The turning point

[Beefy]

We went through years of being rubbish and now we're back in the second tier of English football. It would be easy to just put the transformation down to Tilly getting the job, but for me the specific turning point is something that yesterday's scene at Swansea with their fans clapping us off reminded me of.

Almost two years ago Torquay were promoted at Roots Hall on the final day of the season. I'm sure you all remember it. Anyway, unlike Swansea, who's players disappeared down the tunnel until we'd finished celebrating, our players and management stayed on the pitch and watched the Torquay players and fans celebrating promotion. What a great psychological weapon that was. Watching another team and another set of fans experiance the sheer joy of a promotion was torture and I remember thinking how much I wanted to celebrate a promotion. I wanted that sort of success. And I'm sure that the players, watching on in the centre-circle on a hot summers day after yet another defeat, must have felt the same.

Anyone else share that opinion? What do you think was the specific turning point in our fortunes?

 

[smith southend shrimper]

The moment Tilson was put in charge of the team.

 

[SUBBlue]

Things took a turn for the better IMO when:

a) Ron Martin took over as Chairman from John Main

b)When we got rid of that moron Wignall (I refused to set foot in Roots Hall whilst he was 'in charge')

c)When Webby brought Brushy back to the club.

I think Tilson was already back as Youth development thingy  from Canvey by then.

 

[EastStandBlue]

This season? Brentford at home. Absolutely slaughtered them.

In general was probably the LDV cup run. Signalled an end to the negativity that was eating the club up, and provided a lot of self believe into a club rejuvenated by a manager who loved the club.

 

[Thenewblue]

when Tes got injured in goal against Boston, and we signed an unknown non league striker, I remember the dissapointment when we all found out that we signed some young unheard of lad by the name of Freddy Eastwood, 7.7 seconds later we knew his name all right! and the rest is history!

 

[Shrimp in a Kilt]

Quote[/b] (Thenewblue @ April 30 2006,15:59)]when Tes got injured in goal against Boston, and we signed an unknown non league striker, I remember the dissapointment when we all found out that we signed some young unheard of lad by the name of Freddy Eastwood, 7.7 seconds later we knew his name all right! and the rest is history!

I still don't think you can take a non-league striker, bring him up two divisions and START him against the best defence in League 2. Crazy! Should have been on the bench at the most. I think my comment at the time was "Tilly must believe in fairy tales."

So what do I know...

 

[Andy_S]

The signing of Freddy, quite simply. We were doing nothing until he came in, but his arrival boosted others and made the whole squad realise that we could do something.


I know what you mean about the Torquay game, Beefy. I remember clapping Leroy Rosenior off with the rest of the East Greens and thinking how would it feel to be in their shoes? Now I know.

 

[N'Zamba Legend]

The real turning point was Wignall's clear-out and the signing of Mark Gower. Wignall was crap but at least he provided us with a far better crop of players than those left by Newman.

 

[fbm]

There is not, in my opinion, one single incident that can be called a turning point.

However, there were 3 significant events that occured which, on their own, wouldn't have added up to have the same, cumulative and immense impact.

1)  The signing of Wignall as manager. This may seem odd but Wignall brought in some fairly decent players, one of them being Mark Gower, the first creative player signed for the club in many seasons.  Remember the "Wignall Revolution" and the opening day 2-0 demolition of Cheltenham?  What that did was instill belief in the fans that we were in the process of turning things around and that the way was now upwards.  No other manager had managed to do that.

2.  The Collymore effect.  After Wignall's departure, not just the fans but almost the entire town seemed excited at the prospect of arguably the clubs greatest ever talent coming back in a player/manager role.  We absolutely demolished Rochdale 4-0 at the Hall the week after that news broke and the unity amongst the fans was phenomenal.  For the first time I had the feeling that we were all pulling in the same direction and after thrashing Dale we also took Luton apart in an LDV match we were just not supposed to win.  Tilly was only a caretaker manager at that time and wasn't even in the running for the job.

3. "That" goal v Swansea after 7.7 seconds.  I am not going to cite Freddys arrival as a turning point.  There was more than a little disappointment from most of the fans when our new striker turned out to be a ex-West Ham reject from Grays called Fredy Eastwood (sic) that was hitherto unknown.  If his start hadn't have been so explosive how much time would we have given him?  If he hadn't have delivered the goods so quickly would we have destroyed him, as we did with Graeme Jones?  

Those for me are the three key events.  Everything else has been an offshoot.

 

[jeffiniho]

i think it was when we just created nearly a new team, with freddy eastwood coming in, gutts, barrat and all the over players thats when it all started

 

[J]

the save that darryl made at hartlepool

 

[keefmoon]

If we're talking promotion in the last 2 seasons the turning points are clear. I always think back to 2 penalty saves that if they hadn't happened we may not be sitting here.
1) The Bartman away at Bury last year in the last minute. That save and subsequent win turned our fortunes and self-belief on it's head.
2) Darryl penalty save in the last minute at Hartlepool. We hadn't won in the league since October. We win there, go on a run of 3 games of winning 2-1 in 5 days, go top of the league, where we have stayed more or less.
2 very important moments in our rise to the Championship.

 

[Shrimp in a Kilt]

I'm not sure if this is exactly a turning point, or just the point when I realised that we had a team that could compete at League 1 level, and possibly more. It was Goater's first goal in the 89th minute at Walsall, followed by Flav's brilliant save - a save so good that the striker, on his knees, pounded the ground in disbelief. Following on from our win at Bradford, I rate this performance as the one where we started to believe in ourselves as a League One team.

 

[sufcintheprem]

I think when we (well, Adam Barrett) snatched the points at Northampton to push us in to playoff contention last season was the one that did it for me. Before that, I'd say the LDV.

 

[Matty the Shrimper]

Drewes goal against Col******r

 

[old leigh shrimper]

The first wearing of my lucky underpants!

 

[* ORM *]

The day we signed Kevin Maher. Just needed some time to mature.

I think it was last season's first unbeaten run, when the team suddenly realised it could play football.

 

[Leeboy]

I have to agree with fbm about Wignall taking over as Manager. He may have turned out to be a complete tw&t, but you could see with some of his signings what he was trying to achieve and how he wanted to shape the team - a solid defence who wouldn't take any sh!t ( Wozza, Stuart ), a tricky wideman ( Gower ), a target man who could hold the ball up ( Drewe ) and a speedy striker ( Husbands ).

Obviously it all fell apart after the first game of the season

But he has to take credit for building the foundations of the current squad.

 

[SUFCEssex]

I think when Tilson came in and the first LDV run made us realise we could beat anyone in the bottom two divisions. Beating QPR 4-0 really got things going. Getting to Cardiff against Blackpool seemed to put the club back on the map and made local people realise we had a team. A week later we beat Carlisle to send them down and keep us and up and its been up and up ever since.

 

[gbshrimper]

The signing of Neil Broad