after the last few days....

[Three Nips]

I don't expect firweworks, let's face it, we're watching glorified Sunday League football, but the assumption that everybody should be greatful just to have a football club is wide of the mark in my eyes. If you're happy to turn up every week, watch mid-table mediocrity with no ambition to progress, then fair enough, that's your prerogative but I'd like to think that those with a say have more positive intentions.

That's the bit I take exception to, if you don't think we want to move this club forward as quickly as possible, then you have not been listening. If a cup final and a promotion in the first two years of the club's formation isn't successful enough for you, then I and everyone else should just pack it in, as obviously nothing is going to satisfy your ambitions.
Why do you think so many people put so much effort in trying to get this club going and trying to get promotion year on year.............we want success, but we are realistic to know that it takes hard work, planning and Yes, some luck

I was referring to a comment made earlier in this thread stating, "Well to me the positivity is that we have a fan based Football Club being run sustainably what more do you really need".

I know what is being got at but the main reason everyone is here is because of the football, it's not for our mutual love of satirical poetry! For me, the football isn't entertaining and that's the bottom line.

The attitude that we should be thankful to be around and mediocre is what riles me. You clearly have the same attitude as me as you say 'we want success' and 'I'd like to think that those with a say have more positive intentions'!

I can't speak for anybody else but I go into every game wanting to win; regardless of the opposition. That doesn't mean I expect it to occur on every occasion. There is a difference.

Where's the issue?

[Bob's Bitch]

I don't expect fireworks, let's face it, we're watching glorified Sunday League football, but the assumption that everybody should be grateful just to have a football club is wide of the mark in my eyes. If you're happy to turn up every week, watch mid-table mediocrity with no ambition to progress, then fair enough, that's your prerogative but I'd like to think that those with a say have more positive intentions.

Progress isn't necessarily winning loads of promotions though, there are different types of progress that we can make, some of it will be in the youth set-up or financially or even in making improvements to the ground, as we've seen recently. We could piss all the money we've got up the wall to compete with Spalding but that wouldn't be sustainable would it? Mid-table would be between 7th and 13th in this league and I'll be amazed if we don't finish top 6 and probably top 4. For the first season at Step 5, with a well-backed team at the top I think that's showing progress and ambition.

We all go because we love football but I'd like to think that quite a few also go because the atmosphere around the club is welcoming, friendly and positive so that we don't all go away feeling suicidal if we happen to lose a game. Of course every fan wants to win every game but that's not going to happen unless we do a Spalding, so let's just enjoy this season for what it is and what it's going to be.

[Olly]

I agree with that and I'd also be surprised if we don't finish in the top 4, sure we've had a mixed run of form, but its not like teams like PNS and Huntingdon are particularly better than us or anything, just that they had the right tactics and things went well for them, like us hitting the woodwork and missing chances in the games against us. Lets not forget, we're still the only team to have beaten Deeping this season and bar Spalding, we're still as good as anyone in this division on our day. Saturday will be very interesting, a win would surely help greatly to kick us on and put a good run of form together.

[corby diamond]

Agreed olly, starting next weekend in the vase

[Brownie]

I agree with that and I'd also be surprised if we don't finish in the top 4, sure we've had a mixed run of form, but its not like teams like PNS and Huntingdon are particularly better than us or anything, just that they had the right tactics and things went well for them, like us hitting the woodwork and missing chances in the games against us. Lets not forget, we're still the only team to have beaten Deeping this season and bar Spalding, we're still as good as anyone in this division on our day. Saturday will be very interesting, a win would surely help greatly to kick us on and put a good run of form together.

