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Clitheroe v 74

With Carrick, it was a year in and the start of a new season. The core of the team had been removed due to loans ending and players moving on (sound familiar)

Yes, it is the 3rd season. But we've had to rebuild twice. We need to establish ourselves first and that will only happen with a consistent squad from one season into the next.

We had some great moments last season and played some good football. But we had season ending injuries to players and ended up with a 16 year old in goal. Yes he played well and showed quality above his age...but there were mistakes and the naivety of youth at times. Without the injuries we looked prime for a playoff push going into March.

I think we should let the first half the season play out. We have games against similar quality teams coming up. That's when we'll know where we stand with it all. I believe it will come good.
 
JAS94 said:
Performances are almost as terrible as when we got rid of Streety
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I’d argue it’s even worse. For me this has to be as bad as things have been since the club was formed. We were a much better side in the counties and not convinced that the current set up would be anywhere near the top of that league.
 
Ben said:
I’d argue it’s even worse. For me this has to be as bad as things have been since the club was formed. We were a much better side in the counties and not convinced that the current set up would be anywhere near the top of that league.
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We're playing much better teams than in the counties so I don't get the logic of that statement
 
JAS94 said:
Remember the same being said when it was time for Ian Street to go.

Should we never sack/replace management on this logic when things clearly aren’t right? How long do we need to sit through drab games thinking why do we do this every week before you can pose the question?? Performances are almost as terrible as when we got rid of Streety - further, most of the games we get results we have laboured to that result..
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We also have a much younger and more inexperienced squad than we've had in previous seasons....
 
JAS94 said:
Also, the notion we had a massive “rebuild” in the summer I can’t agree with. Yes we lost Joe, Kenzie and Liam - all key players. We lost Gardner and Tony also.

But we kept a massive bulk of the squad in the summer, we didn’t have to go out and get a completely new x11. We had to replace the first 3 mentioned and add a striker - which the management had the best part of 6 months including last year to prepare for (still didn’t rectify come the first game of this season. Gardner and Tony I would argue didn’t need to be replaced per say.
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I believe we brought in 15+ players (some of which are playing elsewhere to get gametime) so I would say that that is a fairly big rebuild, also the players we lost were massively important and with a small budget like we have you can't replace that quality all the time
 
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For the people who say we shouldn't sack the managers how long do you give them we playing very boring Predictable football most games having 1 or 2 shots on target the last few game have really been bad with no fight no Passions and no pride yesterday was worse the feeling is toxic at half-time there were fans leaving witch I've never seen at 74 and if i didn't go on the bus I would join them its going to be costing the club money fans are starting to stay away and rightly so as they are fed up with the same sh%t beeing Served up and its been same for months
Yes we Probably going to lose more game then we win in this league and its the way we losing what hurts
I've always said if football that Everything has a sell by day and sorry to say are managers are packed of crisps what are Stale and Six months out of date
 
josh89 said:
I believe we brought in 15+ players (some of which are playing elsewhere to get gametime) so I would say that that is a fairly big rebuild, also the players we lost we're massively important and with a small budget like we have you can't replace that quality all the time
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We brought in Joe Hurst to replace Liam, who left after not being selected. We brought in Nicholson, Mooney-Munoz in the summer replacing Kenzie/Joe and had others who could also fill in in that 10 role aka Sam, Irlam etc.

Just as we bring in 15+ players (who get shifted out never to be seen again on dual reg) it’s not a rebuild.

Ellis, Marrow, M. Fenton, Jonah, Matt W, Fenton G, Irlam, Sam, Isaac, Broe of memory - that’s a core of the team. To say it was a rebuild isn’t true, how many of those 10 have played most games with the exception of Ollie Broe? Jack Irlam did until he left for Stalybridge.
 
Crowds are already starting to dwindle to alarmingly low levels that are costing the club money. Against Mossley we didn’t even manage 200 and only got just over 200 against Widnes a few weeks ago.

How much lower do we let crowds go before action is taken? Fans are voting with their feet. Most who I speak to have had enough and I have no chance of persuading people who I know to come to a match and quite frankly I wouldn’t want to put them through it right now as it’s a hard enough watch for the regulars who still choose to attend. We are losing loyal fans as we speak and will continue to unless something changes.
 
