by KenH » Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:06 pm
Personally, I think we're at a pivotal point in the season. We desperately need a couple of entertaining home wins. Not just for points in the table, but also to get a bit of a buzz going at The Globe in the hope of starting to rebuild the fan base.
With the players we have, a promotion is a realistic possibility. Six points this week will put us right up there and it's easier to stay around the top with up/down performances than try to work our way up once we're lower in the table.
In the past, I've been wary of promotion, but thinking it through, the attendances will be far higher due to the number of Northern teams in L1. A promotion run will clearly bring out more home supporters too, not to mention the novelty value of coming down to see local "big" teams at the Globe on a regular basis once we were in L1.
We now have quite a few players who we could keep in L1 whereas a couple of seasons ago, we definitely had a L2 team and would have needed a lot of new faces to survive L1. With a few exceptions, I can see most of our regular starting 11 in a L1 team.
I fear for us not getting promoted to be honest. Next Summer, I doubt we'd be able to keep Miller and Barky, probably not even Devitt and Wildig, all of whom must be attracting attention from L1 teams or more prosperous L2 teams. However, if we managed to break into L1, I'm sure it would be easier for Jim to keep them, even at relatively low wages, as they clearly want to play football regularly, which is probably why they came in the first place. Really not sure where we'd be without those four.
I really fear for MFC if this week's games don't go well. Not only would a couple of losses push us down the table again, but it will just make attendances even worse.
Let's hope the key players remain fit and that Jim doesn't fanny about with the team selection and mess it up again.