[Devongone]

When your team is on a nine game unbeaten run and hasn't won a league game in seventeen it's not surprising if a rip in the statistical fabric of space and time occurs. Nothing makes sense.

I'm afraid that somehow I've just become tired of all this.

If I had to pick a moment it happened, I suppose it was reading about Martin Allen's Q&A session. Asked about signings he talked about a midfielder and defender signing. It turned out the midfielder was already on loan to us and the defender was one of our own products, who we would soon find a way to fcukup. It wasn't even a good lie. It wasn't even decent sleight of hand. It was grandad's Christmas Day trick.

There has to be something better to do with time near the end of life than waste it wondering if tomorrow might be the day the club you've supported for a lifetime might finally win a game. There must be something better to write about, something more worthwhile to say.

As time goes by it gets ever harder to be funnier than what's really happening. What's the point in making a joke when the world's already laughing at you?

On Saturday afternoon I didn't even care enough to check how we were getting on. I can't be arsed now to look how the Prediction League's going, I didn't give my last ones any thought at all.

This is a world in which football doesn't want me. The Premier League is all that matters, but I'd need a channel I don't want to watch much of it. The EFL isn't even worth a mention now on the home page of the BBC website - a channel which only broadcasts brief highlights of Premier League games. I can't even watch England these days at football or rugby .........

The National League downwards is great for supporters who live near their club and get involved with their hometown team, but when you don't live near, or your club is attempting to alienate all those who love it and doesn't care for involvement, there's not much point.

I might return to the grassroots, or maybe I'll give my time to a game not populated by big money, liars and cheats.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Please stick around, even if it's to discuss other interests with the greater sportsbabble family. Your opinions on a wide variety of topics are welcome everywhere! I do understand because our club was nearly out of business at one point due to eejits being in charge.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Dev, both you and I know its been coming for years. Either Dave Allen is doing it for spite for being called a Dee Dah or he simply doesnt seem to have a grasp of the required commitment to keep a football club going in the right direction.
Had he taken the plunge 4 years ago he could have walked away with his money back plus a lot more besides. As it was he bottled it and must have regretted it ever since.

This season we had a glimmer of hope with the appointment of a manager who seemed to stand his ground and wanted to genuinely build bridges. The fact he seems to have failed miserably and fell flat on his arse has wound quite a few up.
Win tomorrow and Saturday and you might think differently.
I think you post too much on Bobs and take the replies to heart. There are one or 2 sensible posters, the rest of then are "Look at me whingers and moaners" who have nothing better to do than keep posting the same old mantra and witty (only to themselves) put downs. Anybody who shares a different opinion or god forbid even knows what they are talking about just gets it both barrels.

Take yourself somewhere dark on a clear night and look up. After a few minutes, prospective suddenly returns, You will begin to remember that football is a game between 2 teams that pails into total insignificance in the overall scheme of things. Yes it may be your team you feel you have lost but its still there, its just different for a while. You might walk away from stupid morons on a message board but you will never lose that buzz when your team wins. OK it may be more of a Grrrrr at the moment but once again we were unlucky Saturday. Last 20 mins we threw the kitchen sink at them, maybe we should have tried with a football but hey ho.

Its our team we are talking about, its given us some fantastic highs and some bloody awful lows but the last 2 games showed more fight and spirit than I have witnessed from a CFC team in many a year.
We can all trow our toys out of the pram now and again but when normality returns you will be there listening for Chesterfield FC results. Its in the blood and even though its a bloody mess atm, we will be back.

[Devongone]

I've given up Bob's too. Most of that is simply stupid ....... and where it is actually well-informed, from members who know what they are talking about, then it is too disturbing to read. On Bob's there are not only people who deliberately seize the wrong of every stick, but also others who couldn't identify a stick, or find the end of it.

If we beat Billericay tonight I think we'll go on and beat Eastleigh, Bromley and reach the third round of the cup, but I'm pretty sure I'll feel that it now has very little to do with me.

Dancing, you're right, like you I saw this coming once I saw the club's response to Danny Wilson for saving it from relegation. Because our investment in players was clearly going to be minimal I started taking a very keen interest in non-league, where there was talent, almost for free. Very early that second Danny season it became obvious that the club itself was also on-course to play at that level.

