The fish rots from the head....

Defence v attack most of the game but we barely create any clear cut chances and it's seems no one wants to shoot when in good positions, unfortunately it's just not happening atm the ball just doesn't seem to drop to us and some players are just going into there shell and lacking in confidence.

Plus point defence looked a bit more stable today and Harvey Wright put a shift in today!

Can't believe we didn't come away with at least a point today. Yes, Basingstoke were dogged, workmanlike and organised, but we were by far the better team. Whilst we didn't create any clear cut chances, the second ball in their box just isn't bouncing for us either. We go again Tuesday. COYD!

Not very often I come on here and post, but walking out of the ground today and seeing a club legend saying to me that's enough I'm done says it all. We are miles behind where we were 6 months ago, no real chances today and no real direction.

Sorry, no matter how many times it happens, you don't get any points or earn promotion by being the better team on the pitch. The only thing that counts is scoring more goals than you concede. The current management team has shown it does not have the know how or tatical ability to motivate the players to achieve this. They should do the honorable thing and move aside for someone who can. At the same time, the directors who were responsble for recruiting them should follow them out of the door.

As for a supporters / directors meeting, does anyone really think that this will achieve anything? Our Supporters club, whilst not knocking their efforts, only seems to exist to raise financial support for the club. Do they have any more of a say, or influence, on the actual running of the club than the rank and file supporter? I think not. If things do not improve, attendance figures will drop and with it, matchday finance.

What great comments so much love club I have to say agree this place Is not great to be when I came to the club a good Place to be wonderful place every one so welcolming Today like stepping in to 1980s horrible place to be volunteers hate being there Don’t be club anymore Manager Clearly Out of depth To much to soon Matt maybe be good coach but clearly not a manager In my view but just hope Board.see sense Chris is 1 in million chairman just hate seen how Far Club dropped in last few months if it breaks my heart dread to think how he must feel . This club so push on in right circumstance Its is a sleeping giant

Was it not a transition period prior to Tom being sacked? Tom had lost 2 games, and had come off the back of an FA Cup win. Matt has lost 12 games with 6 on the spin now. We have lost our top scorer and haven't scored in the last 4 games. This isn't transition, this is free fall. We are in relegation form, only 7 points off the relegation places. Next game against Winchester is massive, you could say its a "6 pointer". Then we go to Chesham, doubt we'll get anything there. Honestly though, I don't think we'll go down, but it's worrying that we are now looking over our shoulder.

I didn't feel Tom needed to be let go but without inside knowledge (maybe someone knows better) the newer board members felt he wasn't the man for the job so as they look to climb the ladder (and a miracle happens with the new ground) they felt Matt was the man to do this atm it looks a bad decision but with some luck and a settled team things with hopefully change.

A BOD/Supporters/Fans/ Meeting?

One would hope that our BOD would reveal their strategy for at least the next couple of seasons

!. On the field

2. Off the field re facilities etc

3. PTFC are fortunate to have an extremely loyal fan base; that should be recognised and built upon by the BOD being straight up in its message to the clubs supporters.

4. The word potential has been mentioned here several times recently. I am suggesting that we will achieve that with
goodwill all round and without acrimony.

Perhaps this season is a lesson that we needed to learn BUT we do not want another one like it any time soon!!



nearly 70yrs of saying it

UP THE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWN!!

Some of you may disagree with me and to a certain extent we have free speech on here,  so  fire away.

Tommy was not sacked for losing two games. As I see it he was fired for not getting promotion after several seasons. The club owed Tom a lot but we could not go on just aiming for the playoffs. Promotion was always out goal and we were nowhere near a dead cert for a top five finish at any time this season. It should be remembered that, according to official sources, this year’s budget was bigger than ever before and there seemed to be no real progress since relegation from the National League South. The squad was basically the same squad that has failed to get promotion since relegation, there were/are players either not good enough or way past their prime. 

The way Tom was fired was not to my liking and the results have not gone our way since Matt Stubbs et al took charge. However he inherited a team that was underperforming as far as us supporters were concerned. He immediately lost the heart of our defence, the best keeper in the league and one of the best centre backs. In my opinion, neither would have had his sandwiches wrapped in a roadmap come May. It is a shame that the loyalty they showed shown to Tommy  was not shown to the supporters. I was also disappointed that after standing by Tony Lee when many clubs would have walked away, we were rewarded with a close up of his retreating backside. Tubbs has not had the benefit of a full pre-season with his players and sadly there was no “dead dog bounce”, partially because of the level of disruption caused by the defections. Whether another change of the coaching staff would be a good thing thankfully not my choice. There is however no room for misplaced loyalty, something many complained about under TK. It’s a football team NOT a boys club. 

