Going out on a Hyde

Being one of the faithful (yes there were a few) my overwhelming feeling last night was feeling desperately sad for Simon Weaver. Before you all start posting in opposition, let me say that in spite of the way he must have been feeling last night, he took the time to come over and have a chat before the game, at half time before the restart and then turned and thanked us at the end.

Yes we wondered why Stamer started and Cahill and Knox were on the bench for so long and Ellington was isolated during the whole of the first half, but we didn't get one break the whole game. For example, Cahill clean through on the edge of the box, cleverly nicks it over a defenders leg who is coming in from the side, takes him clean out and misses the ball and the referee and the assistant saw nothing.

They had one clear chance and scored in the first half although I am not sure the throw in given to them just before was correct given by the way none of their players claimed for it when it went out but there you go.. We pressed and pressed, got numerous corners and in the second half looked like the home team. The pitch was in excellent condition and you have got to say we should start games with the team we finished with last night as we need to win every game.

Life in the Unibond if we win games is likely to be better financially, better for us as fans in the long run and hopefully we will come back stronger with a new ground in the offing. We have gone so far now that Bill will stick with Simon and Tom and I hope we keep the nucleus of the current squad over the summer with maybe the odd addition (not in that way)

We can hit the ground running next season and start getting some decent gates with some local derbies to spice things up. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the Managers tactics, selection, signings etc, but let's not descend to the level of certain people and insult the guy as a person.

I think most Town fans are bigger than that and at the end of the day, I think Bill is not daft and perhaps we should start to look ahead as well.

As someone posted elsewhere, at least we have a club ! and the large lady has not yet exercised her vocal cords !

S.

ps. You could get meat and potato, steak, cheese and onion or a cornish nasty, with or without peas.

What's the concensus with Weaver, Is he with us for next season? I believe he is contracted as manager till the end of the season. In my opinion, he needs to get himself back on the pitch again in defence!! Regardless, I agree, things will definitely spice up nicely next year. A possible Town vs Rail will boost the gates quite nicely, without a doubt!

I hope that Mr Weaver doesn't continue to clutch at straws at this point. His recent post-match interviews have been like that - I think it would be better for the morale of the lads if he accepts that Town won't stay up this year, so they can enjoy the rest of their games in the Blue SQ North somewhat more relaxed.

I have nothing against Mr Weaver as a person, but if you look at his record as manager this season and the amount of players that HE has signed and used and the way that he has conducted his post match reports and even the tactics he has used, it just doesn't fill me with any confidence that he really knows what he is doing !! How many managers will get the chance to manage in football with the record that he has this season, not many i think.
PS I think that there are some really capable teams in the Unibond and promotion will not be guaranteed, look how Bradford PA turned us over in the cup !! although going down would be refreshing and yes it can sometimes make teams come back stronger, but i,m sure we were meant to be a team going places a few years back !!!!!!!!

I have never made personal comments about Simon Weaver. I don't blame him for taking the chance to manage a relatively 'big' non-league club, you could argue that Bill giving him a chance was quite a brave thing to do. BUt the point surely is that it just hasn't worked, you don't need to be a footballing genius to work that out. And at every level of football we know (and managers know), that if results dont work out, you are gone: Phil Brown, Tony Mowbray etc. etc. Why should OUR manager be an exception to this rule? If there were ANY signs that Simon was improving as a manager it might be different, but I cannot see any signs of improvement, indeed if anything things are getting worse: we are still losing despite having a far stronger team.
Slicker says Simon came to talk to them etc., and I'm sure that he is a decent guy and all that, and I dont doubt his genuine enthusiasm etc. but I'M quite a decent guy and I'm full of enthusiasm, doesn't mean I'd be any good as a manager! It seems to me that Bill has given Simon every opportunity to prove what he wrote in that famous letter of application, and he (very sadly) has failed to deliver. As I have said before some people are not just cut out to be managers, and it would seem that Simon isn't, and all the enthusiasm (and all the signing of players) in the world won't change that.
The real elephant in the room about this sorry saga is the precise role that Simon's father is playing in all this. IF (and I say IF) he is indeed partially bank-rolling the club, it puts his son's position as a manager into a wholly different light. As far as I can tell almost everyone seems to believe that this is the case, and the club has never denied it. The implications for Simon's 'job security' are obvious. He goes, daddy's money goes, he stays, daddy's money stays. It renders all footballing matters redundant: doesn't really matter how often we lose, who he signs etc. Dave Pace has job security, but then he is a darn good manager!
It is true that the prospect of playing in the Unibond next year is quite attractive, but we could be stuck there for a long time.

