Just relegate us now...

[BigCrompy]

Think we're as bad as Barnet, do you?

No-one said this year was going to be easy. We may all have hoped for better but just see, perhaps a January signing or two and we'll go on a run.

You have to be spectacularly bad to get relegated, we know that from experience. Keep the faith!

Spectacularly bad ? On current form we are relegation candidates. Two teams get relegated. Hereford seem to be sorting themselves out. Worse than us on present form - Barnet, Stockport (who beat us), Lincoln?
Keep the faith you say but you can't have much faith in the current squad if you don't expect us to go on a run until we've made a couple of signings in January. Two months of what before the window opens?

I am quite prepared to rephrase this to &quotthose who get relegated are usually spectacularly bad&quot which I think is significantly different to what I first said - but I still insist that we are not. 2005-6, we were mince, Rubbish and Dustbins were worse, and we both deserved our fates. This time, we have been competitive in most games we've got points from and some that we didn't, and only really been completely outgunned in a few. We have beaten those near the top and strugglers near the bottom (as well as losing to them.

On current form we are not relegation candidates - Lincoln and Barnet are. Surely you'd agree that 15 games gives a more accurate indication of a likely season performance than does two games? On current form, we are 15th, and 5 points clear of relegation. On current form, we shall finish 15th and approximately 15 points clear of the drop. Having said that, I know fine well what Mark Twain had to say on the matter.

This is not to say that I am happy with current events, and it is not to say that I don't agree that Wilder should make changes, because I most certainly do. And I can't dispute most of those changes being suggested, especially to the captaincy and to 2010's Martin Gray. There are goals in this team, of that I've no doubt, and the defence is in theory solid enough. But totally concur that those who are out of form need to be given the chance to find themselves in the Magoos.

I would also refute that 'we are a squad of mainly non-league players' (can't remember if I read that on this site or on the Mail) because that is just a figment. Does a ManUre youth team player become a 'non-league player' whilst on a month's loan to Altricham, or is he still a top-flight player? Fiction.

The reason that I pursue this thread - to insist that relegation has not crossed my mind, nor should it. This is our bad run, and there may be another to come. There will be good runs too. We are not bad enough to contemplate the drop - that is not to say we should settle for obscurity and should not strive to be better.

[A-Ro]

What helped to get Us into what is now called the Premier League was the way we threatened so much with corners. That stuff in the 94-95 season amazed me in that we never got found out (tactics wise) as just about every corner was delivered to the edge of the 18 yard box and it would be flicked on by a backwards header from a person wearing YELLOW into the 6 yard box (which of course means you have no idea where it will go) and it just caused chaos, especially if you had John Aldridge sniffing around..

Sorry - can't help saying this but 94-95 John Aldridge ?

Or have I misunderstood it.

I'm also struggling to visualise a corner flicked backwards from the edge of the 18 yard box into the 6 yard box.

Imagine the set up of a corner, we have one big man stood nearer to the ball, maybe close to the 18 yard line, ball gets played in short just about head height, said big fellow heads it backwards into the 6 yard box and bingo. It did the trick time after time although I would say that the big chap was probably a bit nearer the edge of the 6 yard box than the 18 yard box but that's what 25 years will do to your memory.

[Dr Bob]

Maybe I am reading this all wrong, but it sounds to me like a poorly worded way of saying a short corner is driven into the near post, someone (Matt Elliott did this a lot) flicked it up into the middle of the six-yard box, to whomsoever was waiting there. Simples.

[boris]

But that was when we had Joey Beauchamp on corner-taking duty. I can't think of anyone in the current squad who can deliver a dead-ball with that kind of accuracy (although, to be fair, I haven't seen everyone in the squad take a corner). Plus defenders are also more wise to that trick, and whenever you see a big centre-back waiting on the edge of the six-yard box you invariably see him with a big defender in front of him and another right behind him.

