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It seems to me that the club are going backwards and not forwards, that is the biggest problem for me.

The football is not enlightening one bit, we miss the flair and pace of Zebrowski in my honest opinion, someone who can get the ball and move forward with it.

Jeff wrote: There is something about this statement that rings true with me too. I'm hoping that its just because I'd known I was not going to be able to go to the last few games, but have felt somewhat detached from TUFC and it hasn't really bothered me that I've not been recently or that we've not played well or been defeated. Hopefully that mood will change with the chance for me to go to a rare home game today, but there does seem to be an element of excitement removed, and very little feel-good factor around the club at the moment.

Amen to this. I changed my shift to go today, but I wish I hadn't. It's strange as I've always been gutted to miss games at Plainmoor in the past, but now it's just a "meh" sort of feeling. Not sure why, but I think the above goes some way towards it.

I sadly agree Nick

I would not accuse the players of lack of effort, though it may look that way. They have no confidence at the moment and are trying TOO hard, with the result that nothing they try comes off. The only cure is a handsome win or two, and with the innate ability in (most of) the side I'm optimistic they can achieve it. We can help by not getting on their necks every time they make a mistake.

It's hard to take because for the last four seasons we have been treated to fast, attacking football. Most importantly of all we had a winning side. We turned up to plainmoor expecting to win. For a number of reasons that is no longer the case. I said to the lads I stand with that today reminded of how it used to be being a torquay united fan. We are mid table at best and its going to be that type of season.

God this is getting depressing, and I'm normally a glass half full man!

Well today should be a wakeup call for everyone.

I felt it was better not to be critical whilst we were snatching draws from the jaws of defeat but today's defensive display was just unacceptable. On top of the reserves shipping 17 goals in the last two games I have to ask if the management team - especially Sean Taylor - know what the hell they are doing.

At the moment I see a side devoid of confidence but more worryingly one with no idea to prevent the opposition scoring.

Unless there is a rapid turnaround in our defensive capabilities i see a long slog to avoid the drop and the dubious distinction of having the newest stand in the BSP next season.

Ling says in his interview that he would only bring in loanees in a 'crisis' and would prefer to try players within club first. So 7 games without a win, 1 win in 11 games, that's not a crisis????!!!...let's just wait for it to get worse before we try something different then, shall we?

So what do we try?

Ellis? Perhaps?

Ray Spear to beef up that toothless attack?

How about someone new picking the team?

NickGull wrote: Amen to this. I changed my shift to go today, but I wish I hadn't. It's strange as I've always been gutted to miss games at Plainmoor in the past, but now it's just a "meh" sort of feeling. Not sure why, but I think the above goes some way towards it.

This is exactly what happened at Cambridge. Been reading a few of the threads on here over the last week & it is all shockingly similar to our board last season. Honestly it's like falling in a time warp.

We had these awful runs under Ling's management too, runs where we looked utterly clueless, totally bereft and without any hope that it'll turn around. What'll happen is that eventually you'll get a break & win a game that will kick start a semi-decent run of form, but before too long you'll go on another barren run. In his season and a half with us we had about 4 of these spells, but the real problem was that whilst Ling obviously knew what was going wrong & was honest in identifying it in his post match interviews he was clearly utterly incapable of changing it.

We were in real trouble in his first season with us but a run of something like 9 wins out of the last 12 games (all of which were against bottom half teams, we didn't beat a single team in the top 10 all season) saw us finish in midtable & renewed the optimism, only for him to waste his budget over the summer and sign average players on long deals for big money. The reason, by the way, why he won't dip into the loan market is because he'll've done exactly what he did here: Spent all his budget up front without leaving any left over for additional reinforcements throughout the season.

Best of luck to you, I hope he turns it round but this really is all incredibly familiar. You have at least had the good sense to only give him a one year deal.

At least you aren't on here gloating, El Goodo, although that's not very good reading..