So what are the priorities? Mid table mediocrity looks good from here. Over the past few seasons, the points needed to stay up are between 38 and 50 so we need at least 12 points to allow us to regroup in the summer. The problem is that we don’t even look like scoring at the moment. Although there are plenty of points to play for let’s be realistic, even if we only dropped 3 points in the rest of the season, the playoffs are gone. I should probably add that it has gone very quiet over a new Stadium and that is joint priority with staying at thislrvrl and then progressing. 

So as frustrating as it is, we have to get behind the team  and they have to stop shipping goals. I love the beautiful game as much as anyone but who else can remember how good we used to be at winning 1-0? So play the expansive game by all means but keeping a clean sheet gains at least a point,  and we now need points. As a regular here says “A journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step”. Let’s get the points to avoid squeaky bums and then start preparing for next season. 

Why sack someone for not getting promotion after 7 matches it doesn't make any sense?

Agreed. If Tom was to be let go, then you do it at one of two points. End of last season, or end of the current campaign. To do it less then a quarter of thr season gone, where we were still in the FA Cup, in a reasonably good position in the league, granted not as high as we would have liked, but no where near the position we find ourselves in now. I may sound like a broken record, but the decision was idiotic and ludicrous, and anyone even remotely defending the decision is deluded. It has completely derailed the season, with the club potentially looking at relegation. John is right in saying 12 points should be enough for safety (can't believe I'm even saying that now!).

I think the discussion about whether TK needed removing is behind us, we've all had our say on that previously, seemingly what everyone does agree on is that the timing of it was appalling and has created much of the mess we now find ourselves in.

The discussion now needs to be around whether Tubbs is the right man to take us forward, and most importantly, upwards.

I don't see that he has it in him at all, both tactically and motivationally.

He doesn't seem to know what his best formation is or have a particular style of play. When he first came in he seemed to be 4-4-2 in possession with Tony Lee or Toby Holmes making an extra man in midfield when we were out of possession, this quickly seems to have been binned off as it was knackering for Tony and Toby and meant they weren't being utilised well.

Now, we seem to be flitting between 3 (5 if you prefer) or 4 at the back, we alternated back and forth between it over 4 of the last 5 losses and the players don't seem to know if they're coming or going as a result. Against Hanwell after the game he bemoaned the lack of physicality in the side. He had Jamie and Hutch on the bench, Dec trying to be a centre back, and Tshaka was being targeted at left back in a four, all goals in that game came down his side, Tubbs hung him out to dry. I could see it, he must have seen it given that he mentioned it afterwards but made no attempt to change it until he brought Hutch on after 93 minutes when the horse had well and truly bolted.

He changed to a 5 for the H&Y game almost as a reaction to the Hanwell result, Jamie and Hutch (and Tony Lee) came back in to add that physicality. It was however, a different game against a different team and tactics weren't right for that opposition. In that game Dec Rose was now a wing back and his job should be to be that extra man attacking the back post if the ball is coming from our opposite side. There was a point after about 85 minutes where the ball came across from our left and fizzed across the box and straight out as Dec was not high enough, he'd have had a tap in if he had been. Tubbs moaned at Dec for not being there but not once in the entire 2nd half (I was stood 10 yards from our dugout) did I hear Tubbs tell him to get higher when we had possession on the left. He asked Dec if he was tired, Dec shrugged as if to say "whatever", nothing definitive, and so he then subbed him. After that game Tubbs said "we need to be better playing at a higher level, you can't make those mistakes in this division". Almost every player playing in this team has been playing at this level (or higher) for multiple seasons, it's almost like he thinks he is still with Bashley and come up a level, unless of course he means himself making mistakes.

It's the same motivationally, as I say I stand close to our dugout in every 2nd half and there is no obvious encouragement or tactical info going onto the pitch. The sum total seems to be telling players they need to keep possession when they lose it or to get it on target when they miss. I am fairly sure no-one is giving it away deliberately or missing on purpose, players need encouraging at that point not having the obvious shouted at them! On Saturday Cam Murray put a corner straight out of play, he shouted at him and shrugged and asked "what was that?" Cam looked at him as if to say "I didn't do it on purpose you idiot!"

One of the criticisms of Killick was that he had no plan B if things weren't going well, at the moment it doesn't seem like Tubbs has a plan A and it's quite apparent why Bashley didn't trouble the top end of the table with him in charge last season. Sadly, I can't see us doing it either with him in charge.