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portugull how many times have you seen us play this season? you'd appreciate why we've given up if you'd seen us play on a handful of occasions!

Yes its upside down lol

CP Gull wrote:Quite simply we ARE the worst team in this god awful league, we are where we deserve to be. We are conference bound and the sooner people accept that the better.

Time for Greavsie to start focusing on what he will need next year in the Conference, which means forgetting the loanees (O'Connor and Showumni) as they are other teams players, forget those that won't be here next season (Labadoe and Cooper) and put the focus on those that are ou of contract in the summer and on whom decisions must be made.

I would start by recalling Craig, Yeoman and Thompson and at least have a closer look at them. I would also consider making some of those under contract next year but who are unlikely to be in the Manager's plans, available for loan .... you can take your pick from half a dozen or so as to who that might apply.

We are saddled with the wages of quite a few high earners for next year already with the likes of Pearce, Downes, Harding, Benyon and Hawley which means that anyone who is out of contract will either be released or offer seriously reduced wages. With that in mind, I would expect the likes of Poke and Bodin to move on and you would expect that Mansell and Nicholson will probably be released ... we simply will not be able to afford them, whether they are even deserving of another contract is of course another matter.

Hmmmmm I wouldn't mind a small bet that their still here next year probably on a two year contract with stevens to boot! With some old clap trap about their good players for the conference when the truth is their retention and recall is one of the reasons we went down.

I think Nicholson has played well over the last few games. In fact, he's probably only had one bad match against Northampton since Hargreaves arrived and was punished by being on the bench for the next one. Mansell has struggled most of the season. I think he's guilty of trying too hard because he plays at about 100mph and just needs to keep it simple. If we go down, I would be happy to retain both as squad players on reduced wages.

tommyg wrote:I think Nicholson has played well over the last few games. In fact, he's probably only had one bad match against Northampton since Hargreaves arrived and was punished by being on the bench for the next one. Mansell has struggled most of the season. I think he's guilty of trying too hard because he plays at about 100mph and just needs to keep it simple. If we go down, I would be happy to retain both as squad players on reduced wages.

I think for Hargreaves management to prosper, he needs to be shorn of the players who are past their best and whom he was once close to. That means releasing Nicholson, Mansell, Benyon & Stevens. He needs to build his own team and not have the residue of his playing career and relegation hanging around the place.

Nicholson and Mansell may have been effective when we went down last time but that was 7 years ago - it is time to move on and a second spell in the Conference is probably the right time to do it.

I've accepted for weeks now that we will be relegated, but, this being Torquay United, I can't write us out yet because of our history of pulling the rabbit out of the hat most of the time.

Whenever I'm at a torquay game, for 90 minutes, I'll never say never, all we can do is support the team as best we can.

All I can say is there are still 36 points to play for. You never know.

Sporting people should never give up until it is mathematically impossible. That should not though be long as our players have no belief or confidence at all. That is the inevitable consequence of losing every week.

There is still time to turn it around. Look at Northampton. 6 points behind us only a few short weeks ago and now storming away ahead of us. Excellent result yesterday 1-1 away to 2nd placed Scunthorpe. They approached their plight differently to us though. As most clubs do when they decide to change managers in a relegation situation they appointed experience. An experienced manager and an experienced assistant / coach (who had just got his struggling team 7 points from their previous 5 games before being sacked due to pressure on the board from BBC Spotlight!).

We went in the other direction. Appointed a manager who was a good Conference player for us but has not managed a club before. I would find it difficult with 1 point from the last 6 games to say it is working (especially when compared to the 7 points from last 5 games attained by the previous sacked manager).

I do think our new manager though has the attributes to be a good manager and it would be nice if he could be part of a new chapter of success for Torquay United. Whilst I will not give up hope that we can turn things around I can not see it this season and would suspect we will be able to enjoy the Easter weekend already knowing which league we will be playing in next season.

