Mark Jones sums up his thoughts...
So Tuesday night was another nail in a coffin now consisting more of metal than wood, but first things first: Harvey Smith you're absolutely smashing, so are the players you captain, and everyone thinks.
That's the important stuff covered, now the football.
I've never known a time before when getting done three nothing was more or less par, and last night with far too long left I was fearing 0-7 rather than hoping to sneak back into it. I'm old enough (just) to remember miserable fourth division re-election seasons and, more recently and vividly, a couple of Football League relegations, and never in those years was the sheer inevitability of defeat so present as it is now. And it's not just defeat, but almost the expectation that the opposition, in this case a Southport team below the Bulls in the league and who, I reiterate and without a great deal of exaggeration, could have won 7-0, will stick three in without us really threatening to score a goal.
Admittedly it didn't help that the 'best left back in non-league football' (remember that?) did what he did when he did it, and maybe we would have won if it wasn't for that and I wouldn't be writing this, but he did do that so I am. However, even if he hadn't done it, some things are inescapable.
George Lloyd may have a future higher up the pyramid, but against a gigantic brick wall of four last night either his subtle talents are lost on this division or he's not good enough generally. I hope for his career's sake it's the former, and again for his career's sake he's really not in the right place at the moment. It's too bleak, and it's going to get more attritional before it gets better. His attitude is faultless but his loan spell should be ended.
I like the kid from Leicester and the one from Falkirk, but without some muscle around them in this division they'll continue to look lost. It would be lovely to play pretty triangles up the pitch and score four beautiful goals with tiny will o' the wisps in every game against the nasty big northern giants the nasty powers-that-be have nastily set us against this season, but that's for the birds. The nasty big northern giants have proved to be actually quite capable on the floor too.
And that brings me to the management team, and this will be brief because they want success as much as anyone, and any personal nonsense does my head in. However, one good thing about having such a large staff is that it can't be that personal anyway since there are so many of them. This could be directed at the head of toilets as much as the head of football, and for the sake of economy you'd hope they're synonymous, but I guess not. I wonder if there are enough of those dreadful cagoules for the head of toilets to get one.
Anyway, they stated that the loan market was not for them, but then dived in heavily, not with experienced old coves who knew the division but with unproven youngsters, usually little youngsters ripe for big northern defenders' breakfasts. Now it seems that they're belatedly looking for experienced old coves, or at least big people, so that we can at least mix it up a bit, as was the case when the Beast came on for his cameo last night (didn't he take that ball down well, by the way).
We're seemingly embarking, therefore, on the second attempt the management team have tried to get things right in their inchoate existence, having singularly failed with their first, which didn't seem to reflect a working knowledge of what's needed to survive in this division, much less thrive in it. Peter Beadle wasn't afforded anything like that luxury, for whatever reason, but for the sake of harmony and looking forward positively rather than backwards miserably, I'm prepared to see who they bring in, and whether we can at least start losing 1-0 or 2-0 rather than 3-0.
A few new faces in key areas of the pitch, a bit of luck as Tim Harris says in terms of a lucky ricochet or deflection in front of goal, the opposition self-destructing and going down to eight men: any or all of this on Saturday resulting in a win and perhaps we'll then be up and running in what is now a fight for survival, pure and simple.
A few new faces in key areas of the pitch, a bit of luck as Tim Harris says in terms of a lucky ricochet or deflection in front of goal, the opposition self-destructing and going down to eight men: any or all of this on Saturday resulting in a win and perhaps we'll then be up and running in what is now a fight for survival, pure and simple.
Once upon a time someone called Graham Turner was chairman, head of football, head coach, performance analyst and a load of other things at HUFC, and oversaw a level of success I don't need to rehearse here. Along with Brian Clough at Derby and Forest, he's unusually and unquestioningly feted at two football clubs, Wolves and the Sloppies, and mostly at ours too. He's never managed at Gloucester City though, of course. A glaring gap in his CV.
Still lives locally doesn't he?