Accept the season is OVER

[El Presidente]

I am firmly of the opinion that STH's should be rewarded for their loyalty ( even that poor sod who has a 5 year ST didnt get one) surely that cant be right

They have been rewarded, they got 50% of the ticket allocation, even though some of them never attempt to go to away games apart from "BIG" ones.

 

[Happy Seagull]

They have been rewarded, they got 50% of the ticket allocation, even though some of them never attempt to go to away games apart from "BIG" ones.

Some? I'll think you'll find it's most.

But that doesn't really matter does it?

 

[Nemesis]

If the Cup game against West Ham had been at HOME do you think we would have to read through this tediousness?

You can guarantee it!

Only it would be all of the 'uber away fans' who don't have STs doing the moaning.

 

[El Presidente]

You can guarantee it!

Only it would be all of the 'uber away fans' who don't have STs doing the moaning.

There is no way you would find us at that shitheap

 

[e77]

On various points raised:

We can still reach the playoffs or get relegated so the season is far from over

McGhee did a good job getting us up and keeping us up for one year but lost it towards the end

I think we are fairly unique in football due to our 'unique' home stadium that a sizeable minority of fans seem to go to away matches but not home. This clouds the argument over ticket priorites somewhat.

Probably worth noting that the 'big' clubs tend to give first refusal to STH then a descending hierachy of membership schemes, some of which have a waiting list.

 

[mona]

This thread is a load of SHIT!

McGhee clearly did a good job for a period of time with the Albion and anyone who disputes that is a FUCKWIT!

But, his time to depart had arrived as he'd lost the dressing room and the fans.

Wilkins is clearly doing a good job with a group of very young players. Of course they're not gonna storm the league because at that age inconsistent performances is completely normal.

All this talk of points per game under each manager is absolute bullshit! Wilkins has got a group of talented players playing very well on a fairly regular basis and lets be honest, yesterdays result owed a lot to the fact that the more EXPERIANCED players (especially Chippy) didn't play well.

So long as Wilkins has the sense to drop Chippy regardless of whether or not Hammond is fit again for the upcoming games, we will be challenging on the fringes of the playoffs this season even if we don't actually get in them.

Speilberg just accept that McGhee's gone because he had to. Dowie did well for a while at Palace (unfortunately!), Megson did well at West Brom, Burley did well at Ipswich and Pardew did well at West Ham but sometimes it's just time for a change, it doesn't mean they're necessarily a bad manager!

Why can't Mark "Luton game doesn't matter" McGhee accept that Spielberg has resigned from NSC. He has gone , left the building, is past history and the season is all over with immediate effect.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

150/1. Thats alot more than I expected us to be to be honest.

If that price can be backed each way (e.g. to finish in top three) then that's one hell of a bet. I could certainly use it to offset me 10/1 on relegation.

Tho I'd be equally happy to settle at this stage of the season for the rare luxury of mid-table mediocrity

 

[glasfryn]

Mid-table was always going to be enough for me and really thats pretty good considering what this club has been through.
lets build on the youth team that was (they are doing OK at the moment) and maybe get some others for the future,like next season,selling our best assets like cox,revell,robinson ect will not bring us the same income as getting up next season so please hold on to them dick they are money in the bank,this season was always going to be "put down to experience"
the youngsters are doing OK.

 

[Dandyman]

I doubt very much I will renew come April...

Laydeez & Gen'elmen, get your money dahn for automatic promotion in 2006/7 !

 

[Windmill]

I think we should give Dean and the kids a chance - how many other teams can boast that local players make up the nucleus of their squad? We should be proud of our club.

I don't think the season is over either. We have a semi-final at Ashton Gate to think about and a game at a Premiership ground in the next month, and even if we aren't knocking on the door of a play-off spot there is still 4 months to go.

I sympathise with those who didn't get tickets for West Ham, but I think it's been said that STH got a greater % of tickets this time than they did for the Spurs game.

The Club should have had a concrete policy for giving out the tickets which was clear to all fans. The way this has blown up in their faces makes them look rather amateurish.

 

[London Irish]

We also have an up and coming manager who prefers to play decent football rather than hoof it up field to a couple of midgets.

But that's just a total lie, isn't it? Did you watch any of our games at the beginning of the season? We were playing patient, passing football, sometimes a little too patient for the Withdean crowd alas, who will always shout and bellow if the ball is not got forward quick enough. The best passing football I've seen us play this season against a quality team was at Forest, where we silenced a crowd of 20,000 people. The only thing that let McGhee down at the beginning of the season was that our two best defenders Hinsh and Butters were injured - the clean sheets we got at the beginning of the season despite that were nothing short of remarkable.

Back to the main subject of the thread, I suspect Gareth is being his usual tongue-and-cheek self.

A good run could clearly see us gain play-off monentum, so we should never give up on the team (I think Safeway's famous post in 2004 was in January when we were 8th - we are little lower than that now but it's perfectly conceivable the ground could be made up).

Conceivable and possible though it is, realists would rightly say it's not likely. We have seen most of the teams now and I say we are better than a few in the table ahead of us, like Vale, the Gills and maybe Doncaster, but we are not in the top 6.