It may well turn out to be for the best. If we did dramatically claw our way out of it with a last day result against Wycombe the euphoria of escaping relegation would soon be forgotten as the new season kicks in and we struggle at the foot of the table from the outset.

Relegation may actually turn out to be for the best this season. A chance to regroup and a chance for our new manager to get a grip and show what he is capable of. I am not one of those who think if relegated Torquay United will never return to the Football League. I don't think it will be as quick as last time and could easily take 5 years as Exeter City did on their first relegation to the Conference.

It could though be entertaining and enjoyable challenging towards the top of the league, looking to win the FA Trophy, looking forward to league club scalps in the FA Cup, and importantly having a team of players who once again believe in themselves.

Hope over adversity ........

tktufc91 wrote:I've accepted for weeks now that we will be relegated, but, this being Torquay United, I can't write us out yet because of our history of pulling the rabbit out of the hat most of the time.

Whenever I'm at a torquay game, for 90 minutes, I'll never say never, all we can do is support the team as best we can.

All I can say is there are still 36 points to play for. You never know.

We may have pulled rabbits out of the hat before, but this requires pulling an elephant out of one and it is just not going to happen.

We have played 34 games and need 11 points simply to overtake Accrington. That means we have to win 4 games at the same time as they have to lose 4 games (or win 3 and draw 2 and they lose 5). Then we have to win/draw every time they do. Bizarrely, our best hope (if there was any at all, which there isn't) is catching Exeter. They have played a game more and we at least play them. Beating them would reduce gap to 7 points. If we won our game in hand that reduces it to 4 points, then we would have to win and draw and hope they lose twice and then match their results for the rest of the season.

But basically, we know what is going to happen. When we go to St James Park, we will lose and it will confirm our relegation.

Gullno4 I have seen us play 9 times 8 in the League plus the 0-0 JPT match against Pompey.

AFC Wimbledon 1-1
Oxford 1-3
Hartlepool 0-0
Plymouth 1-1
Southend 1-0
Bristol Rovers 1-1
Exeter 1-3
Morecambe 1-1

I also saw the pre season game at Tiverton.

So I have seen 2 defeats but we played Exeter off the park in the first half and if Hawley had scored a 10th minute penalty it could have been so different.

In professional sport the margins between success and failure are very small and at our level the referees on the whole are very poor.

In so many games we have failed to get nailed on penalties, same again yesterday, and in the key match with Northampton, under the refs nose, Billy is taken out. Red card 95 times in a 100 but what happens? No red, no yellow , no free kick!! Billy still out injured.

I refuse to give up hope yet!

I have given up. There are plenty of games that we should have picked points up in and didn't. Morecambe,Mansfield,Hartlepool,Exeter are games at home we really could have and should have won really.
Its fair to say we have had alot of decisions go against us as well. Certainly a ludicrous refereeing decision cost us the game against Northampton.
We were probably denied a point yesterday by the denial of a clear cut penalty.
They say that things even themselves up over a season but this time its bad luck all the way,to compound our bad form. We can't score goals, our confidence is shot to pieces,and we are relegated with a quarter of a season to go.
Really if we were a horse we would have been shot by now.
We will still be playing games when we are already relegated which is awful.
The season cannot finish quick enoug - it has been an unmitigated shambles and disaster from start to finish.

Often when relegation is confirmed that same team then goes on an unbeaten run!

nickbrod wrote:Often when relegation is confirmed that same team then goes on an unbeaten run!

Brilliant...... :}

nickbrod wrote:Often when relegation is confirmed that same team then goes on an unbeaten run!

I was literally just talking about that to a mate, we'll be relegated and then play the best football of the season.

dannyrvtufc4life wrote:
I was literally just talking about that to a mate, we'll be relegated and then play the best football of the season.

well thats a real bonus.

makes me feel better already.

SuperNickyWroe wrote: well thats a real bonus.

makes me feel better already.

Never said it was a good thing, just inevitable.