How we have started this season

[super_les_mcjannet]

To be honest I started off the season wanting us to run away with this league and get promoted as fast as possible.

After our initial games it feels like we are in a good league with some decent teams and we are likely to be minimum top 5 team. Last season I just wanted to get out of the NL, this year whilst still wanting promotion I do actually now feel part of the football pyramid.

Playing in the Trophy is excellent and I hope we win tomorrow just so we can have the excitement of the draw on Monday, although the money is handy also. The fact that we can now play in the FA Cup next season wil be a massive bonus.

Players will come and go and some of us will agree whilst others won't with the managers choices but at the end of the day the fact we have a team to watch in the pyramid is excellent. We won't win every week like we did last season and it becomes a bit more competitive we have to get used to not habing our own way all the time.

Just a few thoughts on the opening months.

[Ingleby]

We are doing ok. Like you said I'd be surprised if we finished outside the play-offs.
If we are to win it we with have to find some consistency.

But we are only quarter way through the season. I may not agree with letting AJ move but we move on and it would be boring if everyone agreed with everything all the time. Hopefully now Fisher comes in and adds a few goals.

Most important thing is we all get behind the team.

[darlo reborn]

Have to agree this league is so much better with six or seven top teams instead of one or two in nl.
On a different topic can we all not bombard the tia fa with emails about fishers clearance ?????

[StevieMardenboro]

Last season spoiled us. It was ludicrously good. A few patchy performances so far this term but we will be there or thereabouts.

To be honest as long as the crowds hold up and we are living within our means and are paying down debt I am happy. Even if it takes us a few years to climb up.

Delighted with the signings of Pilatos, Fisher and White. Players of a different quality I think.
Its a shame about Andy Johnson and if the rumours about Robinson are true . . him too but its a deffo a good sign that these lads chose Darlo in the first place.
Shows that people recognise we are too good for this level. Hopefully we can scout the Northern League well over the years to come to ensure the best players with the potential to play higher up come to us.

[theoriginalfatcat]

Hopefully now Fisher comes in and adds a few goals.

FEED THE FISH


The football is better this season and because of this I am enjoying it more. I really hope the players do their utmost to keep our unbeaten home record intact. It would be great to keep it all season long.

[AndyPark]

I didn't have the faintest idea of any team in this league, so nothing is surprising me! If we can be in the top 5 at the end of season, then I'd be pretty happy.

It's been decent visiting new grounds again & like originalfatcat states: It'd be fantastic to keep our home record intact all season long.

The signings of Alan White & Nathan Fisher have been quality & they'll improve us massively. So bring on the rest of the season

But overall, I think we will get promoted. Not fussed if it's as champions or the play-offs.

[Mr_Tibbs]

In a way I'm kind of glad that we're not running away with the league, though I think we're still getting up a head of steam and I expect we'll have a much better second half to the season.

If you remember back to before the start of last season a lot of us were only hoping to finish in the top 5 of the Northern League - we had no idea what to expect, not really, and that was exciting. We had a few wake-up calls during the first half of the season which kept us on wondering, and led us to witness MG's ruthless streak when it came to letting players go in favour of new ones coming in, creating an almost unstoppable force which left us all feeling mighty proud and pleased as punch when May came around.

This season we saw a fall off in the crowd numbers, partly because of the "after the Lord Mayor's Show" effect but partly (I believe) that some people thought we were going to walk the league and felt that they weren't able to add anything to the club, rather like a striker chasing after a ball which is going in the net anyway - he'd like to stick his boot on it and make sure it goes in the back of the net and jump and cheer but, ultimately, finds himself just shepherding the ball over the line. A goal! Great - but nothing to get excited about and he needn't have wasted his time and energy chasing after it.

This season is much more exciting that last season. I'm not worried about whether Fisher will score more goals than AJ might have because he's just going to be part of a team which will I firmly believe will start demolishing other teams soon. Once we get on that run I think we'll do ok, but I'm glad we've had a soft landing when we came back down to earth after last season.

[Maurice_Peddelty]

I pretty much agree with everything posted above. Regardless of result, I have been entertained by every single match I've seen so far this season. Obviously we have to have ambitions to progress but at some point I guess there will have to be a trade-off in terms of entertainment.

[fat tony]

Last few seasons the minimum amount of points to win the league / get in the playoffs have been...

12-13: league winner 102 points / final playoff place 80 points
11-12: 99 / 79
10-11: 97 / 81
09-10: 100 / 74
08-09: 87 / 68 (40 game season)

Over a quarter of the way through the season and we're averaging 1.9 points a game which would put us at 80-81 points at the end, so reasonably comfortably into the lower playoff places. With a gear shift and mad run like the second half of last season maybe even more?