Well said Olly, I am lost sometimes as to what people expect, and having watched a lot of UCL football over the past 4 seasons I can assure everyone we ain`t that bad. Yes the last month has not been the best, but then for the sake of a couple of taken chances, the goal being a bit to the left and the bar 50mm higher we could be discussing 5/6 straight wins. We beat Cambridge and are great, we loose a couple we should have won and are garbage, sure i`m wrong but it`s starting to look in some quarters that it`s the results being supported not the Club/Team :oops: I don`t discuss it with those I could. but I am starting to wonder what the players must be thinking about some of what gets posted on here, they must all be a bit more tolerant than I was in my 20s, as I fear a phrase containing "Sun don`t shine" may have passed my lips by now. Everything about this Club is new, with a team that in the main is young, from Chairman through to Sub`s bench all are still learning. Please everyone starting tomorrow can we get behind the Club and all it represents and at least make an effort to be positive. PLEASE :!:

[Red Dragon]

I rarely chip in on this forum these days, because I only rarely attended the D&D in the first season for reasons which most people know about (and the early part of this season has had to suffer while I settle in to my new job and new home and new town), but following this thread I think its clear that a couple of defeats has brought a reality check into play, and a much-needed one for some people. We might all say "We can't win every game", or "it can't always be pretty football", but to experience the truth of those statements is another matter.

I am wondering if some of us are still in thrall to the old club, in a way, in that the last time a new club was formed on a new ground (or at least a new stadium) with our name, we went through the lower leagues to the Conference like a dose of salts, certainly in the early days. Maybe, unconsciously, despite the lip service to steady progress and living within our means, a couple of bad results and a couple of badly-behaving players or players who think the grass is greener elsewhere has stirred up those unconscious feelings that we should, as Ashby and Talbot were encouraged to do, buy ourselves out of a sticky spot in order to continue our (as we see it) richly-deserved and triumphant progress "back to where we belong" - which is of course the most common statement of delusion you'll find on the lips of football fans everywhere!

Perhaps some people somehow resent it when we lose because it knocks their unconscious understanding that until we get back to the Conference, somehow the proper football, the proper struggle, the proper time to win some, draw some, or lose some, hasn't arrived... that until then it should be all sunshine and roses.

Well, reality is kicking in, now: and a good thing, I say. The sooner I can get back to regular attendance (I'm looking at after Christmas) the better!

(If you want to see the reality of poor support, by the way, try Colchester United. I watched them a couple of weeks ago (it counts as work, because I was with three church members who invited me along!) against Posh. In a 10,000 seater community owned stadium, in League One, against a near-top of the table team, a town with more inhabitants than the whole of Pembrokeshire mustered a crowd of just over 4,000, of whom at least 1,000 were Posh supporters.)

[Pigman]

Everything about this Club is new, with a team that in the main is young, from Chairman through to Sub`s bench all are still learning. Please everyone starting tomorrow can we get behind the Club and all it represents and at least make an effort to be positive. PLEASE :!:

So true !! Anyone who speaks to Ralph (or any board member for that matter) will know how passionate he/they are about this club and how far he wants it to progress. We have enough knockers and disparagers out there in football world, all who want us to fail and take great delight at the littlest hint of failure - the UCL Facebook page (which I no longer look at) goes into masturbation overdrive at the merest hint of something negative about us - they're like Ploppy fans on speed at times.

We should be grateful we have a club at all, but we shouldn't just be grateful, we should want the very best, we should want progress and as quickly and (here's that dirty word again) sustainably as possible - but it won't come through a chequebook this time, but through sheer hard graft and pulling together !!

As fans we may have different opinions about things, and its great to air them if it can be done in a constructive way, but at the end of the day we all want the same thing - a successful and thriving football club. How we measure that success will be down to the individual's own expectations I guess - mine was always to be top 6 and a decent run in one of the Cup competitions, we're on track for that. But to even think that the Board don't want to experience that feeling we had at Spencer last year when promotion was guaranteed is plain daft. I shed a tear, I know Bob and Stacey did (but that's cos we're wimps) I know all of them were delighted and very emotional !! That doesn't come from wanting to settle for being second best - that comes from wanting to succeed and achieving that success !!

