Bad Vibes. Let's get them out of the way

[Ulleswater]

Forget being detached - let's get terraced on Saturday. Bang the drum, jump up and down and bellow as loud as you can. This group have been giving there all over the recent games I have seen - Aldershot, Lincoln, Dover. Leave analysis till after 2pm Sat.

[Glostergull]

Actually thats not correct. The Players themselves told me Chaneys contract has another season to run.

[Modgull]

Merse is a stubborn old bugger but he talks a load of sense most of the time. I have no clue as to the inner workings of the club so I am just an outsider looking in. I havn't even seen a game all season.

I actually think Nicholson is a good bloke - that's my opinion. Do I think he has managed well this season? - no.

I don't think we should be actually struggling against relegation though - we have wasted too many points this season. A minus 11 goal difference probably tells that we maybe should have picked up a few more points than we have done.

Do I think we have been unlucky over the last half dozen games or so not to have been safe already? - Well yes actually. I think we may well have beaten Chester with eleven men on the pitch.

At Aldershot we could well have won only conceding from a free kick where the opposition didn't return the ball after we had kicked it out for an injury. Merse will argue that it was of our own making but to me that was a bitter pill to swallow.

With hardly any players on the bench Lincoln was a decent effort. Whether we chucked it away at the end who knows. Lincoln have repeated the feat in their last two games - but teams in their position invariably find a way to win.

Two excellent efforts against Braintree and Dover followed so all we can do for the next five days is get behind the manager and players. Osborne, Harrop and co are completely irrelevant until 2.45 pm on Saturday.

I agree with Brucie. Yet those who say the squad have underperformed and we shouldn't be in this position thus blaming Nicho are ignoring the fact that football management is an impossible task when you have Boardroom and ownership problems. Time and time again relegations for Clubs who shouldn't be even in contention are linked with financial, ownership or Boardroom problems. I persanally salute Nicho for having rescued us for two successive seasons (hope I am not premature there).

[Southampton Gull]

Add me to the list, Phil. 100%

[royalgull]

I'm kind of with merse, IF we get over the line saturday and save ourselves then it's a great effort from Nicho and this small bunch of players to have kept the club up from what was a second desperate looking situation on the spin.

BUT

Under no circumstances should it be considered an achievement or more to the point a success. This league is pitiful and we've been a football league club for over 80 odd years, survival in this division is a failure of a season and until the mindset changes from everyone and that includes the fans to not accept seasons like this on the field then we will continually be in these crappy situations.

As a football club at this level Torquay should be one of the bigger hitters, should expect to be in and around the top 6 and anything else should be considered a failure. Because of the disastrous last 5 or 6 years there's kind of been an acceptance of failure around the place and if that's the attitude top to bottom then you'll never achieve anything.

These players over the course of this season have proven in the main to not really be good enough, that's not being overly harsh or nasty it's just fact there are some that are and everyone knows the extra factors going on that has made Nicho's job borderline untenable. i feel for him, I'd love to see him be given a chance to be a manager, he's just been firefighting for 2 seasons, begging and borrowing players to try and fill numbers. i don't blame these current players it's not their fault they aren't good enough to make us a good side and by and large they try their best but I've felt this acceptance of failure has been going on far too long.

It's not the main reason, it's because the previous board couldn't afford to run the football club properly which is why we ended up with this squad and now GI threaten to bury us but if we can sort all that mess out the next thing that has to change is the club's mentality.

Ultimately though we've got 1 game we have to win to salvage this again and try and forget about it forever.

[Sesimbra]

Excellent posting royalgull - with you all the way.
It is hardly a rescue act when, as manager, YOU are responsible for the club's relegation position in the league.
If Torquay win on Saturday I am sure there will be great jubilation from the fans but about what? Escaping relegation from the depths of full-time football! How can the fans' expectations have fallen so low?

[Southampton Gull]

Why celebrate? Personally speaking, I'll be celebrating the fact that the 5 year plan has suffered a setback and has to start again next season.

