Dave
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Post by Dave on Feb 22, 2009 14:32:48 GMT
Merse no one has said its or promotion or bust, far from it and I do feel you have missed just what some are saying and the real fears they have for TUFC. What is being said that failure to go up this season will see the future task of getting promoted much harder and the real risk that the club will be come a smaller club with a fast shrinking fan base.
Barton has made a real spot on post and yes I will put my hands up and state that in my eyes TUFC was a bigger club than it really was. And I felt that even more when we came down into the BSP. Barton talks about the much smaller clubs who may have been the ones to win promotion, often coming up only the season before and also about the ex league clubs who have failed to go straight back up as they might have been expected to do.
This got me thinking and I sat down and worked out how long I have been working for Toolfix, I thought it was longer and for good reason in football terms, but it has only been five and a half years, mind you that is a record for me these days, as I have been guilty of getting bored in some jobs and seeked to move on.
Some may feel I don’t like banter with other football fans, well that is not true, while I have tried to make this forum different by making it a TUFC fan forum only, I have many well natured banter style chats with fans from the towns I go to in my job. It was my very first year working for Toolfix and Yeovil had just come up into Div 2, a club who not so long before were playing in front of crowds of only 800.
I felt then that my club TUFC was the bigger of the two clubs, while Yeovil were a household name; it was only due their giant killing FA Cup games. At the end of that season and after having some bragging rights as we beat them two nil at their ground, we went up and they missed out in the end... So the start of the next season I was even more happy to feel that TUFC were indeed the much bigger club and with great league history 80 years in total.
How things were to change around and also having to come to terms that my club was not the bigger club anymore, it ended up in a lower league and also getting much lower gates, the Yeovil bubble was growing and at a fast rate.
The Saturday we went down, Carol came home from work and could not console me, the tears would not stop and I’m sure it was the same for so many TUFC fans, it was funny but due to those tears I never gave a thought to the fact that Yeovil had gone up and were now a League one team. That all changed as I drove into Yeovil on the Monday, streets that were miles from the ground, were still filled with white and green balloons (I hate balloons ;D) blowing around in the wind.
I knew I would soon be getting some banter I would have preferred not to have and I also knew I wanted to exit Yeovil as fast as I could. This team that was playing in front of only 800 were soon to be seeing gates of 8000 and that first season in division one there was a time when they looked like they would march straight into the Championship.
The next season the wheels started to come off, Dave Webb was a part of that and it looked liked they may well go back down and this season has also not been one of any success and as a result and the fact that the bubble has now burst, the gates have fallen to under 5000 and money is starting to be an issue for the club. If they do not find a way to halt the slide and get their gates back up etc, Yeovil could well soon end up as a division two club playing in front of only 2500 fans max, like it or not as so many say football is a results business and winning teams will be the ones who in most cases will see their fan base grow.
So looking at Yeovil and what is happening there , is the main reason I feel that our club really may end up much smaller and will get stuck in this league, that would be such a shame when you look at the very best group of people we have ever had owning our club.
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tufc01
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Post by tufc01 on Feb 22, 2009 14:53:16 GMT
How about 3-4-3 as per the Wrexham game (Maybe tufc01 will back me up?) Just play Wroe and Hargreaves in midfield with Mansell and Nicholson pushing up. Three central defenders with Hodges on the left, Robertson on the right and Woods in the middle. This would allow Green Sills and Benyon/Christie to play up front. ABSOLUTELY I was just about to post about the away game at Wrexham. That was the best i have seen us play this season, by some way. I think the team that day was the one that Fonda put up, so yes i would like to see that formation/team given another chance. |
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Feb 22, 2009 15:45:17 GMT
How about 3-4-3 as per the Wrexham game (Maybe tufc01 will back me up?) Just play Wroe and Hargreaves in midfield with Mansell and Nicholson pushing up. Three central defenders with Hodges on the left, Robertson on the right and Woods in the middle. This would allow Green Sills and Benyon/Christie to play up front. ABSOLUTELY I was just about to post about the away game at Wrexham. That was the best i have seen us play this season, by some way. I think the team that day was the one that Fonda put up, so yes i would like to see that formation/team given another chance. The difference being that Fonda advocates playing Thompson in midfield as opposed to that extra central defender. Both are very attacking formations but maybe the "Wrexham formation" allows the full backs to get forward more? |
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Enzo
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Post by Enzo on Feb 22, 2009 15:49:17 GMT
Personally, I don't think there are many genuine TUFC fans who are hysterically demanding promotion. Any fan who has been around for a while knows that you can count on little where TUFC are concerned. I think, however, that there are a few fans who are getting fed up with watching performances like the first half yesterday.
