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Post by amberaleman on Oct 2, 2011 20:27:30 GMT
It's been a bit quiet on here lately, so this is a thread to which most Tinpotters should be able to add. That said, it's easy for me to start as things have been going rather well for Sutton Utd lately. Promoted back to Conference South as Ryman League champions, we looked as if we were in for a tough season after being walloped 5-0 at home on the opening day by title favourites Woking. But the players responded to that setback superbly, winning seven of their next ten (including a 3-0 romp at Truro ) and only losing once more. We're now fourth in the table, just three points behind leaders Woking. Yesterday we entered the FA Cup at the 2nd qualifying round stage and thumped Dulwich Hamlet (two levels below us but previously unbeaten this season) 5-1, with Leroy Griffiths scoring four. Heady days! Most of our lot were thinking we were maybe just about good enough to establish ourselves in mid-table, but those expectations are being well and truly surpassed. Cue all the cliches about the season being a marathon and not a sprint etc etc. But we're enjoying the sunshine while it lasts.
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Post by ambersalamander on Oct 4, 2011 11:56:52 GMT
I thought we'd do all right, but certainly didn't expect this much - I expected us to be around 9th-10th by now - and can only hope it continues!
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Post by Sultan of Cannock- SRFC on Oct 5, 2011 9:31:06 GMT
Stafford Rangers have been consistently inconsistent again, sometimes in the same game. 3-0 up at Hednesford, only to lose 5-4. Great away wins at Kendall and Northwich, yet only one home win so far. And for me, the biggest disaster so far, even more so than that 4-5 to the scum at sleaze park was Saturdays daza-witnessed all too predictable FA Cup defeat to a team two leagues below us. the trademark of our gentle decline from Conference National club has been the marked lack of success we have had in FA Cup and Trophy since the introduction of prize money. Thousands upon thousands of lovely ££££££££££££'s gone begging, year on year, given away as charitable donations to the likes of Stratford, Coalville, Coventry Sphunx, et al, not to mention the gate receipts or even television rights that might have come our way. That's what was so deflating about Saturdays loss again. Without those cup runs, the future is as predictable as the coming to earth of that NASA satellite last week. We will consolidate lower to mid table in this league. We will tarry here in the Evo Stik Premier for a couple a seasons, maybe three. We will lose a few more fans by way of attrition and no new ones will take their places.Then we will go down into either the 1st division north of the southern section, or 1st division south of the northern section. The names and some of the faces will change. We will be optimistic that we've hit the bottom. We can reconsolidate in this lower league and come back all the stronger. Then the league results will be inconsistent. We wont win at home for weeks on end. We'll go out of the Cup to someone like Wednesfield or Darlaston and the pattern will continue as above. Repeat third paragraph ad infinitum ad nauseam....
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Post by Meadow on Oct 6, 2011 10:13:44 GMT
Ours is going pretty well - certainly better than a lot of us thought.
We started a bit hit and miss, but have suddenly gelled and getting past a strong Stevenage side on Tuesday night was a boost. No team in League 2 is consistant though, so we're currently just outside the automatic promotion zone.
Back-to-back promotions? We've done it before so it's possible given our current form.
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Post by ambersalamander on Oct 6, 2011 22:11:01 GMT
I met someone from Kendal the other day on the train to Windermere. He was a young Carlisle fan and so drunk as to be almost unintelligible, but as is often the way with such people, he insisted on asking me constant questions about the Sutton shirt I was wearing. His dad and sister did try to stop him
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Post by DazaB_WCFC on Oct 10, 2011 21:06:22 GMT
Better than average start to the season, in the play offs!!! The only game I've seen was the 3-0 win over Solihull Motors though so I can't comment too much and like Stafford, we had an awful cup exit.
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Post by amberaleman on Oct 10, 2011 21:23:56 GMT
like Stafford, we had an awful cup exit. Yup, we too have suffered embarrassment at the hands of Godalming Town.
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Post by peekay on Apr 14, 2014 9:39:09 GMT
Hello all. It's been a while. It's been an interesting season. We got off to a flyer, unbeaten for the first third of the season and 9 points clear at the top at one point but having played more games. We never got truly clear though as Halesowen Town and Coalville Town just kept on winning and reeled us back in and overtook us when we had a poor run after Christmas. Our form picked back up, all 3 clubs have barely slipped up in the run in. We have 4 games left and are 3 points behind Halesowen with a game in hand and better GD and 1 point behind Coalville having played the same number of games but we play them at home this Saturday. In a nutshell, if we win our 4 remaining games, we win the league and avoid the play-off lottery. Hold me! I hope everyone is well.