The standard is higher than last season, obviously - it's like the football version of the laws of gravity that the standard is obviously going to be higher - so we can't really bank on a massive upturn from here where we run off and dickslap the league. Finishing 2nd or 3rd to get home advantage in the playoffs would be useful though as our crowd size could give us a real edge.

[Quakerz]

Agree with all the above and am quite relaxed about this season to be honest. Each defeat is met with a shrug of the shoulders and a "Meh, we lost. But it is a better standard so there we go".

The reason I'm more relaxed, and probably enjoying it more, is because like Les says, we are properly part of the pyramid again, and the fact is that if we don't win the league we have a second bite at the cherry if we finish in the play offs.

The pressure just isn't there, that we had in the Northern League last season. All last season I was really uptight about it because I was thinking if we don't get out at the first attempt we could get trapped there for ever. Luckily we got the job done and I breathe much easier this season.

You know what, I wouldn't even be that upset if we failed to get promoted this season, the biggest hurdle is already out of the way.

[mensamoo]

I think we have been more unlucky than lucky. I would not have expected to have lost three games at this point, especially with the quality of football we are playing. Our true test is if we can win by one goal in the difficult games. That's all that Curzon are doing and we all seem to think they won't keep it up.
I personally think we have to go up automatically. The play offs are a lottery, however exciting.
Football is a very fickle game, as we have seen. The best team doesn't always win.

[love it!]

I'm not sure winning the Northern League was ever in doubt if I'm honest. Maybe not getting promoted will be masked by the potential move back to Darlington in the 2014/15 however lets not kid ourselves and think this is where we belong. If we had 2 seasons in this division would be equally a killer as staying at Bishop for an additional season.

[D_F_C]

1. Warrington Town Won at home
2. Curzon Ashton Lost Away
3. Darlington 1883
4. Farsley FC Lost Away
5. Kendal Town Won at home
6. Lancaster City
7. Bamber Bridge Won at home
8. Northwich Victoria
9. Harrogate Railway Athletic Draw at home
10. Cammell Laird
11. Ossett Town
12. Salford City Won Away
13. New Mills
14. Ramsbottom United Lost Away
15. Mossley Won at home
16. Padiham
17. Prescot Cables Draw at home
18. Clitheroe Won Away
19. Burscough
20. Wakefield
21. Radcliffe Borough
22. Ossett Albion Won at home


Looking at who we've played I think we've done quite well. I'm not sure who Curzon have played yet, besides us (which we shouldn't have lost), but besides Lancaster (who we have on Sat) we will have played most of the top teams.

[Big Tim]

I think we've started pretty decent tbh, few slight hiccups which I expected. Sure we'll be there or thereabouts come end of the season but 5th place would do me!

[quakersam]

If we don't finish top, ideally we want to be 2nd as the playoff final would be held at the highest placed side and we'd get home advantage in the semi-final (only 1 leg as far as I can remember)

[fozzovmurton]

If you remember back to before the start of last season a lot of us were only hoping to finish in the top 5 of the Northern League - we had no idea what to expect, not really, and that was exciting. We had a few wake-up calls during the first half of the season which kept us on wondering, and led us to witness MG's ruthless streak when it came to letting players go in favour of new ones coming in, creating an almost unstoppable force which left us all feeling mighty proud and pleased as punch when May came around.

I thought we would not win the Northern League at first opportunity, but I always said whoever took the most points from the Spenny games we would win the title and would go on take 4 from 6 off them, I half expected last season to be one in transit, getting to a gel and then go for it this season with an FA Vase run, luckily we won it and got away straight, what surprised me was not winning the league but the way it was done, we destroyed nearly everything in our way

If we don't finish top, ideally we want to be 2nd as the playoff final would be held at the highest placed side and we'd get home advantage in the semi-final (only 1 leg as far as I can remember)

Correct, finishing 2nd gives us home advantage, as would the final...

The Play Offs are 2nd v 5th and 3rd v 4th with 2nd and 3rd playing at home, I think we will win the league in the end though

[LoidLucan]

The opposition is better this season and our squad is weaker than last season (particularly in midfield and defence) and I don't think we will win the league. We've turned in a couple of real stinkers (Farsley and Ramsbottom) as well as some good performances. We're less than solid at the back now and we've developed a habit of letting sides off the hook when they should be polished off (Curzon, Prescott, Harrogate and Buxton) but I think we should be able to finish in the top ten with a season of consolidation. Given the loss of key players and the better opposition that's OK.