What annoys me more than losing yesterday is the manner of the defeat - we were out fought, out thought and pretty clueless all over the park. It was embarrasing to watch to be honest and as bad as anything i can remember over the last few years. Did we travel on a Friday for this one? Having seen similar perfomances at Crawley, Woking, Eastbourne, Southport and to an extent Lewes, maybe this overnight thing is getting more like a jolly for the boys! Yesterday, it was not the attitude of the fans that one needed to question, it was the attitude of the players and management. We stank of complacency all over the park. Even whilst dominating the second half we only had a long throw and hoof ball as a means of creativity.
Buckle has been afforded comparative luxury in his budget and backroom staff which should give him an advantage of many clubs of this level. After the debacle yesterday fans are perfectly entitled to question if he is making best use of it. I'd challenge Mr Buckle to sit through a video of that game and point out exactly what he and his staff have been doing all week on the training park and how it was used in yesterdays game. I don't demand to win every week......I simply demand that we are able compete every week - too often nowadays we are not even doing that.
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Fonda
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Post by Fonda on Feb 22, 2009 15:57:05 GMT
Excellent post Enzo. Agree completely with all of that.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2009 18:04:30 GMT
It was my very first year working for Toolfix and Yeovil had just come up into Div 2, a club who not so long before were playing in front of crowds of only 800. I felt then that my club TUFC was the bigger of the two clubs, while Yeovil were a household name; it was only due their giant killing FA Cup games. At the end of that season and after having some bragging rights as we beat them two nil at their ground, we went up and they missed out in the end... So the start of the next season I was even more happy to feel that TUFC were indeed the much bigger club and with great league history 80 years in total. How things were to change around and also having to come to terms that my club was not the bigger club anymore, it ended up in a lower league and also getting much lower gates, the Yeovil bubble was growing and at a fast rate. Dave has made some good points about Yeovil Town recently. I always thought the club was something of an enigma. Although Yeovil's crowds dipped at the real low points - I'd be interested to know how many sub-1,000 crowds crowds they got (and when) - I believe they generally compared well with Torquay United's. I understand that - prior to clubs getting relegated from the FL - Yeovil were often the best-supported non-league club. What makes this notable is that - FA Cup runs aside - they weren't a particularly successful club. In the 24 seasons between the Conference's formation (as the APL) and Yeovil winning it, the club actually spent five seasons below the Conference in the Isthmian Premier (a choice they made in preference to the Southern League because many Yeovil players and managers tended to come from London. It might also have been the easier league to win.). Furthermore, Yeovil only finished in the top ten on three occasions in their first fourteen seasons in the Conference. Only from 1998/99 onwards - until their championship win in 2003 - did Yeovil have a sustained good spell (and they didn't manage to win FA Trophy in 2002). Yet however poor the team, the FA Cup wins kept coming and - in the main - so did the crowds. For the really big games - Enfield (in the Isthmian League), Rushden and Chester - there were crowds of over 8,000. From promotion to the Conference in 1997 to winning it six years later, Yeovil always managed average attendances of at least 2,300 (rising much higher in the final three seasons). 1999/2000 was their low point: 2,302 for 7th in the Conference (alongside our 2,555 for 9th in Div 3). Living in Somerset I suppose I became aware they'd become a "bigger club" (whetever that might mean) than Torquay. Yeovil's presence wasn't so noticeable in Taunton but once you were in that wide arc - from Chard across to Street and over to Wincanton, Shaftesbury, Blandford; nearly as far as Dorchester and Bridport; back up to Crewkerne - you sensed they were on the up (which may have damaged Weymouth and Dorchester in the process). And, in many ways, I think the supporters had talked themselves into following a "league team" several years before it became a reality with some of them making it perfectly clear they saw less-worthies such as Torquay and Exeter within their sights. I'm not sure how popular this made their supporters - in Somerset they're like Argyle: either loved or hated - but, of course, once in the league all their expectations (and boasts) came true. I really, really can't describe