Some perspective needed

[stokiejoe22]

Reading some of the negativity on here (yes, I read it - the fans are some of the most important and wonderful people at the club), I feel the need to reply.

Results are an extremely important part of football, nobody disputes that nor the fact that we aren’t happy with our results so far this season, but to judge a talented manager when we’re not even through September both shocks and disappoints me. It hasn’t been an easy time over the past few years since the last cup runs and promotion, you will feel that more than me having been through the highs and lows of many years, but changing that… and it’s a big change, isn’t quick or easy if you do it properly.

Michael has put his heart and soul in to this job, it’s a brilliant opportunity. On the pitch we’ve changed the playing style (those attending will see that). We’re having more possession than opponents, more shots than opponents, more chances created than opponents… we’re just not putting that round thing in the back of the net… but that’s coming, trust me!!

Off the pitch you have a manager who interacts with fans at the ground and clubhouse (a positive change), encourages players to interact, interacts with fans on social media and through our reports and programmes, provides top class training and an environment the players love, has re-painted the changing rooms and graphics (at his own expense), has repainted the dugouts, demonstrates good values as a person and hopefully that reflects on the club.

Have a think about what you type. You have every right to be frustrated, relegation was a gut punch and I’m still hurting but the club appointed the manager for a reason. I’d like to think we are very close (albeit 4 very difficult games next up), you’ll have to trust me.

If you still want change then maybe it’s me you want to be looking at. I was assistant last year and this, so have had an influence on both seasons. If you want to direct your criticism anywhere then maybe it’s right at me rather than a new manager trying to do his best… and getting there!

Stokesy

[powderedegg]

Is the perspective that we have a club that was relegated last season, appointed an inexperienced manager, still charging last season's NPL admission prices, signing players from the same league or below, and are currently 21st out of 24th in the league?

The league table doesn't lie despite supposedly having more shots, possession and chances.

[pullmyfinger]

As someone who has been to most games this season, been vocal on social media and also spoken with Stokesy & Mike a few times, I think the performances have definitely improved from last season.

The early part of the season was awful to watch, but even in the early games there were glimmers of what the team were capable of. The game against Irlam is a perfect example, where we flew out the blocks and went 2-0 up. It looked like we could've gone on to score 4 or 5, but then it all fell apart. The win at Padiham was a relief for everyone, and it was a great hardworking performance, even if we didn't completely dominate. Then the Pilkington game was exceptional, a total domination of the game from minute 1 to 90 and the best team performance I've seen from GNE for several years. Recently, the performances have dropped a bit and individual mistakes are costing us when it matters, but the performances have still been better in general than last season and the early games this season.

There are a few issues to iron out, consistency being a big one. We seem to lose concentration regularly, particularly at around the 30 min mark, where I think we have conceded 4 or 5 times this season already. We are also missing an out and out goalscorer. Jacques has done well for us, and Harry F scored a few before getting injured, but I don't think they are the right players to be leading the line. Ryan was great in his first couple of games with his workrate but so far we haven't seen the end product from him, and I believe he has been carrying an injury for a couple of weeks so may not have been at his best. And while JB had a great game up front against Rammy, he isn't an instinctive striker. He's been good at causing a nuisance in the opposition defence, but he often has his back to goal and it's then difficult to create chance from there.

We all want GNE to succeed, but we can't expect things to change overnight. Don't forget, with 2 games a week almost every week the manager and coaches don't have the luxury of being able to train more than once a week to work on the weaknesses we are seeing on the pitch, so we can't expect to see immediate improvement in every area. It may be a cliché, but it's a process that we have to trust in. We have already seen the results of the process in bursts, we just need to keep believing and supporting the team, and let the management work on the areas we all know need to be improved.