Promotion. How would you feel about it?
Nov 18, 2023 10:33:19 GMT
Kenty in Weardale and pp like this
Post by Keithsson on Nov 18, 2023 10:33:19 GMT
*NB* This isn't a quick flick through topic, it doesn't need a quick reply. Its more of a 'sitting in a wing-back chair wearing a smoking jacket and thoughtfully stroking your chin' kinda thing. So maybe save some time for it, give it a 'couple of coats of looking at'... then consider it over a coffee or two.
A seed was planted in my head walking home on Tuesday night... losing in that spirited and entertaining manner felt much more 'enjoyable' than beating a dreadful Havant side in a very dull encounter the week before.
That seed then grew into some questions... what do I actually want from my Rebels experience at the moment? And, is winning actually the 'be all and end all' of things currently?
Those questions are framed by the huge 'Sword of Damocles' hanging over us, the biggest of all issues facing us. Because of course if we were to win every game, however entertaining or otherwise it might be, that would mean we'd be promoted to the National League. Is the team ready for that?, is the club ready for that?, would an enjoyable, entertaining 'falling short' be a better outcome this season?
I've been chewing that over internally. Now I must confess I pay the league above very little day to day attention, its where we aspire to going next but until we get there I don't really care about what's going on up there. But with these questions being chewed over I thought I'd take a look at the NL table... just to see how Ebbsfleet and Oxford City have fared...
Bloody hell!! Ebbsfleet were not just streets ahead of everyone else last season, they were entire housing estates ahead, and Oxford were different gravy against us and St Albans in the play-offs. But just look how they've done...
National League Table - Link
Both in the relegation places and between them...
- Only 35 points from a possible 114.
- Only nine wins from 38 games played.
- Only one away win from 19 away games played.
- indeed just 10 points from a possible 57 on the road.
- Both have a -11 goal difference.
Oxford are more akin to us in terms of size and likely resources but given the vast resources 'Fleet threw at promotion that's done them no better either.
Coming back to the questions I'd been mulling over since Tuesday therefore those stats just show the sheer size of the task ahead even if we were to achieve promotion. Its made my mind up on quite how desirable promotion is for us right now at our stage of development but I figured it was a decent talking point to put out to the collective... other views are bound to exist...
For example (firmly playing devils advocate to my own feelings)... so what? At no time will a promotion to the league above be easy and surely its better to try, even if we come straight back down, maybe yo-yo for a while until we can establish a firm foothold. Away trips to many former league clubs would be great days out. Ideally we'd want to be be full-time already and have the ground up to the required standard but we don't live in an ideal world. We know next season is a possibility for full-time anyway... a year ahead of current schedule but 'noises' have been made about B teams, training squads etc recently. And we know the ground won't be done until we're promoted anyway because of the grant situation. So why not go up, sink or swim, get the ground done and regroup. What's not to like?
I wrestled with quite how to frame the question. 'Do you want promotion'? was too simple as most self respecting fans, quite rightly, couldn't bring themselves to want to actively turn a promotion down. So I settled on 'how would you feel about promotion'.
Now of course being a much more woolly open question, we can all put our own individual context into it. If the football is your main focus then how does losing so very often make you feel?, if the club infrastructure is your main focus then how does the prospect of stretched finances and a probable season of building work appeal?, if you're a regular away game traveller how does the prospect of only extremely rarely seeing us win feel?, but lots of new grounds, better grounds?. All sorts of parameters come into play so it'd be very interesting to take the pulse of the forum.
As a given this is very much a hypothetical consideration. We're not playing like promotion candidates right now, we're too hot and cold. But saying that the league is so open this year we maybe wouldn't have to do as much as we did last season to go up.
So which side of the coin represents your feelings?
I throw it over to you. Have a think about it, don't just vote off the cuff because if there's anything that stands before us that requires careful consideration its how and when we tackle the huge next step.
(Poll locks in a month for posterity).
General admin note - By posting all that you'll have observed I'm not travelling to Frome today and have far too much time on my hands! Well that's because this is my last free time for over a week due daughter #2's wedding next weekend. To quote The Fresh Prince, "my life 'gets flipped turned upside down" this week and as its p155ing it down with rain I'm clearing the decks of my Rebel Rebels commitments. Consequently you'll observe, with apologies for their brevity, three 'bare bones' match threads will follow. Please flesh them out as you see fit but in terms of me firing up the PC to write for the message board... that's me done!
