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Post by os on Mar 29, 2015 0:28:27 GMT
Not sure we have had a good look at this but if you think this season was tough have a look at this projected league for 15/16 (ouch!) Basingstoke Town Bath City Bishop's Stortford Chelmsford City Concord Rangers DartfordEastbourne Borough Ebbsfleet United Gosport Borough Havant & Waterlooville Hayes & Yeading United Hemel Hempstead Town Hendon / Margate / Dulwich / EnfieldMaidenhead United Maidstone United Poole TownSt Albans City Sutton United Wealdstone Welling UnitedWeston-super-Mare Whitehawk Obviously the playoffs may see some surprises, but I don't think this is going to be too far wide of the mark. All eyes on the Southern Prem for the second promotion spot, if it goes to Corby or St Neots then we are back to 22 and all is well. If it goes to Weymouth or Truro, then Stortford or even Chemlo might have to walk the plank to the land of flat caps and Wallace & Gromit - And they won't like that
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Post by Del on Mar 29, 2015 7:31:14 GMT
Bromley found it tough leading the pack and may well be with us next season again.I've got a sneaky suspicion that Concord are going to hijack the playoffs.
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Post by localboy86 on Mar 29, 2015 14:51:46 GMT
Maidstone won the big game at the top of the Ryman against Margate yesterday so they look likely to be crowned champions in the coming weeks. Be interesting to see who joins them in coming up as Hendon are on a great run at the moment and find themselves in second place. Looks like an eight-way battle for the last play-off spot in that division.
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Post by Andy K on Mar 29, 2015 20:03:34 GMT
We made it tough for ourselves this season. If we get it right in the close season we've got nothing to fear. Certainly not from a welling side on the slide and a Dartford one known to underachieving. Not even Maidstone I fear.
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Post by os on Mar 29, 2015 21:21:08 GMT
We made it tough for ourselves this season. If we get it right in the close season we've got nothing to fear. Certainly not from a welling side on the slide and a Dartford one known to underachieving. Not even Maidstone I fear. I think the league has been on the poorer side this season, our side from last season would have wrapped the title up by now. I agree if we get it right we don't have anything to fear but I do think its going to be a taller order. Ebbsfleet will be strong, Dartford are not a bad side and capable of bouncing straight back, I agree Welling's best days are behind them without Jamie Day. Maidstone will be tough cookies, as they will strengthen in the summer. The thing about us is we don't have a slider control, its either on/off - Dos plays (or tries) a style that if you get it right against most sides at our level they are simply blown away. If as this season we are too slow, give the ball away and fail to get behind defences we can also lose to anyone.
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Post by exiledsufc on Mar 30, 2015 7:14:00 GMT
Bromley found it tough leading the pack and may well be with us next season again.I've got a sneaky suspicion that Concord are going to hijack the playoffs. Bromley do have a history of blowing it,apparently
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Post by amberchoc on Mar 30, 2015 11:09:11 GMT
Dos's habitual policy of trying to improve already strong squads has backfired this season in a big way. He'll need to do a bit of head-scratching to figure out which players should be retained as a foundation for next season, which is tricky because very few of them, if any, deserve to be.
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dof
1st team skipper
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Post by dof on Mar 30, 2015 12:45:02 GMT
............have to agree, the line up for the Conference South next season looks formidable, and the jump into the Conference looks even more so. Our Kent cousins Dartford Welling Dover have found this to be the case. Surprise package has been Eastleigh who I feel have done remarkably well, possibly playoff contenders!! We seem to go for a 'new team' most seasons, this seasons mixture of players has not worked and a great deal of thought will have to go into the selection for the squad for next season. Sometimes I feel players have been let go to be replaced by 'better', who in the end don't deliver. I don't envy those in charge of the reshuffle!!!
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Post by Andy K on Mar 30, 2015 13:03:29 GMT
Dos's habitual policy of trying to improve already strong squads has backfired this season in a big way. He'll need to do a bit of head-scratching to figure out which players should be retained as a foundation for next season, which is tricky because very few of them, if any, deserve to be. To be fair to the guy, everytime he has done that it's worked (see last season for example) and as a result we've always had a stronger 2nd half to the season. This season for many reasons it's just not worked. We could write a book on why it didn't work this season, as has been said time and time again - from the coaching staff, to injuries, to bad form, to silly mistakes, to losing players to transfers/personal circumstances/retirement/indiscipline. That doesn't hide the fact that there have in addition to this mistakes from the management but find me a manager/management team that have not made mistakes and I'll call you a liar. We certainly all have our own opinions on who should or should not be playing for Sutton next season. Dos's one is the one that counts.
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markf
Top Performer
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Post by markf on Mar 30, 2015 18:00:52 GMT
Going back to the main point of this thread, I am not sure how anyone can make a prediction about who will do what next season, although I agree with those who state it will be a stronger division.
