Post by Dave on Jun 20, 2009 11:16:06 GMT
Well stuartb got the week of to a great start with his walk around Paignton days out thread, it featured the wonderful building Oldway mansions, a place that must be the best registry office in the whole of England and the place Carol and I got wed.
Mind you due to overseas communication problems due mainly to my Devon tongue, dear Rolf was my best man, I was so pleased he came over from Holland to be with us at our wedding, but it was not the original plan, but one that worked out so much better than the one we did have.
Then Chris Hayes treated us to his London picture thread and that one is getting very interesting and I’m looking forward to Chris adding some more great London shots.
I also loved capitalgulls(ANDY) great picture thread, only Dave R made himself look a bit of a fool with a daft question about the way the stands were made, well what do you expect from a true Devon boy I ask you.
Thanks to all those who have made contributions on the forum this week, we need to keep it ticking over nicely until we can get back to the real business when the season starts.
I don’t like normally to single out any one member, but I want to say a big thank you to aussie, he has played a very big part in keeping the forum working during the day all this week, davethegull sure came and woke up the forum one morning when it was in danger of falling to sleep, love him or hate him, he plays a part on the forum.
This weeks winner is not new to wining the weekly title, a man who will be known in years to come as a true legend of the TFF forum, I think we can all agree he has such a wide knowledge of nearly everything and he goes missing for a day or two and you just wait to see where he has been this time when he returns to us on the forum.
He is also into the bargain a very decent and nice man and a real pleasure to talk with. long may he continue to be a member on the TFF, because he brings so much into the forum and it would be a poorer place without him.
This week’s winner is Barton Downs, well done Barton and keep up all the good work you do on the forum.
Just one of the great posts made this week by Barton
I pretty much agree with all of what Merse says in his posting. I’ve highlighted the above as a reminder that the Conference is merely the league below the one in which we ordinarily play. A return is always possible and it may be as a consequence of gross ineptitude, sudden crisis or – here’s the hard bit - plain bad luck. As we can never be absolutely sure it won’t happen again, we can only aim to minimalise the likelihood of that prospect.
I certainly don’t think any of us advocated relegation as the prime way of regenerating the club. But, once it happened, it was unlikely to be the absolute end of the world provided we had a good club. When our fate was sealed in April 2007 we didn’t have a strong club but – thanks to the efforts of many – that sorry state of affairs was soon rectified. To return to the League in two seasons was remarkable given the history of the club and I really believe we made the most of the situation in the way we conducted our business.
From the perspective of a fan, I’d go along with the view that football is there to be enjoyed at whatever level (shock! horror!). For sure, seeing our team win – and win regularly – is one of our main desires as supporters. However, this can’t be the sole extent of the matter or, otherwise, we’d have given up through abject despondency pretty soon after we first caught the bug. It takes all sorts - of course - but, for me anyway, there are several aspects to being a football supporter: supporting my team; following football in general and using the game to satisfy my curiosity for people and places.
A combination of these outlooks took me to plenty of new towns and grounds over the last two years and - like Merse – I'd argue there was definitely something rewarding about visiting Lewes, Kettering and Eastbourne. I’m also really glad I went to Barrow, Wimbledon, Farlsey and Droylsden. That, I feel, is a case of appreciating what is laid in front of you at the time. But, equally, it’s definitely not a cry to repeat the same itinerary next year (or again in the future) and I’ll be more than delighted to visit Bradford City, Notts County, Accrington, Shrewsbury, Morecambe and so on. I'd argue that whatever the league...Conference, League 2 or League 1…you should try to enjoy it and aim to visit new places if possible (should you have the desire, time and money). And, at this time of the year, relish the annual ritual of the publication of the fixture list. It's having another season ahead that counts...
Lastly, a reflection on Dave’s point that the new regime would have preferred to have inherited a Football League club back in 2007. That’s taken as read but I wonder how the last two seasons might have panned out if that had been the case? And I wonder what our feelings – or mood – might have been now? I ask this partly because of that slight sense of perverse frustration many must have felt in those wonderful few months between May and November 2007 when everything seemed to go right. I remember being convinced that – had we been in League 2 – we would have been challenging for promotion. The feeling was that good.
But, what if the Chris Roberts episode had never occurred and Mike Bateson had sold a club which had finished mid-table in 2007? Or what if Roberts had remained at the helm for three months longer and the club had escaped relegation by the skin of its teeth? Either way - one more than the other admittedly - I maintain a tremendous amount of remedial work would have been required to rebuild the club. At League 2 level – depending on allocation of resources – we could have enjoyed two successful seasons or two of far more modest achievement. If it had been the latter – say 15th followed by 12th alongside significant (but generally unappreciated) improvements to the infrastructure – I bet there’d now be a feeling of flatness with people saying the club still lacked ambition.