A seed was planted in my head walking home on Tuesday night... losing in that spirited and entertaining manner felt much more 'enjoyable' than beating a dreadful Havant side in a very dull encounter the week before.
That seed then grew into some questions... what do I actually want from my Rebels experience at the moment? And, is winning actually the 'be all and end all' of things currently?
Those questions are framed by the huge 'Sword of Damocles' hanging over us, the biggest of all issues facing us. Because of course if we were to win every game, however entertaining or otherwise it might be, that would mean we'd be promoted to the National League. Is the team ready for that?, is the club ready for that?, would an enjoyable, entertaining 'falling short' be a better outcome this season?
I've been chewing that over internally. Now I must confess I pay the league above very little day to day attention, its where we aspire to going next but until we get there I don't really care about what's going on up there. But with these questions being chewed over I thought I'd take a look at the NL table... just to see how Ebbsfleet and Oxford City have fared...
Bloody hell!! Ebbsfleet were not just streets ahead of everyone else last season, they were entire housing estates ahead, and Oxford were different gravy against us and St Albans in the play-offs. But just look how they've done...
National League Table - Link
Both in the relegation places and between them...
- Only 35 points from a possible 114.
- Only nine wins from 38 games played.
- Only one away win from 19 away games played.
- indeed just 10 points from a possible 57 on the road.
- Both have a -11 goal difference.
Oxford are more akin to us in terms of size and likely resources but given the vast resources 'Fleet threw at promotion that's done them no better either.
Coming back to the questions I'd been mulling over since Tuesday therefore those stats just show the sheer size of the task ahead even if we were to achieve promotion. Its made my mind up on quite how desirable promotion is for us right now at our stage of development but I figured it was a decent talking point to put out to the collective... other views are bound to exist...
For example (firmly playing devils advocate to my own feelings)... so what? At no time will a promotion to the league above be easy and surely its better to try, even if we come straight back down, maybe yo-yo for a while until we can establish a firm foothold. Away trips to many former league clubs would be great days out. Ideally we'd want to be be full-time already and have the ground up to the required standard but we don't live in an ideal world. We know next season is a possibility for full-time anyway... a year ahead of current schedule but 'noises' have been made about B teams, training squads etc recently. And we know the ground won't be done until we're promoted anyway because of the grant situation. So why not go up, sink or swim, get the ground done and regroup. What's not to like?
I wrestled with quite how to frame the question. 'Do you want promotion'? was too simple as most self respecting fans, quite rightly, couldn't bring themselves to want to actively turn a promotion down. So I settled on 'how would you feel about promotion'.
Now of course being a much more woolly open question, we can all put our own individual context into it. If the football is your main focus then how does losing so very often make you feel?, if the club infrastructure is your main focus then how does the prospect of stretched finances and a probable season of building work appeal?, if you're a regular away game traveller how does the prospect of only extremely rarely seeing us win feel?, but lots of new grounds, better grounds?. All sorts of parameters come into play so it'd be very interesting to take the pulse of the forum.
As a given this is very much a hypothetical consideration. We're not playing like promotion candidates right now, we're too hot and cold. But saying that the league is so open this year we maybe wouldn't have to do as much as we did last season to go up.
So which side of the coin represents your feelings?
I throw it over to you. Have a think about it, don't just vote off the cuff because if there's anything that stands before us that requires careful consideration its how and when we tackle the huge next step.
(Poll locks in a month for posterity).
General admin note - By posting all that you'll have observed I'm not travelling to Frome today and have far too much time on my hands! Well that's because this is my last free time for over a week due daughter #2's wedding next weekend. To quote The Fresh Prince, "my life 'gets flipped turned upside down" this week and as its p155ing it down with rain I'm clearing the decks of my Rebel Rebels commitments. Consequently you'll observe, with apologies for their brevity, three 'bare bones' match threads will follow. Please flesh them out as you see fit but in terms of me firing up the PC to write for the message board... that's me done!