[Baboo]

On current form we are not relegation candidates - Lincoln and Barnet are. Surely you'd agree that 15 games gives a more accurate indication of a likely season performance than does two games? On current form, we are 15th, and 5 points clear of relegation. On current form, we shall finish 15th and approximately 15 points clear of the drop. Having said that, I know fine well what Mark Twain had to say on the matter.

This is not to say that I am happy with current events, and it is not to say that I don't agree that Wilder should make changes, because I most certainly do. And I can't dispute most of those changes being suggested, especially to the captaincy and to 2010's Martin Gray. There are goals in this team, of that I've no doubt, and the defence is in theory solid enough. But totally concur that those who are out of form need to be given the chance to find themselves in the Magoos.

I would also refute that 'we are a squad of mainly non-league players' (can't remember if I read that on this site or on the Mail) because that is just a figment. Does a ManUre youth team player become a 'non-league player' whilst on a month's loan to Altricham, or is he still a top-flight player? Fiction.

The reason that I pursue this thread - to insist that relegation has not crossed my mind, nor should it. This is our bad run, and there may be another to come. There will be good runs too. We are not bad enough to contemplate the drop - that is not to say we should settle for obscurity and should not strive to be better.

Accepted - for some reason last 6 games is usually considered to be a good indication of current form. We've picked up 6 pts, Lincoln 4 &amp Barnet 3. Presumably they are having their bad patch now too.

Another way of looking at it - a point a game ain't enough though.

Truthfully I really have no idea where we will finish. A play-off place or relegation fight to the bitter end. I don't know.

I am quite confused and also taken aback by the gap between the BSP rubbish we had become used to and the League 2 standard.

Also I have never gone along with the too good to go down nonsense. All possibilities should be considered and planned for. Building a young team for the future is not much use if they have not got the nous to keep us up first time of asking before thay really get their act together.

Interesting &amp tense times ahead?

[A-Ro]

But that was when we had Joey Beauchamp on corner-taking duty. I can't think of anyone in the current squad who can deliver a dead-ball with that kind of accuracy (although, to be fair, I haven't seen everyone in the squad take a corner). Plus defenders are also more wise to that trick, and whenever you see a big centre-back waiting on the edge of the six-yard box you invariably see him with a big defender in front of him and another right behind him.

That would keep two big defenders from in front of goal.

[Werthers Original]

Last time we were in Div 4 I thought it was very poor, but now we seem to be playing Arsenal every week (not quite, but you know what I mean). Is it just perception, or has the standard risen, maybe due to decent players being displaced from higher up by foreign imports?

[SmileyMan]

Last time we were in Div 4 I thought it was very poor, but now we seem to be playing Arsenal every week (not quite, but you know what I mean). Is it just perception, or has the standard risen, maybe due to decent players being displaced from higher up by foreign imports?

And managers, I expect

[Baboo]

Last time we were in Div 4 I thought it was very poor, but now we seem to be playing Arsenal every week (not quite, but you know what I mean). Is it just perception, or has the standard risen, maybe due to decent players being displaced from higher up by foreign imports?

Not just perception glaringly obvious the way I see it.

[boris]

You reckon? I don't think the standard now is particularly higher than it was last time we were in this division. I think it's more a case of how far we've sunk and therefore how far back we have to climb.

Our current squad is arguably better than the one with which we were relegated (at least the second half of that season after Bradbury, Hackett and Davies left to be replaced by Yemi, Sills, and Roach), but I don't think it's anywhere near as good as the squad with which Atkins blew the play-offs for two seasons running (helped, admittedly, by Rix the second time around). I don't think it's as good as the squad that Diaz built either. Wilder has a lot more work to do to bring this lot up to a promotion-challenging outfit, because it's still essentially a Conference squad. Maybe it's the inexperience thing, but I don't think it's because the standards are any higher than they were.

[Baboo]

It's something that we'll never be able to prove one way or another - obviously.

