The Elephant In The Room

[Freddie Cardy]

That's a lot to say based on one single person's report on the games..

We've played Luton, Stevenage and Boreham Wood- how on earth can you argue we are SSML level based on reports of games against quality teams like this? We're never going to create much against these sides.
Our 'Level' is right where we are, otherwise we would have been relegated. We're in this league for a reason...
With regards to penalties, you can't really have a strategy from the managers- but with Alex Brown leaving I agree it's a worry, but we missed one the other night and that's it, these things happen.

[russell]

Don't know about Lewis Rolfe, I remember Will Wright being very consistent.. After that it feels like until Alex Brown we've had various different takers.. one hilarious (in hindsight) incident at Banbury where we missed two in a minute.. + a painful one at Maidstone in the FA Cup. Not sure who should be the next penalty taker but I doubt it's something that usually gets decided on a supporters forum.

[Steve]

No point in taking anything positive or negative from pre-season games, just look at last seasons !
Revisit this topic after at least five league matches and there may be more response !

[Canadian]

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting a different result. A quote from Einstein! Well, we have the same ownership, the same on field manager,the same CFO with the same budget philosophy and the same groundskeeper (thank goodness!) If Einstein"s theory works in football it means we will have an atrocious start to the season, follwed by early cup exits, relegation staring us in the face all season until we just manage to stay out of the bottom three. Is this our fate this season?

[Brian Parker]

We had a young team that was maturing nicely as the season wore on. We were kept up by a reasonable defence and goals from Jake Hutchinson. He is going to be difficult to replace and a lack of goals could once again prove to be our achilles heel. The loss of Alex Brown and (probably) Ciaron Jones is also a blow as they formed a solid partnership down the left flank,

To sum up we are going to depend on those youngsters continuing to improve and some luck in discovering a reliable goal scorer. Without that we will do well to finish mid table.

[russell]

Jackie I remember you saying the same thing last season.. 'if by some miracle we stay up' you'd pipe down. Yet here we are in pre season and you're already off on one.

[russell]

That's not a compliment by the way

[russell]

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting a different result. A quote from Einstein! Well, we have the same ownership, the same on field manager,the same CFO with the same budget philosophy and the same groundskeeper (thank goodness!) If Einstein"s theory works in football it means we will have an atrocious start to the season, follwed by early cup exits, relegation staring us in the face all season until we just manage to stay out of the bottom three. Is this our fate this season?

The bottom 4 get relegated this season so yes it would be 'insane' to merely aim to stay out of the bottom 3.

[DarrenW]

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting a different result. A quote from Einstein! Well, we have the same ownership, the same on field manager,the same CFO with the same budget philosophy and the same groundskeeper (thank goodness!) If Einstein"s theory works in football it means we will have an atrocious start to the season, follwed by early cup exits, relegation staring us in the face all season until we just manage to stay out of the bottom three. Is this our fate this season?

The bottom 4 get relegated this season so yes it would be 'insane' to merely aim to stay out of the bottom 3.

Almost as insane as writing the team off before a ball's been kicked in the league.

[Chris_N]

To start with, some of the last four or five postings make me so glad that I am not a Moderator of this Forum anymore. I would have deleted all of the bits that start turning this thread personal. Did you have to bite Russell and make your two postings at 9:22 and 9:24 last night? Sorry but they added nothing to this thread other than potential antagonism and then conflict, Couldn't you just have kept on the topic?

What it does say to me is - needs everyone to treat everyone the same. There is a real to the point, keep to facts, none too complimentary posting about where our season could be going, from overseas, but no similar treatment than if another regular contributor had said the same thing, which would I am sure have provoked a more personal reaction, as mentioned. So all I ask now, is to make the Forum worth contributing to, is please keep treatment of contributors consistent, stick to the thread, and cut the personal out. By the way, I would say that I have respect for Canadian's posting because that's what he sees......so any response to it, to be worth its credibility, needs to be objective and not emotional.

People make judgments based on the information they have to hand. From overseas, from not having seen a pre-season game, which then means your judgment will be based on what you see (e.g. no personnel changes and pre-season results) to having been to every minute of every pre-season friendly and seen what the team has achieved in spite of the results.

My own thoughts from what I have seen, that being most of the action away from home and apart from the Watford game, very little action at home, is that we do have some very good individual players out there but we need to gel as a team. The loss of Webby, Ciaran Jones and Jake Hutchinson were always going to be massive shoes to fill and that will take time. We've seen very little of Steve Cawley and next to nothing of Steve Gleeson yet, they will add some balance to the team. Josh Coldicott-Stevens needs time to recover from his foot injury but he will add massively when he is fit again. And as the season goes on, more eligible and appropriate players will come on to the market. As Steve has said, need to look at where we are after a few games, then we'll all have more information to make sounder judgments. But for now, need to get behind the team and welcome the new players to Hitchin. It will be a massive learning curve for a lot of them when the League starts.