One win in 6 games.........happy to give him another couple of games but it’s a results business, one swallow and all that.
I do like JB he’s one of us.

UTC

Completely agree, looks promising and he clearly loves the club but I'd like to see continue and become a habit before offering Brady a longer term deal. We had this issue in a similar sense with Curle as every so often we would get a credible performance or result and then people wanted him to stay. Low and behold, the next 4 or so games we awful.

The last paragraph sounds familiar 😁
Not a bad shout though.

HAHA I was thinking the exact same as I typed that bit!!

I'm struggling to see the logic in 'just giving it to the Brady Bunch to get us through to the summer so we can reassess then' mentality that I'm hearing. If the performance and mood in the camp justifies it surely they get they job and if its doesn't, or we elect to go elsewhere, so be it. I get that its not his team and he's been given a turd but no manager will have it any different.

In my eyes its paramount we get a someone appointed soon to;

a) give us a chance to stay up as it appears there will be 7 teams that will be in the mix and the gap isn't insurmountable, albeit we will need to score some goals!
b) give the new guy, or Brady, time to access the current squad in readiness for the summer transfer window, tie contracts up and also line up targets

We are far too often caught flat footed at the start of a season when we change manager, loose players and miss out on targets.

Also, whilst I know money doesn't grow on trees and our Chairman is keen on 'good housekeeping', I believe a manager is paramount to success so surely that justifies a potential compo payment to get the right guy in?

For me, with the position we are in and the potential to stay in L1 and build in the summer, I feel someone like Derek Adams at Morecombe would be a great appointment and he's out of contract this summer so would need limited compo. Good CV with long stints at all his clubs and is working wonders at Morecombe. Even with my claret tinted glasses on I would see us as a more attractive proposition than Morecombe with their budget and general size.

Duff would be a great appointment, and similarly to Adams, I would imagine he has taken Cheltenham as far as he can almost due to their budget constraints. I'd be amazed if they kick on should they get promoted as they will no doubt loose most of their decent players.

I'd say his achievements at NTFC are (to date);

 - winning promotion having almost completely turned the playing staff round.
 - specifically giving a significant boost to the careers of Goode, Wharton, Morton, Oliver and Turnbull.
 - the inspired signing of McCormack.
 - probably doing it all within the budget and possibly even exceeding it in terms of Net Cashflow.
 - very specifically the transfer fee achieved from the sale of Goode.
 - the inspired leadership from Covid to the play-off victory.

I think he's earned the right to improve things this season especially in these challenging, uncertain times and within what appears to be a tight and probably relatively uncompetitive budget for the level.

Agree with the above but if we get relegated early on all of that bar the extra additional income will be forgotten by many and I suspect the board.

The thing is, you have to have plenty of spare cash to g amble with. People forget the Scott Rendall, Rene Howe and Harry Beautyman's and only remember Dwight Gayle.

I've always thought that when it gets mentioned. It would be telling to see what the current profit / loss figure is with their non league transfer activity. Next to impossible to work out accurately though with undisclosed fees I guess.

Impressed with Tozers effort, and a few notable saves from Duke, but my vote is Hackett. Seemed to be nearly back to his best, looking to take on his LB at every opportunity.

I was under the impression the current increase were loans directly from Cardoza etc, not bank loans?

I was under the impression that the 'new debts' are in fact all the built up loans that the Cardoza's have 'invested' in to the club.

Feel free to correct me if I am completely wrong on this.

That's why I said an ideal world.

In an ideal world we'd have Sir Alex and a budget of millions.

In an ideal world we would have Graham Carr as DOF pulling strings, scouting and advising Cardoza.

Then a progressive manager possible a former player coming into the game.

Then a local type looking after the reserves. I'd have no problem with someone like Wilkin or Brady as assistant.

All well and good but why would Brady or Wilkin accept that? Brady is a few months away from getting Brackley promoted which will likely get him a league job at some point in the near future, and Wilkin is a manager in his own right 1 league below us.

In my view ADB's main fault was the away tactics.