how much I enjoyed that 2-0 win in 2003. Now, of course, it's stalled and the "new" fans aren't sure what to make of it. Nor are the "traditional" fans finding it any easier (although 4,000 against Oldham on a February Saturday isn't to be sniffed at, surely?). I couldn't believe - even amongst long-standing fans - the bitterness which followed the 2007 play-off final when they got within one game of the Championship. The team "didn't show up" - apparently - and there was an amazing pall of flatness at the start of the following season. When the belt stops is a truly odd phenomenon in football, isn't it? Just look at Argyle. On the train yesterday I was listening to some Arsenal and Bristol City supporters (from Yeovil) talking about what has happened at the club and the matches against Nottingham Forest, Bristol City, Leeds and Leicester. They seemed to be saying it was all fading away. Who knows? Dave could be right about Yeovil playing in front of 2,500 in Lge 2 fairly soon. That 5th place finish in Lge 1 might quickly become every much a part of their mythology as our exploits in 1956 and 1968 are to us. |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Feb 22, 2009 19:07:25 GMT
Barton I made friends with many Yeovil fans the day I drove into town on my first day working for Toolfix and for the last five and a half years I have got to chat with them two times a week. On the whole they have been very good to talk football with and I have enjoyed some good banter and at one company, I have Yeovil fans and a Aldershot season ticket holder.
The only time I sensed an attitude change was when they went up into division one, they really started to act the big club and felt a bit to important for my liking. I felt the need to remind them that while their club had history, they only had three years history as a league club, while my team had 80 years and before they went on about what a big league club they were, they needed to be in it a bit longer.
Talking about history, I was listening to the J.Vine show in the week(what a surprise) and it was discussing subjects like history and science getting pushed aside in primary schools theses day, so English and maths etc get more time.
One history teacher, one science teacher and one music teacher made their case why such subjects must still be taught in primary schools. One thing the history teacher said really made me realise just how important history really is. I must confess at school I hated it, but as I have got older really started to enjoy it more, even more so the bygone days etc.
He said that without knowing the history of anything, you would not know what part of that history you were part of, or in other words what part of the journey you were at. So I think all fans both young and old could really benefit finding out the full history of our club, just in case they are lost. ;D
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Enzo
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Post by Enzo on Feb 25, 2009 23:04:51 GMT
Personally, I don't think there are many genuine TUFC fans who are hysterically demanding promotion. Any fan who has been around for a while knows that you can count on little where TUFC are concerned. I think, however, that there are a few fans who are getting fed up with watching performances like the first half yesterday. What annoys me more than losing yesterday is the manner of the defeat - we were out fought, out thought and pretty clueless all over the park. It was embarrasing to watch to be honest and as bad as anything i can remember over the last few years. Did we travel on a Friday for this one? Having seen similar perfomances at Crawley, Woking, Eastbourne, Southport and to an extent Lewes, maybe this overnight thing is getting more like a jolly for the boys! Yesterday, it was not the attitude of the fans that one needed to question, it was the attitude of the players and management. We stank of complacency all over the park. Even whilst dominating the second half we only had a long throw and hoof ball as a means of creativity. Buckle has been afforded comparative luxury in his budget and backroom staff which should give him an advantage of many clubs of this level. After the debacle yesterday fans are perfectly entitled to question if he is making best use of it. I'd challenge Mr Buckle to sit through a video of that game and point out exactly what he and his staff have been doing all week on the training park and how it was used in yesterdays game. I don't demand to win every week......I simply demand that we are able compete every week - too often nowadays we are not even doing that. Merse - take a look at the post above, which was one of the ones which sparked your latest indiscretion. Kindly outline where exactly I suggest that "the club take the manager to task" Also please explain where I suggest that the "Manager takes a confrontational manner towards the players"? It may well be your humble opinion, and one which the captain of the local cricket club agrees with, (WTF!!??), However, unfortunately you are reading what you want to read and not what is written. My initial post was merely the writings of a pretty frustrated fan, who, having seen a crap performance, questioned what the manager and players had done in training all week. No demands that the club do anything about it were made - the clues are in the way that I us the word "I" rather than words like "the club". |
