Not sure if I'm happy or sad!

[Rimshot]

Just to take this thread a little further, if you look at sides which have made a decent start to the season, you might say Peterborough and Brentford are on about a par with us in terms of club 'size' ie average gates, playing squads, while Leyton Orient and Colchester are real minnows in the attendance comparisons.

It's really not reasonable to start suggesting we are somehow trying to compete 'above our weight' ( certainly not with Akinfenwa on board !)in League 1. So far, and I do accept it's very early days, we seem to be out of our depth, with a squad that need strengthening and no apparent plans to do so.
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[Garawa]

But then I would put those sides on a par with perhaps the likes of Wigan when they were in the Premier League. They consolidated their position in their league and then built with the slight increase in revenue as well as adapting to the style of play. They may have similar attendances but they are solid League 1 sides who have cut their cloth and became stronger the longer they did so. Recently we suffered relegation so wasn't able to build and obviously need strengthening to avoid a repeat. The questions is, does Scally believe we strengthened early during last season ready for this and therefore no more is due?

[CadburyMan]

"Cadbury, Yes I do agree the management have to be positive in public, but there is being positive and just sounding foolish. We were not brilliant. If he had said there was some real positives in the second half, or we battled well, ultimately but for a late goal we would have won then Yes I can see the positivity."

Rob - these are the caveats I was implying

[Rimshot]

Gary you are absolutely right in your analysis and the implied questions about Scally's approach. That's pretty much where my original post started. I don't believe he has a long term vision for the club other than as a 'cash-cow' for his lifestyle. It's not impossible for small clubs to grow but it does need investment and personal commitment. Scally is not a Whelan and never will be.

Before the inevitable 'so who is going to step in then ?' comments, I have no idea. More importantly neither does Scally. He's not looking... because he has no interest whatsoever in giving up or sharing a position which delivers well over a quarter of a £ million per annum to him, undoubtedly paid tax-free through Dubai, not to mention the ludicrous £30k 'consultancy' fee to Mrs S. presumably for advice on detergent and toilet rolls.

Where that leaves us is in practical terms is no further forward,or in fairness, backward, than we were 10 years ago.

[Garawa]

What I haven't quite figured out is that I believed we had good League 1 players that would do OK in this league. We had a more successful L2 campaign than the likes of Crawley and Stevenage for example who have pretty fine in their first season after promotion and yet we seem to have lost that impetus with a pretty dreadful pre-season to boot. All I can come up with was that the tinkering has caused some instability and we have taken a run of 3 games without a win after winning promotion into this campaign.

Perhaps a win is all that is needed to kickstart the campaign. With an abundance of strikers I think he needs to start Cody with Kedwell and leave them in place, a forward can never get into a groove and make a partnership if he is in and out all the time!

Before we get too dispondant, a stat that will be used on Saturday makes interesting reading: If we draw on Saturday we will match the results of the 1999/2000 campaign in which we won promotion. In fact we didn't win any of the first 5 league games and only won 2 from the first 9. A long way to go!

[gillsfan1066]

Only a fool would allow us to drop back into the miserable black hole that is called the 2nd Division, and whilst not thinking Mr.S .is a JEAN EY US, on the level of say Einstein, I am pretty sure he is not a fool, and will ensure we avoid the drop (please soccer Gods).
After the excitement of last season , going up as Champions, I guess myself and a few others really expected more than we should, a run at the Championship Division was in the back of our minds, lol, guess we were the fooled, lofty heights indeed.
I am not worried about the drop, we will stay up, end up in a mid to bottom half of the table and "consolidate" what ever the hell that means. I can not see how you can consolidate a team because every year you have four or five new players on the squad, only way I can see that you can consolidate is if you intend staying in this division for the following year, and the following year , and the following year.