Post by hector on Dec 23, 2014 15:37:04 GMT
...and being a fan of TUFC was a pretty morale-sapping experience a year ago.
Certainly this season has been preferable to the garbage Knill's team served up but only because we are not losing virtually every game like it felt a year ago. However, losing to teams like Telford, Alfreton and Braintree are new lows that we are probably going to have to become accustomed to and every time a new low is hit, they somehow become more the expectation and that is sapping my morale and even my inclination to be particularly bothered.
Already, I read of some supporters preparing to settle for somewhere between mid-table and the play-offs as if this is somehow acceptable and my worry is that what is acceptable today will soon become aspirational tomorrow.
I suspect when Torquay were relegated from the old Division 3, back in 72, the intent and aspiration was to get straight back up. By the time I started watching them in 1979, promotion challenges were something other teams did but at the same time, we were not concerned with the re-election battle that mainly northern teams were worrying about.
So, along come Webb and Bateson to successfully lower our aspirations to such a degree that staying in the league became our aspiration and anything better was a welcome bonus (or an unwelcome expense for MB).
Now, simply a play-off place in flippin' non-league football seems the summit of our ambitions and it won't belong before we watch that being something other teams do, while we start casting glances at the other end of the league and simply 'staying up' becomes our first priority.