2017/18 FA Trophy

Chief Rocka said:

He's lost the majority of the fans, he seems like a really nice fella he's just hopelessly out of his depth and it's a shame to see a nice bloke struggling desperately, I just don't think he's got it, it's going to take a massive upturn to get everyone back on board, I don't believe we can afford to sack him, our last shyster chairman (who has since became bankrupt, for the second time in his life, despite filling his pockets with anything that wasn't strapped to the floor) left us in a sorry mess and the current mob are left with the mop and bucket desperately trying to clean up all the shite they've been lumbered with, I think they've been incredibly naive and went whole hog this season in an attempt to get back to the football league first go, it hasn't worked and we may well of fucked ourselves over completely.

In conclusion, the FA Trophy can suck a fat one.

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My reaction to this is what disappoints me most.

Every week we hit a new low point. I almost started laughing when Workington scored. Getting to the stage where I’m past caring. Losing 4-0 at Dover, 3 zip at Ebbsfleet, it didn’t really hurt much and that’s odd for me. Too many embarrassments have taken its toll.

Is my support in the wane? Does it bother me as much as it should? Not sure I have the answers yet.

It's the FA trophy, fans don't generally give a fuck until the semi final. Probably 600 max at The Shay on Tuesday.

Chief Rocka said:

He's lost the majority of the fans, he seems like a really nice fella he's just hopelessly out of his depth and it's a shame to see a nice bloke struggling desperately, I just don't think he's got it, it's going to take a massive upturn to get everyone back on board, I don't believe we can afford to sack him, our last shyster chairman (who has since became bankrupt, for the second time in his life, despite filling his pockets with anything that wasn't strapped to the floor) left us in a sorry mess and the current mob are left with the mop and bucket desperately trying to clean up all the shite they've been lumbered with, I think they've been incredibly naive and went whole hog this season in an attempt to get back to the football league first go, it hasn't worked and we may well of fucked ourselves over completely.

In conclusion, the FA Trophy can suck a fat one.

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It does make me wonder what the thinking was behind trying to snare Paul Cox in the summer? And presumably it was only when he realised that you had no cash that he reluctantly came crawling back with his tail between his legs.

I think everyone - him included - expected you to be major players this year, but York seem to have set a precedent. Hopefully FGR follow a similar trajectory next season.

7

Master D said:

We chucked it for sure, it was a team of strangers and only one first choice player (Roberts) played.

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Quite right. Only the Mickey Mousers give a flying fuck about the Trophy.

Farleigh said:

Some bitter recriminations at Torquay over losing 4-0 to Maidstone. Yet that is the number of goals we have conceded three times recently without the supporters going into meltdown. A different level of expectation? Or panic as the league position begins to sink in?

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There you go. That is one of the essential differences between the Tin Potters and the Real Clubs. Neil Aspin always said if he hit sticky patch at Harrogate, no one gave a fuck and he could go into work every day completely untroubled but he knew that if he lost a few at Halifax he'd be in trouble. Prophetic words indeed, as it turned out, when 6 years of unbridled success counted for nothing with the fans at the end. Billy Heath was lucky to escape a lynching on occasion last season, and that was a promotion year. His delight in joining in with the ironic "Heath Out" chants when things were going well early this season came back to bite his arse the other Saturday at The Shay.

Monkey Tennis said:

It does make me wonder what the thinking was behind trying to snare Paul Cox in the summer? And presumably it was only when he realised that you had no cash that he reluctantly came crawling back with his tail between his legs.

I think everyone - him included - expected you to be major players this year, but York seem to have set a precedent. Hopefully FGR follow a similar trajectory next season.

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Still being run like a L2 club though, overnight stays even to local-ish games, plenty of support staff. There's not, on the face of it, been too many cutbacks (apart from moving to a cheaper training site). We got fucked over by our previous owner who took us to this league and losing to Workington in the tinpot trophy. Despite all this, we must have one of the top 3 budgets. The club have puts all their eggs in one basket to get straight back up. They know how knackered we could be next year (still here or even joining York and Darlo) and there's rumours about lots of stuff for the chop next year.

