League two survival....again

[BHmfc]

We need to be honest with ourselves, league two survival is all we can realistically hope for this season. We have an owner who wants to sell us and therefore not putting any money into the club. We have just lost five of our loanees, leaving the squad threadbare, with no money to replace them unless it is more young players on loan, which means if and when they arrive it will take time for Ged to settle them into the squad. We are possibly facing a points deduction and also, just to make things harder, an object was thrown at the Harrogate keeper in the last home game which was reported to the ref which could lead to a fine.I feel really sorry for Ged, what a time to become manager of Morecambe Football Club. We need to support him 100%, win, lose or draw. A massive game on Saturday against Mansfield, get behind the manager, get behind the players and get behind the club. .....PS I forgot to mention John Mc. let's hope he is back soon, he knows the club inside out and is a great person to have around.

[Billy bodger]

Thankfully we are in a position where it will be a total capitulation in the second half of the season for us to go down. We have basically lost players up front so GEDs job is finding someone who can score goals. We have suffered with the injuries to Moore and Love and now JJ. We will get Love back soon and Moore before the end of the season that will hopefully help us getting the 20 points + we need to stay in the league because thankfully only Two go down. (If we get deducted more than three points we may need more than 20!!).

It’s easy to say but if we can do what we didn’t last year and that is win games against teams in and around us we will be more than safe.

Unfortunately I think the ownership issue is just going to drag on and on and on. With all the different issues surrounding Whittingham’s businesses I am flabbergasted that the League and the FA don’t step in and do something about his continued ownership.

[vvm]

Trying to think of some positives:

1. We have 3 games in hand currently, we'd probably have been better playing the Crewe and Crawley games before Derek left and our squad was ripped apart but there's still 9 extra points to play for there. They might come in useful.
2. Money in the bank? Our FA cup run netted us approximately £200k and the loss of the 5 loans will have opened up at least a bit of budget. Ged has the opportunity to bring in some half decent replacements and get the team playing how he envisions. It might not be as good as we've had it but it should be enough
3. Schedule. January doesn't look great and our next 3 games look tough but if we use this time to get a new squad together then there are some very winnable games throughout February.
4. Swansea. Not a single loan player started this game and we showed a good account of ourselves. If our fringe players could do it against a Championship team then they should be up for the challenge of league 2 teams.

All we can do is get behind the team, stick with them and don't let the attendances drop. I think we'll be ok.

[Andy D]

It was always the case anyway this season.

Where 45 points should be enough in L2 this season to stay up, I'd make it 60 incase we get deducted points this season.

[black morse]

It was always the case anyway this season.

Where 45 points should be enough in L2 this season to stay up, I'd make it 60 incase we get deducted points this season.

Although I earlier said I thought we could get to 60 points I must admit I was not allowing for all 5 of our loanees to be recalled. I agree with all the calls for a strong up front striker but we will be competing with quite a few clubs who have more money and a far more stable situation than us and, therefore, it's going to be a very big ask. There is also the obvious possibility that we may be 'forced' into selling Mayor which, coupled with the lost loanees would, in my book, be disastrous. Yes, we should get a decent sum for him but his wages, as far as we know, are low so there would be no gain from that angle. Add in the possible 3 point deduction and the 2/3 games in hand advantage more than disappears.

I think ideas of a play off place, which a few weeks ago were realistic, are now a fantasy and all we can realistically hope for is that teams like Forest Green and Sutton keep losing.