Southend

[Poshrover]

Am I the only one that is worried we will do a Southend and slip out of League Two next season with successive relegations?

[Donnywolf]

Go on .... Set a Poll up

I would say NO. We probably have had it now but will be fine next Season as long as we have better luck injury wise

[Campsall rover]

Am I the only one that is worried we will do a Southend and slip out of League Two next season with successive relegations?

Your probably not the only one but I do not see that happening. Think we will have a strong squad for next season. Get some momentum in our last 10 games this season hopefully and we will be ready for a fresh start next August.

[Donny Exile in York]

Interesting these are the same people who thought there was no connection or momentum from the end of last season to this and didn't percieve a relegation battle this. I would say it depends on summer recruitment and retention and fitness of some of the current injured players. Southend, Chesterfield, Scunny on the brink.. the state of our performances and results at present don't fill me with confidence we are bottoming out our decline. I very much hope I am wrong!

[dickos1]

There were many people said shite like this the last time we went to league 2
Ended up winning promotion with 5 games to spare

[Donny Exile in York]

There were many people said shite like this the last time we went to league 2
Ended up winning promotion with 5 games to spare

Your in dreamland. We had an experienced manager with promotions on his CV and Dick Watson's money investing in the club also, and a much sounder base. Your comments just show you have no idea. Hopefully we can regroup and bounceback, but its absolutely not a given and a losing mentality particularly with younger players is hard to shake off.

[GazLaz]

We won’t get relegated next season. We will be in the top three or four favourites for the title come august.

[ColinDouglasHandshake]

I'm hopeful. A losing mentality is very difficult to shift but we should have a really good core group of players to at least be top half. There is naturally a part of me that is concerned especially given how consistently poor we've been this season.

A lot of the players next season will be the same ones who have spent parts of this season losing almost every week and that is not easy to turn around into players who have belief and are winning.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Southend happened because they hadn't got a pot to piss in.

[knockers]

There were many people said shite like this the last time we went to league 2
Ended up winning promotion with 5 games to spare

We also came third in a one horse race for the title!

[Chris Black come back]

We also shouldn’t have been in that division that season. Ferguson took over and we went on a good run for his first two months, easily enough to keep us up. Then come January he made a mess of everything and we pretty much lost every game for the rest of the season. Terrible management. He got them playing for two months then without any injury crisis and having a full window, managed to make matters worse. Very bad.

[donnievic]

No I’m not worried one bit,very likely we will go down but so wot been there before

[sedwardsdrfc]

Feel a lot more confident about next season after this window think we've put some foundations in place for a good squad next year. Plus we've so many injuries some of which will hopefully actually be able to contribute next year.

Key now is to just break demoralising uselessness we've suffered most of the season so we take a little bit of momentum into L2.

[BillyStubbsTears]

We had a much stronger core to the squad that went down in 15/16 than we have now.

Coppinger
Rowe (6 years younger)
Butler
Mason
Alcock
Williams

We added to that with some first rate signings
Marquis
Baudry
Blair
Wright
May, late on.

And most of that core stayed fit for most of the season.

I don't think it's unreasonable to worry about the task facing us next season to put a competitive side together.

[Bentley Bullet]

Since our return to the league I'd hoped we were a third tier/second tier yo-yo team, which would have been an improvement from the fourth tier/ third tier yo-yo team since the 60's. It looks like, despite all the financial efforts of Ryan, Bramall, Watson etc. we are no better off than we've always been, apart from the non-league blip caused by bent ownership.

[GazLaz]

We had a much stronger core to the squad that went down in 15/16 than we have now.

Coppinger
Rowe (6 years younger)
Butler
Mason
Alcock
Williams

We added to that with some first rate signings
Marquis
Baudry
Blair
Wright
May, late on.

And most of that core stayed fit for most of the season.

I don't think it's unreasonable to worry about the task facing us next season to put a competitive side together.