[JPearson97]

To be honest, I actually think that we're better than what the table suggests at the minute.

Two very good wins at the start of the season, one of them being against now top of the league Warrington, was followed up with a poor defeat to Farsley, but this was with Scott at centre-back and he cost us at least two goals that game, which is a shame because he's normally very consistent. We also had no Pilatos, White or Edwards like we have done for the past eight games.

We made it hard for ourselves against Kendal and Clitheroe but Mossley was easy enough; likewise we dominated Harrogate R.A but did everything but put the ball in the back of the net.

Ramsbottom was inexcusable although I think that their league position at the time was a bit of a red herring. In their last 13 games they have gone W8-D3-L2.

The Salford game was our best game so far in terms of dominating the game from start to finish. It was then closely followed up by the demolition of Ossett Albion and Town. This is when I thought that we had started to click and I still stand by that. The past three games have been strange, because despite churning out good performance after good performance, we've somehow managed to come away with two draws and a defeat. It started against Prescot Cables, where we put in an equally impressive performance as what we did when we smashed Ossett Albion for 7, yet due to a lapse in concentration we conceded two from set-pieces. Don't get me wrong, they clearly came with a game plan and defended admirably at times, but how many chances did we have? Too many.

To then go to a side second in the league, un-beaten in eight and suffer almost the same fate as what we did no more than two days ago was equally as gut-wrenching and frustrating. And if I'm being totally honest yesterday just summed our luck up. Travel around 130 miles to a side 7th in the league above, two players pull out in the warm-up, 10 corners, 14 shots on target, had two cleared off the line, hit the post, missed a penalty and re-bound deflected away by a point-blank save from, without a doubt, their best player on the day.

I've seen several comments that suggests that we're capable of finishing top 5, even when we haven't got the result we'd wanted. A Prescot Cables player mentioned we were a cut above the rest, and a Curzon Ashton fan reckoned that their defensive performance against us was the best he'd seen in years. We're only going to get better as time progresses, what with Fisher and Weldon hopefully being available soon, plus any other players Gray may bring in over the coming weeks/months. It's strange to think that we've got a player of Brown's calibre sat on the sidelines with a long-term injury. I understand that he may not even be available for the rest of the season but people have to take it into account when looking at how our defence faired last season.

[Quakerz]

The opposition is better this season and our squad is weaker than last season (particularly in midfield and defence) and I don't think we will win the league. We've turned in a couple of real stinkers (Farsley and Ramsbottom) as well as some good performances. We're less than solid at the back now and we've developed a habit of letting sides off the hook when they should be polished off (Curzon, Prescott, Harrogate and Buxton) but I think we should be able to finish in the top ten with a season of consolidation. Given the loss of key players and the better opposition that's OK.

Highly pessimistic to suggest that "we should be able to finish in the top ten", in fact it's a bit insulting to the squad.

Whilst we might have let a couple of teams off the hook in recent games, and whilst we are a bit more inconsistent, that's partly because the defence has new people in that are gelling.

We have still smashed a few teams (the 6-1 away at Ossett Town was particularly impressive), and I will eat Hilly's remaining hats if we finish outside the top 4.

Top spot might be beyond us this season, but there's plenty of the season left to go yet.

[AIDO]

The opposition is better this season and our squad is weaker than last season (particularly in midfield and defence) and I don't think we will win the league. We've turned in a couple of real stinkers (Farsley and Ramsbottom) as well as some good performances. We're less than solid at the back now and we've developed a habit of letting sides off the hook when they should be polished off (Curzon, Prescott, Harrogate and Buxton) but I think we should be able to finish in the top ten with a season of consolidation. Given the loss of key players and the better opposition that's OK.

Highly pessimistic to suggest that "we should be able to finish in the top ten", in fact it's a bit insulting to the squad.

Whilst we might have let a couple of teams off the hook in recent games, and whilst we are a bit more inconsistent, that's partly because the defence has new people in that are gelling.

We have still smashed a few teams (the 6-1 away at Ossett Town was particularly impressive), and I will eat Hilly's remaining hats if we finish outside the top 4.

Top spot might be beyond us this season, but there's plenty of the season left to go yet.

... this .... And talking to quite a few Buxton supporters yesterday, they said only Skelmersdale had looked as good/better than us against them this season thus far. Buxton actually beat them too. We will get even better. Bruno, by the way, had an outstanding game against King, their best player ... Several league clubs are looking to sign him up apparently ... King that is .... Well done Bruno lad .... Same again Wednesday ...