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merse
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Post by merse on Feb 26, 2009 5:45:00 GMT
Did we travel on a Friday for this one? Having seen similar perfomances at Crawley, Woking, Eastbourne, Southport and to an extent Lewes, maybe this overnight thing is getting more like a jolly for the boys! Yesterday, it was not the attitude of the fans that one needed to question, it was the attitude of the players and management. We stank of complacency all over the park. Buckle has been afforded comparative luxury in his budget and backroom staff which should give him an advantage of many clubs of this level. After the debacle yesterday fans are perfectly entitled to question if he is making best use of it. I'd challenge Mr Buckle to sit through a video of that game and point out exactly what he and his staff have been doing all week on the training park and how it was used in yesterdays game. Merse - take a look at the post above, which was one of the ones which sparked your latest indiscretion. Kindly outline where exactly I suggest that "the club take the manager to task" Also please explain where I suggest that the "Manager takes a confrontational manner towards the players"? [/quote]  Fair enough, I'll plead guilty to reading your superior pontifications as those of one who would be calling the management and playing staff to task for offending you with the outcome of last Saturday's game as one who deludes himself that he would do exactly as you state were you Paul buckle's "boss" |
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Enzo
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Post by Enzo on Feb 26, 2009 17:23:48 GMT
Did we travel on a Friday for this one? Having seen similar perfomances at Crawley, Woking, Eastbourne, Southport and to an extent Lewes, maybe this overnight thing is getting more like a jolly for the boys! Yesterday, it was not the attitude of the fans that one needed to question, it was the attitude of the players and management. We stank of complacency all over the park. Buckle has been afforded comparative luxury in his budget and backroom staff which should give him an advantage of many clubs of this level. After the debacle yesterday fans are perfectly entitled to question if he is making best use of it. I'd challenge Mr Buckle to sit through a video of that game and point out exactly what he and his staff have been doing all week on the training park and how it was used in yesterdays game. Merse - take a look at the post above, which was one of the ones which sparked your latest indiscretion. Kindly outline where exactly I suggest that "the club take the manager to task" Also please explain where I suggest that the "Manager takes a confrontational manner towards the players"? Fair enough, I'll plead guilty to reading your superior pontifications as those of one who would be calling the management and playing staff to task for offending you with the outcome of last Saturday's game as one who deludes himself that he would do exactly as you state were you Paul buckle's "boss" [/quote] .........or you could just say sorry, I misrepresented your comments! Again, read the original post, unedited. Why are my thoughts "superior pontifications"? Are your views ever superior pontifications? The manner of the defeat at Kettering (I repeat MANNER OF rather than actual defeat), was in my opinion awful. We looked tactically clueless when we eventually turned up just in time for the second half. As a fan, who was at the game I am entitled to my opinion - try to shoot it down if you wish and tell me that the first half was great. Just because you disagree with the opinion it becomes a superior pontification! Every time someone dares to even question PB, you seek to discredit the poster, in this case by bringing poor old JMGull into it. Previously people were accused of holding a witch hunt against the man. For christ sake get real - he is the manager of a football club which is on a bit of a poor run at the moment. PB has some culpability in this. Rather ironic that you use the term superior pontification within a 52 word sentence! |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Feb 26, 2009 18:06:44 GMT
Are your views ever superior pontifications? Of course Merse's views are superior pontifications! Didn't you know that he always sits higher up than everybody else?   |
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