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Post by Del on May 4, 2014 18:02:33 GMT
Looking at it realistically you have to hope that Ebbsfleet go up with Eastleigh as they will undoubtedly be putting lots of money into a title challenge next season.
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Post by os on May 4, 2014 18:20:56 GMT
I want Ebbsfleet to go up, I think we could do with them out of the way and IMHO I don't think Dover are good enough or deserve to go through.
We have to move on, its not as if someone has died and we go into next season looking to take the title which from relegation to the ryman after comming plumb bottom of the cs when Dos took over in just a few seasons is really an immense achievement.
Don't blame the players, we were stretched to the limit with a number carrying injuries or not fully fit yesterday. I am proud of all of them, and in no way have any of them let us down. I think talk of that on here is totally unfair, and I hope a few reflect on that over the coming days.
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Rambo
1st team Player
Posts: 1,692
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Post by Rambo on May 4, 2014 20:15:54 GMT
Echoes of the depressing feelings after Wycombe '93.
When Tony announced the teams over the tannoy, my heart sank a bit when Binnsy's name wasn't mentioned in the squad. I turned to my mate next to me and said "Oh dear, I've got a bad feeling about this". I haven't yet discovered why he was missing. Anybody? He'd have been ideal cover after Will Spetch got viciously taken out. I also said to a few people that it reminded me of '93 too, the great elation we all felt after a fantastic 3-2 away win ( for those who like pub quizzes, it was also the day of the "void" Grand National ) which was followed by an awful 4-0 hammering at GGL by a Wycombe side that then gained entry into the Football League. Oh, and I spoke to Binnsy whilst he was in the tunnel area, he told me he had an ankle injury. |
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Post by Stewart on May 4, 2014 20:25:18 GMT
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Post by holmes on May 4, 2014 20:49:21 GMT
How can you not blame the players for a poor performance? They are the only ones who can directly influence the game. Yes we had those carrying injuries, but it was those who weren't who had to help their team mates out and failed miserably. Dover didn't do anything special that sides that were relegated managed to do, so please don't say they were special. We failed several times this season to break down sides who sit behind the ball and got caught on the counter too easy. We failed to make Dover work hard enough as switched off in the second half. This is NOT down to injury or bad luck, but players failing to do the basics when it matters.
There has been a lot of harsh criticism of the team, all of which is deserved in my opinion. You can't defend a team that fails agains tenmen for over 85 minutes. It's not the defeat that has hurt so many, but the manner of the defeat. Peaople have been harsh, but only because they are so passionate about the club and feel badly let down by that performance, especially after the way we performed throughout 2014. The whole season has been about getting to the play offs, so yes that failure yesterday does demean the achievement of finishing second. It also embarrassed the core fans in front of a bumper crowd, which added to the hurt of the loss. I'm still embarrassed now Ihen I have to tell people about what happened.
All that said, I truly believe Dos has what it takes for us to challenge for the league next season. We have theme core of a championship side and I trust in Dos to build on this season. To suggest a change of management is shear lunacy. I hope we can build on what we achieved this season and win the league next year. In the mean time, I'm having another beer to wash away my disappoint.
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dave1
Youth Team Player
Posts: 223
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Post by dave1 on May 5, 2014 9:28:09 GMT
Good to see the comments on this board are gradually transitioning from outright negativity following the disappointment of Saturday to being more forward looking and perhaps being a bit more realistic/appreciative of where we are now.