The problem for Wilkins in terms of producing the kind of run of results we need to achieve an unlikely promotion is the same as it was for McGhee - atracting quality players to the club. We have done so with two names, Whing and Bowditch, but there is now an element of doubt with both of these for differing reasons, but again this is similar to the luck that McGhee had to put up with. Wilkins just has to roll his sleeves up and look at new targets and Dick Knight needs to back his man.

 

[London Irish]

McGhee inherited an exciting cohesive Coppell team

If that was the case, why did it fall apart so quickly when Booker was given those 4 or 5 games? The reality was very different. The defence was ageing and creaking, the midfield lacked direction with the loss of the best midfielder Rodger and up front Leon had no decent partner given that Darius Henderson was long gone. McGhee solved all these problems in turn, introducing young legs to the defence, reviving Oatway's career in the same manner as he did with Butters and finding two very fine strikers in Benjamin and Iwelumo to fire us to promotion.

This was not keeping a smooth cohesive show on the road. It was performing drastic and emergency surgery.

Coppell would have had to sort all these problems too and being a superb manager, he probably would have done so and maybe in an even more impressive manner than McGhee. But that doesn't take away the fact that we KNOW McGhee solved these problems and still to this day is bizarrely denied credit for doing so because his team could not much later on hack it in a higher league.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

But that's just a total lie, isn't it?

No. The mood's all changed since the abject depression and defeatism of McGhee's post-match interview at Bristol City on (LOOK AT THE DATE FFS!) 2nd September. The players are now playing free-flowing football that comes off some days, doesn't come off some other days, they take shots on goal for fun, and they appear to be enjoying their football. as do the spectators.

 

[London Irish]

No. The mood's all changed since the abject depression and defeatism of McGhee's post-match interview at Bristol City on (LOOK AT THE DATE FFS!) 2nd Septrember. The players are now playing free-flowing football that comes off some days, doesn't come off some other days, they take shots on goal for fun, and they appear to be enjoying their football. as do the spectators.

It was a disappointing defeat at Bristol for sure, but they were embarking on a run that would take them to the automatic promotion spots, they are one of the two main powerhouse teams of the league we are in. Do you think Doncaster and Port Vale are? These were of course glorious defeats

 

[El Presidente]

The players are now playing free-flowing football they take shots on goal for fun, and they appear to be enjoying their football. as do the spectators.

You clearly did not attend at Donny then, when the fans started fighting amongst each other because the standard of football was so poor, or Port Vale then Tom.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

You clearly did not attend at Donny then, when the fans started fighting amongst each other because the standard of football was so poor, or Port Vale then Tom.

Good point, well made. Have to confess I clearly did not attend the stunning season-changing victories at Huddersfield and Bradford either

 

[London Irish]

we have been tld we sold approx 4500 ST this year.

Our average gate is say 5500.

therefore we have appx 80% STH's at each game.

our average away attendance is say 500

If we assume that 50% of them are STH therefore 250 fans who are not STH's travel away.

We have tailored our FA Cup/Big Game ticketting policy for 250 fans( and those who cant be arsed to go to most games but are only there as glory hunters)

Fair enough, if that is what the supporters club, who had the meeting with the board, suggest then who are we to argue.

To be fair to the supporters club people, I think Tim Carder is arguing for a bigger percentage of tickets than 50% to go to season ticket holders.

The principles behind the current policy are sound - that fans who live a long way away from Withdean should get a decent chance of getting a ticket for the big games. What I think is they have just got the percentages wrong, that more should be set aside for ST holders. A two-thirds allocation, for example, would easily have satisfied those season tickets holders who got their applicatins in reasonably promptly, ie. in the Swansea match "bins".

 

[Beach Hut]

A two-thirds allocation, for example, would easily have satisfied those season tickets holders who got their applicatins in reasonably promptly, ie. in the Swansea match "bins".

A voice of reason finally - change the allocation method.

 

[El Presidente]

Good point, well made. Have to confess I clearly did not attend the stunning season-changing victories at Huddersfield and Bradford either

I attended Huddersfield, and Scunthorpe, and we were fab.

But then we were pretty good in victories against Leeds, Sunderland, West Ham......oh and Palace too in the last couple of seasons in a much higher standard of football.

We are today where we deserve to be, sometimes the football is good, and somethimes it is bad. Too much polarisation of opinion takes place about the manager though.

McGhee and Wilkins (and for that matter, Coppell, Adams and Taylor too) are not the second coming, nor the spawn of Beezlebub, you only have to look at their careers before and after the Albion for that to take place

Coppell; Sacked by Palace twice, lasted seven weeks at Maine Road.

Adams: Sacked by Fulham and Leicester, on a knife edge at Coventry at present

Taylor, Tangoman is sharpening his guillotine as we speak.

 

[algie]

Have to agree that i believe our season is over in terms of promotion,but in saying that i don't think we have had a bad season at all.This squad of kids will only improve and with a few new additions next season we could be a suprise package.I do feel we need a cuple of players around the 25 year old mark just to give us some balance.It will make my season if we can knock City out of the JPT as we will get to the final after that.Overall i've enjoyed what i've seen from Wilkins and the boys.Just hope we don't sell off our assets in Jan