I can't be there tomorrow sadly, I'm gutted (stupid wife's 50th birthday ;) ), but I'll be checking my phone for updates all afternoon (if I can get away with it ), the club means so much to me and I remember what it was like to have nothing to look forward to on a Saturday afternoon. Our glass is definitely half full !!

Positive thoughts everyone - its catching, and if we can get it going through the whole club then the sky is the limit !!! We'll have knock backs, we always will, but its how you deal with them and how you come back that counts !!

A very important week for our season coming up - get behind the players and cheer them on tomorrow !! Its the age old debate isn't it? Do the fans feed off what is happening on the field, or do they help to make it happen??? Start helping to make it happen tomorrow !! Be loud and proud, we do have a lot to be proud about you know !!

[wewantourdarbyback]

I rarely chip in on this forum these days, because I only rarely attended the D&D in the first season for reasons which most people know about (and the early part of this season has had to suffer while I settle in to my new job and new home and new town), but following this thread I think its clear that a couple of defeats has brought a reality check into play, and a much-needed one for some people. We might all say "We can't win every game", or "it can't always be pretty football", but to experience the truth of those statements is another matter.

I am wondering if some of us are still in thrall to the old club, in a way, in that the last time a new club was formed on a new ground (or at least a new stadium) with our name, we went through the lower leagues to the Conference like a dose of salts, certainly in the early days. Maybe, unconsciously, despite the lip service to steady progress and living within our means, a couple of bad results and a couple of badly-behaving players or players who think the grass is greener elsewhere has stirred up those unconscious feelings that we should, as Ashby and Talbot were encouraged to do, buy ourselves out of a sticky spot in order to continue our (as we see it) richly-deserved and triumphant progress "back to where we belong" - which is of course the most common statement of delusion you'll find on the lips of football fans everywhere!

Perhaps some people somehow resent it when we lose because it knocks their unconscious understanding that until we get back to the Conference, somehow the proper football, the proper struggle, the proper time to win some, draw some, or lose some, hasn't arrived... that until then it should be all sunshine and roses.

Well, reality is kicking in, now: and a good thing, I say. The sooner I can get back to regular attendance (I'm looking at after Christmas) the better!

(If you want to see the reality of poor support, by the way, try Colchester United. I watched them a couple of weeks ago (it counts as work, because I was with three church members who invited me along!) against Posh. In a 10,000 seater community owned stadium, in League One, against a near-top of the table team, a town with more inhabitants than the whole of Pembrokeshire mustered a crowd of just over 4,000, of whom at least 1,000 were Posh supporters.)

As another forced to watch from afar I couldn't agree more.

[FOOTYMAN]

I'm drawing a line under this as far as my involvement on this thread is concerned as it could drag on forever frankly. ;)

That`s 2 of us then, as I`m not sure everything is always read and understood clearly prior to a reply/post being submitted when things start to get a little heated, and to say this thread is going round in circles with endless misunderstandings is a bloody understatement. So regarding "after the last few days"
it`s goodnight from me and it`s goodnight from him. Goodnight.

I think you have forgotten to sign off. 4 posted comments later, Goodnight.

[SouthRushdenJFC]

Having read through the whole thread I don't think there has been any board bashing as such. I do disagree with the comments regarding us being unapproachable though. You will always find at least one of us in most parts of the ground, home or away.

I do think there has been a massive over reaction to a couple of poor results and the release of a couple of fringe players.

Mistakes will be made from bottom to top of the club. That is life, they key is to learn from those mistakes and not make them again, although different ones will be made.

Sustainability seems to be an ugly word at the moment and the comments of some can be read as if they are advocating put the first team on a pedestal above all other areas of the club. I think that is misguided and will not lead to a long-term, sustainable and viable community club.

Provided the world doesn't end tonight, then there's a game tomorrow, a tough one again, but before that the Little Diamonds training.