Barney

I wasn't at the game, but certainly understand the frustration. I'm more inclined to Raingod's viewpoint, and don't think that we would gain anything from changing the management at this point, given the playoffs are still possible... however, we are definitely making things hard for ourselves, and need to turn it round sooner rather than later. You'd think that bold statements at the AGM about making the playoffs would be sufficient motivation for the team and the management. It still baffles me why we go direct to Bricknell - although I'd rather we played nice stuff, built from the back and kept the ball in midfield, I don't object to a direct style per-se if it's part of the plan, but surely to do that, we need the right personnel (i.e. a target man centre forward who can actually hold the ball up and compete physically with big defenders). It was easier to take us playing this way earlier in the season when we were picking up points, but now we seem to mainly be watching poor football and not getting many results. Not good, but still we go again and hopefully have it in us to turn things around.

I think that's a fair summation: we need to take stock at the end of the season, rather than do anything knee-jerk now - in my eyes Andy has until then to try to make 5th place (or at the very least mount a serious challenge for 5th place). Looking at the table, that's still well possible, and looking at our squad, it should be a realistic target. Now we're out the cup, we can focus on the league - the next 4 or so games should give us a good idea of which direction we're heading in. I'm hopeful / optimistic, but that might be more my 'glass half full' bias coming through

Yes and no, ultimately we are all (mainly) anonymous on here - I suspect that some of the board probably do read this, however I would take every comment with at least a pinch of salt as there no way of telling who is behind the comment, whether they have an ulterior motive, whether they are a member or not, whether they have any kind of agenda etc. At least if you're asking a question at the AGM (anonymously or otherwise), it's pretty clear that you're a member.

Surely the way to change things and get your point across if you're not happy with the situation is to speak with the board, and attend the AGM? I'm not arguing one way or another regarding the management etc. (that's been done to death), but if that's your opinion, then it would be much more constructive to try to do something to change things, rather than posting on an Internet forum. You could email questions / concerns to the board in advance of the AGM if you aren't able to attend, or don't want to ask questions in person. If you're correct in that the majority of members want change, then I would expect the board to at least take this groundswell of opinion into consideration when making decisions about management.

See page 3 of this thread where you made the same point about the lack of accounts: Benjrider10 responded stated that the most recent published accounts are on the club's website (I've not personally verified this), and you responded on page 4 thanking him 🙄

At the risk of rehashing the whole contracts debate, we had a lot of discussion about the same subject from page 3 onwards of this thread: As others have said up-thread, ultimately if it's not in the interests of both parties for a contract to be signed, then it's not going to happen. In this case, it's not in Mo's career progression interests to sign, so he isn't going to.

Nice idea, and very good looking 23 that I wouldn't disagree much with (although Bricknell, Quinton, Faal and probably Rudi would feature in mine)

I'd say that's a given - I'd like to think that all fans want this 😁 I think it's fair to say that you thought Andy's term in office had run its course as soon as he was appointed - you certainly stated your doubts at the time, and haven't been shy in reiterating them whenever results aren't going well. For my part, I have an open mind on the matter - I'll always back the person in charge, and back the board to do the right thing for the club (taking into account all aspects, not just the first team squad). I want Andy to succeed, just like I've wanted every other Town manager to succeed and will generally look for positives and try to support the person in charge as much as possible with my posts (which I'm sure you've noticed). Having said that, my opinion is fluid and I'm willing to accept that there might be a point when the club need to call time on Andy's tenure - I don't think that's right now, and I don't think we have been at that point at any time since he's been in charge, but we certainly have been close. I suspect the answer is that we need urgent defensive cover with Weatherstone nursing an Ankle injury and at this point in the season, there are very limited options in terms of players that we can bring in. We needed someone who is available right now, is willing to play for the club and that we can afford. It might prove a shrewd signing, he might never play a game, leave and not be heard of again... I would agree that Andy is highly unlikely to change his approach off the back of a conversation with a fan, irrespective of how qualified they are to give advice. What you might gain from speaking with him is an insight into what the management team are trying to do tactically, the challenges they're facing in terms of recruitment, their thoughts on player retention, squad balance etc. - you might find that you have more common ground than you realise, but you'll never know unless you have the conversation. Clearly Andy isn't going to come on here to answer your points (it's been stated that he doesn't read this forum), so what do you have to lose? But this is the point I'm trying to make, there's no right or wrong, the situation is fluid - whilst at the moment I think that Andy deserves more time to turn the recent poor run around given how well we started, I'm perfectly willing to change that view if results continue to be as bad as the last month. I think it's fair to say that that you had made your mind up about Andy near enough as soon as he joined the club, and haven't budged from that viewpoint - we have a run of poor results, and you are quick to highlight Andy's shortcomings (and the Board's for persisting with him), we have a run of good results and you generally don't post. If Andy was to leave the club now, would I think his time in charge had been a success or a failure? In reality, the answer is 'somewhere in between' - he arrived when we had two players, built a squad that kept us in the division, and has added to this in successive seasons. He's given us our best ever runs in the two main cup competitions, and has a squad that at times this season has played some really nice stuff. On the reverse of that, I do worry about the squad balance, lack of creativity at times, a lack of tactical nous in terms of adapting to what opponents are doing and the fact that we revert to going long as the default option far too quickly. Taking an extreme example, Spurs recently sacked their manager. I doubt any Spurs fan would say that his time in charge wasn't a success, but many agreed that the time had come to part ways and that it was the right decision to let him go. If someone had been saying from the start of his tenure that he wasn't the right person to manage the club, would the decision to let him go have made that person 'right all along'? I would argue not - football is a rapidly changing business, and there's a degree of fluidity in every situation. This is my position: I've never been in an 'Andy must stay' camp (as my profile says, I'm firmly on the fence)- I'm willing to accept that there may well come a time to change, but I naturally find myself backing whoever the current management team are as much as possible, and trying to find positives, as their success means success for the club. This really is going to be the last post from me on this thread - as I stated previously, I'm no fan of arguing with random strangers on the Internet, it's a complete energy sink.

