We are in this league because we deserve to be. If we are in it next season it will be because we aren’t good enough to get out of it. Sounds obvious but we are only as good as the league we are in and until we have a squad full of players that will fight to the death to get us out of this league we shall remain here. If we had 16 players with the fight and commitment of Pritch and Mose then we would be better off undoubtedly. Sadly they don’t come along too often…
Local lads would give their all for the club if they were given the chance. As we have no realistic chance of going up this year how about giving some a go? Never liked Mr Finley but I cannot blame him for our financial position, just our discipline, which is lousy.
WHS.
Vive la France !
Hang on a minute Topcat, you are now changing your criteria. Yesterday you said we lost because half the team had left, but now you have retracted this to say that 5 players were ‘unavailable for a variety of reasons’. Fair enough, but that wasn’t what you said yesterday.
We fielded a team of 11 yesterday, with a further 3 on the bench. Add to that the 5 unavailable and you have 19 players. That’s not a bad squad size, and with the players that we have then we should have been good enough to challenge for the title, rather than limply ending the season at the top end of mid-table.
So players leave for more money do they? My word when did this start to happen?? EVERY manager at EVERY club faces this problem (apart from the very top clubs perhaps), so why even make this excuse? Players also leave for other reasons; to play at a higher level, because the manager deems them surplus to requirements, or because they have a falling out with the manager. Other clubs have this problem too, so let’s not claim that this is the reason that we havent reached the play offs.
Which brings me to your last point, that the people to blame for us not going up are those Wittoners who havent been coming to games. Who are you or anybody else to tell people where and when they should spend their money?? I always thought that watching football on a Saturday was optional? Have i missed something?? Football is a product, and supporters are customers. If the customer does not feel that the product is providing value for money then they will stop buying it. Unfortunately the team has not performoed consistently this season, and that has meant that gates have dropped. But we arent the only team who have faced this problem - you only need to look over the canal to see that falling gates are the norm at the moment.
The club are finally starting to look at ways to entice fans back, but perhaps for too long we have just expected the same people to keep coming back to WP regardless of the performances of the team, and it just doesnt work that way. The problem is that once people find something better to do with their Saturdays, then they are unlikely to come back again unless they are given good reason to - and blaming them for Witton’s poor season isnt going to help with that! Witton fans stop coming to games, Witton fans find more important things to spend their money on, they move away, and unfortunately they also pass away. To blame our poor performances on these people is ridiculous.
The fact is that we had the players to get us out of this league, and we have fallen well short. We have been unfortunate at times, but still the responsibility for our failiure falls at the feet of the manager - that’s football. It’s his job to utilise the budget to the best of his abilities. To get a settled and happy squad together. To find a way to play that suits the players at his disposal. If we have failed, then so has Gary. The same can be said of any club at any level (Mark Hughes, Phil Brown, and Paul Hart could all offer reasons why they underacheived - but all have lost their jobs regardless).
Let’s stop making excuses. We havent been good enough. The fans that dont turn up week in week out dont matter to me, but the fans that do - and who do so much for this club - deserved so much better this season.
I agree Robbo .although Its not over yet , but even if we did get promoted Id be very concerned about strength of the squad.
Obviously I know that Gary has had a better budget than most in this league , I for one am very very disappointed in the way its been used.I feel very let down, and I try telling myself “Well thats sport, no guarantees”
Every team has injuries suspensions etc , its his job to allow for these, to buy wisely and allow for cover. I feel also some players have let him down too. Im waiting for somone to produce what I think they are really capable of. Lets face it they’ve not performed since beating Sheffield months ago, The team has stuttered to the edge of the play-offs
Very good post Robbo.
At the end of the day whether the chairman was right to give the manager a 2 year contract is debatable but do we really want the same again served up next season ?
Yes well if your a witton fan or any fan to that matter u support your team through thick or thin not just when there winning unless u want your team to go bust! but we have,nt got 19 players available have we, 2 are on loan,1 was suspended 1 is injured 1 as left the other two they were absent. you dont like gary fair enough but u have got to remember that half of that team that jim vince took over were gary finleys team! you cant just blame the manager for everything u need luck to win games & we,ve had none some of the sendings off this season have been a disgrace, cause of poor refs. no matter what i say u are all in the same clan agreeing with each other cause u dont like the manager, but why cant we all pull together for the last 5 weeks instead of moaning on here none of us are happy that we,re staying in this poxy league but we,ve got to face facts thats where we,ll b next season. to get out of this league u need big physical players cause its just a big kickers league.
Topcat your last line is correct. and I agree with you on the JV connection. But Gary has had a decent budget to get players or kickers,thats his job In my opinion for whatever reason ,its not happened and I feel the squad should have performed better than they have .Some individual players have carried this team . But Its not over yet , they’ve made very hard work of this season.
As for bad refs, injuries, suspensions ,go on every forum everyone has them !!! Its up to the players on the pitch to get this club up . Its them who win the points.
