Some people blame Dave Walters and some blame the manager and some people even blame our Location. But I am begining to wonder if the team we have at present are good enough to take us where we want to go.
I am not saying that the players we have are no good,as I think they are all excellent players playing as best as they can,but perhaps their best is just not good enough to be at the level of where we want to be.
I would say they are really good County League/Bottom half of Ryman South Players which is exactly where we are - the table doesn't lie.
We need players who are going to win this league or win the play offs and I don't think we are anywhere near that with this team.We need to be best or second best in this league and we are far from that.
I have been to nearly every game this season,and other teams often look Quicker, Fitter, more organised defensively and take their chances in front of goal better,they also look as though they want to win more than we do.
Lately the best we have looked like getting from a game is a draw,as we have not looked like beating anyone,and I hope we don't end up in a relegation battle as that could be really tough.I hope we can at least string a few wins together and perhaps finish in a respectable mid table position.
Sorry to sound so despondent but the threat of relegation is staring us all in the face, and if we do go down the county league could be a very difficult league to get out of as there are some really tough teams to beat down there with some really horrible pitches.
I don't personally think it helps morale across the club discussing this topic in so many different ways and threads . Are we saying that Razor,Sam, Pells, Vickers, Ade and Tim -( I could go on) are not good enough? As a team they may not be performing as well as they should ( understatement) - but in my opinion they are good enough. Makes it all the more shocking to see where we are
I wrote a blog about players being on 'form' last night and a lot of it mentions criticism and confidence of the players. If they're constantly being criticised, that's obviously going to knock their confidence and make them unhappy, so what's the point of playing for 'fans' that keep criticising everything? Yes, we're in a difficult place. Yes, I think we can still finish in a respectable mid-table.
I can understand where the negativity is coming from and obviously I don't expect everyone to be all happy about what's going on, but the constant criticism for both the whole team and certain individuals frequently isnt helping the confidence.
Let's not forget that a lot of our team have come from a successful East Preston, hoping to progress in their careers and a lot that I've spoken to are passionate about success. We also can't forget that we've got players who've trained with and been released from professional clubs and also a number of players with a vast amount of experience at higher level clubs, such as the conference/conference South. So obviously the team is good enough...why we're not exactly performing as well as we should be, I'm not sure, but yes, we are definitely good enough.
I totally agree that constant criticism can affect confidence. However, the players have two choices - use it as a spur, or take it personally and crumble. In a relegation battle, you need the former. I have no doubt that many of the players have ambition and that is laudable, but you've got to prove that you can perform at this level first. I don't just mean in terms of ability, but also in terms of courage, desire and character. We need to see these qualities shine through in the next month. I also think that pedigree is ok (being at pro clubs etc) but there is a reason why some of our team aren't playing in Conference South, which is, incidentally, a million miles from where we are. Long-standing passionate supporters will criticise when things aren't right - whilst I fully respect others opinions, I just don't get why some say we are ok, we've got good players and we are definitely good enough. There just isn't enough evidence on the pitch to demonstrate that. I want the players to go out and prove it from Saturday onwards and get us out of this mess before it's too late. We've got to stay up...the alternatives are simply unacceptable.