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Post by loy PRA on Apr 16, 2014 13:21:22 GMT
Hello all. It's been a while. It's been an interesting season. We got off to a flyer, unbeaten for the first third of the season and 9 points clear at the top at one point but having played more games. We never got truly clear though as Halesowen Town and Coalville Town just kept on winning and reeled us back in and overtook us when we had a poor run after Christmas. Our form picked back up, all 3 clubs have barely slipped up in the run in. We have 4 games left and are 3 points behind Halesowen with a game in hand and better GD and 1 point behind Coalville having played the same number of games but we play them at home this Saturday. In a nutshell, if we win our 4 remaining games, we win the league and avoid the play-off lottery. Hold me! I hope everyone is well. I'm very well, thank you Peekay! Got to say, it's a bit of a shame to see Leek Town down there in the Div 1 south as I'd considered them something of a heavyweight back in the old Unibond Premier, a club we rarely got something from and who could always attract a crowd. They were also pioneers of unibond web presence with their live score updates in the days where non-league web presence was virtually non existent and now it seems you lot only have one of those free pitchero things! Nevermind, hopefully you'll go up, as your natural level is probably one up from the Evostik prem and into the Conference North. I've got to say, the Divison one south has some tasty fixtures though. Giants of yesteryear (Northwich), giant (and Spartan) killers Chasetown, Scarborough's Phoenix club and some more established old names like Kidsgrove, Goole and the oldest football club in the world, Sheffield. What a league! Gateshead are in contention for promotion to the football league. Bizarre to think that when I first started supporting the club I'd expect a hiding off most of the clubs mentioned above. Still stuck at the International Stadium but in a far healthier financial state than precarious unibond days. Got to say, without the Unibond's mitigation back then, we wouldn't be where we are now.
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Post by peekay on Apr 20, 2014 11:50:52 GMT
Loy! Howdy me old mucker!
Well, we lost yesterday which ended our title hopes so we're now playoff bound. Eek! We've been stuck in this league for 5 or 6 years now and it's proving bloody hard to get out of. It seems that most seasons there's some club or other climbing the pyramid quickly with a bit of financial backing who win the division at a canter, leaving only one other spot via the playoffs. This year has been the first for a while where there hasn't been a club like that so that's why it's so crucial that we don't blow it. If we do blow it we get 2 more local derbies with Stafford on their way down and Norton United on the way up although we may lose Kidsgr*ve. Not much in the way of crowds these days either. Average around 250 these days, about half what we were getting in the days when we were one of the better Unibond sides.
17 years since our last promotion with 3 relegations in the meantime.
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Post by peekay on May 1, 2014 9:34:04 GMT
And that's the end of our season. We lost 2-0 to Belper last night in the play off semi-final. So close but it feels like we'll never find our way out of this damn league.
I'm sure our games against Stafford will be low key, friendly affairs eh Sultan?
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Post by Sultan of Cannock- SRFC on May 1, 2014 10:08:57 GMT
Hello, Peekay. Long time no communicate. Genuinely sorry that you didn't make it. For so long, you looked like the best team in that division. ...... the future is as predictable as the coming to earth of that NASA satellite last week. We will consolidate lower to mid table in this league. We will tarry here in the Evo Stik Premier for a couple a seasons, maybe three. We will lose a few more fans by way of attrition and no new ones will take their places.Then we will go down into either the 1st division north of the southern section, or 1st division south of the northern section. The names and some of the faces will change. We will be optimistic that we've hit the bottom. We can reconsolidate in this lower league and come back all the stronger. Then the league results will be inconsistent. We wont win at home for weeks on end. We'll go out of the Cup to someone like Wednesfield or Darlaston and the pattern will continue as above. Repeat ...ad infinitum ad nauseam.... The quote from above, written in October 2011, has proved unhappily prophetic. You may remember our dynamic management duo of Greg Clowes and Dorian Garner from their days at Newcastle Town? They arrived at Stafford billed as a sort of up-and-coming non-league Clough & Taylor with licence for a three year plan. They'd just missed out on promotion to the NPL Premier with Newcastle in the play-offs and sought to put that right by importing most of that team to Stafford. They didn't cut it and nearly all of that squad had departed by the end of the season in which we finished lower-mid table. the second season was little improved, although we did win the Walsall Senior Cup, but with Clowes himself having said they'd walk if they hadn't taken us up by the end of their 3rd season, the possibility of a lame duck management team was all too real. The confidence and optimism of a good pre-season ebbed away with a comprehensive final friendly defeat at Harrison Park. A disastrous start ensued and the transformation from Clough & Taylor to Daffy & Donald on crutches was complete. By the time they were fired the damage was already done. Ex Wolves man Andy Mutch was brought in and hardly fared better. By the time he was replaced in January by a manager who actually knows what he's doing in Graham Heathcote, the gap was too wide to close and down we went. I wouldn't take it for granted that you'll be playing us next season. We're down to one active board member at the moment, the other two having resigned, demanding their loans, etc, back within 12 months. It's going to be an interesting closed season to say the least with all bets being off as to if, where and in what form we take the field in 2014-15.
