[Devongone]

I have grave doubts about Ricky's future with us.

I think he needs to score 5 in a game at Matlock to impress Jack. I'm afraid Jack is more impressed by body shape than performance. Lord knows what he'd think about Akinfenwa.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Not too sure what impresses Jack.
O'Grady is with us another year and unless we can get a fee for Dennis I think he has 2 years to go so next season will be much the same as this. Will any youngsters get a game with us up front or anywhere? For whatever reason we only seem to employ managers who want to bring on other teams youngsters rather than our own. Maguire did nothing wrong but sits games on the bench whilst 2 loanees get selected.
If I understand it right, if/when we go down we lose the funding for our academy so where will that leave us?
I can honestly say I have never been so downhearted with regards to football and my club. It needs a 100% clear out from top to bottom and start again.

[Devongone]

I don't begin to get our attitude to Maguire. When he gets a game he is always the one dropped if we lose - and he's dropped not just for a game, but for several months. His only hope of a game is a spate of defensive injuries. Even Bob's Boarders selecting their idea of the team universally leave him on the bench in favour of any old loanee. It's not as though we have any world-beating centre backs. Nelson couldn't get a game at Yeovil and Whitmore wasn't exactly beating off the suitors was he?

Ricky German gets shoddy, waterlogged loans and if he ever makes our bench he gets 0-10 minutes in impossible situations and is immediately punished for his failure to achieve a miracle by further loans ,or, even worse, demotion to the non-existent, non-playing, reserve team.

Joe Rowley has committed the cardinal sin of growing and was dropped for it, clearly didn't even fit the bench well and went out of the top eighteen entirely. Charlie Wakefield sometimes stars with the juniors or in the Senior Cup, but isn't near selection. Ofoegbu occasionally gets to add a multi-cultural touch to the bench. Brownell did well at Sheffield so has been left to stagnate without a game. Willock, we're hoping the damp atmosphere of Matlock will shrink him so he becomes less of a prospect. Sharman apparently looks cool playing against men, so we are extending his time playing against boys. Hand needs to take the next step, so we've chained him to the juniors. Parkin revealed a taste for heroism, so has been placed in a darkened room. Amantchi and Rawson - we're hoping Llera doesn't bring them on too much for us easily to destroy them. And Russ, let him grab his Welsh caps now, as he hasn't got a daffodil in hell's chance of making first-team football playing with us.

Yes with all that youth and promise the prospects are bleak. If we win at Cleethorpes I'll eat a fish.

[bluepooch]

It just shows we have a big squad in terms of bodies with the fact that the younger players who were prominent at the start of the season aren't in the 18.I would bring Rowley back in today ,he has had the rest Jack says he needs and Brown was very disappointing against PV.

[Devongone]

My entire objection, and I think Dancing's too, is what we do with youngsters as they come to the end of their stint as juniors and mature into potential first-teamers. Other teams loan players out to be stretched, ours get shrunk to fit the level at which we maroon them.

Stevenage have an 18 year old centre back representing England U-19 who they are about to sell on to a higher level. Do we foresee a similar achievement for Willock in a year's time? Cat and hell struggle to form a phrase.

Our policy is to loan players IN to LOSE matches for us. Not only have they succeeded in this endeavour, but they have also stunted the development of an entire crop of youngsters. We should be saying next season, Vanarama or League Two, Ricky German will be ready to rip teams apart, Whitmore, Maguire and Willock, there's three young centre backs to rely on before we even start recruiting, Joe Rowley, best youngster around, maybe Charlie Wakefield can do a job with him, that Sharman he's a touch a of class at full back ................ We are not saying any of these things because we lose the thread with these players. It's our job to turn them from almost into actual ....... It just isn't credible so many lads who almost make it with us but don't couldn't have made it ........ It has to be the system. It has to be our fault.

[spireitematt]

IT'S OVER!

[spireitematt]

You just know that Chesterfield are going to go and beat Morecambe and Mansfield and give everyone false hope.

[Devongone]

It IS over.

I'm afraid it is also over for Jack Lester. He seems determined to combine the shortcomings of our last two managers.

The worst move Danny made was recruiting that thug Morgan alongside him. The best Morgan could have achieved was to have no influence, but Danny clearly did listen to him and when it was obvious he needed urgently to change something he didn't have it in him to sack Morgan. Whether that would have been enough to motivate a failing team I've no idea, but at least it would have been a signal he knew we were going down the wrong road.

I'm very much of the opinion now that the confident media Jack Lester isn't the same man who picks the team. I think he is aware of his own inexperience and the evidence of our list of idiot signings suggests Tommy Wright has far more influence than his ability warrants. If Jack wanted to prove to me he has it in him to take us back into the league next season, he'd sack Wright and those round him now. We need a shake-up. How could the declining weeks of the season be worse?

Unfortunately not only is Jack in a Wright pickle, but also he seems to be suffering from the same disease that afflicted Caldwell. He has forgotten how to win games. He talks about taking care of the ball, about being good when we haven't got the ball and the onion bags at either end of the pitch seem to play very little part in either our preparation or style. For sure I'd like to see us pass the opposition silly and earn applause from the opposition fans, but a Jon Parkinish header off his left tab from an agricultural cross from a crude full back would be effin welcome if it went in. A goal line block from a committed young defender in a goalmouth scramble would be nice at the other end. And a shuddering tackle in the middle of the park from a tigerish midfielder would be lovely too.

You have to win. Lincoln didn't grace Wembley, they beat a successful team a division higher because they knew that winning the game is what matters. All this playing the right way is for the birds. It is ONLY the right way when it beats those playing in a cruder fashion. So yes you do need spirit and teamwork and defensive commitment behind an attack with the pace, skill and fervour to keep the opposition permanently unsettled. A defence needs to radiate solidity and an attack has to threaten danger. Midfield needs to mix those attributes and stir in a touch of nous a hint of brainpower. And that's you. A team.

I don't think Jack is really properly planning to score goals or stop them, much like Caldwell. It happened to Pardew at West Brom I'm sure and that could have been what did for Danny with us too. Men get too hung up on the external appearance of the thing and not enough on its function sometimes. Jim Bentley at Morecambe, his team will know they are meant to win and how he expects them to do it. Take a look at the players Exeter have, are they that much better than ours? They're playing a wildly inexperienced young centre back in Jordan Storey every week and not only is he defending heroically, he is scoring goals.

I'm afraid Jack either needs to consider his own position or be hard enough to consider the positions of a lot of people round him, because Dancing is right we are going to need to find ways to unload a number of our contracted players as well as those like Giles Coke, who was clearly barely fit enough to sign on.

[bluepooch]

We should just let the shackles off and go for it tomorrow .We really have everything to lose so just go gung ho for the win .That will set us up for Mansfield and who knows what could happen then .

[Devongone]

Pooch, Carter and Savile taught you to play the game. In this situation do you think they'd have been slumping to supine 1-0 defeats? They might have got banned, but no one could have said they hadn't turned up!

What I should also have said at some point was to admit that I was quite happy with our appointment of Jack Lester at the time. I thought he had as good a chance as anyone of turning our fortunes round. I did however think that was a dog's chance! But his entire approach has disappointed me. If I could see promise for next season in what he is doing then I'd still on his side .......... but his judgement has been poor and short-term. Even his media friendliness has begun to betray him as silly alan-partridge-esque statements have appeared. I can't see any sign that Jack would either recruit, or develop us a team of Vanarama promotion candidates next season.