There will be a strong Kentish element though and that should result in some major battles with Welling probably the poor neighbours, certainly with regards to attendances.
Poole will be a first for all U's fans, Weymouth & Truro not so new (although Corby will be looking to put a spanner in the works with regards those two).
It will be interesting to see who prevails in the Ryman play-offs. Maidstone do look good for automatic promotion, however, they have Hendon to play (this Saturday at Harrow). If Hendon defeat The Urchins tonight and then Maidstone, they will be just a point behind. Unbeaten in their last nine matches, this is a possibility. A win tonight will ensure their place in the p/o's. Whatever happens, considering they are essentially a fan's run club, Gary McCann has performed brilliantly to get them to second place and deserving of the Ryman Manager of the Year award more than any other this season.
Bromley host The Wood on Saturday in what is a massive game. Bromley's home record could be their Achilles heel and an away win would certainly make BW favourites for the CS title.
Next season will be interesting and the clubs coming up and coming done should improve the quality of the CS and provide a stern test for Dos and the club. However, this current period of Dos's time here appears to be more about assuring the long-term future of the club rather than short-term success. We would all like both (success being longer term too) but that is not always easy to achieve at the same time.
One thing I would argue is that The Conference is not the Holy Grail. Dos as already said that our current model would be a struggle in the top flight and each time we've been relegated from it we have had a struggle to get the club back on an even keel (save for some cup success) for a number of seasons. I am not sure we really ever recovered from the last one resulting in the 07/08 debacle.
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Post by Andy K on Mar 30, 2015 22:30:02 GMT
Another factor for next season is the potential number of 3G pitches. At the moment I think I know of 4 possibles (us, Maidstone, Maidenhead and Eastbourne) - none of which are certain of course.
Can you name 2 ex-Us that play for Hendon?
I couldn't agree more with Frakey - the Conference Premier isn't the holy grail at all. Infact it could be a bad place for us - certainly at the moment we're not in a position to compete against the plethora of former league clubs, but to get a couple of seasons up there would be great. Especially for Dos to manage at a level he's never managed before.
If we'd managed to stay up in the early 90s it could have been a different story and we could have been there with the Macclesfields, Kidderminsters, Barnets and Altrinchams, all of which were arguably similar sized clubs to us at the time, but 3 of those ended up as league sides whilst we spent most of the 90s kicking about in the Ryman. We're still paying the price of that first relegation, never mind the other two!
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Rambo
1st team Player
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Post by Rambo on Mar 30, 2015 22:36:06 GMT
Make that 3 Andy.................you've missed out Andre Da Costa...............Taggs n Kezie being the other 2 !
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Post by os on Mar 31, 2015 0:28:04 GMT
A lot of Dos's and the boards thoughts have gone into getting the infrastructure right to take us forward into what is going to be a different age for NL clubs like ours, the age of the 'community club'. Luckily our club has been on the case for a number of years, and we are so lucky to have a manager who has bought into the idea 'literally'.
I know Conference Prem is Dos's goal, but he puts sustainability first and we have to move forward just to stay where we are. Teams come and go, we will have good ones and ones not so good, but our setup and infrastructure which now includes being a big community player is key to giving us chance of sustained Conference Prem football. Nearly every side that has been promoted from the CS has ended coming back the poorer for the exercise. Either they have one decent side that fades or they are putting unsustainable money in which eventually runs out, and down they come.
As for our present team, what's wrong and who needs to stay etc, I remember our 03/04 season the same team that couldn't kick a football before Christmas ended up being practically unbeatable with the addition of just one player.
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medibot
1st team Player
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Post by medibot on Mar 31, 2015 14:24:52 GMT
You've only to remember Dos saying that the money we've put in this season to the playing squad isn't sustainable to realise how bollocksed we'd be in the Conference National without the new pitch and infrastructure bringing in cash.
I also hope that having everything centralised around GGL will lead to more people getting hooked on the club, from playing staff downwards. The squad would certainly benefit from a few players with 200 plus Sutton appearances as used to be the norm.
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billy
1st team skipper
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Post by billy on Mar 31, 2015 14:53:17 GMT
You've only to remember Dos saying that the money we've put in this season to the playing squad isn't sustainable to realise how bollocksed we'd be in the Conference National without the new pitch and infrastructure bringing in cash. I also hope that having everything centralised around GGL will lead to more people getting hooked on the club, from playing staff downwards. The squad would certainly benefit from a few players with 200 plus Sutton appearances as used to be the norm.[/b] This is the thing that puts me off more than anything.The turnover of players is absolutely ludicrous.It's all very well people telling us that's the way it is nowadays but that doesn't make it right. At the most recent home game 9 different players were in the starting lineup that were not there at the last home game i attended this season. There is no team any more just an ever changing bunch of 11 most of whom couldn't care less about Sutton United.The diehards will of course defend this policy but the "normal civilians" cannot keep up with it all.
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