Shildon - FA Cup Replay

Why was our management letting Luke do that at half time. You wouldn't see that sort of thing at a professional club so why ours.
VERY PROFESSIONAL

glassboypaul wrote:Agreed about Geddes; reckon Baggie Stour must be a relation of Geddes the way he goes on about him! Didn't think he was playing well this season before he left and we've scored more goals per game on average since he left.

Whatever.

It has to be said that Geddes was a class act for Stour for three seasons and by all accounts he's excelling at the level above as i believe both Billingham and Benbow would.

I don't even know Sean,i'm certainly not related yet i think he'll be a very tough act to replace.

The biggest loss is Nathan Bennett in my opinion,it still doesn't feel right not seeing him in a Stour side.

What a player.

It's only a game certainly put into context by a phonecall I received about a sudden death on the trip to the away match, but at the moment, frustration fury and despair are my overriding emotions.

Shildon deserved to go through tonight, they upped their performance from sataurday and frankly during the first half I wondered which team had only got off the coach at 7.20, it's a bit of a joke that in theory they are the same pegging as Causeway or the Lye! about the only thing that is funny at the moment.  Both goals where a bit soft at least we showed some intent in the second half  after desperatly needed half time changes, Craddock in particular was annonomous.  Some excellent saves from the keeper but we desperatly needed bite up front, it was disapointing to see their total domination in the six yard box.

We are out of the cup and it hurts, I want to forget this one quickly. We had 3 players cup tied and 2 injured, hopefully we can regroup when fielding our strongest side.

The manager? he does need to look at his own performance (and of his backroom), but there where very similar discussions in the previous two seasons and he turned it around.  In any event I don't see him quiting or being sacked - don't think the manager should be on the board though, it makes things awkward.

Hopefully the recovery process will start at Matlock - up the glassboys.

Hey glassboy, I also mentioned rowey, both rowey and Gedz where not enjoying it because it was getting stale.
Good luck to them they have both gone on to bigger clubs but the point I am trying to make is that we let them go and like jack said earlier " we have lost around 45 goals"
What I am more interested in is where are we going to replace those goals because they ain't coming from the team we have now or the way we are playing.
I haven't been a stour fan has long as most of you but I am passionate about football and the supporters down amblecote are some of the best I have mingled with over the last two years , I have had some great away days with them and I belive those supporters deserve better, I also believe we are being short changed.
The board and management won't like my comments but I say it as I feel because I like to watch good attacking football whatever level it is.

I'm not suggesting Gary should go, but he certainly has some work to do ain't no mistake pard'ner!

I personally think GH is an alright bloke but he needs to get us out of this level

Baggiestour wrote:I personally think GH is an alright bloke but he needs to get us out of this level

Gary is such a nice bloke it feels horrible to even broach moans and complaints about the team and the performances,i've said many times before,you simply couldn't find a more decent bloke to be managing your local club.

Maybe Gary is just too loyal to his players,assistants and the board.

He might just need to have a major shake up in all departments,he might have to put people's noses out of joint,people who he's been close with in all parts of the club over the last decade.

I said a few weeks ago that i thought Gary had earned the right to demand ( within reason ) that the board either poo or get off the potty when it comes to going after better players and using some of the £150k we are "saving" for a promotion that might well never happen.

I think it's time for Gary to start knocking heads together and to make the changes that HE see's fit.

I think this season is just about gone as far as a promotion challenge is concerned,hell,we're closer to the relegation spots than to the top five.

I think Gary should use the rest of this season to prepare for a major challenge next season,i think he deserves at least this season and a good portion of next season to get things right,he has earned at least that amount of loyalty from all of us regardless of how frustrated we all might be tonight.

I know you read the forum Gary,i'm sure at times you think some of us are a bunch of morons when we shoot from the lip during the bad periods,this is only a result of caring deeply about our local club.

I just hope you give yourself the best chance,the chance you deserve after a great ten years overall but you need to demand more investment in quality and you need to shake things up generally.

I wish you all the luck in the world.

