The storm analogy is a little disingenuous I feel. The situation is a lot more complex. Hood & the board have worked their asses off behind the scenes to get the club on a stable financial footing (during a recession i might add).

The only thing they can't control are the results. The playing side has been horrific to watch at times and crucially all the worst performances have been at home in front of the home crowd.

That squad (coach, forwards, halves & backs) have rarely shown synergy and if one area performed - another area wouldn't.

Bullseye talked about balance on another thread and I agree with that. A comfortable midtable showing with some entertainment on the pitch at home would have cemented the financial progress and kept us moving forwards. This unexpected (by the bookies, fans, "expert" commentators preseason) dismal showing will have further consequences next season. I don't even think a good run of victories to finish this season will cut it. Even if that appears unlikely.

News of Burgess doesn't help, miscommunication with the press doesn't help. The timing of the free family BBQ is a good idea and created a bit of feel-good then the POY is £50 - the club gives with one hand then taketh with the other.

I can't think of what it would take to provide some cheer amongst the fans at present

I'm presuming you're in favour of sticking with our current coaching set up, so what would you suggest to change the narrative, given we will not reach the play-offs and recruitment so far and that rumoured doesn't look too spectacular or headline grabbing?

It is about time they did something then.

If I knew, I'd say... here's some possibles, all with flaws

1: Lowes
2: OSV
3: The youth project (would need a fresh approach to make it stick, and would raise issues with regard to putting too much pressure on individuals too young though)
4: Start winning in 2010...

I'd ask the rhetorical question of what has turned crowds away, in droves? I fear but expect the remaining home gates will be calamitous. The answer, of course is:

It's a point I've made many times, if all our good performances (please allow me some latitude with the word "all) - if they had all been at home, then we wouldn't have fscked off the crwods like we have.

Honestly, watching some of the stuff served up at home looks as if it is [idesigned[/i to fsck people off. Culminating in THAT performance in what should have been the most fired-up game of the players' lives.


Agree with all that. I was saying that we wouldn't be challenging for a while, as we rebuild, but never in my worst nightmares could I have predicted some of what lack of effort I've seen from many senior players in many games. I don't think anybody seriously could have even begun to predict waht a disastrous run of performances we were going to put together. If they told the truth, I reckon there isn't a single person in RL who isn't actually shocked with how bad a team we have become over the season.

And there's the point. People would have been making hay slamming the team and the club lord knows enough if we had finished 5th or 6th, our detractors and enemies would have thought that was marvellous ammunition, when in fact it's what I would have called a decent effort in the rebuilding phase.

But there is NO, absolutely NO reasonable explanation for how, over the season, such a collection of reputations could have been as crap as they have been. I'm sure the answer is a complicated combination of many things but at the end of the day what the players have consistently served up on the field has astonished me because I would never have believed that it would be possible. OK all teams go through a bad patch in a season but this is hardly that.


Sadly that's all true too. I don't think there's anything. I think the most severe damage has been done to our home fan base and the reckoning will come in the shape of 2010 season tickets unless we sign Lockyer.