Yes, you could argue the club is two years behind where it could have been by now. But, two years of the Conference notwithstanding, most of us still perceive a “feelgood factor” allied to a sense of achievement and regeneration. Something else, I'd contend, to be cherished whilst it lasts.
Mind you due to overseas communication problems due mainly to my Devon tongue, dear Rolf was my best man, I was so pleased he came over from Holland to be with us at our wedding, but it was not the original plan, but one that worked out so much better than the one we did have.
Then Chris Hayes treated us to his London picture thread and that one is getting very interesting and I’m looking forward to Chris adding some more great London shots.
I also loved capitalgulls(ANDY) great picture thread, only Dave R made himself look a bit of a fool with a daft question about the way the stands were made, well what do you expect from a true Devon boy I ask you.
Thanks to all those who have made contributions on the forum this week, we need to keep it ticking over nicely until we can get back to the real business when the season starts.
I don’t like normally to single out any one member, but I want to say a big thank you to aussie, he has played a very big part in keeping the forum working during the day all this week, davethegull sure came and woke up the forum one morning when it was in danger of falling to sleep, love him or hate him, he plays a part on the forum.
This weeks winner is not new to wining the weekly title, a man who will be known in years to come as a true legend of the TFF forum, I think we can all agree he has such a wide knowledge of nearly everything and he goes missing for a day or two and you just wait to see where he has been this time when he returns to us on the forum.
He is also into the bargain a very decent and nice man and a real pleasure to talk with. long may he continue to be a member on the TFF, because he brings so much into the forum and it would be a poorer place without him.
This week’s winner is Barton Downs, well done Barton and keep up all the good work you do on the forum.
Just one of the great posts made this week by Barton
I pretty much agree with all of what Merse says in his posting. I’ve highlighted the above as a reminder that the Conference is merely the league below the one in which we ordinarily play. A return is always possible and it may be as a consequence of gross ineptitude, sudden crisis or – here’s the hard bit - plain bad luck. As we can never be absolutely sure it won’t happen again, we can only aim to minimalise the likelihood of that prospect.
I certainly don’t think any of us advocated relegation as the prime way of regenerating the club. But, once it happened, it was unlikely to be the absolute end of the world provided we had a good club. When our fate was sealed in April 2007 we didn’t have a strong club but – thanks to the efforts of many – that sorry state of affairs was soon rectified. To return to the League in two seasons was remarkable given the history of the club and I really believe we made the most of the situation in the way we conducted our business.
From the perspective of a fan, I’d go along with the view that football is there to be enjoyed at whatever level (shock! horror!). For sure, seeing our team win – and win regularly – is one of our main desires as supporters. However, this can’t be the sole extent of the matter or, otherwise, we’d have given up through abject despondency pretty soon after we first caught the bug. It takes all sorts - of course - but, for me anyway, there are several aspects to being a football supporter: supporting my team; following football in general and using the game to satisfy my curiosity for people and places.
A combination of these outlooks took me to plenty of new towns and grounds over the last two years and - like Merse – I'd argue there was definitely something rewarding about visiting Lewes, Kettering and Eastbourne. I’m also really glad I went to Barrow, Wimbledon, Farlsey and Droylsden. That, I feel, is a case of appreciating what is laid in front of you at the time. But, equally, it’s definitely not a cry to repeat the same itinerary next year (or again in the future) and I’ll be more than delighted to visit Bradford City, Notts County, Accrington, Shrewsbury, Morecambe and so on. I'd argue that whatever the league...Conference, League 2 or League 1…you should try to enjoy it and aim to visit new places if possible (should you have the desire, time and money). And, at this time of the year, relish the annual ritual of the publication of the fixture list. It's having another season ahead that counts...
Lastly, a reflection on Dave’s point that the new regime would have preferred to have inherited a Football League club back in 2007. That’s taken as read but I wonder how the last two seasons might have panned out if that had been the case? And I wonder what our feelings – or mood – might have been now? I ask this partly because of that slight sense of perverse frustration many must have felt in those wonderful few months between May and November 2007 when everything seemed to go right. I remember being convinced that – had we been in League 2 – we would have been challenging for promotion. The feeling was that good.
But, what if the Chris Roberts episode had never occurred and Mike Bateson had sold a club which had finished mid-table in 2007? Or what if Roberts had remained at the helm for three months longer and the club had escaped relegation by the skin of its teeth? Either way - one more than the other admittedly - I maintain a tremendous amount of remedial work would have been required to rebuild the club. At League 2 level – depending on allocation of resources – we could have enjoyed two successful seasons or two of far more modest achievement. If it had been the latter – say 15th followed by 12th alongside significant (but generally unappreciated) improvements to the infrastructure – I bet there’d now be a feeling of flatness with people saying the club still lacked ambition.
Yes, you could argue the club is two years behind where it could have been by now. But, two years of the Conference notwithstanding, most of us still perceive a “feelgood factor” allied to a sense of achievement and regeneration. Something else, I'd contend, to be cherished whilst it lasts.
