Season Review

[Perton Pitman]

Overall a huge disappointment. That said the way we finished last season it was perhaps to be expected.

The decline began with some strange team selections which may have led to Knox departing. MacPherson was the 'victim' (in the eyes of some he may have been asking for it) of an over zealous disciplinary process and Forsdick had his head turned by Telford. We never really recovered from the loss of these three.

In the league we were hugely inconsistent and I have to say that on far too many ocassions we lacked backbone and the stomach for the fight - we were turned over too often by teams in the bottom three at various stages of the season. 8th place may be OK, but we never threatened the play-offs and finished 9 points above a side that got relegated.

In the cups we were woeful. Lucky to scrpae past Stratford we then once again bottled it at RUshall where some of our tactics and substitutions beggard belief.

We probably have another season of PS and it is up to him to turn things around or it will be his last. If we are in the SOuthern League I think we will have a massive battle on our hands to make the play-offs as there is probably a bit more cash swilling around down south than there is oop north.

Ultimately, though, we are at the mercy of Mr Price and I doubt he will increase the playing budget (it'll probably get cut as the credit crunch gets worse!) so it's up to Mr B and the rest of those behind the scenes to ensure the club is able to support its stated ambitions to get in the 2nd tier.

It will be hard work though as we need about 10 new players to supplement the likes of Ross Dyer (my player of the season by miles), Adams and Masher. PS hasn't a great track record of bringing in quality players who stay

[cliff edge]

If we had finished with the same amount of points in this years Southern league we would have been 13th but who really knows how we will do.Apart from last seasons early threat we have generally struggled in the Unibond and the Southern League may be more to our liking.....who knows?

[TGV]

In my humble opinion it has been a very disappointing Season.
Those who attend the end-of-Season Presentations should not fool themselves otherwise, with self-indulgence.
Perton sums it up very succinctly - we couldnt hack it against the supposedly-poorer Teams on many occasions, and didnt show the commitment on quite a few more.
I personally think that the Manager will be hoping for another year in the Unibond League, as this is the area perhaps where he has a bit more knowledge and contacts.
I fear for him, and therefore the Club whilst they still employ him, if we move to the Southern League.
A finishing position of 8th gives, I believe, a false impression of our Season. It tends to suggest that it hasnt been a bad Season after all. Unfortunately those who watch the Team home and away know that it has been far from impressive for the main part.

[Glyn]

Love the edit TGV

:D

We certainly shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we ended up losing more games than we won this season and with a negative goal-difference, so that 8th place is a bit misleading, and there's a distinct gap to the top 7

I had resisted posting as I haven't seen enough games this season to comment on where so much of it went wrong, but I will just say that in building next season's squad around the two Rosses and Masha (and Reece!) we would be on the right lines, subject to the skipper ironing out the errors we saw yesterday

[SaintPitmen]

this season has been very disappointing for the fans who pay there money ever week too watch a pile of tripe, dosent help having used over 60 player and we all no non of them have been very good your three best players all left too early knox would have been great this season, macpherson has waited to come too hednesford for ages but another drink after the game saw him being let go and forsdick was quality but telford was the better option.
I feel that if were put in the BGB PS will strugle because he only signs people on the A38 (ONLY TELLING THE TRUTH!!)
We should only keep 5 players for next which sees us doing more squad rotation than liverpool lol
Mr Price will cut the budget again but can you blame him, because i wouldnt wanna put money into an unsuccessful club who could gave achieved so much in the last two years byt failed to do so, but you don't have to have money to sign quality.

[MikeM]

Look on the bright side - the fall in house prices may have done more to secure our future than anything on the pitch.

[TGV]

Look on the bright side - the fall in house prices may have done more to secure our future than anything on the pitch.

Good - very good!
:D:D:D

[Elder Van Van Looper]

"Second season syndrome". It exists in the Premiership, does it as far down as us?

We haven't won enough games this season at home. Can't comment about away games as only made it to Buxton and Ashton, plus Ilson in the Cup.

Very inconsistant and I am pretty sure that we played just as bad against teams lower in the league than we did teams at the top. We needed some extra impotus at times, but it never materialised, mainly because we have so few players at the club who could change a game.

The defence was unsettled as it was changed so often and for most of the season the midfield didn't perform like we know players can, or like PS wanted them too.

Ross was our biggest threat upfront and it was frustrating to watch at times, but I am so pleased that he managed as many goals as he did. If we switch to BGB then we will have to keep the more local players and hope we can bag a bargain or two.

[Sid Snot]

lack of discipline in my opinion, this needs to be installed into the players every week before they touch a ball

[rodh]

Discipline has not been a major problem as the final fair play league will show. We should finish towards the top half off the fair play league.

We actually won one of the League's monthly fair play awards.

The caution payments to the FA is the lowest that it has been for a long time. It can also be reduced as there are still a number of silly booking's (ie kicking the ball away).