Has our manager made any mistakes this season? Arguably he has, but what manager hasn't? I personally think that the age profile of our team in the first half of the season wasn't quite right, with perhaps a few of our players not being as quick as they once were and our talented young goalkeeper perhaps (understandably) lacking a little in terms of experience/presence. I also think that, in hindsight, maybe a match fit (as far as we are aware) Gavin might have been a better choice from the start on Saturday than (a lacking match fitness) Marvin - but that said I can understand why Dos might have opted to start with Marvin - particularly with Binnsie being injured. But the true measure of a manager is the steps he takes to address problems - and you have to weigh up the good things he does/decisions he makes against any that might appear to be not quite so good - and on that basis, the good things that Dos has done this season and ever since he has come to Sutton massively outweigh any (perceived) not so good. As others have said before me, he is the best thing (in partnership with Bruce) to happen to this club in modern times and we are so very lucky to have him as our manager. He is our Arsene Wenger - except that Sutton have overachieved under Dos whereas Arsenal have arguably slightly underachieved in recent seasons (since Arsene lost his 'Bruce' - David Dein). I think that I'm right in saying that we started this season as 3rd or 4th favourities behind Eastleigh and Ebbsfleet - whose additional financial muscle allows them to have a deeper squad of quality players allowing them to better cope with injuries when they arise - so all the more credit that we ran Eastleigh so close and finished above Ebbsfleet.
As for Saturday, yes we had one more player than Dover for nearly the whole game - but they had far more 'fit' players on the pitch than we did (so far as we know). What club at any level would not suffer if its entire first choice back four (no offence to Simon Downer) were either out injured (Louis, Binnsie, Will) or playing while clearly injured (Cloughie). On top of that we understand that Damian was carrying a knock, Marv wasn't fully fit and Jamie wasn't fit to play. Ben did great work for us when he first came into the side but increasingly looked a bit exposed at times - in part I think because he lost the 'protection' of Lee playing in front of him latterly (but what choice did Dos have with all the injuries we have). Much has been made of our failure to go wide against 10 men - but if there is anyone in our squad we needed to to exploit any space out wide against 10 men it was Binnsie - but he wasn't available to Dos on Saturday. A lot of credit also has to go to Dover for their organisation and tenacity (if not for the challenge on Will) - and in particular the steps they took to nullify the threat from Dundo. Like everyone else, I'm still very disappointed about Saturday's result - but I don't think that an 'inquest' or 'blame game' is really needed - I think that it is quite clear why we lost the way we did - and to some considerable degree, there was relatively little that the players on the pitch or the manager could have done about it.
Dos has now set the example by starting to look forward to next season. As he says, in recent seasons, Welling and Eastleigh have come back from play-off disappointment to win promotion the next season (and neither of them finished second the season before). Of course, we did it ourselves in the Ryman. But it is going to be tough - the league was strong this season and will be stronger next season. However, we have 4 x forwards that most clubs at our level would die for. In midfield, we maybe need to look at the strength of the 'fringe' players (aside from anything else Kane is presumably going back to Gillingham) and decide whether Binnsie is going to play midfield or full back (he is brilliant in both positions). Decisions around Binnsie's main position will also influence whether we need one or two full backs (as Louis will presumably go back to Crawley). In the second half of the season in particular, Dos showed that it was possible to bring in 'gems' relatively cheaply on loan and that is perhaps another avenue that we could explore to build up strength in depth. Sadly we will lose the best goalkeeper I have ever seen play for Sutton and that is going to be a very tough void to try and fill - either for Tom or any newcomer.
My massive thanks to everyone connected with Sutton United for all they did/do to make this great little club a great little club - both on anf off the pitch. I trust the people running this club to bring us better times than we experienced on Saturday - although the club already punches massively above its weight because of the exceptional people who contribute to its running.
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Post by sallycat on May 5, 2014 10:02:06 GMT
Can't really argue with any of that!
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Post by Juan on May 5, 2014 11:58:33 GMT
Below extract taken from the post match gaffer comments. I don't think there's much more to be said than this...
Thanks to all the supporters this season, particularly those who follow us away whose backing has been terrific, At the moment the way the season has ended is a bitter pill to take, and reminds me a bit of the Kingstonian game a few years ago, but most of the work for next season on the pitch has been done so I can take a rest from the footballing side for a few weeks and concentrate on being involved in the ground improvements, and I can't wait to have another go at winning the league next season, as everyone knows that I want to manage in the Conference.