There may be consequences to being relegated, as have been mentioned, but there's a reason we are going down - we are superglued to the foot of the table. We can't weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of going down this year, we have to go down and accept it, with or without a fight.

Something that also confuses me about Weaver, why does he slam the players after reasonable results have been obtained, and praises them for losing heavily? That's one of his other possible managerial flaws only recently, his mood-swing post match reviews really don't fill me with confidence. I'm not a manager (although my League two Harrogate team on FM would suggest otherwise! ), but it's only logical to praise your players after getting what could be considered a result! But, if "Daddy's money" is playing a role, what can we do?

Nothing. Thats the 'tragedy' of this situation.

Couldn't agree more with what is going on in here, and something I've thought and been saying for a while.

I sympathised with the postion Weaver was in at the start of the season with the budget and players he bought in, and what he was trying to do, making all the right noises in the press. But now near the end of the season and 60+ players later the buck has to firmly lay with him.

This team is more than good enough to hold its own in this division now, infact esaily so. Just look at Gainsborough after we beat them, going on an unbeleivable run and now finding themselves safely in midtable, thats what we should have been doing after we beat them.

Im tired of everytime we lose Weaver coming out and blaming the players, infat Im sure most of them are sick of it as well. These are your players Simon. Apart from a couple from the start of the season, you are the one who has brought them in, and then you go and slag them off! Top man management that.

Curtis apparently left not because of the boxing but because of Weaver, either clash of personalities or his management style. Nice guy he maybe, but at the moment anyway, he's not a good enough manager especially for a club battling against relegation.

And although I'm trying to adjust myself to life in the unibond, as sad as it is I'm hopeful other clubs demise will keep us up. Make no mistake getting relegated is a massive step backwards, it will not help the club in the long run. Less sponsorship, less coverage, worsening crowds, stadium issues probably exaserbated if we're in division below... there's not many positives I can think of bar a few local games.

8 points behind 6 games to go... BELIEVE (if you can)

Exactly. Gainsborough's 'story' should have been ours. They did what Simon Weaver has been SAYING we would do ever since November. Unfortunately Simon just SAYS it, Brian Little (despite a dodgy start at Trinity) actually DOES it.
Anyone spot the difference?

If we have got a multimillionaire who is in the Sunday Times Rich List waiting in the wings and dipping his hand in his pocket, I for one will not lose too much sleep over the longer term prospects for Town compared to the majority of non league clubs.

I don't think there can be too many secret milionaires out there just dying to get into non league football. Maybe the price to pay of an inexperienced manager now is worth paying in the short term even if that means dropping down a league, if ultimately we get a strong squad that can be paid for, a new ground and then who knows. A couple of million from a personal fortune of £40m + could take us into the Conference with a shot at football league status over the next five years.

We all know that at non league level below Conference the best players go where the best money is. Conference North or Unibond really doesn't matter to them.If that weren't the case why would a number of our promotion chasing squad last year end up at Halifax.

However, unlike Halifax, we haven't got and have never had gates of 1500 to help pay the bills. Life is full of compromises, but I can think of worse ones. I am not trying to defend the 50+ players used over the course of the season nor the public criticism by the manager of the team that he has chosen, signed, set up, trained and put out on the pitch.
That would put me in a very small group of people indeed.

We pay our money each week, travel to away games when circumstances permit and like a number of you, care enough to sit on here occasionally pondering life and committing our thoughts for others to see who are equally miserable about the way the season has turned out.

Maybe I am guilty of having too much hope, but if anything is going to move the club onwards and upwards, it's going to be a wealthy benefactor.

In the meantime, great posts from everybody. It was getting a bit boring !!!!

S.

I think it's just sad that the fans and forums (both) have had to put two and two together and say that his multimillionaire father is bankrolling the club.

I know its a sort of become a given that his is putting some of his money to help fund the club (is that such a bad thing?), but you think he would have been given a honourary title or made a director, maybe that would just be too obvious.

