[Spireite93]

Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil, on 19 March 2024 - 08:36 PM, said:

If Cook hadn’t bottled it we’d be looking forward to the FA trophy final on the 11th May, we could have played our strongest team in every game and we’d have easily still gone up as champions, rest of the season looks like a damp squib with not a lot to play for now, I’d prefer a trip to Wembley over a record points haul, promotions in the bag either way.

Really?



Borehamwood Saturday looks close to a sell out

We're taking at least 1500 to York

Kidderminster on Easter Monday should be a healthy crowd

Wealdstone away should be good for a final hurrah

Gateshead might be damp being a weekday night

Then Maidenhead for the trophy

Stop f**king moaning and put your party hat on!!

[Goku]

Spireite93, on 19 March 2024 - 09:23 PM, said:

Really?



Borehamwood Saturday looks close to a sell out

We're taking at least 1500 to York

Kidderminster on Easter Monday should be a healthy crowd

Wealdstone away should be good for a final hurrah

Gateshead might be damp being a weekday night

Then Maidenhead for the trophy

Stop f**king moaning and put your party hat on!!

He’s taking the Michael bud

[Johnnyspireite7]

Goku, on 19 March 2024 - 09:29 PM, said:

He’s taking the Michael bud

He's not, he's just a ****. I want to know who let him back in.

[Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil]

Bromley V Solihull and Gateshead V Macclesfield are the semi final fixtures proving that the FA Trophy would have been easy pickings if we’d fielded our strongest team, I’m obviously not complaining about our easy championship win I’m just stating that the FA Trophy was easy pickings as well, it would have been the icing on the cake.

[Mr Mercury]

“What do we think Cook should do when the title is won?”
Do what I’m going to do Saturday night, crack open a chilled bottle of Piper Heidsieck, amongst other libations, and get P.i553.d

[Goku]

Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil, on 19 March 2024 - 10:13 PM, said:

Bromley V Solihull and Gateshead V Macclesfield are the semi final fixtures proving that the FA Trophy would have been easy pickings if we’d fielded our strongest team, I’m obviously not complaining about our easy championship win I’m just stating that the FA Trophy was easy pickings as well, it would have been the icing on the cake.

Oh, you’re actually being serious. Crikey.

[danblue]

Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil, on 19 March 2024 - 10:13 PM, said:

Bromley V Solihull and Gateshead V Macclesfield are the semi final fixtures proving that the FA Trophy would have been easy pickings if we’d fielded our strongest team, I’m obviously not complaining about our easy championship win I’m just stating that the FA Trophy was easy pickings as well, it would have been the icing on the cake.

Promotion was the main thing this season and to risk any player in Trophy games that would have derailed the season is lunacy. We used the FAT games exactly how we should have.
Just imagine the fixture pile up plus the possible injuries to key players. Would you have been happy with a FAT Final spot but, for example, 5th in tbe league?

[HoneyTrippa]

sewey89, on 19 March 2024 - 12:20 PM, said:

Line up something like this.

Bucky

Kirk Brother 1
Webb
Paddy Byrne
Kirk Brother 2

C.Cook
P.Cook

Dyer
Hobson
Roberts

Jason the Kit Man

Club policeman Adam
Chief Stewardess who wears the pink HV jacket

Both deserving a game .... they have been outstanding all season

[dtp]

azul, on 19 March 2024 - 09:00 PM, said:

Great day out

It is if you enjoy being screwed for your money.

[JonB]

danblue, on 20 March 2024 - 07:29 AM, said:

Promotion was the main thing this season and to risk any player in Trophy games that would have derailed the season is lunacy. We used the FAT games exactly how we should have.
Just imagine the fixture pile up plus the possible injuries to key players. Would you have been happy with a FAT Final spot but, for example, 5th in tbe league?

Had we got through we would have to fit the Fylde game from the other Saturday i think it was to fit in at some point plus games prior to that and add in the original postponements of the Halifax and Barnet games. Just wasnt worth bothering with.

[Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil]

danblue said:

1710919764[/url]' post='1811956']
Promotion was the main thing this season and to risk any player in Trophy games that would have derailed the season is lunacy. We used the FAT games exactly how we should have.
Just imagine the fixture pile up plus the possible injuries to key players. Would you have been happy with a FAT Final spot but, for example, 5th in tbe league?

