Alfreton Town v Torquay United – Saturday 11th October 2014

[Banging_Them_In]

To have concluded, presumably after a week of training and positional experimentation, that Courtney Richards ought to be able to man-mark Karl Hawley out of the game might not have been entirely fanciful. But in failing to act, when things were clearly going awry, and when an alternative option was available to him, the manager has demonstrated that he is either incredibly stupid or too stubborn to admit, mid-game, that he had made the wrong call. Neither attribute does him any credit, although the former is more forgivable in my view. In the process he may have shattered the confidence of two promising young players. Richards should hopefully recover fairly quickly, given an immediate return to midfield and the support of the home crowd, but it is difficult to see where Hutchings goes from here, given his manager's palpable lack of confidence in his abilities. If he did not merit selection in these circumstances then when? Is he our recognised defensive back-up or not? If not, what are we paying him for? All in all a very disappointing state of affairs, and one that appears from the outside to have been entirely avoidable. I hope that Hargreaves is strong enough, in the cold light of day, to concede this point. I for one will have considerably more respect for his managerial abilities if he can find it within himself to do so.

[Trojan 67]

"Learn from it,put it behind us and move on."

You gullible soft sods on here, are you really that f*ckin' stupid?

Hammered and humiliated twice in a fortnight by the two bottom placed teams means Hargreaves and his "youth" have learned f*ck all with the exception of how to lose and get hammered at bottom placed teams. Hargreaves then blames travelling up on the day to cover up his managerial inadequacies.

"He is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy."

[Dave]

You're missing the point Forever, the comment was aimed at how much of a hole the stadium is. The descend to the away end was a joke. And the slope on the pitch was clear to see. (Saying that, their away end is much better than those at York and Exeter)

I didn't miss the point at all, yes the approach to the ground may have been awful, the ground it self no better, that doesn't come into it, nor should it, you've already pointed out York and Exeter, the away seats at Rovers are bits of plastic screwed to scaffold poles, so these three club should charge no more than £10 for away fans then.

We've been one of the fortunate clubs to have gained grants and investment to tidy up our ground, but as I've said above the majority of clubs at our level and tier 3 and 4 are doing the best they can survive under a very difficult climate right now, that's why we force away fans under a certain number up into the bench to cut costs, and bring an extra £4 a ticket in the process.

That's why I'm saying cut the hypocrisy on other clubs pricing policy when our house isn't fully in order, and I certainly do not buy into looking down through my nose at clubs even less fortunate than our own.

[Sesimbra]

It seems Hargreaves is not accepting any responsibility for the rubbish served up yesterday. He states that it is a steep learning curve for the players. Maybe but what about the manager. He admits the defence was poor which raises the question as to why he did nothing about it during the match. This sounds like arrogance to me.

[Scott Brehaut]

"Learn from it,put it behind us and move on."

You gullible soft sods on here, are you really that f*ckin' stupid?

Hammered and humiliated twice in a fortnight by the two bottom placed teams means Hargreaves and his "youth" have learned f*ck all with the exception of how to lose and get hammered at bottom placed teams. Hargreaves then blames travelling up on the day to cover up his managerial inadequacies.

"He is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy."

Sandwiched with an excellent win last Saturday.

We played shit yesterday, but maybe that was also due to arrogance - thinking that we simply needed to turn up and win.

If we continue to play like that, however, I will start to worry.

[Richinns]

"Learn from it,put it behind us and move on."

You gullible soft sods on here, are you really that f*ckin' stupid?

Hammered and humiliated twice in a fortnight by the two bottom placed teams means Hargreaves and his "youth" have learned f*ck all with the exception of how to lose and get hammered at bottom placed teams. Hargreaves then blames travelling up on the day to cover up his managerial inadequacies.

"He is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy."

Stupid is to think we have a divine right to win every football match we play at this level. I mean - Luton, Cambridge, Barnet, Grimsby, Lincoln have all bounced straight back up with no problem so why the hell should we struggle?

Personally I think anybody who sits waiting for a loss, eagerly anticipating an attack is soft in the head and a no good TUFC 'fan'. Realism would be a wonderful gift for many who post on here and is something I think you would very much benefit from Trojan.

Well done to you and your clan of idiots - keep on sharpening those knives - I am sure they will serve us well in the struggle to get back to league football and many thanks for your efforts in supporting this cause.

[Trojan 67]

We played sh*t yesterday, but maybe that was also due to arrogance - thinking that we simply needed to turn up and win.

My point precisely, we turned up at Alfredtown with the same mindset that turned up at Telford, therefore he and they had learned nothing expect how to lose in a more humiliating fashion.

[hector]

"Learn from it,put it behind us and move on."

You gullible soft sods on here, are you really that f*ckin' stupid?