Only the 300 odd people that went away regularly over the past 2 years will be truly aware of the shambles that happened on our travels in terms of team selection and tactics. Many happy clappers were content with the home form somewhat unaware of how clueless we were on our travels. Sadly the away form, and tactics, still haven't changed.

Atkins and Calderwood could win both home AND away.

I don't see the incentive in this. You're just paying out another wage for a role that can be performed under one position, and probably to its detriment. The way I see it is the manager knows how he wants to play, and it's up to him to get the players that enable him to do that. Bringing in someone else for that role just muddies the waters.

Would Brady etal have a good black book to sign a gem from the Prem / Championship teams? Samspon certainly didn't. He spent the last 2 months of his tenure here promising a striker if I remember rightly? Didn't we struggle through all of December and January with only a few goals until Harrod turned up?

Apart from the above, it's a big step up from the Conference North in terms of professionalism hence why it's a tried and tested. Worked for Calderwood here last time.

Some of the names being suggested are bloody ridiculous.  Why would a manager, who six months ago took a team into the Prem, now only be good enough to manage England's crappiest league club?

Completely agree!

It would be refreshing to see us actually try and poach a manager who is doing well somewhere else for a change rather than just searching through Job Centre adverts for the same old out of work names.

I'd like to see Micky Mellon (Gateshead), Brady or Wilkin given a chance with a VERY experienced DOF. From watching both Brackley and Nuneaton a few times I've been impressed with the way they are performing with very limited budgets which would suggest the respective managers are good at the tactics / man management side of the game.

If we managed to appoint a well known and experienced weller / dealer type of DOF we should ensure the contacts are taken care off.

The above would ovviously cost the club a few quid, which I think stopped this happening before?

[Langmead]

No GPC you are wrong! I sat and watched the team AB inherited at Plymouth, he done a GOOD job in getting us safe.
Last season when we were playing Cheltenham in the playoff semi-final I saw no postings from you demanding his sacking! If this season you think he deserves the sack with Amankwaah, Langmead, Hornby, Nichols, Platt, O'Donovan etc  injured then your thinking is very sad!
who would you replace him with?....Johnson, Wilkinson, Gray, Wilson Sampson......because changing manager works!.....NOT!!!

All well and good, but with regards to this constant mentioning of the Injury List;

Langmead - Carried an injury through from last year and it was known he would be out until late November from pre-season. Subsequently replaced by Heath and then Reid. A major player to lose but surely enough time was in hand to replace him and in Reid I think he has done this, along with Doumbe (sp).

Nicholls - The nature of the injury means everyone should see any return as a bonus, not hang our seasons hopes on him from January onwards. Hardly a shock he's out is it.

Platt - Anyone who expects a player with his age and injury record to play more than 50% of games in a season is frankly stupid. And I'm not knocking the player here at all, as I appreciate what he brings to the team when he is fit.

Hornby - An unfortunate long term injury, but to a squad player and it stopped him taking part in pre-season when we were trialling other options. Matty Harriott has been brought in but hasn't seemed to have done anything of note yet. That or ADB isn't budging away from his favorites.

Amankwaah and O'Donovan - Unfortunate mid season injuries to 1st 11 players, however these should be expected during any season and are only an major issue as ADB only has Tozer and JJ Hooper / Toney as replacements.


In short, the failure to sign a 3rd professional / league quality striker pre-season to push the other 2 lads for the shirt and to cover guaranteed patches of bad form / injury periods has come back to haunt ADB. That along with a shocking pre season 'bonding' tour where less than half the 1st 11 were present has brought us to where we are now.... scratching around bargain basement for emergency players to save us from the trapdoor.

Fair point, however they've got Sunday down as the reserve day and that's looking sunny. It will be a shame as I don't fancy a hangover for Monday morning!

Evening All,

I've got a couple of spares for the T20 Finals Day this Saturday in the Eric Hollies Stand if anyone is keen?

Feel free to take them off my hands as its so late.

Cheers

Toby