Mickleover are not big kickers - they do get the ball forward quickly but then they play the football that has got them to the top and eventually out of this league. They are physical but if you look at the Fair Play League up to the end of Feb they are top of that as well.
I dont recall every posting anything to suggest that i dont like Gary? I have supported him in the past, and whilst he remains manager then i will continue to do so. But this is a forum for discussion, and everybody is entitled to an opinion. My opinion is that we have failed to reach our target this season, and when that happens the buck stops with the manager. There are not 5 or 6 better teams than us in this league, but the table would suggest otherwise. You make your own luck in this game, and we just havent been good enough.
Topcat, going back to your JV comment, i agree that JV’s first side was built around a lot of Gary’s signings. GF took that team to midtable, whilst JV took us to within 1 goal of winning the title - and won the Cheshire Cup. So i have to ask; what does that tell you?
I think what we have to factor-in to our winning formula is the WITTON SYNDROME.There are a number of teams that have visited WP this season and have seen the facilities,realised that we are still a big name and have then gone out onto the pitch and have given that little bit extra.I know this sounds like an excuse but it is certainly an extra hurdle that our club has to jump.
I do not know what the answer is but i feel Gary is very close to getting it right.We have a great away record and play good stuff but we have mis-fired at times at home.Perhaps it is the syndrome kicking in.
We hear people saying in various leagues that the key to promotion is by virtue of a big physical team that bullies their way out of their appropiate league but Eli says that Mickleover played good football and have topped the fair play league,so i guess it must be a fine balancing act of the two.
This winning formula is difficult to achieve and one that has so cruelly eluded us in recent times. I so hope that it does not continue.
NO
a winning team consists of a team that can play together and is run by a man that knows what he is doing
Unfortunaly we have neither
yes we have “SOME” players that can play football
but “NO” they dont play together
as for the man in charge he sould have the power and strength to do something about it but again “NO” that man is someone we havnt got
And as for topcat
stop living in the past and open you eyes to whats happening now
“YES” he built a good side last time he was here but thats when we had a chairman that was here longer than a year and wasable to put more money into the transfer pot we had more support aswell to back the wages
but that was the past this is now
Finley hasnt got a large transfer budget but enough for this league other teams have been achieving more with less money.
A good manager should be able to build a squad no metter of the budgets unfortunatly Finley cant
If u think your such an expert about manageing the team why dont u put in for the job! im entitled to my opinion just like everyone else & im not living in the past its all gud en well coming on here if u have a problem talk to the chairman, & as for the previous chairman that is why we had to cut the budget in the first place cause of over spending in the 2 yrs that jv was here so dont get on about that. 
sorry i cant see where i have put that im an expert at managing i thought i was just using my common sence
and if your not living in the past why bring up the last time he was here :s
You dont have to say that its the way your saying stuff on here, if hes so shit at his job why would blackburn employ him for there under 16s, im on about jv cause that is why we had to cut the budget to avoid going bust but u would know that if u attended share holders meetings. Have u ever thought we cant afford to go up cause if we got promoted we would have to pay more money.
watch your language cant put that on here
and he isnt totaly useless manageing an under 16 team or maybe even a scout them jobs would be more suitable for him than a first team manager
Talking about cant afford to go up is that where your forgeting how much more income we would be recieving in the unibond premiere than the south
But what ever lets go with what your say F*** all the people that pay to watch the game were not going to win because we dont want to go up - (brilliant mate keep saying stuff like that will make more people to come and watch)(keep loosing and keep having the drops in attendence - keep having a drop of income)
and before you say anything im not an expert at acounting or being in control of money that is just common sence
Topcat10 wrote:
The irony of the above statement is that we have seen no young players develop in this witton side, whilst we have struggled to name a full bench!
I don’t necessarily think that now is a good time to change manager but that said I did not feel that Gary was a good appointment to begin with. His connections mean he has bought good players into the club, with great support from the chairman. My concern is more to do with the management of these players. Dave Neviile, Stuart Rudd, Steve Foster, all good players no longer with us. Lee Coathup and Ian Street departed, two assistant managers in one season. Booth, Rudd, Henry, many captaincy changes. Pritchard, Foster and now Morgan dropped to the bench when they should be playing.
There are lots of reasons why I don;t believe that Gary is a good manager and without being too harsh we should be capable of being higher in the league than Kidsgrove and Leek, we have a better supporter base and better facilities, unfortunately the attendances will drop when the end product is poor.
We need to rebuild from the ground up, I unfortunately believe we will be in this league again next season but we need to build on this great club’s history and fight our way out of this division. I don’t believe that Gary is the man to do this job, his current CV says relegation followed by an average season. His previous clubs, Colwyn Bay and Lancaster tells a similar story. I have no malice in my belief, wish him well, but believe this club needs a different manager to support everything that is good about it.
We’ll be in for another tough season ahead but it starts by having a leader that the players and the fans are behind!
well said rabbit just need a couple of others to see the same way
Ganging up on Topcat10 ?
just proving a point