Baggiestour wrote:You can't understand the comment about the manager??
You have just mentioned some of the problems that should not have occurred.
We are in a worse position now compared to two tears ago. Our best players are leaving the football is dross, the training is the same week in week out.
Tell me another club in England that would accept the position we are in compared to where we where two years ago.we are not improving we are getting worse.
Sub standard players will not get us out of this league .look at Hemel

The obvious question is. If you really thing Gary is past it, then why don't you just come out and say the club should sack the management instead of waffling round it like a politician.  And changing the management is something that I and every other supporter would be totally against, after all we haven't got a multi-millionaire backer to be successful all the time

One of our biggest problems is the fact that over the past few seasons we've been successful, both in the league and the cup.  And when we go through a bad period, like we are at the moment it is hard to take.  The southern league was a lot easier than the northern premier is and we're learning that the hard way.

Yes I agree, when we swapped divisions in the summer they should have brought in players who've had experience of playing in this division.  Not doing so was a big mistake.  But whilst people are moaning about the management, you have to realize that they are learning about this league just like the rest of the club.

And regardless of the issue of players leaving and not being replaced, anyone who thought we would move into the northern prem and gain instant success like previous seasons is an idiot.

The thing that worries me most about our cup run this season, is the fact that we've played matches against lower division teams and struggled.  Eventually losing to one last night.  Like everyone else has said all the best to shildon, and if they do get into the first or second round I hope they don't get drawn away to Stevenage.

Baggiestour wrote:Sub standard players will not get us out of this league .look at Hemel

Are you referring to the Hemel who spent loads of money on players to get promotion, but are now sitting 3rd from bottom in the conference south by any chance

That's kind of the point. It's not necessarily the league that is the issue, it's the poor performances against much lower ranked opposition such as Blaby and Shildon, and that's no disrespect to them.

If the away game at Blaby was 'one of those games' shall we say, that can be shrugged off. But we've just been beaten, comfortably too, at home by a team from step 5 (regardless of the arguments about it's true standard), no doubt missing players and turned up late after a long journey.

Opinions are like arseholes, but resorting to calling people idiots isn't necessary.

I trust Gary will turn it around, I just wish we weren't having the same discussion every season recently.

I expected little this season, but I did expect to see a better standard of football than we're currently producing.

sirsmilerIII wrote:

Baggiestour wrote:Sub standard players will not get us out of this league .look at Hemel

Are you referring to the Hemel who spent loads of money on players to get promotion, but are now sitting 3rd from bottom in the conference south by any chance

3rd from bottom of the Conference South though Smiler. Every team needs time to adapt, Gosport looked nailed on relegation candidates pre Christmas last season, look where they finished and where they are now.

I don't think Gary will turn it around ....... Playing five a side football in the big goals in training week in week out ain't going to change the way we are supposed to try and open teams up.
New ideas are needed,this doesnt always mean throwing money at it.

But Gary has turned it around time and time again. My issue is why we consistantly need to 'turn it around' these past few seasons. You seem to have mind your mind up that he needs to go. Who's top of your list for the hotseat then in that case?

You seem to know an awful lot about the running of the club Baggie Stour. Like I said you must be related to one of the players (or ex players) methinks! Why don't you go and tell the committee your thoughts at one of the 150 club meetings? And who are these top quality managerial replacements locally?

Yes I do know players and yes we talk, these are not made up comments. I have even been up the club on a training day and see what's happening.
Rushall manager has now got them playing good football, John hill has got tipton town and halesowen promoted on a smaller budget than stours.
It seems like 99% of fans are happy with what's going on, but it's all about opinions and I believe there are better out there, not just the two names I've mentioned.
The Northern Ireland manager comes in and works with the same players as the previous manager and look at the turn around , like I said new ideas.

I don't see any comments on this thread that suggest Stour fans are happy. I personally don't agree that changing the manager is necessarily the answer. It's nothing to do with whether Gary is a nice bloke.

I think he has earned the right to try and turn it around, my concern is that we've had this conversation a number of times in recent seasons. If he does indeed turn it around, but we find ourselves having the same discussion this time next year, that's a different matter perhaps.

Last night was embarrassing - as Aled said, Shildon turned up after a 5 1/2 hour journey with players missing and outplayed us, two games against a Step 5 team; no goals.

However, saying that Gary should be sacked is way off the mark. There's been comments on here that he'd taken us as far as he could two years ago - he then took us further. Let's not forget that he's put together the best Stour team for forty years and arguably the most successful of all time. He's now having to re-build, probably a bit quicker than he'd have liked, in a stronger league. He's earned the right to have a go at the job and not only would sacking him now be the wrong thing to do, but I dread to think what kind of message it would send to any prospective new manager.

