Editorial
Issue 133
It is customary to start the editorial of any
edition of the magazine at around this time of year with an apology for the lateness of
publication, and I see no reason to depart from this tradition. Our huge and grovelling
apologies are therefore offered. Calling this the November-January issue is a bit of a
cheek; this is in fact the November-December issue running about a month late. We're
starting to get as bad as Virgin West Coast at lame excuses for lateness, but for what
it's worth, Christmas and the alleged millennium cut a fairly spectacular swathe through
our best intended plans. As well as this, we have been behind since the first issue and
have yet to catch up. It's now intended to get back on schedule by producing another
magazine in February, which should see us sticking to the six per season pattern;
consequently, if you've ever felt minded to contribute your own memories, thoughts and
opinions, there'll never be a better time than now, or else the next issue is in danger of
being somewhat thin. For now, I hope you enjoy this, another bumper, issue.
If this editorial had been put together sometime before
Christmas it would have been considerably more optimistic than now. I write the day after
the second successive away defeat at Notts County, and a once promising season is in
danger of coming off the rails. Only a good series of results at home have kept us in
play-off contention. The leaders, Wigan, are already in danger of disappearing over the
horizon. Away form is again a problem, with very few goals scored, and it seems that
before every home game I find someone saying that we need a win just to stay in touch. Any
slide in home results will see us struggling off the pace. If home form dips, we drop
places. The last such time, when we drew with Brentford and lost to Scunthorpe, moved us
from hovering around the top back into the chasing pack. There we have stayed because,
while not always playing convincingly at home, we have developed the knack of winning
there by one goal. If the home form slips again, even securing the play-offs might start
looking like hard work.
This is not to carp unduly. At this time last season,
the club was in real crisis. Now, on and off the field, it is not, and for that we should
be grateful to Stan Ternent and the Board. We have enjoyed some excellent performances.
Derby was a day that we will always savour, and provided the club with a great deal of
positive national coverage. In patches at home, we have looked a formidable side able to
sustain an attack, although it usually seems to take an opposition goal to wake us up
these days. But it would be a shame if the gains made this season were not built upon. If
we ever imagined our squad was strong enough, Bury shattered those illusions. We need
additions to the squad, and we need them while we’re still in the chase.
I’m sure that we should credit Ternent with
knowing this too. However, I don’t believe that he is beyond criticism. He seems to
have his favourites. Of course, all managers do. But you do wonder what Tom Cowan, or even
Paul Smith, must have done, to be forced to sit every week and watch Graham Branch playing
as English football’s first non-tackling left back. The subs bench is rotated on a
weekly basis, yet the first team sees the same names firmly entrenched, seemingly
regardless of actual merit. Mellon gets countless opportunities to carry on disappointing,
while the lightweight Mullin is given continued carte blanche to waste the ball in ways
which would see Glen Little get slaughtered. It is clear that Ternent places a strong
emphasis on team spirit, but when things are going against us, this could be mistaken for
a policy of not picking players whose face doesn’t fit. The team should always be
chosen on merit alone.
At the moment, the consensus seems to be that we will
make the play-offs. The problem with this, of course, is that all supporters tend to think
their team will win the play-0offs. Three quarters of those supporters will be wrong. We
have a rose-tinted view of what the play-offs mean, because last time we won them. The
time before that, however, in 1991, we experienced just what a miserable occasion they can
be. I still believe that we can avoid them and achieve the paramount aim of promotion by
investing in the squad now. Specifically, a better than average goalkeeper, a midfield
ball-winner and a substitute striker would be a start.
Having filled up most of the space, I just need to put
on record how much our members appreciated Barry Kilby giving up his time to join us for
lunch after the Parliamentary tour and wish you all a happy new Century, then that’s
me done.
Firmo
January 2000