If the club could recognise where we are and what is needed, OR, even if the supporters could accept that this is our reality and that an away game at Boreham Wood or Dover takes a lot of winning ....... maybe I might feel different now. And it might help if our manager just thought before opening his mouth or his keyboard. Does he think he will help Lee Shaw find his scoring touch by publicly calling him an egg-packer? Does he think Denton wants to be known as the plasterer? And does he think plasterers and egg packers who get up early every morning to earn a living and do jobs we need want their way of life disparaged in that way?

I do feel like, what's the point. You are friends. I feel sorry. I love Sportsbabble, but Chesterfield, "every day I love you less and less."

Yes I look up at the stars, and the insignificance of all this pins me to the ground. Maybe I could write another book if I stopped worrying what Martin/Dave Allen will, or will not do, next.

And I won't disappear completely. There are lovely people on here. I will occasionally chirp up.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Oh well, its not often we win in the FACup but doesn't it feel good when we do?
The highlights looked pretty good to me. Just hope we can carry it forward.
Come on Dev you must have had wry smile on your face when you saw the score last night?

[Devongone]

I was pleased we won, but my even my irregular heart didn't skip a beat. The only real surprise to me was Denton weighing in with a hat trick. I thought if they kept their heads the team had a chance. And it has to be said very few teams in our league would have fancied their chances down there on a Tuesday night.

Grimsby or anyone else in the draw would have been scared to death by a trip to Billericay too. Going out to Chesterfield will be less of a shock and much closer to home.

But I'm afraid I have lost my mojo as they say.

[spireitematt]

Dev mate keep the faith and try and be optimistic, I know it's hard and painful to see how our team has fallen so quickly in a short space of time but we stick by them through thick and thin, good times and bad, win, lose or draw come rain or shine.

Might be able to go watch my first match this season on Saturday (That's if I don't get a phone call asking me to work)

[Devongone]

The not-winning was survivable. I think it was when, like everyone else in any position at the club, MA tuned in to treating us like idiots. I don't want us to sack him, or for the club to fall any further, but I suddenly realised that a level of caring about Chesterfield FC that had survived 26 years of living away and winning and losing, had suddenly dissipated within me. It was just much, much less. I was running on empty.

Maybe it'll change. "It's just the way I'm feeling" - Feeder.

[SaltergateBorn]

I understand completely how you feel about the game as a whole, Dev, but not altogether how you`ve arrived at this level of disillusionment with the club at this particular time. At the start of the season a lot of us – me included – were genuinely worried about another relegation but now I really don`t see that happening. I may be wrong – yet again – but I honestly think that we`re starting to turn a corner and that things have bottomed out. We`ll all forgive and forget a hell of a lot when things improve – that`s human nature.

We`ve both followed this club for a lot of years - about 60 in my case, probably the same in yours. We have a lot in common, even to the extent of having been born in the same building as I recall, and I`ve felt the way you do now a few times in the past. When that cowboy (Darren Roberts, was it?) first dragged our reputation into the gutter, then the fake prize-winner farrago, then the financial incompetence and the Ched Evans business; they`ve all brought me close to wanting to cut my emotional ties to the club. The fact is, though, that I can`t – and I`ll be very surprised if you can in the long term. Like you, I haven`t lived in the area for many years – 39, in my case – but even if I`ve been on the other side if the world CFC`s has always been the first result I`ve looked for and I suspect that it`ll be yours too.

We`ll all be sad to see you back away, Dev, but if that is your choice then so be it; it`s your life to live whichever way suits you best and gives you the least angst . Everyone of us is insignificant in the greater scheme of things, but we all have a duty to ourselves and to those closest to us to make life as emotionally garbage-free as possible – for us and for them. My advice would be not to take any of it too f@!king seriously!

Works for me. Good luck, mate.

[Devongone]

I'm going to keep contributing on other things on the board than just Chesterfield FC ......... and I hope at some point my feeling for the club will flood back.

I'd miss the friendship which I truly value.

I think Dancing is right in that I have read too much of Bob's Board recently and whereas I used to feel I could at least defend the supporters even when the club was behaving appallingly ........ now I begin to see them as part of the problem. If they can't accept we're a National League side, playing National League football then we're likely become the new Wrexham. And deep down I do still want us to be better than that (and more popular too!)