basil75 wrote:I've made my feelings clear elsewhere on whether we overachieved.
However, it's not a word our chairman should be using publicly and another "foot in it" with regards our approach to PR.
People of Torbay, come buy a season ticket - we won't be as good as last year and you shouldn't have high expectations of the coming season, but come and buy a season ticket anyway.
Brilliant post Shane. I think you hit the nail on the head there. If the Board don't at some point come out and say "We want to progress, we're now a forward looking club" etc etc the people who've become disillusioned over the years will never return, those that might be tempted into becoming regulars will just see from the outside a club that's not worth investing time and money in because it's going nowhere.
The whole promotional side of the club needs sorting out, at the moment it's a shambles. With those attitudes off the pitch the club did over-achieve, with the players we had through last season I think we fell short of what was a reasonable attempt at promotion.
Agree SG without making this thread becoming a banging on about how bad our advertisement is, as it has been said on many threads. There is nothing around town and the surrounding area to suggest we have a football league side and hearing such comments in the paper etc will just put people off.
Perhaps in retrospect Simon Barker would have been better saying that we exceeded pre season expectations rather than that we over achieved. But at the end of the day its down to a matter of interpretation. I think it has become a habit for the club to set low levels of expectation and the time has come for a more positive approach.
We all know the club is not in the front rank in terms of finance but that dosn't mean we can't move forward. The likes of Dagenham & Redbridge managed promotion on a shoestring and although they came straight back down again they didn't go without a fight. They managed it on gates and resources below ours so if they can do it there is no reason why we can't reach L1 and stay there. Rochdale & Hartlepool both spent more time than most in L2 yet have both moved up and survived in L1 (Rochdale with some success) again on average gate not that much higher than ours. We may need a season of consolidation & rebuilding to get there but it can be done and it is what the club should be aiming for. Negativity and lack of ambition breeds mediocrity so lets see the club showing a bit more fighting spirit together and a bit more professionalim behind the scenes swouldn't go amiss either.