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I’m sadly one of the disillusioned supporters who stopped going 2 to 3 seasons ago.
I got fed up of hearing about the budget, watching un attractive football, same tactics.
This side would not compete with many of the early sides in this clubs short history.
Were we attracted proven goal scorers and had a great team spirit and each player gave 100% regarding their ability.
I don’t know what the club model is anymore?
Is it just to survive in this league and on a budget to reflect this based on
Low attendances
No FA Cup runs
No FA trophy runs
Still no home ground with no identity
It appears so why is it a surprise the attendances are dropping and will continue too.
People on this site have a lot better understanding of what’s happening behind the scenes and what the clubs model is
So I’d welcome their comments
 
Losing the spine of the squad caused a rebuild over the summer. Buckley, J Woolley & Kenzie were key players that would have been built around. To lose all 3 mea t that plans had to be redrawn and expectations managed. I had hoped that we would keep Harry Bower, but he went to Hendesford and is now at Whitchurch as its a shorter commute. Some of the players brought in as replacements either weren't as good as first thought, or had attitude problems to not being in the first few squads of the year.

The FA Cup game came too soon, we could really have done with another week or two to have the squad gel.

It doesn't help at that there are complaints, shouts and grumbles, rather than encouragement from minute one before the games have even got into rhythm.

We have players that thrive on confidence. Jame Nicholson is great, but has looked a little off the pace. Eric Bryne is a raw talent 17 year old who will be great, but get sent off 25 seconds after coming on a few weeks ago. Some of the comments made after that were a bit out of order.

Management are looking at bringing in players with potential and developing them. People say they are fed up with the budget being mentioned, but that's what it is. We work within the constraints we have to develop and put out a team. We.mossed out on several players over the summer due to other team's offering signing bonuses and, in some cases, hundreds of pounds more a week.

If we want a bigger budget, we need people to come to games and be involved in the social aspects of the club. It'll take time, but there will be rewards for it.
 
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The AGM is in four weeks on Thursday 7th December and that is an ideal opportunity for these questions to be asked or better still put yourselves forward to help the existing 1874 Board Members who are all volunteers to run the club. They are always asking for your time and help and perhaps the fresh impetus and new ideas which would reduce their time in running our club.
 
There’s teams with squads who are on our level or worse who do reasonably well in this league purely due to being well drilled and focussing on the basics of the game (set pieces, organisation, keeping the ball). You can have a low budget and not play absolutely garbage week in week out without any signs of improvement I’m afraid. We just seem to like to come up with excuses (young squad, levels of attrition, low budget) rather than actually look to fix the issues that we have all been able to see for what is now years. It’s mad that some of us pinpointed these issues in the stands so long ago and and were ridiculed - it’s taken a good while but people seem to be starting to see the same.
 
Stanm17 said:
There’s teams with squads who are on our level or worse who do reasonably well in this league purely due to being well drilled and focussing on the basics of the game (set pieces, organisation, keeping the ball). You can have a low budget and not play absolutely garbage week in week out without any signs of improvement I’m afraid. We just seem to like to come up with excuses (young squad, levels of attrition, low budget) rather than actually look to fix the issues that we have all been able to see for what is now years. It’s mad that some of us pinpointed these issues in the stands so long ago and and were ridiculed - it’s taken a good while but people seem to be starting to see the same.
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So who are these teams then Stan?

But I will agree with you on one point and that is the style we play. I’m a stuck record on this one but the supposed 4-3-3 the management team adopt just doesn’t work. Simply because on most occasions the 2 of the top 3 never get anywhere near the main ‘striker’ to support him on the odd occasion when he does get a decent ball and tries to hold it up and lay it off to supporting players.

Likewise, there never seems to be any midfielders who are willing to burst through the ranks of the opposition to support the wide players or the isolated front man.

As others have said, when we did change the formation a few weeks ago we did seem to be more threatening up top and tougher to beat.

IMHO Bow and Goody must realise that the current system just isn’t working and we need to adopt a far more positive approach so that we can start to ask questions of opposing sides and change our current overly negative way of playing.

Just maybe, for once, be radical and play 4-4-2. It worked for Alf Ramsey in ‘66!
 
James Wood said:
So who are these teams then Stan?

But I will agree with you on one point and that is the style we play. I’m a stuck record on this one but the supposed 4-3-3 the management team adopt just doesn’t work. Simply because on most occasions the 2 of the top 3 never get anywhere near the main ‘striker’ to support him on the odd occasion when he does get a decent ball and tries to hold it up and lay it off to supporting players.