Anderson, Close, Rowe, Taylor and Fej… and possibly Knoyle and Hiwula could be a a decent core to go into next season with. Add Younger, Olowu and Reo to that as developing players. Add 4/5 solid signings at a prime age into that mix and it could look quite healthy.

[pib]

Another question mark is the manager really. I'm not making a judgement on GM either way at this point, but last time we went down we had Ferguson in charge. Like him or not, he was a proven manager for the level and had been there and done it with a track record of promotions from that league and the one above. I think that showed in the way we approached that season. We got a lot of good transfer business done early, and reasonably quickly settled into a style that was effective.

GM is more of an unknown quantity. I think there's a risk of going into next season with a bit of complacency because we'll have one of the bigger budgets in L2, and some good players on paper. You need a bit more than just that.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Another question mark is the manager really. I'm not making a judgement on GM either way at this point, but last time we went down we had Ferguson in charge. Like him or not, he was a proven manager for the level and had been there and done it with a track record of promotions from that league and the one above. I think that showed in the way we approached that season. We got a lot of good transfer business done early, and reasonably quickly settled into a style that was effective.

GM is more of an unknown quantity. I think there's a risk of going into next season with a bit of complacency because we'll have one of the bigger budgets in L2, and some good players on paper. You need a bit more than just that.

As you point out Ferguson had time to get a settled squad, a luxury that GM hasn't had.

[pib]

Another question mark is the manager really. I'm not making a judgement on GM either way at this point, but last time we went down we had Ferguson in charge. Like him or not, he was a proven manager for the level and had been there and done it with a track record of promotions from that league and the one above. I think that showed in the way we approached that season. We got a lot of good transfer business done early, and reasonably quickly settled into a style that was effective.

GM is more of an unknown quantity. I think there's a risk of going into next season with a bit of complacency because we'll have one of the bigger budgets in L2, and some good players on paper. You need a bit more than just that.

As you point out Ferguson had time to get a settled squad, a luxury that GM hasn't had.

He will in the close season. The question mark is more around his ability to do so and build a side. We'll see how we end up shaping up. Big opportunity for GM to prove his credentials on the horizon.

[BillyStubbsTears]

We had a much stronger core to the squad that went down in 15/16 than we have now.

Coppinger
Rowe (6 years younger)
Butler
Mason
Alcock
Williams

We added to that with some first rate signings
Marquis
Baudry
Blair
Wright
May, late on.

And most of that core stayed fit for most of the season.

I don't think it's unreasonable to worry about the task facing us next season to put a competitive side together.

Anderson, Close, Rowe, Taylor and Fej… and possibly Knoyle and Hiwula could be a a decent core to go into next season with. Add Younger, Olowu and Reo to that as developing players. Add 4/5 solid signings at a prime age into that mix and it could look quite healthy.

It COULD look quite healthy.

Equally, we COULD be in a position where some of our core players want out rather than drop to L2, some don't come back to fitness, the younger players don't progress, we don't get the signings right and we have further injury problems.

We need ALL those things to go right for us if we are going to be fighting it out for automatic promotion next year. My concern is that if we are unlucky on 2 or 3 of them, we could struggle badly.

[drfchound]

Well I suppose the club can only do what they think is right and if circumstances conspire to go for us then we will be ok.
I guess hindsight will tell us if the decisions and the luck went in our favour.

[DRCraig]

I feel so down about our club at the moment. But no, We will not be that bad. Might be stuck in L2 for a while though.

[Reg of the Rovers]

I can't help looking at L2 and thinking there's some decent looking away days in there. Hartlepool and Carlisle are two of my faves, plus Barrow and Harrogate will be decent. Re-ignite the Mansfield 'derbys', Bradford just down the road and Rochdale not much further. Looks like we won't be crossing swords with Scunny for a while though! It could be worse!!! 

[dickos1]

There were many people said shite like this the last time we went to league 2
Ended up winning promotion with 5 games to spare

We also came third in a one horse race for the title!

This has absolutely nothing to do with us getting relegated to the conference

[BobG]

Hear hear Dickos!!

BobG