Brilliant write-up (as always Paul), never underestimate how many people enjoy these, particularly exiles.
"Relegation? My gut feeling is 50:50 and that’s possibly being overly optimistic. There’s not the slightest argument though that our horrendous form over the last nine games makes it a 100% certainty unless that rot is stopped."
The above is 100% my thoughts. I just can't see at the moment how this rot is stopped. In a normal season, you have an idea of your relative strength as a side and can predict where you will likely pick up points (whilst acknowledging the element of randomness is what makes football great)
This season? I wouldn't be confident of beating anyone. Such is our fragility I would fancy us to 50:50 lose against most national league sides. Without bringing up old ground debated a million times, I think some fans don't realise what an absolute number KR did on us, for all he made the play-offs (yadi yada) He has left us with a totally unbalanced squad, devoid of confifence, devoid of a capable backroom staff, devoid of a clue. We are in serious s*it and some of our supporters who were saying anyone who thought we could go down is mental look rather silly now.
We are in a battle that we don't look up for, and aren't really prepared for. The clubs down there like Morecambe are already in the fighting-for-our-status mentality? are we? do we have the character in the squad to pull ourselves out of it?
If they didn't sack KR we were 100% going down. I am pinning all my hopes on a 'new manager bounce', and that doesn't feel like a good place for the football club to be.
Sorry for a bleak post but reading this FV only made me clearer on the fact we are genuinely on the verge this season. A series of good decisions need to be made upstairs for us to pull ourselves away.