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Post by peekay on Jul 2, 2014 22:30:42 GMT
Only a week and a half to the first pre season friendly against Port Vale, even before the world cup finishes. It certainly comes back around quickly! I hope your travails have been dealt with Sultan?
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Post by Sultan of Cannock- SRFC on Jul 22, 2014 10:53:53 GMT
Sorry for the tardy reply. The times i have to sit down and write considered postings get fewer and farther between these days. Thanks for asking, our travails are in the process of being addressed. What remains of the board at SRFC has finally sussed that the fans aren't the enemy and a number of initiatives have been set in motion and though the promised land is still far over the horizon, at least we can be a little more confident that the light at the end of the tunnel is not the headlamps of a Virgin Express hurtling towards us. We've been joined now by ex-Rushall boss Neil Kitching and the signs are promising so far. He seems to know what he's doing more than "Gregward" did and he's got a proven track record both at this level and the league above, so i'm cautiously optimistic that we won't be in another relegation battle. I note that our fixtures against you are on Bank Holiday Monday august 25th at Harrison Park and New Years Day at MR (weather permitting). Our shift usually get night shift on Bank Holiday Monday but i may have the chance of attending what will hopefully be a promotion clash on New Years Day. If you make it, look for someone carrying a large bright yellow carrier bag with the words "W Wing Yip" (or Day In Supermarket) and either avoid or make contact as you see fit!
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Post by loy PRA on Jul 26, 2014 12:51:46 GMT
Sorry for the tardy reply. The times i have to sit down and write considered postings get fewer and farther between these days. Thanks for asking, our travails are in the process of being addressed. What remains of the board at SRFC has finally sussed that the fans aren't the enemy and a number of initiatives have been set in motion and though the promised land is still far over the horizon, at least we can be a little more confident that the light at the end of the tunnel is not the headlamps of a Virgin Express hurtling towards us. We've been joined now by ex-Rushall boss Neil Kitching and the signs are promising so far. He seems to know what he's doing more than "Gregward" did and he's got a proven track record both at this level and the league above, so i'm cautiously optimistic that we won't be in another relegation battle. I note that our fixtures against you are on Bank Holiday Monday august 25th at Harrison Park and New Years Day at MR (weather permitting). Our shift usually get night shift on Bank Holiday Monday but i may have the chance of attending what will hopefully be a promotion clash on New Years Day. If you make it, look for someone carrying a large bright yellow carrier bag with the words "W Wing Yip" (or Day In Supermarket) and either avoid or make contact as you see fit! That'll be your first Stafford game in what....five years? Gateshead went to Wembley. We got beat. Ryan Donaldson, a former Gateshead player, smashed in the winner and subsequently got man of the match. Shame because we seemed to play the occasion rather than the match and could've beaten Cambridge. Wasn't the nicest of trips to Wembley. Since Portal (shhh, don't tell the PRA Police I mentioned that name, though they seem to have given up now!) visited Gateshead we had a paltry support that ranged from 66 at our lowest ebb (Guiseley in the Unibond league cup off the top of me head) to over 8 thousand at Wembley and a decent proportion of those seemed to be angry lagered up Newcastle fans bedecked in their barcode striped shirts. I have no real issue with this - people have got to come to Gateshead some way and given support is marginalised between Newcastle and Sunderland then you don't have much choice but to support a bigger club before finding your hometown club as you generally support the club your parents supported. I was wearing my Gateshead top with a Sunderland track jacket over it, as I don't have anything else waterproof and it was spitting rain when I left home at Mitcham to make my way to Wembley. However, as I was buying my ticket three of the aforementioned lagered up Newcastle fans made some comments about the red and white track top. I doubt these fellas were around when we had 66 at Guiseley given their NUFC tattoos, and seemed to shrink away a bit when I called them out on that.... In news that goes beyond football, committed Newcastle fans Liam Sweeney and John Alder died in the flight that was shot down over the Ukraine. I didn't know Liam Sweeney, he was two years older than me at the same school and it's crying shame to lose someone at 28. John Alder however was a Gateshead lad and a familiar figure at Gateshead games when Newcastle weren't playing. We were nobodies back then and he'd still trundle through the gates whenever he could to back his home town team. Rubbish news. We're looking good in pre season and I'll probably get to most of the southern based away fixtures work permitting. Hopefully it's the last big push towards League Football.
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