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Next Game: Home Against Farsley Celtic On Saturday March 23rd Kick-Off 3.00pm

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Where do we go from here?

I should say first off that these thoughts are my own and in no way reflect those of the Bulls News politburo...as far as I know! 

I’m no fan of headless-chicken hiring and firing, and I’ve held off from saying this, but…

The much-vaunted grand projet that’s hinted at every time Marc Richards says ‘They’re starting to buy in to what it says on our laptops’, or whatever, is starting to look like the theoretical nonsense it has always has proved to be in practice, unless the laptops are saying ‘Let’s haemorrhage 1000 fans every home game in setting up not to lose, and then lose anyway’.

Those laptops should have been shouting ‘Bring a striker in, bring a striker in!’ for weeks. I’ve tried to subtly suggest it here, and it’s been universally demanded elsewhere. Everyone understands that it’s difficult, but surely you’d throw money at it to find the right person, and with a better balance and a few goals thus start to recover the revenue lost by people staying away from watching a team punting hopeful balls up to a target man who can’t possibly chase his own knock-downs. Instead, a midfielder from bottom club Nuneaton was brought in who will possibly never play again. That’s awful for him, obviously, but it’s not very clever strategically from us either.

I absolutely don’t want to be spiteful, and I’m a glass half-full person, but I wonder as much for their sake as ours whether Richards and Tim Harris are at a club too far, in terms of their abilities?

I hope in my Bulls News musings that I’ve tried to relate a balanced opinion since Pete Beadle was sacked, giving credit where it’s due, and constructive criticism where it’s not, but it increasingly seems to be the case that the sporadic good performances and results since that sacking are almost accidental, and not a result of the tactical mastery of the turquoise cagoules.

I naively suggested in my preview of Saturday’s match that the gap in quality between us and Brackley had surely narrowed since the defeat to them away in the league when Beadle took charge of what turned out to be his final league game as HFC gaffer. It’s now apparent that we’ve not really progressed at all, and in standing still have lost a management team generally well thought of in exchange for a group of people who look…very non-league.  

I heard it said this weekend that Brackley are a strong outfit, and that by inference there was no shame in such a hopeless Bulls capitulation. If we’ve reached the point where we have to suck up a home loss against Brackley because, relative to us, they’re a footballing giant, and I mean no disrespect to a club which attracts 500 people to its home games, we’re well and truly stuck at this level at best, and ‘that’ song can be put to bed.

Maybe for Tim Harris being underdogs to Brackley at home is acceptable, given that he came from Tamworth and before that Redditch, and has never really done much above that sort of level, and perhaps for him staying safe from relegation in National League North a la Gloucester City should give cause for celebration. Well, it won’t here, unless you want to lose another 500 off the gate.  

I’ve a suspicion that the management team have a mentality borne of that background at Tamworth, Redditch etc, and are a bit shellshocked to be given control of a club with a League 2 fanbase. It’s not their fault, that’s what they’re used to, but if the board thought they could somehow get lucky with a cut-price option they’ve now been disabused of that notion, and are losing thousands of pounds every home match as a result of alienating the best part of a thousand people who have understandably chosen to do something else with their Saturday afternoons, like cutting their toenails.

There’s a distinct Simon Davey feeling about this. I have to admit that at the time I thought he was a progressive appointment, and although he quite rapidly turned out to be the wrong fit he was at least turfed out quite quickly. When Tim Harris and then Marc Richards were appointed (and I'd gently and humbly suggest that we’re being scandalously patronised as idiots in being told that the latter appointment was anything other than an act of utter nepotism rather than ‘Woah he was the outstanding candidate’), the supporters were as stitched up as ever they were in following HUFC. A near universal feeling of anti-climax has, it has to be said, been vindicated. This feels like a Simon Davey ‘wrong fit’. I personally think that this club could do a good deal better, and despite saying last week that we’d be fine in terms of safety I don’t really think the same now, particularly after FCUM’s win on Saturday.

We may have been in the same situation if the board had stuck with Peter Beadle, but I very much doubt it. The bounce effect often experienced when bringing a new manager in (or in this case a whole cavalcade of people doing goodness knows what) didn’t happen, and given the CVs involved it’s hardly surprising.

A big mistake’s been made, but it’s not too late to rectify it, although I suspect egos and pride may get in the way, and that’s a shame. It’ll be much more of a shame if it results in relegation.

Anything other than a win, and a convincing one at that, on Saturday, and egos and pride can go hang. It’ll be time to bring someone capable in.

COYW