No I wouldn’t have been happy with anything less than first in the league tbh, player injuries and fixtures pile ups are 2 of the drawbacks of success at this level but we were flying in the league when we fielded the youth team at Welling and I’m sure Cook could have found us something in the loan market to adequately cover for any potential injuries.
Don’t you think the fact we’ve now got 7 games with nothing to play for proves that the FA Trophy was there for the taking, the remainder of the season is just gonna be exhibition football now with the players minds on their summer holidays, I don’t begrudge them this btw, they’ve earned it but it just seems really strange that competitive football has ended in March.

[whittman]

jonnythespireite, on 19 March 2024 - 01:09 PM, said:

Start Bonnyman up top…….

the earlier team that was posted I could just about take but to add Bonnyman to the squad is taking it too far lol

[60s 70s Spireite]

JonB, on 20 March 2024 - 08:42 AM, said:

Had we got through we would have to fit the Fylde game from the other Saturday i think it was to fit in at some point plus games prior to that and add in the original postponements of the Halifax and Barnet games. Just wasnt worth bothering with.

In any event can we assume we would have dispatched both Barnet and Bromley to get to the semi final? In case folk need reminding, we haven’t won every game this season.
Hopefully, for those who bemoan us winning the title in March, we can arrange matters so we win promotion on the last day of the season next year.

[Goku]

Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil, on 20 March 2024 - 09:06 AM, said:

they’ve earned it but it just seems really strange that competitive football has ended in March.

I would reword this to something like "it's an exceptional achievement from Cook and the squad to make it so that competitive football has ended in March".

[JonB]

Be interesting to see how Barnet\Bromley fans feel about their progression in the Trophy bearing in mind how neither have really had a run of results that sees them cementing their 2nd\3rd places.

Form over the last 10 games sees Bromley 18th with just 11 points in those 10 games, Barnet 10th with 16pts from 10 games.

[Spireite93]

Goku, on 20 March 2024 - 05:25 AM, said:

Oh, you’re actually being serious. Crikey.

Crazy isn't it?

[HaslandBlue58]

whittman, on 20 March 2024 - 09:50 AM, said:

the earlier team that was posted I could just about take but to add Bonnyman to the squad is taking it too far lol

Yes,but just think if he managed to score from two yards out ............🤭

[Johnnyspireite7]

HaslandBlue58, on 20 March 2024 - 11:07 AM, said:

Yes,but just think if he managed to score from two yards out ............🤭

Tap-in Merchant!

[Spireite93]

Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil, on 20 March 2024 - 09:06 AM, said:

No I wouldn’t have been happy with anything less than first in the league tbh, player injuries and fixtures pile ups are 2 of the drawbacks of success at this level but we were flying in the league when we fielded the youth team at Welling and I’m sure Cook could have found us something in the loan market to adequately cover for any potential injuries.
Don’t you think the fact we’ve now got 7 games with nothing to play for proves that the FA Trophy was there for the taking, the remainder of the season is just gonna be exhibition football now with the players minds on their summer holidays, I don’t begrudge them this btw, they’ve earned it but it just seems really strange that competitive football has ended in March.

Cook has said himself that in hindsight we could have been competitive in the Trophy, however at the time we were only 4 points clear at the top, we'd recently lost at Solihull and then fought back to win 3-2 in the return game, followed by a very proud last minute defeat to Watford and a victory over a ravaged Gateshead team.

Nobody could foresee that we would win the next 5 in a row with the couple behind us faltering so much that we built what has turned out to be an unassailable lead

The right decision was made at the time

In hindsight back in 1996 we could have put a scratch side out against Bury in the 1st Round and be done with the Cup for that season and possibly have pushed for promotion to the Championship

[Manfred Archie Mac Gerbil]

Spireite93 said:

1710932995[/url]' post='1812061']
In hindsight back in 1996 we could have put a scratch side out against Bury in the 1st Round and be done with the Cup for that season and possibly have pushed for promotion to the Championship

There’d have been an uproar, a league 1 club fielding a shadow team for an FA Cup tie was totally unheard of back then, I’d be disgusted if we did that next season or the season after (I’m anticipating a double promotion). Cooks previous league 1 town team had more chance of promotion (before the family silver got sold off in the January transfer window) than Duncan’s 1996 side.