Having followed stour for about ten years and only miss a handfull of matches home and away every season i have only known success,as we all know we are going thro a difficult patch,i try not to get to involved with the politics of the club i just wanna see the players give there all,which is the case 99% of the time,all we can do is keep turning up and supporting the team,the players will be low on confidence so up to the management to wave their magic hand and work their magic! I guess we may see a different team Saturday? Final thought is the players are mostly working and playing footy and there is a poor Mr Sterling who is to tired to play for England!

Those are tinpot managers compared to Gary's pedigree.

Rushall were the worst side I've seen all season in the league. I'm sure their current position is completely false and they will soon become a non-descript mid table side.

I'm not a happy bunny by any means as I think the playing squad is hugely lacking in key areas but I don't agree that changing the management is the answer.

Well said BAZ, we have Berwick, Hales, McCone to come in on Saturday. Possibly Leon and KRD too and maybe even Benbow since he seemed to be happy enough leaping about at half time yesterday.

That alone will really freshen things up for the league games coming up and hopefully our league form will pick up as a result.

I'm not saying I'm happy or all is rosy, I'm saying keep the faith and get behind the players and management team.

glassboypaul wrote:Those are tinpot managers compared to Gary's pedigree.

Rushall were the worst side I've seen all season in the league. I'm sure their current position is completely false and they will soon become a non-descript mid table side.

I'm not a happy bunny by any means as I think the playing squad is hugely lacking in key areas but I don't agree that changing the management is the answer.

To describe Richard Sneekes as "tinpot" is just ridiculous.

The youngest player ever to represent Ajax at 16 years of age having come through their brilliant youth team and then a long career in England at Bolton Wanderers and West Brom,i'm sure even Gary would agree Sneekes was the better player out of the pair of them and that he has a great pedigree.

Like i said last night,i do feel Gary deserves the chance to have one more go at building a new and vibrant team but he needs to come up with some new ideas,playing 5 a side into full sized goals is simply not an acceptable level of training at our level in my opinion.

We are no longer using the main pitch to host Causeway matches,we should be using that pitch to work on tactics and formation as well as set pieces,this is the very least you'd expect from coaching at our level,playing one and two touch five a side is what we did in Kiddie League Sunday football!

As i said previously,Gary needs to grab the bull by the horns and make some personally difficult decisions regarding players and staff and to become a bit more demanding of our board.

Aled wrote:

sirsmilerIII wrote:

Baggiestour wrote:Sub standard players will not get us out of this league .look at Hemel

Are you referring to the Hemel who spent loads of money on players to get promotion, but are now sitting 3rd from bottom in the conference south by any chance

3rd from bottom of the Conference South though Smiler. Every team needs time to adapt, Gosport looked nailed on relegation candidates pre Christmas last season, look where they finished and where they are now.

If your comment about teams needing time to adapt is correct then why have people been moaning on here. Don't we need time to adapt as well, or doesn't it apply to us.  After all we're not sitting 3rd from bottom in the league.

glassboypaul wrote:Well said BAZ, we have Berwick, Hales, McCone to come in on Saturday. Possibly Leon and KRD too and maybe even Benbow since he seemed to be happy enough leaping about at half time yesterday.

That alone will really freshen things up for the league games coming up and hopefully our league form will pick up as a result.

I'm not saying I'm happy or all is rosy, I'm saying keep the faith and get behind the players and management team.

I totally agree, with those new players coming into the team there has to be an improvement.  Going out of the FA Cup isn't the end of the world, after all 2 seasons ago we lost to Leamington in one of the early qualifying rounds then came back last season to reach the 2nd round.  We just have to accept that losses will happen, regardless of what division our opponents are in.

OK.i ain't saying anything else, we will see where we are come the end of the season and if I am wrong which I hope I am I will eat humble pie.
Enough said.

halesowen managed to win 7-1 when they played a team thats at the same level as blaby and they have being struggling all season

It has been very good seeing so many positive comments from Shildon about our club and the fans. Great hospitality, sporting behaviour, treatment, attitudes after game etc. That's great to see and somehow the most important thing of all.

The name and reputation of our club being talked about so highly. Well done all!