The dreaded curse of the manager of the month award! Sounds like we played some good stuff and were a little unlucky not to get something from the game, but as others have said, we just can't keep giving sides a head start and then having to try to play catch up... Agree with 4WF, the next two local derbies really are games that we have to get something out of if we're serious about making the play offs - I'd say 4 points at a minimum. Having a Saturday off might be a blessing, as it could give us a chance to regroup, reassess tactics and rest some tired legs.

Have to agree with you on this point - there's clearly a limit to how far a fans owned club can progress without significant increases in revenue (be that through increased gates, sponsorship, outside income etc). It is frustrating that it seems like progress is so slow, but as I've said before, progressing in a sustainable way, with organic growth is the way to long term success. I'd rather we invested extra income into improving facilities and growing all aspects of the club, rather than just focusing on the first team squad. There are plenty of examples of clubs that have chased quick success, climbed the leagues only to crash and burn - some don't even exist anymore. With our present structure, this isn't going to happen, although we do have to live with the reality that we may hit a ceiling that takes some time to break through. As you mentioned, looking back at the early ESL days at Brimsdown, we've come a long way in a relatively short space of time: we're an established Isthmian Premier side, and that's not to be sniffed at. I'd certainly love to be competing with Barnet et al sooner rather than later, but accept that we might not hit those levels again in my lifetime (although we can certainly dream).

I'm still confused (I'm obviously missing something here)... other than my willingness to give the management the benefit of the doubt for the moment (given a good start to the season and in my opinion steady yet unspectacular progress over the last 3 years), what exactly are these counter arguments / views that other forum members scathingly put forward? More to the point, what exactly are our differences? - I honestly believe that there isn't a single contributor to the forum (or indeed fan of ETFC) that isn't worried about our present form, playing style and recent results, I know I definitely am. Things certainly need to change, and fast - hopefully that's the present management turning things around, but if they aren't able to, then it's time for a change! I'm certainly no fan of arguing with random strangers on the Internet, but in this case I'm genuinely struggling to see what the difference in views actually is 😕

Just following up on this one as it's confused me a little: I'd be interested to know specifically what type of responses you're referring to - all I've seen of late on here is supporters expressing increasing levels of concern around our recent form, lack of cover and general play. Admittedly some are slightly more glass half full than others (myself included), and are still willing to give the management the benefit of the doubt based on how well we played this season until a month ago. We also know, as it has been mentioned on a number of occasions, that we aren't going to get any kind of official response on this forum - we've been there and done that in the ESL days, and it led to all sorts of issues. I would honestly suggest that anyone wanting to discuss the current predicament should seek out a board member, or one of the management team at the next game they attend and have a constructive discussion about the direction of the squad/club. I'm pretty certain that the board/management are fully aware of our dip in form, and are as concerned as the fans are.

Conversely, we very much had a game plan against Braintree... and it worked well. I'm not defending the performances of late, as some of them have been pretty bad by all accounts, but at times this season we have played some decent stuff and I'm not sure it's altogether fair to ignore these performances and jump on the management as soon as we have a bad run. Yesterday was always going to be tough against a side two steps above us, and fair play to Andy and the players for delivering two decent cup runs and getting us as far as they did. For me the next few league games are key in terms of restoring confidence, starting to play like a team again and hopefully stringing together some results.

3 or 4 weeks ago, we had a good, exciting squad that was moving up the league... not much has changed in that respect, we've just picked up a few injuries and are playing without confidence. I'd say that maybe one or two additions to freshen things up would help (especially in midfield), but I don't think we need wholesale changes - we need to get back to how we were playing not long ago. For me, that's the management's challenge, and will show us how good they are.

I wasn't at the game, but my sources tell me that it was absolutely dire... I'm not totally buying into the doom and gloom though, in the same way that I wasn't totally bought into the euphoria when were playing very nicely and on our winning run (which wasn't all that long ago). Teams go through bad phases, which we obviously are at the moment, it's all about how we respond and hopefully turn things around, as clearly Saturday wasn't close to being good enough. Weatherstone is a big miss, as much for his leadership and organisation as for his individual play. Whilst I think our style is a generally quite direct, there have been games where we've played some very nice stuff, kept the ball in midfield and opened sides up with some neat passing, so I don't think it's the management team's intention to lump balls up for Mo and Billy to lose in the air. I do feel that as we are short on confidence, we tend to take the easier / safer option to go long and clear our lines, rather than looking to keep the ball. That's more to do with a lack of people showing for passes and taking responsibility than it is with the system, although arguably as the management team assembles the squad and picks the team, the buck stops with them. Hoping for a turnaround in the next few games, it can't get any worse (can it?)... if it does, I might need to drag my 18 month old daughter out in the cold to another game - her viewing record is something like W8 D0 L1 😁