Confidence In Paul Buckle

Merse - my current state of mind is good, all the better for PB & the team getting us back into League 2 and to renew my acquaintance with the wonderful numpties @ Barnet.
He still plays 'Hoofball' (now in lower case) - but now has to assemble at least 6 new players for us to stay in this division.
At least he is better than Rosenoir.

I really do not see the point of dredging all this up again. Straw polls on the popularity of the manager fluctuate wildly through the season. We have been promoted therefore the manager as figurehead of the team is popular: not necessarily a better or a worse manager than he was in September, merely more popular.

I’ll leave Merse to cling to his specious ‘post hoc ergo propter hoc’ emoticon-happy point scoring and look ahead to next season.

Canis meus id comedit

Would you prefer revisionist? syllogistic? fallacious? Pick the one you recognise and go with that.

Have you read all the posts!! Lucky git who blew automatic promotion and scraped in thanks to point deductions, isn't he??

I agree, and have already stated, that there was little point in bringing this thread back up, but there are still disbelievers out there who continue to ignore Paul Buckle's league record as a manager.

2008-9 P49 W25 D14 L10
2007-8 P48 W27 D8 L13

TOTAL: P97 W52 D22 L25

Add in two fine FA Cup runs, one FA Trophy run to the final and the figures would be even better.

Please name for me the last manager to accomplish that sort of record at Plainmoor, ignoring whatever level of the game we were in, for not even the biggest of disblievers can lay being in the BSP in Buckle's lap.

I'm not usually one to jump into the world of historical statistics but surely this is more than enough to prove how well he has done - and yes I was one of those who was unconvinced until the start of the unbeaten run in September.

And the list of managers who has got his team out of this division in two years is very, very short.

Kudos where it is due, and time for me now to start looking ahead - no more dredging up old crap for me.

It's really sad that at this time, which should be one big summer of celebration some feel need to look back and massage their ego. Some people must be so used to backing losing horses, when they see an opportunity to point score they just can't resist. For only the third time in my supporting years we have got promoted ffs. Throughout the season all fans made judgements and posted opinions based on what they really felt about a club that they desparately wanted to see do well. I look forward to the dredging up of repeated posts made throughout the season implying that Benyon and Stevens are not worth their place in the team - Those two players did as much as anyone during our run in to get us into the play offs and subsequently promoted.

For what it is worth..........and very little I would suggest, our record of two play offs qualifications, one trophy final (pointless though it may be), two excellent FA Cup runs and ultimate promotion over the last two years has been fantastic. Does Buckle deserve credit? Of course! Could another Manager have done the same - In my opinion, yes. Could another Manager have done better - in my opinion, probably. The big test for Bucks will come next season - he won't be playing in a league which includes part time oppostition, he won't be playing in a league where TUFC are among the top eight payers. He will be playing against more clubs who also have strong back room staff with goalkeeping and fitness coaches. He won't necessarily be able to poach the best players direct from our rivals as he did with Wroe, Thompson and Brough. He will have to come up with a 'Plan B' many more times next year as the threat from Sills may not be as potent as it has been over the last two years. He will need to be far more tactically savy.


I have no problem with Bucks in general - He got the Play offs spot on..........we should have been assured of our place way before the last day of the season but we made it. It was interesting to note a slight change in the style of his comments as the season drew to a close - he actually accepted that he makes mistakes and is learning from them. If he can accept this then why can't some of his old aged body guards on this site accept it rather than throwing a hissy fit every time someone dares to critisise? I had far more respect for his later approach compared to his "it was the fans fault, no it was Weymouths fault, no the refs fault, no the pitches fault" excuses.

Given the support that the board has given, I think many Managers would have achieved similar results over the last two years and as such they are the real heros - They have backed Bucks until his nose has bled like no other previous TUFC Manager - for example they gave him the green light to bring in a striker on transfer deadline day and he brought in an overweight chump like Christie. From what I hear, with a certain amount of reluctance, they backed him again when suprise, suprise Christie got injured and he brought in a player with an injury record which makes Alan Hay look a decent signing.

Like I have said before, I have not yet been convinced that Bucks played the massive role in our promotion as many on here seem to think, certainly not enough to justfy the Dad's Army protection squad! He has many questions to answer and hopefully he will. Some on here have suggested that if we have a bad start next year then fans will be on his back - they maybe - particularly if Bucks ignores pre-season and decides to play Hargreaves at centre back - However, I think the snipers will be far less vocal next year whatever happens - merely because people like me would happily settle for a dull season of consolidation where as failure to make the Play offs last year would have been a sackale offence.

Anyway, the club has moved on......and maybe it is time that some of us fans did the same.

Dave, i think we were entitled to "expect" last season. However this season we're back with the professional league. So, a period of consolidation would be fine. But if we're struggling and things are going wrong then, quite rightly, questions will be asked. I don't believe this will be the case tho, i think we'll be comfortably mid to top half and i'll be happy with that. I don't think that's unreasonable.