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Post by Andy K on May 6, 2024 18:54:48 GMT
Now we know the make up of the National League next season, I think we're probably starting to be in a place where we can voice our opinions on what went wrong last season. I doubt very much that we'll all agree, and of course hindsight is always 20/20, but here are my initial thoughts.
Looking back for me the problem started last season. March to be specific. We didn't know then that would be a blueprint of the season just passed, but looking back from the moment we gifted a win to Grimsby midweek. Although we were never high goalscorers in 22/23, in our last 11 games we scored six goal, never more than one in any game and conceded 19 goals - including 4 at Colchester and Rochdale. We lost 6 on the bounce, and the only player to score more than once in that period was Wilson. Needless to say we went off a cliff and it was only our form between xmas and the start of March that kept us relatively comfortable. There was enough in that last 2 months for Matt to ring the changes in personnel, although he seemed to be more concerned about up front than defence.
New season starts, and on paper we sign some really decent players with tons of experience. Putting aside the first game of the season, we then had such an awful run, not only in terms of results, but also in terms of performances. It was pretty obvious we'd finally been found out but seemed like Matt didn't really have a plan B. Barrow was unfortunate, but there were plenty of results between August and October which were some of the worst I'd seen. Going down 3-0 in 20 minutes at Swindon. Our collapse at home to AFC Wimbledon. The idenitcal games at Accrington and Doncaster, both in terms of score and performance. The pitiful home perforamce v Salford. The gift of a last minute winner to Morcambe. The list goes on. To be fair, there were some bright moments in there - the incredible perforamce at Wrexham where we really deserved something out of the game, the Walsall & Bradford wins, our hard earned point at Grimsby. All indicating that we'd steadied the ship (albeit not moving forwad - just not backwards)
Then Stockport happened. The culmination of everything that had gone wrong. Mistakes all over the place, toothless going forward, no ideas, no plan B. You name it, it was there. I get the feeling Matt was still convinced he could turn it around. Everyone else watching the game (supporters, players, board) couldn't see it. Personally I thought at this point Matt was being a fool to himself. I was still surprised to hear on Monday morning he had been relieved of his duties (as we know, that's not the Sutton way). Jason did arguably a better job than Matt, winning on Boxing day, being unfortunate at Gillingham, average at home to Newport and poor at home to Mansfield, his first game in charge.
Then we appoint Morison. Off the bat he seemed to rub some fans up the wrong way (and still some I'm aware who have no love for him), but you could see straight away at home to Barrow that we were already playing better football. Better performances now outnumbered the bad ones (although home to Harrogate and away to Morecambe could well have happened in September). The issue was that in reality, we started winning 2 matches too late, and ended on a bit of a whimper (we really should have beaten Harrogate and Crawley). A big reason for the improvement was down to the players he signed on loan. Every one of them made a positive contribution, which I don't think any of us can say was the case for all of whom Matt brought in the summer. To that ends, those who said that Morison should have been brought in a month or two earlier probably wouldn't have seen a huge difference as he couldn't sign anyone until January anyway and bearing in mind Lakin ended up being player of the season having only arrived in January speaks volumes.
Again, in hindsight, I think from what I've seen that our chance of remaining a League side really hinged on the management team being replaced last summer. Anything beyond that probably would have got the same result. Saying that however, it was interesting to see how much some players improved, noteably Josh Coley, but also seeing how some players didn't really shine either. At least we gave some fight at the end, but I wish we didn't leave ourselves with too much to do.
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Post by JK on May 6, 2024 19:44:20 GMT
I have said for a while that the club was riding a wave that doswell put in place many years ago. I feel most of the success the team had upto 2022 was born out of the system and people Paul left behind. However over time Matt started to make his tweaks and changes. And of course march 2023 we started to see how Mr Grays alterations affected the set up. His choices were not as good as they could have been obviously.
Although have to point out that we do not know how much interference occurred in running the team when Terry was installed between the manager and the board.