Likewise, there never seems to be any midfielders who are willing to burst through the ranks of the opposition to support the wide players or the isolated front man.

As others have said, when we did change the formation a few weeks ago we did seem to be more threatening up top and tougher to beat.

IMHO Bow and Goody must realise that the current system just isn’t working and we need to adopt a far more positive approach so that we can start to ask questions of opposing sides and change our current overly negative way of playing.

Just maybe, for once, be radical and play 4-4-2. It worked for Alf Ramsey in ‘66!
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Just to illustrate the point that I’m trying to make re the failings of the 4-3-3 set up, at around the 70 minute mark yesterday Max received a decent ball from either Fenton Green or Matty into his feet around 30 yards out. With his back to goal he did well to control it and was looking for someone to lay it off to. But he was immediately closed down by 3 Clitheroe players and with no team mates within 10-15 yards he was easily dispossessed. One of many times that this happened during this game, that at Leek and many, many more over the last few months.
 
As said above and on other threads the last 3 away games have been poor, the worrying thing is the effect it is having on the home crowds with us only averaging 241, wittons crowds on the other hand are over 400 and over 500 on saturday and they are not much better than us, anybody know how they are pulling almost double what we are.
considering recent performances our away following was good saturday and more than most teams take away which is a positive.
 
James Wood said:
So who are these teams then Stan?

But I will agree with you on one point and that is the style we play. I’m a stuck record on this one but the supposed 4-3-3 the management team adopt just doesn’t work. Simply because on most occasions the 2 of the top 3 never get anywhere near the main ‘striker’ to support him on the odd occasion when he does get a decent ball and tries to hold it up and lay it off to supporting players.

Likewise, there never seems to be any midfielders who are willing to burst through the ranks of the opposition to support the wide players or the isolated front man.

As others have said, when we did change the formation a few weeks ago we did seem to be more threatening up top and tougher to beat.

IMHO Bow and Goody must realise that the current system just isn’t working and we need to adopt a far more positive approach so that we can start to ask questions of opposing sides and change our current overly negative way of playing.

Just maybe, for once, be radical and play 4-4-2. It worked for Alf Ramsey in ‘66!
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The issue for me is that they seem obsessed with what we do out of possession and try to get men behind the ball and be difficult to break down and then forget about the attacking bit, we don't dominate the ball like a home side should (when at home obviously) and so our wingers, our no 10 and full backs are all penned back into defensive positions which then isolates the striker, It's a 'scared of conceding' approach and we just need to except that we might get caught out on the break a few times but put everything into our attacks
 
josh89 said:
The issue for me is that they seem obsessed with what we do out of possession and try to get men behind the ball and be difficult to break down and then forget about the attacking bit, we don't dominate the ball like a home side should (when at home obviously) and so our wingers, our no 10 and full backs are all penned back into defensive positions which then isolates the striker, It's a 'scared of conceding' approach and we just need to except that we might get caught out on the break a few times but put everything into our attacks
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And when the opposition have a corner all 11 of our players come back leaving no outlet if we get the ball.
 
Overall our recent achievements are a credit to the manage style under Wayne and Paul’s guidance. We currently sit two place above the drop zone and this appears to be a result of poor game planning, persistence, and a lack of ability on the field.
Football is a basic game - At kick off it is 0-0 and it’s up the mighty 74 to go out and score and not to concede any goals - so why do we invite the opposition to apply pressure in front of goal, not only at goal kicks but also in open play.
The first penalty conceded on Saturday showed a naivety by the management in asking the players to ‘play out’ in the face of goal. In my playing days this was a GOLDEN RULE which was the basics of the do’s and dont’s of play - Surely there is a time to ‘put your foot through the ball’.
 
The major thing that people seem to be forgetting / ignoring is that yes, we are 2 points above 18th, but we are also 2 points off 13th and 3 off 11th. Two weeks ago, we were 6th in the Form Table. The league is very tight and we are a couple of positive results off the top half.

We've played ALL of the current top 6. We probably should have beaten Stalybridge & Chasetown, but they were both good points.
We've beaten the 3 teams directly above us in Vauxhall, Widnes & City of Liverpool. The Nantwich game was admittedly dire. We are yet to play the bottom 2.

Bottom half
Played: 6
Won: 4
Drawn: 0
Lost: 2
Points: 12

Top half
Played: 7
Won: 0
Drawn: 2
Lost: 5
Points: 2

The football might not always be great, but we have had some very positive results.
 
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