[Gullscorer]

Royalgull's post is definitely going to inspire the team on Saturday, not.. They will win, but they'll be doing it for themselves, for Nicho, and for the majority of supporters who loyally follow the team every week, home and away. Nicho is in his second season as manager and he obviously still has much to learn. But in no way is he a failure, and how anybody could expect him to achieve more, given what has happened off the field in recent years, is beyond me.

[TUST_Member_Rob]

this thread is hideous, can we just get saturday done first!

[SenorDingDong]

Royalgull's post is definitely going to inspire the team on Saturday, not.. They will win, but they'll be doing it for themselves, for Nicho, and for the majority of supporters who loyally follow the team every week, home and away. Nicho is in his second season as manager and he obviously still has much to learn. But in no way is he a failure, and how anybody could expect him to achieve more, given what has happened off the field in recent years, is beyond me.

Nothing in this thread is going to motivate the players. They don't get motivated by reading fans forums... :}

[Gulliball]

I find it incredible that anyone would not celebrate avoiding relegation this year. Whether we are going to eventually try to regain Football League status or just try to survive our current poverty, we are better placed to do that from the National League than regional part-time football. This coming Saturday is a massive game for us, whichever way you want to look at it.

Under no circumstances should it be considered an achievement or more to the point a success. This league is pitiful and we've been a football league club for over 80 odd years, survival in this division is a failure of a season and until the mindset changes from everyone and that includes the fans to not accept seasons like this on the field then we will continually be in these crappy situations.

As a football club at this level Torquay should be one of the bigger hitters, should expect to be in and around the top 6 and anything else should be considered a failure. Because of the disastrous last 5 or 6 years there's kind of been an acceptance of failure around the place and if that's the attitude top to bottom then you'll never achieve anything.

Not sure I understand this argument. What TUFC 'should be' and what we actually are right now are miles apart. With backing, it's fair to say that we should be a top 6 side, unless 6 or more sides are backed even more - with gates of 1800 and no other investment, in the current division, trying to run a full time side on our budget, we should be closer to a bottom six side. Football is about money, and until players turn down £3k a week at Forest Green, or a part-time wage plus footballing wage near their hometown, to sign for £300 a week here, no amount of mindset or 80 years of Football League history will give us an advantage on the pitch.

These players over the course of this season have proven in the main to not really be good enough, that's not being overly harsh or nasty it's just fact there are some that are and everyone knows the extra factors going on that has made Nicho's job borderline untenable. i feel for him, I'd love to see him be given a chance to be a manager, he's just been firefighting for 2 seasons, begging and borrowing players to try and fill numbers. i don't blame these current players it's not their fault they aren't good enough to make us a good side and by and large they try their best but I've felt this acceptance of failure has been going on far too long.

It's not the main reason, it's because the previous board couldn't afford to run the football club properly which is why we ended up with this squad and now GI threaten to bury us but if we can sort all that mess out the next thing that has to change is the club's mentality.

Unless the situation drastically improves, which is not massively likely under GI, then who would come in to do a better job under the circumstances? The money, conditions and playing budget would put off any established candidate. You'd end up taking the exact same gamble, on an inexperienced manager, as anyone with experience would be put off. Kevin Nicholson was a highly rated young manager 12 months ago - if he'd walked away then I think he would almost certainly have a better job by now. Staying with us has damaged his career, although a win on Saturday and he'd be just about broken even again. Paul Cox walked away after 10 games, and any manager with a choice would do the same - who is really going to come in and do a 'borderline untenable' job any better than Nicholson has done.

Win on Saturday and we finish with 53 points - in comparison with the budget available to Chris Hargreaves (Tonge, Downes, Pearce, MacDonald, Young, Harding, Chappell, Cameron, Bowman...) who achieved 61 points, without any of the owner issues, transport issues etc... I think there's enough evidence to say that Nicholson is still a promising manager that has earned a chance to manage a club that's not in total disarray, and be judged on how he does then.

[Southampton Gull]

Great post.

[stephen breed]

What a superb post best one I have read in a long time gulliball

[Gullscorer]

Agreed. Excellent post Gulliball.

[S4fedr1ve]

Spot on gulliball