Message #369130

[Athena]

On 11th September 1962 my father took me to my first ever NTFC game.  It was a birthday treat to celebrate my 8th birthday (which is actually in a few days’ time) and we won beating Wrexham 8-0 , which remains to this day the higest victory margin I have seen (although I did once see Celtic beat Aberdeen 9-0 but that was not NTFC).. I remember little about the game to be perfectly honest other than the result, I think it was an evening game and that we stood over on the cricket side of the County Ground.  Either way I was hooked and now some 56 years later still have that passion, having grown through standing on The Hotel End, travelling to every away match to now being a season ticket for more years than I can recall.
I don’t think however that in the intervening 56 years I’ve ever been so worried for the future of the club as I currently am, not even in the dark days of the 70’s.  I thought we were awful at Port Vale. Totally outplayed by a very ‘average’ team who nevertheless had more organisation, demonstrated more ability and so much more desire to win which resulted in them having more pace and quickness of thought than us.  I could not help wondering if any one of our 11 would have got into their 11.  In particular the lack of attacking ability is frightening.  I believe we only had one shot on target all game (and was that a deflection?), and in the first half missed two glaring chances form relatively close range by not even hitting the target. If you can’t score then the pressure falls on the defence and they are simply not good enough either. I believe the first goal was avoidable, Pierre who was constantly caught out, fell for two sucker punches by Port Vale forwards and should not have allowed himself to be so pulled in and the defence opened up wide to allow a one-two for the second.  It made little difference as the game was effectively lost when they scored the first.
Where does the club go from here?  I wish I knew. I agree with many of the comments forwarded here.  We lack vision, guidance or purpose.  I feel DA is struggling but also agree that getting rid of him would not necessarily solve the problems.
As I left the ground yesterday I passed a little lad of about 8 years of age, proudly wearing his NTFC scarf (good for him).  I sincerely hope and pray he still has a club let alone a League club to support when he reaches 64.  I won’t be around but my spirit will be.