[Snake]

Maybe I am reading this all wrong, but it sounds to me like a poorly worded way of saying a short corner is driven into the near post, someone (Matt Elliott did this a lot) flicked it up into the middle of the six-yard box, to whomsoever was waiting there. Simples.

Thank you Dr Bob for translating that for me. And yes, Elliott was the master of the backwards header. In essence it just created chaos as no one knew where the ball would end up about a quarter of a second later other than somewhere in the six yard box and the fastest player to react (from either team) would have to deal with it.

Speaking of which, does anyone else think that our set piece plays have been a little bit on the predictable side in recent years? e.g. direct free kicks just outside the penalty area either get blasted into the defensive wall (presumably hoping for a wicked deflection to deceive the keeper), go over the bar and just occasionally (like the goal that Josh scored recently) go straight in? I know we're not on Match of the Day every Saturday night any more but they still seem a bit un-inventive.

Corners are a typical example. They always seem to raise huge chants of expectation (&quotCome on you Yellows&quot followed by &quotYellows, Yellows, Yellows&quot) but I think that harks back to the days when we scored a lot more goals via corners that we do now.

And don't get me started with the kick off routine as since the days of Ian Atkins we always seem to kick/hoof for touch in the opponents' half like it was a game of Wugby.

Ditto for when Clarke has the ball in his hands. He so rarely rolls it out to the left or right full back and nearly always launches it 70 yards or so to Beano with the opposition's version of The Beast on his back.

I know it's still Division IV but a bit of a change/variety would be nice now and again.

[Kernow Yellow]

Speaking of which, does anyone else think that our set piece plays have been a little bit on the predictable side in recent years? e.g. direct free kicks just outside the penalty area either get blasted into the defensive wall (presumably hoping for a wicked deflection to deceive the keeper), go over the bar and just occasionally (like the goal that Josh scored recently) go straight in? I know we're not on Match of the Day every Saturday night any more but they still seem a bit un-inventive.

Be careful what you wish for. On Tuesday a free-kick in a really good shooting position led to a risibly-executed training-ground routine, with Batt flicking the ball up and over the wall to no-one at all.

And don't get me started with the kick off routine as since the days of Ian Atkins we always seem to kick/hoof for touch in the opponents' half like it was a game of Wugby.

We started that well before Atkins - I first remember it during the Denis Smith era. The difference being that Moody would hare down the touchline and put the defenders under a bit of pressure as the ball came down, and even occasionally win possession if the wind was favourable!

[Snake]

Speaking of which, does anyone else think that our set piece plays have been a little bit on the predictable side in recent years? e.g. direct free kicks just outside the penalty area either get blasted into the defensive wall (presumably hoping for a wicked deflection to deceive the keeper), go over the bar and just occasionally (like the goal that Josh scored recently) go straight in? I know we're not on Match of the Day every Saturday night any more but they still seem a bit un-inventive.

Be careful what you wish for. On Tuesday a free-kick in a really good shooting position led to a risibly-executed training-ground routine, with Batt flicking the ball up and over the wall to no-one at all.

And don't get me started with the kick off routine as since the days of Ian Atkins we always seem to kick/hoof for touch in the opponents' half like it was a game of Wugby.

We started that well before Atkins - I first remember it during the Denis Smith era. The difference being that Moody would hare down the touchline and put the defenders under a bit of pressure as the ball came down, and even occasionally win possession if the wind was favourable!

“a risibly-executed training-ground routine

[Old Abingdonian]

I do think the League 2 standard is higher than I expected, and higher than when we were relegated, although no-one can prove it.

I also think Boris is a little unfair with his designation of a largely Conference squad. You have to assume that a team promoted from one league can at least cope in the next one up. Ironically, at the moment our most experienced (?, haven't checked) league player, Tonkin, is playing atrociously at the moment. Conversely, I wouldn't desinate Clarke, Worley, Wright, Payne, Heslop, Craddock and Potter as 'Conference players'.

But I do think there is an urgent question as to whether Constable is.