We have 29 FT pros at the club, it's far too many and seemingly no combination of them can get us results. The manager looks out of his depth, we've supposedly got some leading Conference players in this group and apart from the odd moment, they've all flattered to deceive. The players are open and honest with the fans but are they with each other? The amount of times they've come over to the travelling support to apologise to the fans must get fucking repetitive, but nothing changes. It's a combination of poor management, horrendous decision making on the field and a chronic lack of belief/attitude the players have. Some of them like Scott Harrison, Louis Laing etc are just not up to task and that's the club's fault for signing them and keeping some of the dross who've contributed to years of decline safe in a job.

E10rifle said:

We’re going to piss this tinpot trophy.

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Becoming quite a common theme for teams relegated out of the National league to reach the final so you’ll have a strong chance on those grounds..

How much was the parachute payment? Seem to remember £750,000 last season. Can't blame clubs for gambling on a quick return, but I would probably spend it totally rebuilding the club from top to bottom.

Farleigh said:

How much was the parachute payment? Seem to remember £750,000 last season. Can't blame clubs for gambling on a quick return, but I would probably spend it totally rebuilding the club from top to bottom.

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Tranmere got £300k for one season only.

Dagenham got £600k last season and £300k this season.

Unsure how Orient and Hartlepool are effected.

Soup Ladle said:

Still being run like a L2 club though, overnight stays even to local-ish games, plenty of support staff. There's not, on the face of it, been too many cutbacks (apart from moving to a cheaper training site). We got fucked over by our previous owner who took us to this league and losing to Workington in the tinpot trophy. Despite all this, we must have one of the top 3 budgets. The club have puts all their eggs in one basket to get straight back up. They know how knackered we could be next year (still here or even joining York and Darlo) and there's rumours about lots of stuff for the chop next year.

We have 29 FT pros at the club, it's far too many and seemingly no combination of them can get us results. The manager looks out of his depth, we've supposedly got some leading Conference players in this group and apart from the odd moment, they've all flattered to deceive. The players are open and honest with the fans but are they with each other? The amount of times they've come over to the travelling support to apologise to the fans must get fucking repetitive, but nothing changes. It's a combination of poor management, horrendous decision making on the field and a chronic lack of belief/attitude the players have. Some of them like Scott Harrison, Louis Laing etc are just not up to task and that's the club's fault for signing them and keeping some of the dross who've contributed to years of decline safe in a job.

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Probably the most baffling thing (to us Barrow fans anyway) was that your board presumed you could just have Cox for free if he was up for joining - even though everyone knew he was under contract for another two years. It was almost like they didn't know anything about football or business...

Monkey Tennis said:

Probably the most baffling thing (to us Barrow fans anyway) was that your board presumed you could just have Cox for free if he was up for joining - even though everyone knew he was under contract for another two years. It was almost like they didn't know anything about football or business...

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That's pretty much it, they are not football people, they're are looking for an out, they want to recover their money that they put into the club under the last regime which they were pretty much swindled out of, be it trust run which is looking less and less likely unless dramatic changes are made to the club (i.e part time) or some consortium of rich blokes come riding into town, even more unlikely.

Re Solihull; looks as though they’re swerving the option to give people who attended free entry and travel. With so many issues at their stadium I don’t see how they’re fit to be in what is now a professional league.

Todays Full time result

Hereford 3-2 Dagenham

Were through, beating Dagenham 3-2. Impressive result considering how many changes we made. Really pleased. Is the draw regionalised in the second round?

ForeverUnited said:

Were through, beating Dagenham 3-2. Impressive result considering how many changes we made. Really pleased. Is the draw regionalised in the second round?

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Its National I believe. Well it has been for the last few seasons.

The Terminator said:

East Thurrock is a tough place to go for any side, horrible pitch and the wind they get down there is an absolute bastard for anyone. Plus they've done well these last 3 seasons.

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No game is easy, but that doesnt excuse going down without a fight which is what we did!

HG Yellow&Black said:

Sure it will mean a lot to the hardy Town fans making the trip but a hollow victory after capitulating both League title contention and a very obtainable fa cup run in a matter of a month.

With your unusual title tilt this year, did your lot want the distraction really? Was it a first team out against us?
Beck BTW was woeful in his first game against fc united and seemed to turn us into a long ball team.