It’s also clear that the board did cling onto Matt just a couple of games too long. I am no fan of Steve and never will be but I guess have to hand it to him for almost turning things around.
From what I understand it was the old guard that was against replacing Matt, the new guard forced their hand and chose steve, maybe one of the only reasonable decisions that was made during the past season.
Things could have been different again if the club had of spent just a few quid more on the pitch rather than off it. Money does seem to have gone into areas and projects that were not as critical as funding the team and securing the future of the main chunk of the club/companies business.
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Post by davef on May 6, 2024 20:04:12 GMT
It doesn’t work like that. There are very strict limits on what can be spent on players that depend on income generated and the league keeps a very tight watch on this.
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markf
Top Performer
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Post by markf on May 6, 2024 20:15:16 GMT
Dos may have provided the platform for the team's rise to EFL but to say that everything before 2022 was down to him is surely inaccurate.
Matt brought in Goodliffe, Bugiel, Ajiboye and Randall. His Millwall connections brought Olaofe to GGL and he then got John back, initially on loan.
Bouzanis came in and after a shaky start proved a solid goalkeeper and Wilson proved a successful late season signing.
The above list of players along with Beautyman, Barden, Milsom and Eastmond provided the main constituents of the NL winning squad.
I would suggest that the NL winning squad was very much Matt's.
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Post by paz on May 7, 2024 0:27:18 GMT
I said a few times after Matt had released all those players last pre season. It may be his last season with us. Reason being, after assembling a new team, should he have succeeded, he would have been hot property having got us there and then rebuilding another side there which is not easy. Or he would have failed and would have lost his job. I thought he could do it but allas, it proved a step to far for him.
This season had a sense of everything being too late. From pre season signings, to end of season form.
It has to be said the level of referring has been the worst I have ever experienced in my life, and I still think it was significant in our struggles. It seems the refs are so weak and they often just go with momentum.
Ultimately, We never proved good enough to dig ourselves out of a very poor first half of the season. We ran it closer than we expected towards the end, but with constant pressure for results it made everything harder work for us, with other teams always less desperate than we were for points.
Regarding Steve, I understand why he is not popular with a few, spiky in interviews and sometimes came across a bit careless with words. But I think media is just not his strong point and something that could go against him with bigger clubs and bigger spotlights. But I think he had the players in tune, and brought in some great loans and even Deon Moore was not a bad find.
He has at times seemed critical of how some aspects of the club have been and has the mind set that there must be stuff wrong based in how poor we became, while russling a few feathers. I think a club can allways learn and perhaps Steve is the right guy for the right time, managers come and go. I personally think he has done a steady job under difficult circumstances and I anticipate him doing a good job for us next season, providing his recruitment is as decent as it has been.
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Post by JK on May 7, 2024 14:22:54 GMT
It doesn’t work like that. There are very strict limits on what can be spent on players that depend on income generated and the league keeps a very tight watch on this. What percentage of the player spend did the club use then. If they were almost at 100% then it’s down to bad player choices.
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Post by banjo on May 7, 2024 17:23:26 GMT
What hasn’t been said is Matt lost the dressing room, simple as and could not get them back. Should off moved Matt on in October but were too loyal, for me that is what cost us. The board did say they got some things wrong and for me that is the biggest thing they got wrong and also.we are in a result business and loyalty must not come in to it, so let’s hope the board have learnt from that.
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Post by sallycat on May 7, 2024 19:06:41 GMT
It doesn’t work like that. There are very strict limits on what can be spent on players that depend on income generated and the league keeps a very tight watch on this. What percentage of the player spend did the club use then. If they were almost at 100% then it’s down to bad player choices. Or maybe it's down to low income.
