin
iwelumo

would easily survive in div one.

yeah but then add injuries/suspensions and we are screwed! we need alot more strength in depth to survive Div 1 *IF* we get there. Currently we barely have that for Div 2 and DK would have to offer out alot more in wage money than he's probably got in order to get those backup players in.

 

[Yorkie]

I really don't think we will keep Piercey. He has only played one full 90 mins all season.
Another Kitson?

 

[Titanic]

Crabbers,
Perhaps, but it would only need one or two quality additions - even without them we could still have Jake R, Butters, Mayo, Harty, Carpenter, Charlie O in the 'squad'. Ok, perhaps not ideal, but certainly all would give 100% and not be too far short.

 

[Marc]

Crabbers,
Perhaps, but it would only need one or two quality additions - even without them we could still have Jake R, Butters, Mayo, Harty, Carpenter, Charlie O in the 'squad'. Ok, perhaps not ideal, but certainly all would give 100% and not be too far short.

yeah true but Chipp/Oatway/Hart not playing regular 90mins would not last the pace and skill against top teams in the off chance they would play. Neither of those 3...whether they gave 100% or not...would'nt be that good IMO

 

[Locky]

As the team stands now, and without any injuries I honestly think we would survive in the first division.
Remember we are not talking about trying to get promoted.......just surviving.

 

[king Wombat]

fair enough if some of you think we-d survive with the current mob, i dont believe this squad is anywhere good enough to survive. guess thats what makes footy so interesting!

the one chance we do have is that there are a lot of contracts expiring at the end of the season, and unlike last time we went up, we will (touch wood) have a manager who can decide who he wants to keep, rather than the chairman handing out contracts.

Also he has got all summer to bring in new players. I reckon we will need at least 5 new experienced players to have a hope in hell of surviving.

 

[Storer68]

hey, lets worry about that when we get there.

 

[Mr C]

I really don't think we will keep Piercey. He has only played one full 90 mins all season.
Another Kitson?

Noooooooo!!! He is nothing like Kitson. For a start he puts a bit of effort in. And he hasn't been injured quite as much. As possibly sole member of the South Stand John Piercy Fan Club, I must shoot your comments down in flames

 

[Mr C]

hey, lets worry about that when we get there.

But I like worrying now.

 

[London Irish]

As possibly sole member of the South Stand John Piercy Fan Club, I must shoot your comments down in flames

No, I'm a member of said club too! Piercy is getting very close now to grabbing Jonah's place in the team, I reckon McGhee would have been pretty frustrated with all that wasted possession down the left against Colchester.

As for Piercy not playing a full 80min, it wasn't his fault that Plymouth kicked him out of the game when he was running the show. A bit more support for our injured heroes I think.

He hasn't got back in because direct football, 4-4-2 and the box-to-box workhorses like OGH and Jonah have produced the goods recently. That is credit to them, not a black mark against Piercy.

Particularly well done the the revived OGH for freezing Piercy out - how many on here were writing him off prematurely? So learn the lesson with Piercy.

But surely Jonah has got to be more precise with his use of possession or Piercy will come back in soon. Our luck won't hold out forever like it did last Saturday and we are going to have get even more clinical with our attacking play.

On the main subject of this thread, the current squad would be able to hack it among the bottom 8-10 Division 1 teams no problem. There is a gap in class above that which we could not bridge without money or Falmer. But we would still be milling about happily in the bottom 8 or 10 now if the obvious mistakes we all know about weren't made last season. Thank you Stevie Coppell for proving that.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

How the f*ck does anybody know if Harding cant cut it in Div 1?

Since he has come into the team this season he has been exceptional.

I hate all this bollox that 'hes too young and not experienced enough at that level'

If your good enough you are old enough !!

Well how the f*ck do you get experience at that level without being thrown in at the deep end.

As long as there are a few experienced heads playing around thses youngsters they will be fine and become even better!

Spot on Wookie. NSC still amazes me, as we have people who said 6 months ago it's time to give the kids a go etc, and then when they produce the goods they say we should get proven players in. f***ing rubbish.

Let's turn the clock back. 100k for an unproven Bristol Rovers forward, or 50k for Andy Rammell? Your choice. Get a grip. I may not have seen any games this season, but everyone says players like Harding (especially), Virgo, El-Abd, Hinshelwood, Robinson etc have been great for the team. Even Piercy has emerged from nowhere really . Or we could spend $250k on a couple of journeymen.

By the way, don't expect to see Rodger or Blackwell in the stripes again. They're finished IMHO

 

[Yorkie]

He hasn't got back in because direct football, 4-4-2 and the box-to-box workhorses like OGH and Jonah have produced the goods recently. That is credit to them, not a black mark against Piercy.

Particularly well done the the revived OGH for freezing Piercy out - how many on here were writing him off prematurely? So learn the lesson with Piercy.

But surely Jonah has got to be more precise with his use of possession or Piercy will come back in soon.

Thank you Stevie Coppell for proving that.

I am Gary Hart's biggest fan and Jonah has been instrumental in making 4 of the most recent goals scored.

I agree the one thing that Stevie Coppell did (notice I'm not calling him Coppout since his letter supporting Falmer) was to prove that the players we have can hack it in div 1.
Yes I know we had others (Beasant Ingimarsson etc) but Mayo didn't look out of place when he was on form.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Good point Yorkie. It's funny being over here and only seeing the goalmouth action on Seagulls World - Jonah sets up 60% of our goals but gets slagged off for giving the ball away.

You want a creative midfielder?? Well at this level he WILL give the ball away, but you put up with it because he also sets up goals. That's Jonah's role

 

[BensGrandad]

I believe that in an ideal world MM would like to get shot of about 4 of the first team and God knoiws how many of the reserves buit it isn't an ideal world with two year contracts handed out willy nilly to all in sundry.

The reason that we got relegated was because we didnt replace our best player from the previous season with a similar type and quality Simon Morgan. We conceeded too many goals with average youth team players who wern't ready and now you will see that none of those young players that played quite regularly during those horrible 12 weeks get picked. Who would I let go if we could afford to replace them:
Kuipers, Watson Mayo Oatway Jones Hinshlewood Marney Lee Pitcher Blackwell Rodgers Hammond possibly Butters purely because of his age, but he is playing well at the moment in this division. I would then keep a close watch on Hart and Carpenter. As I said it is not an ideal world so if we make the play offs DK will probably give them all new contracts for two years as a reward.

 

[Hungry Joe.]

Spot on Wookie. NSC still amazes me, as we have people who said 6 months ago it's time to give the kids a go etc, and then when they produce the goods they say we should get proven players in. f***ing rubbish.

Agree totally. I was at Woodside Road when Harding, Virgo and Hinshelwood roughed-up and took the piss out of Paul Furlong and his mates in the Reserve Cup game against a strong QPR side which led to Furlong and the other striker getting sent off for losing it (Virgo was sent of too without even throwing a punch, bless him). I think that performance was instrumental in Thom Yorke & HRH getting back into the first team and they haven't put a foot wrong since. They'll cope fine in Div 1 if we go up. We won't set the place alight but I strongly believe we'll survive.

"IT'S ALL GOOD STUFF DEAR"