I agree with slicker though as much as it pains me to stick with Weaver, and I dont think he is good enough, if he is stuck with and stays in the summer then perhaps Irving Weaver could have a more prominent role in the club financing the playing staff and with his background in construction possibly help out getting the stadium moving forward.

It wont be a disadvantage having a millionaire in the wings of a league 2 club let alone a unibond one! Lets just see how the end of the season pans out and roll on next season whatever division we're in for a fresh start.

I looked at the Rich List 2009, and according to this, Irving Weaver is worth £46m, and indeed made his fortune from construction.

What disappoints me the most about the whole situation is that we have a manager who in my opinion has let the fans down badly this season, and has also turned us into the laughing stock of the BSN. He has used 60+ players this season, and has tried with 4 different teams to sort the problems out, but it just has not worked out for him. I do realise that he didnt have the best budget to start with, but I still believe if he had been a bit more patient with players, it would be a different story.

If Irving Weaver is bankrolling the club, and he is supposedly going to help with building a new stadium due to his background in construction. Then that is all well, as it was pointed out, its not an often thing that a multi millionaire takes aninterest in a non-league club, but at the moment, this is all hearsay and no-one knows exactly what is going on apart from the individuals inside the club.

TheNeil29 wrote:If Irving Weaver is bankrolling the club, and he is supposedly going to help with building a new stadium due to his background in construction. Then that is all well, as it was pointed out, its not an often thing that a multi millionaire takes aninterest in a non-league club, but at the moment, this is all hearsay and no-one knows exactly what is going on apart from the individuals inside the club.

That is what I was thinking. As much as Simon Weaver could been seen as merely a bad side effect of the Irving Weaver drug that has been brought to the club, little much in the way of evidence for his riches invested have yet to be shown. This is, of course, disregarding the purchase of 60+ players, which was, as proven, ineffective in securing the club's status as a BSN outfit. And yes, all speculation about a new stadium has yet to be confirmed by the people "at the top".

Time will tell, if not has already told!!!

The end of this season will be interesting, for sure.

I agree with Slicker.....we've had a rotten season, BUT, we still have a team to support. Maybe I'm not the best person to talk about football, but, from a business point of view, I feel we may look back on this as the "end of the beginning" rather than the "beginning of the end"!
IF...we go down, we should have some interesting football next season, with more local games than just Farsley!! Then we could be promoted, as our new ground will be of such a high standard, we can keep on going, onward and upward.
Regarding Simon, I've seen no mention of his (very experienced) assistant manager!
Also, some of the people he has brought in have let him - and the club - down very badly with their lack of commitment. Benjamin?

Anyway, I'm a Town supporter, so I'm going to try to remain positive....the manager gives the players the opportunity to deliver; after the games against Southport and Hyde, I feel we have a better side than for many months.
Shout loud on Saturday!
(But the pie was good at Hyde!)

What a load of rubbish some people are talking. The issue is that the manager was severely handicapped at the beginning of the season. Aspin did one because he knew the script. The club was destined to go down with such a paultry wage budget and increasing it at the end of the season is futile. The manager has shown high levels of resilience when much more experienced managers turned down the opportunity to manage a club in decline. I have never read such rubbish from such small minded people who profess to be fans of the club. Back your club and the manager come what may - do not make comparisons with Celtic or Hull managerial changes because this is not the top level football and the circumstances are not the same. You are all speculating on gossip and read like a set of fish wives.

Now that last post has put the cat amongst the pigeons, should inspire a few interesting posts !!!!!

Er, I kind of thought that was what these forums were for: silly me, I didn't realise it was to give unstinting praise to the manager, team, chairman etc. come what may! Oh, and by the way itk, yes I 'moan' on the forum (plenty to moan about, believe me), but come Saturday I am passionate about the team: I mean, blimey, I travel all over northern England by dodgy public transport to support them...can you say the same?
Fascinating info about friend Weaver (senior), didn't know he was worth that much! You wonder why he didn't cough up some of that 46 million (!), at the start of the season so his son could have got his manageral career off to a more promising start, without Unibond/NE Counties dross filing up the squad. One presumes its 'moneybags' Weaver who has funded the likes of Ellington and co. in recent weeks. I absolutely agree that its time that (assuming its true) his role in the club was made manifest, make him a Director, co/Chairman (sorry Bill!) and lets have it out in the open, to coin a phrase!
His role in construction would surely help towards this (mythical?) new ground, although the problem there is surely going to be planning permission etc.
But, come on Irving my son, if you or your butler reads this, lets get rid of all the rumours and have some transparency, I mean if MPs can do it, so can you.

