Barney

Interesting to hear how others are coping with the situation we all find ourselves in. I'm normally a homeworker, so not much change there, but it's a lot harder to balance work with having our 21 month old charging around the house and demanding constant attention. My wife is a primary school teacher, and is expected to attend work 1 day every 2 weeks to support the 5 or so key workers' children that her school now has regularly attending, so that's another challenge for us to manage. She's also having to set work on a daily basis, and call all children in her class once a week. All in all, I can't really complain, and I know that there are many others that are in more difficult situations with more upheaval from their normal lives and routines than us. We've found that doing a family walk as our daily exercise is something to look forward to, although my daughter doesn't quite get the concept of social distancing, wanting to get up close and personal with every person/dog/inanimate object. I've noticed that near enough to a person, everyone we see is much more friendly and willing to engage when out and about (whilst still sensibly distancing). I'll be going out to do our weekly shop later today, which should be interesting - I'm also shopping for my parents who are in an age bracket that makes them more vulnerable. We've found that video conferencing is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, and in some cases we're having more social contact with friends that aren't local than we would do normally. Lastly, I wish all Non League fans (and anyone else that stumbles across this thread) all the best. Things are difficult and will be for some time, but there will be an end to this - in the mean time, do your best to stay positive, assist others as much as you can without putting yourself at additional risk and keep safe 👍

I think it's a very emotive subject, and there's an awful lot of additional stress on everyone at the moment - I'd suggest that we all might be well advised to take a step back and think before we post. Ultimately at the end of the day, we are (mainly) all Town fans, and I think all good people despite our many disagreements - now is the time to be supportive of each other, and hopefully this forum can be a source of humour/banter as well as keeping the Town collective in touch with each other.

I'm quite a bit more pessimistic about the whole situation - the stark contrast for me is between trying to carry on as normal, keep the economy afloat with relatively minimal disruption, but risk overloading the NHS with cases as it spreads unchecked (which will potentially mean a lot more fatalities that I think most have even considered possible), or to try to delay the spread so that the NHS can cope with the number of patients requiring intensive care, at massive cost to the economy and our way of life. Neither is a good option, it's just a question of which one is least bad. I genuinely hope that this is all an overreaction, but everything I've read suggests that things will be pretty grim and very different as we move forwards. I suspect this thread will not age well, and that some of the earlier comments will appear rather irrelevant as this continues to unfold.

Managed to get along to this one, and was very impressed with how we played - considering Bognor were the form side in the league, they didn't look that impressive, although much of that could have been us playing well and not allowing them to get going. As mentioned above Taafe had an excellent game, and showed how much we have missed him whilst injured - his decision making is excellent, and he almost always seems to play the right ball at the right time, either to retain possession, or picking a forward pass when it's on. We looked a lot more balanced with his inclusion - having a genuine wide midfielder rather than a forward playing out of place makes a huge difference. First time I've seen Urquhart play, and again he looks a decent addition, especially as it seems he can play anywhere in the back four - Muleba at centre back gives us a bit more pace through the middle, and Hatton had a decent game apart from a 15 minute patch in the second half which coincided with Bognor having their one period of pressure. No complaints about Thomas getting MoM, he goes about his job very well, breaking up play and retaining possession. Okojie worked hard all game, and is a decent physical presence - I think Bricknell looked better for having a genuine strike partner alongside him. It really frustrates me that we can put in a performance like this one week, but get hit for 4 another - we clearly are a decent side, and when we get it right, we can compete with anyone, it's just that we don't do it nearly often enough. If we string together some consistent form over the next month or so, then there's no reason why we can't finish 5th, but if we carry on as we have been, I think we'll fall just short. Still very much all to play for, and it makes a nice change to read through the forum without anyone saying that the manager has to go immediately - I just cross my fingers for more of the same on Tuesday (although not holding my breath) 😉

Agree completely LS - this is very much a long game, and if that means spending more time where we are getting the various foundations in place (and by that, I don't just mean the first team side of things), then that's fine with me if it means we're better prepared for the long run.

Difficult to argue with any of the above... TCC I guess the question is: "are the weaker teams in the National South better or worse than the stronger teams in the Isthmian?"... in reality, I don't think we're going to be finding out next season, but you never know

Without wanting to speak for AT, I suspect that he meant we can't afford to pay a manager and continue to invest as much as we do in the squad - I would have thought that this all comes out of the same pot of money. I do agree with a lot of the sentiment posted above that the manager and coaching team is more important than the squad: a very good manager and coach can achieve a lot with lesser / cheaper players, and conversely it's possible for a manager to underachieve with a stronger squad. As I said the other day, I didn't expect us to get much from Saturday's game, I think Hornchurch (recent results notwithstanding) are one of a few sides that will definitely finish above us. That said, it sounded like we were awful for most of the first half, and to ship 4 goals in 20 minutes just isn't good enough. No issue with the new striker a) starting on the bench and b) taking time to settle in (think both can be said about Mo when he joined). Per AT's post, let's hope we bounce back from this one - the playoffs are still possible, although I agree that says far more about the standard of the league than it does about our quality and more importantly our consistency.

Very happy with the result (and the clean sheet), and clearly praise is due in the same what that criticism is due when we lose, but agree that it's nowhere near time to celebrate a turnaround. We need to find some consistency in our performances - I'd honestly expect us to struggle against Hornchurch at the weekend, so wouldn't be inclined to read too much into that unless we lose by a big margin and really play badly. Was anyone on here at the game and able to comment on how we played? Accept that Margate may have had an off day, but there are usually two sides to the story, and it might have been that we were sharp and performed well enough to stop them from playing. I'm a big fan of Livings, personally think that he deserves a run in the side, as he's comfortable on the ball, is decent positionally and makes good decisions. If we retain possession, we aren't going to constantly be defending for our lives, and shipping loads of goals.

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)