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Post by jencor on May 7, 2024 20:51:29 GMT
What hasn’t been said is Matt lost the dressing room, simple as and could not get them back. Should off moved Matt on in October but were too loyal, for me that is what cost us. The board did say they got some things wrong and for me that is the biggest thing they got wrong and also.we are in a result business and loyalty must not come in to it, so let’s hope the board have learnt from that. How do you know he lost the dressing room? Or is that just your opinion. I suggest that unless you were present at training and actually in the dressing room, then you cannot make such a statement. Yes it can be your opinion but you need to express that, because what you have posted in my opinion is highly subjective.
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kpinwp
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Post by kpinwp on May 7, 2024 21:22:23 GMT
What hasn’t been said is Matt lost the dressing room, simple as and could not get them back. Should off moved Matt on in October but were too loyal, for me that is what cost us. The board did say they got some things wrong and for me that is the biggest thing they got wrong and also.we are in a result business and loyalty must not come in to it, so let’s hope the board have learnt from that. How do you know he lost the dressing room? Or is that just your opinion. I suggest that unless you were present at training and actually in the dressing room, then you cannot make such a statement. Yes it can be your opinion but you need to express that, because what you have posted in my opinion is highly subjective. Yes, it is highly subjective. But no fan (to my knowledge) is ever present in the dressing room or in training, yet many fans will opine that a certain manager on certain occasions has 'lost the dressing room'. Are we expecting all of them to have concrete evidence in order to do so? It's quite common, and it's just a reading of the mood of the team.
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TonyD
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Post by TonyD on May 7, 2024 22:20:19 GMT
How do you know he lost the dressing room? Or is that just your opinion. I suggest that unless you were present at training and actually in the dressing room, then you cannot make such a statement. Yes it can be your opinion but you need to express that, because what you have posted in my opinion is highly subjective. Yes, it is highly subjective. But no fan (to my knowledge) is ever present in the dressing room or in training, yet many fans will opine that a certain manager on certain occasions has 'lost the dressing room'. Are we expecting all of them to have concrete evidence in order to do so? It's quite common, and it's just a reading of the mood of the team. But in the absence of concrete evidence, it could be that many fans’ opinions are absolute b****x.
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kpinwp
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Post by kpinwp on May 7, 2024 23:39:45 GMT
Yes, it is highly subjective. But no fan (to my knowledge) is ever present in the dressing room or in training, yet many fans will opine that a certain manager on certain occasions has 'lost the dressing room'. Are we expecting all of them to have concrete evidence in order to do so? It's quite common, and it's just a reading of the mood of the team. But in the absence of concrete evidence, it could be that many fans’ opinions are absolute b****x. That many fans' opinions are 'absolute b****x' would probably be the most subjective possible take on the situation that anyone could give. How much concrete evidence (operative phrase) can any of us give? This post mortem is all a matter of opinion, however neatly argued. None of us are exactly insiders regarding the situation.
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Post by sallycat on May 8, 2024 3:37:40 GMT
Since when have football fans been objective about anything? We can't be, we care too much about our team to be!
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Post by banjo on May 8, 2024 7:31:11 GMT
What hasn’t been said is Matt lost the dressing room, simple as and could not get them back. Should off moved Matt on in October but were too loyal, for me that is what cost us. The board did say they got some things wrong and for me that is the biggest thing they got wrong and also.we are in a result business and loyalty must not come in to it, so let’s hope the board have learnt from that. How do you know he lost the dressing room? Or is that just your opinion. I suggest that unless you were present at training and actually in the dressing room, then you cannot make such a statement. Yes it can be your opinion but you need to express that, because what you have posted in my opinion is highly subjective. You only have to look at results to see that Matt lost the dressing room, because if they were playing for him they made a poor showing of it.⚽️⚽️⚽️
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Post by Amber Aleman on May 8, 2024 7:32:57 GMT
I was in our dressing-room before the home draw with MK Dons on 23 September (part of a prize won at an auction earlier in the year). This game followed a run of seven successive league defeats, but I detected no evidence whatsoever that Matt had "lost the dressing-room". The mood in the room felt positive and businesslike.
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