itk wrote:What a load of rubbish some people are talking. The issue is that the manager was severely handicapped at the beginning of the season. Aspin did one because he knew the script. The club was destined to go down with such a paultry wage budget and increasing it at the end of the season is futile. The manager has shown high levels of resilience when much more experienced managers turned down the opportunity to manage a club in decline. I have never read such rubbish from such small minded people who profess to be fans of the club. Back your club and the manager come what may - do not make comparisons with Celtic or Hull managerial changes because this is not the top level football and the circumstances are not the same. You are all speculating on gossip and read like a set of fish wives.

Are you Weaver in disguise??

Although I agree with some of itk's post...........is he on the right thread?
I thought some of us had expressed very tolerant views!

Does ITK stand for In The Know, or I Toss Kebabs.

Oh and if his next post says this is personal, he started it.

One thing is for sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I suspect no-one who comes on here knows the full truth. So don't slag off other peoples views as rubbish.

Thats the type of intolerant selfish attitude that gets a couple of pints down its neck, throws up in the stand on a saturday afternoon and makes fun of young lad trying to do his job as a steward. If you don't believe me, anybody go to the Southport game ?

S.

slicker wrote:Thats the type of intolerant selfish attitude that gets a couple of pints down its neck, throws up in the stand on a saturday afternoon and makes fun of young lad trying to do his job as a steward. If you don't believe me, anybody go to the Southport game ?

S.

You mean the poor, drunken Southport fella who was dragged out by two stewards, after trying to go on the pitch?

HA!

I seen that, but before that,the way they abused that Steward, they should be ashamed of themselves, but they probably arent sorry for what they done. I was stood by the home dugout, and the verbal abuse he got was out of order.

This is not personal, but the problems with this post need to be addressed.

itk wrote:
What a load of rubbish some people are talking. The issue is that the manager was severely handicapped at the beginning of the season. Aspin did one because he knew the script. The club was destined to go down with such a paultry wage budget and increasing it at the end of the season is futile.

True, he was handicapped at the BEGINNING of the season. But since about halfway through, with him and the club directing a sinking ship they realised they had to get better players, got new, much better players who should not be taking a beatings like we have been

The manager has shown high levels of resilience when much more experienced managers turned down the opportunity to manage a club in decline. I have never read such rubbish from such small minded people who profess to be fans of the club.

Possibly agree, he could have walked but why would he? Its his first job and as we keep hearing he's 'learning'. Well the last thing a relegation threatened club, let alone one bottom of the league, is someone learning on the job - they need experience in how to deal with the situation, players, and preferablly knowledge of how to get out of it.

Back your club and the manager come what may - do not make comparisons with Celtic or Hull managerial changes because this is not the top level football and the circumstances are not the same.

We do. Most people on here are still regular visitors to games, and if you look back on this forum there was a lot of sympathy and even support for Weaver for the first 3-4months of the season, but the past few just have not been accpetable. The team gets decent support on a matchday (we've never been brilliant lets be honest), but after you've paid your money and endured what we have to you have a right to have a go at these things.

You are all speculating on gossip and read like a set of fish wives.

1. What is a fish wife? 2. What can you expect when news from the club is tighter than a ducks butt? Transfers come in and out without a mention, random people make appearences on our bench - how are we supposed to get behind people whose names we dont know? And stuff behind the scenes, well the odd statement about trying to buy a ground (which I applaud the board for) and then deadly silence. Gossiping and rumour is all there is from fans talking to people inside the club until there is official confirmation.

Rant over. Unibond here we come.

When it is all said and done, as unhappy as we are about the whole situation and whatever is going on behind the scenes. I just hope that they do the right thing and reduce ticket price for the fans next season, if we are playing in the Unibond.

And do something about trying to publicise the club to increase attendances: we have heard nothing on that score all season.