Wycombe away

[Rockford's Love Child]

Not true, KTF. If the NL had had no play-offs, we'd have gone up automatically as runners-up to Lincoln City a year earlier. With a year less in the NL and an extra year in League Two, we would almost certainly have had a more competitive squad last season and might well have got automatic promotion.

Talking of the play-offs, the system robbed us of a return to the Championship in 2004/5 under Brian Little, when we finished third behind Hull and Luton. From memory, I think last season is only the second time we've benefited from the play-offs. The other time was when we beat Bolton to get into "the First Division" under Johnny King.

We also finished sixth in League Two, not seventh (higher than Lincoln finished in their first season back at that level).

I found the whole logic of his post strange anyway. Why should the management team be criticised for knocking teams out of the play offs that were better resourced, had better players and finished higher in the table than us ? Surely that is to the manager's credit ? We are one of only a handful of teams to achieve back-to-back promotions from that division and it was a fantastic achievement, not some kind of fluke.

 

[keep the faith]

Not true, KTF. If the NL had had no play-offs, we'd have gone up automatically as runners-up to Lincoln City a year earlier. With a year less in the NL and an extra year in League Two, we would almost certainly have had a more competitive squad last season and might well have got automatic promotion.

Talking of the play-offs, the system robbed us of a return to the Championship in 2004/5 under Brian Little, when we finished third behind Hull and Luton. From memory, I think last season is only the second time we've benefited from the play-offs. The other time was when we beat Bolton to get into "the First Division" under Johnny King.

I stand to be corrected BBTC

 

[Ian]

I think a lot of this is just nitpicking now. Mistakes will have been made, but who’s perfect.

Take a step back and see what we’ve achieved in the last few years on a tight budget.

Supporters need to be careful what they wish for because if Mellon was sacked we would be moving backwards, not forwards in my opinion.

 

[keep the faith]

I take your point ian I also think its a lot to do with frustration, I actually think we have a decent squad maybe getting on a bit but decent pedigree injuries don't help the only team to have turned us over was Coventry the rest we have been our own worst enemies with giving silly goals away

 

[Ian]

I take your point ian I also think its a lot to do with frustration

Definitely. There is a lot of frustration at the minute. I'm frustrated too, but lashing out, calling for the manager to be sacked and picking out nothing but negatives from this season really isn't helping anyone.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

It's not that this season has not had its great moments, far from it. The problem is that almost all were in the FA Cup.

For the past four seasons we have got used to Rovers winning most of their matches, so it is particularly hard to take such poor league form. But this is when the team, the manager and the club need us the most.

 

[Boz]

Going back to budgets, at the start of the season we were thought to have one of the lower budgets in L1, more than Accrington and about on a par with Rochdale and Wimbledon, but almost every other side had more than us. There’s been a mid-season top-up thanks to the cup run. No idea whether we could have recruited better in the summer, but with the funds available then, a lot of players were out of our price range.

I will make one other point re Accrington. In the summer one of their key players, the striker Billy Kee retired due to ill health. They have coped better with the loss of a talisman figure than we have with Norwood’s departure.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

That is true, but I think we were much more reliant on Norwood than Accy were on Kee. They had other very influential players like McConville, but our whole style of play in the second half of last season was geared to utilising Norwood's strengths as a lone striker. When he left, we not only lost his goals but also our pattern of play.

 

[Boz]

I agree, but we had more notice of Norwood’s moving on than did Accy, with the health difficulties that lead to Kee’s retirement

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree, but we had more notice of Norwood’s moving on than did Accy, with the health difficulties that lead to Kee’s retirement

We did, but recruiting good strikers to replace him proved pretty much impossible with our summer budget.

If we had remained in League Two perhaps it would have been easier. We did not know we were a League One club until the very end of May.