Confidence In Buckle No3

First, it's nice to read some another forum posters on this site as well, namely Fonda and Dave Pougher. It all adds to the variety of debate on this site.

I must admit I'm at the concerned stage. I remember recently dismissing the Southport defeat as a dodgy performance, and something all teams get in a long season. But I can't help thinking since the turn of the year our form has stuttered badly and is developing too much like last season. At least last season we had more points in the bag to get into the play-offs, all be it in poor form.

Our only recent wins have been against teams so poor that it is nothing to get excited about In fact 2 of last week's goals against Altrincham had a lot to do with poor goalkeeping and Benyon's persistence than anything else. And like last season we really struggle to score from open play.

I think Buckle's team selections have got all too predictable again. Earlier this season some different formations actually did work well e.g. 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-4-1-1, but we are now persisting with the same 4-4-2. And on the player front, some are being over-used and will just tire out by the end of the season like last season e.g. Hargreaves, Mansell, Nicholson. There just seems to be a lack of immagination again since the turn of the year from Buckle. For instance, you pretty much know who will get substituted each match i.e. a winger for a winger and an attacker for an attacker. Typically no change of formation during a match etc.

I do like to get entertained when I go to a match and it is players like Green, Carayol and Stevens who do just that. So I was most disappointed last week against Altrincham to learn that Green was not even on the subs bench and had not figured at all since his heroics against Coventry. In fact if it was not for the fact that I had just paid £16 to get in, I wanted to just walk out and go home. The point I am making is that odd decisions like that by Buckle and alledged fall out with players just irritates supporters like me who want to get value for money. Ultimately we the supporters pays Buckle's and the players wages so I think they have an obligation to provide us with some sort of value for money. And I would rather see exciting young talent who are learning their trade than boring functional football. So like Merse, I want to see more of your likes of Green and Carayol.

I have seen enough good quality play this season to know we are capable of reaching the play-offs. However our shooting on the deck is shocking barring Benyon and a lack of composure in front of goal. It's frustrating to out-play teams and lose and at the present rate we will struggle to get in the play-offs.

I think good results can return. And with a bit more immagination and tactical nous from Buckle things can improve again. It does seem strange that yesterday there was no midfielder (Adams) on the bench, and there have been similiar examples when there been no defenders on the bench etc. Buckle turned things around brilliantly earlier this season and I gave him full credit for that. Can Buckle do it again this season ? We will all know the answer come May and will find out a lot more about Buckle and the team.

For the record in the poll I voted "we might but will not go up". As you can gather recent results have given me significant doubts again.

I think it's quite reasonable for a club with our relative resources and proffesionalism to have a reasonable degree of expectancy in this league. Of course it's taken other clubs, in worse situations than ours, longer to gain promotion. But that's hardly the point. All that really matters is are we delivering a respectable level of performance compared to the advantages we enjoy. Few clubs in our division are as well run as ours. Few have a better set-up behind the scenes. Few have more disposable income seemingly. Despite the diminishing crowds, the consortium have still managed to provide the manager with the players he needed. When all things are considered and although some seem to find it uncomfortable to admit, we should absolutely be one of the clubs in this league to be feared. So are we performing to a suitable level? Because i believe we're entitled to expect more. Are we about 'par for the course'? Or are we under-performing? Because we certainly aren't excelling. Have we made the best of the situation we've found ourslves in?

I do find myself wondering what our training has done to previously highly regarded BSP players? Matt Green was pretty prolific at the end of last season at Oxford, but he's struggling to find the net for us. Wayne Carlisle was an important part of City's success last season (as we saw at close hand), but he can barely do a thing right for us. Thompson and Brough were captains of the respective teams last year, but one is out on loan and the other hardly plays. Have they all suddenly become bad players, or is what they're being taught on the training ground actually detrimental to what they can offer us?

Shane I really don't think the training is the problem and I will do a merse here and say part of the problem could well be down to the job the players are being asked to do by the manager.

The other point to consider is do the team selection and tactics used play to the strengths of such players as Green. Yes I have seen green miss a few one on ones, but no training would have made him miss, apart from a good goal he scored against Blackpool, how many real chance has he had.

I did not see the game yesterday so don't really know if he got any real chances in the game, but most the games I have seem him play in, he has always been running out wide to get the ball,When I have seen him more in the middle and a good ball played between defenders for him to run onto and toward goal, he has always Looked at his best. So maybe Bucks needs to get the team to play to our strikers real strenghts to get the best out of them.

I will leave that answer Shane for the likes of merse to answer, simply because it baffles me at times, we had a player here once who scored for fun before he joined us. Mr A. Williams, got a hat trick in his first game and then spent the rest of his time here never getting the service his game needed.

As a result he never gave us the return he had for Barry Town, only in one game near the end of the season when he came on around the 90 Min's mark, did he get two balls that was made for him and he scored both times in extra time. A case of the manager not setting out the team and tactic's to maximize what the players were best at, is that the case now?

Was that "Dave Hodges" the player we signed from Mansfield back in the 90/91 season, playing only a few games before being released early in the 91/92 season?

I found Brandon to be hugely frustrating - he could produce the sublime but sometimes his sulky behaviour was ridiculous. Many players that have passed through Plainmoor over the years failed to pull up any trees - unfortunately Brandon did - just not in the way we all hoped and it caused him to miss all but two games in an entire season!

I think that one of issues about the squad this season is that there is more depth than last season. With the exception of Zebroski, I think we have an all-round better group of players.
Only Bevan, Mansell, Nicholson, Hargreaves and Sills have not been dropped for more than the odd game this season. I have quite often been baffled than particular players have come-in and performed excellently and then found themselves back on the bench for some time afterwards.
At the same stage of the season last year, we had a much more formidable record - how that has occured with a better squad is not easy to answer.

I believe that for the Board to not back Bucks in every way that they can would be folly - we would have to pay-off the remaining time on his (and probably Shaun North), we would have to get a new manager to take-over running of the team at the stage of the season that still is very finely balanced. Whilst it has worked at Oxford, I think that they were left with little choice but to dispose of Paterson when they did. We are in a very different position.

I still think that it would represent a modest success if we managed to make it to the play-off final this season - it would be a small improvement on last season. An incrementalist approach to progression is a realistic strategy for a club in our position.
If it is the case that we get to the PO final but lose, then I cannot see Bucks not being at the helm for another go at it next season, although it remains to be seen as to whether we would be able to bring-in the calibre of players over the summer that we need to continue to improve.

I definately believe that the form in the league since the Lewes game has been very concerning indeed if we are to win promotion this season, but Bucks managed to turn things around when it didn't look good for him earlier in the season.
Any TUFC manager in the time I have been a supporter has always been 10 bad results away from the chop, however they have often been 6/7 good results from being hailed as a messiah by many of our fickle fans!
Bucks is no different and as the season moves into the critical stage, I believe we all need to get behind him and the team - at least until the last kick of the season.

That's the guy......................he also played for Kettering later in his career as it happens.

He was married to one of three sisters who ALL married Torquay United footballers, Wes Saunders and Matt Elliott being the others and then last I heard of him he was still landlord of a Bradford pub. He used to do a bit of scouting for Wes.