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Post by kalaharidave on May 5, 2014 21:04:06 GMT
Rubbish. He came right through Spetch's ankle before taking the ball, the only thing in the lino's defence was the speed of the challenge but from 30 or 40 yards away we could see it was a bad foul so inexcusable. I think most of the ground was in shock about that decision, unbelievably poor and I would even go as far to say that 'tackle' pretty much won the game for Dover as Spetch looked to have Modeste under control while young King was sadly well out of his depth in both games against him. I am not bitter about the result or the Dover display, simply how that particular incident panned out as it was a disgrace. Fair enough, but let's see the highlights. He certainly isn't a dirty player. Having seen the highlights, it was a totally fair challenge, clearly played the ball. The rest was unfortunate and hope he's ok. Stone shouldn't have been sent off either- perfectly good tackle on your striker and no man contact. |
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Post by os on May 5, 2014 21:21:53 GMT
Fair enough, but let's see the highlights. He certainly isn't a dirty player. Having seen the highlights, it was a totally fair challenge, clearly played the ball. The rest was unfortunate and hope he's ok. Stone shouldn't have been sent off either- perfectly good tackle on your striker and no man contact. Don't push it, the challenge by Modeste was a booking all day long, if only under the excessive force rule. SUFCtv has a rule of not showing certain things in slow motion or zoomed in, it has nothing to do with guilty or not guilty. If you want to slow it down Youtube provides a tool to do it! |
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oldman
Youth Team Player
Posts: 221
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Post by oldman on May 6, 2014 11:13:07 GMT
had a great season just 1 game to many thanks to Dos and the team for some fantastic football and see you all next season when we will will the leauge
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Post by wiltshire on May 7, 2014 21:49:25 GMT
I wasn't there on Saturday as I had to be in France. I was of course hoping to see a game at GGL next Saturday until the result came through via mobile phone dashing any hopes of that. A lot of people were obviously pretty fed up with what they saw and we do seem to be serial failures in the play-offs. All in all I don't think we should be too downcast though. We finished 2nd and made the 1st round proper of the cup. I think the thumping that Kidderminster handed out knocked us back for a crucial few weeks and to be honest demonstrated just how big the gap is between Conference and Conference South. If we made promotion I don't like to think how much money would be needed to strengthen the team enough to stay up. Our gates just aren't big enough to sustain the wage bill and putting the gate price up doesn't work as Salisbury's gates prove. Being at the sharp end of Conf. South, in a league where we are a decent sized club, and hopefully prioritising the cups isn't such a bad place to be in my opinion.
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billy
1st team skipper
Posts: 2,648
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Post by billy on May 7, 2014 23:26:53 GMT
I wasn't there on Saturday as I had to be in France. I was of course hoping to see a game at GGL next Saturday until the result came through via mobile phone dashing any hopes of that. A lot of people were obviously pretty fed up with what they saw and we do seem to be serial failures in the play-offs. All in all I don't think we should be too downcast though. We finished 2nd and made the 1st round proper of the cup. I think the thumping that Kidderminster handed out knocked us back for a crucial few weeks and to be honest demonstrated just how big the gap is between Conference and Conference South. If we made promotion I don't like to think how much money would be needed to strengthen the team enough to stay up. Our gates just aren't big enough to sustain the wage bill and putting the gate price up doesn't work as Salisbury's gates prove. Being at the sharp end of Conf. South, in a league where we are a decent sized club, and hopefully prioritising the cups isn't such a bad place to be in my opinion. Good post ! |
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jpm
Spectator
Posts: 36
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Post by jpm on May 8, 2014 7:49:57 GMT
I agree a good post but unless you have ambition & want to better yourself albeit as an individual or as a team sooner or later you will start to drift downwards as others will start to outstrip you.All in all I enjoyed the season, like most people I was disappointed about Saturday but we all have had & will have bad days at the office
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Post by Stewart on May 8, 2014 8:36:43 GMT
There would be a risk if we went up. However football, like life is about taking risks otherwise you stagnate. Hendon bottled it a few years ago when they had the chance of conference south football. Look at them now.
Whoever goes up this season will have some mouth-watering fixtures. Let’s hope we get that chance soon.
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