:-|

a wise man once said....

you can be the nicest bloke in this world but being nice doesnt win football matches.

however, have our board got the bottle to sack a manager so soon, be realistic it isnt going to happen so lets hope Ellis refinds his 2010 form and that Lings relationship with Saah starts to crack because in all the years I have played and watched football I will struggle to find a poorer centre back.

**Frustration**

NickGull wrote:At least you aren't on here gloating, El Goodo, although that's not very good reading..

:-|

Why would I be gloating? I was delighted you took the burden of his wages off our finances. I will say that your some of your fans could've been somewhat more gracious when he was appointed though, there was a lot of very ill-informed postings from your end about his time with us. The one that wound me up was whoever it was claiming he failed here because "we took a s*** or bust approach" and wanted immediate success. Could not have been further from the truth.

But yes like I say, good luck & at least you're not stuck with him on a three year contract like we were. You'll be alright, there's enough tinpot tripe in League 2 that I don't you'll be in any real danger but I think you'll stagnate under him. The biggest wound he inflicted on us was the disenfranchisement of a large amount of supporters & the total apathy that became endemic throughout the club during his reign, something we're only just beginning to properly recover from now.

I'm surprised to read the negative reports about Saah though. Was a very, very good player for us & I really didn't think he'd haven any issues adapting back to the League. He was always a cut above everyone else at this level. Do wonder if he's having trouble with the relocation as he has a young child. Any idea if his partner has moved with him or are they still living in London?

I've only been to 2 games this season, the bristol rovers and the macclesfield game, so maybe this will be a little bias, but...

I think we DO have the talent in our squad to be at least a mid-table team this season. If we are not getting the results, perhaps it is the manager, perhaps it is the training, perhaps it is just low morale from our form and just need a couple of wins to get going... i don't know, but i think we have the talent and it just needs to be used and extracted properly.

I must say, while only having attended 6 or 7 games per season for the last few years (and more like 15 per season for 5 or 6 years before) watching them play against bristol was truely inspiring, and while i had the misfortune of standing with the bristol fans i could see the torquay fans cheering away and i have never felt so passionately happy for the team and wanted to be with the torquay fans so strongly! We were so good to watch, and that wasn't a miracle. There is talent here, so why is it not showing for more than 10% of match time?? I don't think that bringing in new players will solve the problem, maybe only cover it on a short term basis.

You only have to look at the quality of our bench. We have no strenght in depth, which translates to no competition for places. Shouting out for Ellis to come on was pure desparation in my view. 5-2 down lets bring on a defender / use to be striker when he was 12!

Starting any game with Danny Stephens (the last 2 being his better performances apparently) where we managed to lose to a 10 man Bradford team and then gave him Man of the Match in a 5 -2 drubbing in the next reflects the dire contributions the other squad members are making!

Put out a list of your best 11 and then ask yourself if they really deserve to be there on merit. Then look to your bench for inspiration!

Team I would line up for southend:

--------------------olejnik-------------------------
oastler------robbo---- ellis------------nicho
-----------mansell------lathrope--------------
Bodin -----------o’kane--------------stevens
--------------------howe --------------------------

Subs: rice, macklin, atieno, saah, rowe-turner.

this is in my opinion the strongest team we could possibly play for southend. given that stevens has had a couple of good displays, i think he is worth playing from the start whereas atieno and saah do not deserve to start.

I think this is our best team to get some points saturday.

thoughts?

Ling needs to make some big calls. Drop a few players and let them sit on the bench and earn their place back in training and coming on as a sub. Yes he will upset a few players but hes the boss, let players strop there on the bench. Look at Stevens hes sick of the bench and trying his hardest to not return and hes playing well. I can see Ellis doing simular. (I hope)

Sounds crazy, but it could be worse. Then again if this carrys on then it will be the worst it could be. The board cant afford to let Ling go if they wanted too, so i just hope he can turn this around.