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Only one player started who is a regular lots of kids making there debut big game next week against Dover at home only a small squad of 19 players manager didn’t want to take the chance of injuries. good luck for the rest of the season

Chief Rocka said:

That's pretty much it, they are not football people, they're are looking for an out, they want to recover their money that they put into the club under the last regime which they were pretty much swindled out of, be it trust run which is looking less and less likely unless dramatic changes are made to the club (i.e part time) or some consortium of rich blokes come riding into town, even more unlikely.

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Unless you have more info than I do, I doubt that if we're run by the trust we'd have to go part time

We're averaging 3500 this season (admittedly starting to dwindle), successful sides have seen us pull 4.5 -5.5k regular. Even in the absolute worst case scenario we'd be down to a 2-2.5k average which is still well enough to run a full time side. Keep the commercial side viable and it's easily done.

The problem with the trust is that they're not universally accepted by the fans who think it's run by the Bunker and have been told to fuck off by someone on there for various reasons. The future of the club is being torn apart by some fucking handbags between two message boards and it's really sad. That's where the viability of the trust is in question not that we'd have to scale down everything should they get to run or have a large stake in the club. Generally speaking, It's a shame that some of our fans have to get pissy about a group who have the best interests of the club at heart, even if one or two senior individuals on it aren't well liked. Coxall would've had us on our 12th winding up order by now if people on the Bunker hadn't done their digging. It just so happens that these said people post on the Bunker rather than the other board.

The trust would run the club like many other lower league trusts do, look for some local investment (admittedly getting harder in Hartlepool and surrounding area now), use the gate money for budgets as well as exploit other income streams to make it as viable an option as possible. Potentially, if we end up in the Conference North we may have to go part time but for now I think we've got everything to maintain a professional set up.

I'm not sure if being Trust run would work, but it's important that people get involved and get behind it as they may be needed at some stage.

Leamington vs Stourbridge - Highlights

I see Kyle Perry is still around.

Nick Leek said:

Leamington vs Stourbridge - Highlights

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Stourbridge at it again. Thats 3 Conference North clubs knocked out of cup competitions this year.

ForeverUnited said:

Were through, beating Dagenham 3-2. Impressive result considering how many changes we made. Really pleased. Is the draw regionalised in the second round?

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What kind of team did Dagenham put out. That's really impressive even if they had half a first choice team out.

Farleigh said:

How much was the parachute payment? Seem to remember £750,000 last season. Can't blame clubs for gambling on a quick return, but I would probably spend it totally rebuilding the club from top to bottom.

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From last season, it's 100% parachute payment, then 50%.

Prior to that, I think it was 50% then 25%.

Railway Blue said:

What kind of team did Dagenham put out. That's really impressive even if they had half a first choice team out.

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Made 1 change from our recent starting 11.

http://www.thefa.com/news/2017/dec/...nd-round-proper-draw-live-on-talksport-181217
draw on talksport 1pm

Hendon at home. Happy with that

Marine at home for us a 1st i expect, quite a few long distance games

1 Ebbsfleet United v Warrington Town or Altrincham
2 Kidderminster Harriers v Stockport County
3 East Thurrock United v Chester
4 Bognor Regis Town v Leyton Orient
5 Braintree Town or Brackley Town v Barrow
6 Chesham United or Weston Super Mare v Workington
7 Billericay Town v Stourbridge
8 FC Halifax Town or Macclesfield Town v Maidenhead United
9 Maidstone United v Hampton & Richmond Borough or Heybridge Swifts
10 Dover Athletic v Marine
11 Gateshead or Guiseley v Dartford or Boreham Wood
12 Wealdstone v Hereford
13 Sutton United v Hendon
14 Blyth Spartans or AFC Telford United v Bromley
15 Spennymoor Town or Gainsborough Trinity v Solihull Moors or Tranmere Rovers
16 St Albans City v Harrogate Town

Great draw, as long as we don't get complacent we should progress, and with so many NL teams facing each other that last 16 will be very open.

Bognor away, never been there and its a good day out.

Possible Weston Super Mare v Workington!?