Hammered and humiliated twice in a fortnight by the two bottom placed teams means Hargreaves and his "youth" have learned f*ck all with the exception of how to lose and get hammered at bottom placed teams. Hargreaves then blames travelling up on the day to cover up his managerial inadequacies.
"He is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy."

Where was this amazing insight of yours when we went unbeaten for 10 games?

[Trojan 67]

Hector, I wasn't one of the dippy sh*ts who jumped on the unbeaten run bandwagon.

In my hindsight book, Hargreaves started off with a massive spunk stain on/against him - the signing of Fanny Stevens.

Amateur Board, rookie manager and what counts is where we are after 46 games.

[Richinns]

Hector, I wasn't one of the dippy sh*ts who jumped on the unbeaten run bandwagon.

In my hindsight book, Hargreaves started off with a massive spunk stain on/against him - the signing of Fanny Stevens.

Amateur Board, rookie manager and what counts is where we are after 46 games.

No - you are just one of the parasites waiting for the defeat which ended the run.

[Trojan 67]

Realism would be a wonderful gift for many who post on here and is something I think you would very much benefit from Trojan.

Realism is the quote above yours.

[brucie]

Its actually gopt nothing to do with anyone waiting for the run of victories to end - its actually the way it ended thats the problem.
Losing to Telford was an absolutely appalling result. Rice in that game let in three howlers.
I accept that could be written off as a fluke as you wouldn't normally expect a professional goalkeeper to let in three goals like that.
However to concede another four goals to an equally abject team a fortnight later shows that there are massive problems.
Harping on about travelling on the day is just an excuse in my book. We just didn't apply ourselves at all.
You could see that even the Alfreton manager thought they were going to lose before the game started.

[tomogull]

Stupid is to think we have a divine right to win every football match we play at this level. I mean - Luton, Cambridge, Barnet, Grimsby, Lincoln have all bounced straight back up with no problem so why the hell should we struggle?

Personally I think anybody who sits waiting for a loss, eagerly anticipating an attack is soft in the head and a no good TUFC 'fan'. Realism would be a wonderful gift for many who post on here and is something I think you would very much benefit from Trojan.

Well done to you and your clan of idiots - keep on sharpening those knives - I am sure they will serve us well in the struggle to get back to league football and many thanks for your efforts in supporting this cause.

Hang on, hang on Richinns - this is part of what you posted a couple of pages back -
'Could not bring myself to post in the forum until now as such was the anger and disappointment from yesterday. Big fan of Hargreaves but he got in wrong big time yesterday and refused to change the bleeding obvious which in the end cost us the game and much embarrassment on TV. Have not read the post match comments but hope he accepts the error, learns from it and does not blame tiredness or the travel for the performance' You then proceeded to slate virtually every player in the team. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the team you support, eh?

All of us on here are angry and disappointed at losing to the two clubs at the bottom of the league in a fortnight and conceding eight goals in the process. I don't think Trojan nor anybody else is waiting for a defeat - we're all bloody frustrated at (a) Hargreaves team selection yesterday and, more importantly, (b) his inability to change things when it was painfully obvious his experiment of playing a 5ft 8 ins young midfield player in central defence was going tits up. His asst, Lee Hodges, was a capable central defender in his playing days. I find it hard to believe that he didn't say "Er Chris - this aint working. Don't you think we should change it at half time?"

[Ausgull]

The fans were telling Hargreaves long before kick off that Richards ( just back from suspension ) wasnt the right choice for a central defender it beggers belief that he had Harding and Hutchings both defenders on the bench and failed to use either of them at halftime when he saw what was happening to Richards in the first half.
Reading his ( Hargreaves ) comments on the match he has in no way put his hand up and said I made a tactical error but purely lays the blame on the players and its a learning curve for the young players, So wasnt it the same excuse from the Telford result ?
As for Harding and Hutchings they must be very despondent to see a central midfielder get picked in defence before them and are probally thinking to themselves what chance have we ever of getting picked to play after this fiasco.
Hopefully moving forward Hargreaves will never again play Richards in a defensive role but play him in his true position as a central midfielder.

[kevgull]

The fans were telling Hargreaves long before kick off that Richards ( just back from suspension ) wasnt the right choice for a central defender it beggers belief that he had Harding and Hutchings both defenders on the bench and failed to use either of them at halftime when he saw what was happening to Richards in the first half.
Reading his ( Hargreaves ) comments on the match he has in no way put his hand up and said I made a tactical error but purely lays the blame on the players and its a learning curve for the young players, So wasnt it the same excuse from the Telford result ?
As for Harding and Hutchings they must be very despondent to see a central midfielder get picked in defence before them and are probally thinking to themselves what chance have we ever of getting picked to play after this fiasco.
Hopefully moving forward Hargreaves will never again play Richards in a defensive role but play him in his true position as a central midfielder.