It's started already....

[Smudger]

Quote[/b] (the dark deshrimper @ Oct. 16 2005,13:49)]We're jsut saying dont get to ahead of ourselves, otherwise people like you wont shut up Discussing when if/when we do drop out of the top three or so.

Trust me, I won't be Discussing!

My original point seems to have been lost on a few people but picked up again by Trust Treasurer Bloke. I'm not saying mid-table won't represent a great achievement on paper and I would have bitten your hand off at the start of the season. I also think the lads have done an utterly fantastic job and one defeat in nine is not the time for any kind of post-mortem. I have lost count of the number of people coming up to me at work/the pub and saying "Southend eh?! They're flying!" I can't remember a better time to be a Shrimper. I just disagree with the kind of attitude that says the team should just be grateful to be in League 1 and not try to build on their brilliant start. They've just beaten former European champions, had a record breaking run and have strength and quality in depth - if this isn't the time to pull out your very best, when is?? It's no coincidence that a number of sides have achieved back to back promotions in recent years (Brighton, Luton etc.) They did it because a good, well-organised team coming up a division remains a good, well-organised team regardless of the opposition. Neither of the clubs I mentioned had lots of money to spend, which has been suggested as a pre-requisite on here. It isn't. I'm suggesting Tilly's brilliant team could go all the way and match Webby's team of '91 - is that such a bad thing to suggest? If we don't make it then it won't be the end of the world and we'll still be able to look back on a fantastic attempt to do the "impossible." Surely, it's better to have loved and lost and all that and if you don't buy a ticket, you'll never win the bottle of Blue Nun in the raffle.....

 

[sufcintheprem]

I could see a lot of sense in Trust Treasurer Bloke's post.

Firtsly, though, how much does this remind people of the situation last season where, after going top at Macc, we managed to slip to 4th? People were saying how we'd blown it and what a great chance we had. Truth was, whatever way you look at it, over 46 games the team had fantastically well and fortunately for us, we played well and got the breaks we needed to go up.

Now, this stemmed from us going top and people suggesting that if we were good enough to go top, we should have carried on improving when there were so many other factors that may have affected the rest of the games. For instance, if the ball had ricocheted downfield instead of Jevons, we may have won the game v Yeovil.

We seem to be in the situation again now but I think some of the subtlety of TTB's post was missed. The way I read it, he wasn't saying that he would be disappointed in the team if we failed to go up. I got the impression he would look on it as a great achievement for the season.

However, even the staunch pessimist would think twice about suggesting we are still anywhere near favourites for relegation. I felt that TTB was saying that we have worked ourselves in to a fantastic position and we should try and play on from that. Hopefully Tilly will try and keep the players with the attitude that the season has just started and thy should play Barnsley just as they played Po...erm...Bradford.

However, the fact remains although there are teams queuing up round there, we are nine points ahead of 7th and the league is really starting to show some gaps. Yes, there is a mighty long way to go in this season but, imagining that Tilly had just took over the job from Dick Bate (who had moved to Arsenal) and had no past record this season, you wouldn't expect anything less than the playoffs. In the circumstances today and ignoring the past, you would expect more.

Anyhow, I think that the small squad has a significant risk of tiring this season so my objective would be to scramble as many points as possible by Christmas regardless of league positions and assess the situation then.

PS If anyone can unjumble that mess I have just written, well done

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Spot on