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A blessing in disguise that we failed to get promoted

IndoMike

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May 9, 2010
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Touring Central Java...
Oh dear Mike. :eek:
That must be one of your corniest efforts yet!
(Or was it just intended as a rye comment?)
😅
Anyway, I'm off soon to run free in the fields of Bali. I hop the police don't stop me.
 

Rosencrantz

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Jul 12, 2019
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Tiverton
😅
Anyway, I'm off soon to run free in the fields of Bali. I hop the police don't stop me.
You're testing your hay fever Mike, come on, we all know now how it is done :)
 

Mr Jinx

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Nov 28, 2006
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The main question is: would fans rather see us struggling near the bottom of L1, or in and around the promotion/playoff spots in L2?

If we had made it to L1, we would've been able to attract higher quality players in the summer, but given Matt T's signings of last summer, it's questionable as to whether any would deliver the goods.

Best therefore to have another crack at L2, and let's aim for the auto's this time. Sod the play-offs again.
 

Red Devon

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Apr 1, 2004
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The main question is: would fans rather see us struggling near the bottom of L1, or in and around the promotion/playoff spots in L2?

If we had made it to L1, we would've been able to attract higher quality players in the summer, but given Matt T's signings of last summer, it's questionable as to whether any would deliver the goods.

Best therefore to have another crack at L2, and let's aim for the auto's this time. Sod the play-offs again.
Some posters don’t seem to realise we could have a season or two struggling at the wrong end of league 2...give me 20th in League 1 any year.
 

Rosencrantz

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If fans would rather see us compete at the top of the table then they would always want us to miss out on promotion or even on occasion get relegated. It isn't a choice of the supporters though is it, we watch what we get. We play in the division we deserve to be based on the previous season. We can't choose to get promoted (cue the conspiracy theorists 😉), if we get the opportunity we go for it and get it or dip out.

If we did get promoted this season, it doesn't look as if we would have much more money to spend on quality players but we would have had to do the best we could with the players we have or got in (again probably only a couple). We certainly would have been seen as relegation favourites but then, we would have anyway no matter what squad we had.

It could be, and is, argued that losing the play off against Morecambe was a blessing in disguise as we were stronger the following season and bounced L2 as well. But really, we would never know.
 

i8cornwall

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Jul 2, 2006
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If fans would rather see us compete at the top of the table then they would always want us to miss out on promotion or even on occasion get relegated. It isn't a choice of the supporters though is it, we watch what we get. We play in the division we deserve to be based on the previous season. We can't choose to get promoted (cue the conspiracy theorists 😉), if we get the opportunity we go for it and get it or dip out.

If we did get promoted this season, it doesn't look as if we would have much more money to spend on quality players but we would have had to do the best we could with the players we have or got in (again probably only a couple). We certainly would have been seen as relegation favourites but then, we would have anyway no matter what squad we had.

It could be, and is, argued that losing the play off against Morecambe was a blessing in disguise as we were stronger the following season and bounced L2 as well. But really, we would never know.
The last part of your post is spot on, I think what differs this time around is that some are seeing it as 3rd loss in 4 seasons at Wembley (or fourth season of missing out).

Ultimately we will never know if that squad or potentially even if this squad would have been good enough to keep us in league one.

I really can’t see us being anywhere near the top three next season, I imagine with the way Mansfield and Bolton are splashing the cash that we might be in for a yet another play off push at best.

Who knows tho, I said Watkins was crap after seeing him play his first game for the first team and I’m pretty sure I’ve been proven wrong there!
 

Rosencrantz

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The last part of your post is spot on, I think what differs this time around is that some are seeing it as 3rd loss in 4 seasons at Wembley (or fourth season of missing out).

Ultimately we will never know if that squad or potentially even if this squad would have been good enough to keep us in league one.

I really can’t see us being anywhere near the top three next season, I imagine with the way Mansfield and Bolton are splashing the cash that we might be in for a yet another play off push at best.

Who knows tho, I said Watkins was crap after seeing him play his first game for the first team and I’m pretty sure I’ve been proven wrong there!
Ollie's not done too badly for himself so far 🙂.

It's always a case of waiting to see how the season starts to pan out after 10/15 games to have a decent idea where everyone stands, this season probably more than normal. You always get some clubs under and over performing from pre season expectation.

The only thing we can say for certain now is that unless Ollie gets a move, our budget won't be as competitive as it has been. So it will be a higher probability of a transitional kind of season given the squad will be much more inexperienced. That's not to say we won't still be up there having a go, just less likely. There is good talent waiting to come through, it is just unproven at this level.

Probably best to sit back, get behind the lads, see what happens and hopefully there will be some enjoyment to find.
 

arthur

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Aug 18, 2004
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When have we been though? We had a team of mostly Conference players on 2009, managed to stay up and follow up with our joint best season.
We had a storming finish in Spring 2009 and ended up 2nd. They may have been Conference players, but they were very good ones. I can't all which match it was, but there was a game we won in L1 in which 8 of the team had played for us in the Conference.

This year we started well, assisted hugely by Nicky Law scoring goals in the last five minutes to secure narrow victories, and fell away badly before the lockdown. The two seasons are comparable, but not in a good way
 

Legohead

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Jan 28, 2016
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The main question is: would fans rather see us struggling near the bottom of L1, or in and around the promotion/playoff spots in L2?

If we had made it to L1, we would've been able to attract higher quality players in the summer, but given Matt T's signings of last summer, it's questionable as to whether any would deliver the goods.

Best therefore to have another crack at L2, and let's aim for the auto's this time. Sod the play-offs again.
I'd rather see us struggling in League 1. A day at the footy for me is not just about the result. Being in League 1 would mean new grounds to go to and a bit of change from the usual Cambridge / Carlisle / Grimsby etc that we seem to be visiting every year. It's all about the experience not just the winning.

In addition, I would quite enjoy the tense nervousness of a L1 relegation battle I think. Something to play for.
 

DB9

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Sexton has asked if not getting promoted is a blessing in disguise, For me no, It is important as a club in a pyramid league system we start each season to get as high as possible, Best case Auto, Next best case Play Offs, Unfortunatly we failed (Again!) so we must start again with the aim as to do the best as possible and those aims must remain the same each season. I would not want the club to say they didn't share this ambition too.

If we achieved it last Monday then its up to the club to have made a fair go of it to remain in L1, Not just the playing side but behind the scenes too. Money and attracting players would have been an issue, Even without this virus and will be whatever league we're in but should not be an excuse. It is no good nearly 20 years on from the days of R&L to say "We should be just glad we have a club to support" We all know that, Its been drummed into us for nearly two decades, We won't ever go back to that, We have a proccess now that it would be nigh on impossible for some chancer to get the club and plus we have nothing of value for anyone to make money, All we own is a registration held by the EFL i think.

As a club and a group of supporters our aim always is to get as high as possible, I'd imagine MT would not think this was a blessing in disguise, He's fuming and hurting still i think and will be until he gets back and starts on next season (When ever that will be) Next season is impossible to predict with what is going on outside of the clubs control and this constant reference to possible windfall money from Watkins is pointless until such time when or if he gets a big money move, In fact to me it looks very tacky people keep talking about it and makes us as supporters look very greedy if other fans started to read these boards.

So no Monday was NOT a blessing, It was a mare of a performance and one i do not want to see again in such an important game so our aim next season should be the auto's, I dont want to go through that again, I'll have to take it if it happens again mind. We are football fans of IMHO a great club and so should never aim for anything less the the best possible.
 
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