Harrogate Railway Athletic.....

.....arrive at the Giant Axe tomorrow with a bloke who has scored a very impressive 24 goals so far this season!

Help!!

.might he get frozen out? Very cold out here in the sticks last night....is it still on?

Be reet. 4-1.

I felt we were undone by lack of confidence as much as anything. Confidence breeds luck, which wasn't with us, though, having said that, I would have to add that Rail missed a couple of good chances. Come back Killer, we need you!

Brocker wrote:Come back Killer, we need you!

Is it possible that the Killer situation has destabilised things?

The Killifin situation cannot be helping, and it is surely no coincidence that we're in the worst league run of results for many a year. And Brocker is spot on about confidence - only Winder willing to shoot at goal, and no real threat to a well organised Railway defence until the young free spirit called Reece Pearce appeared as a second half sub. Ultimately, their 5 victories on the bounce have given them the edge against City side experiencing the exact opposite.
But we shouldn't dwell too long on the negatives - these were two very evenly matched sides, separated by Ben Hudson's defensive error where others should have been helping him. At the very least letting him know he had a man on. Defensively I thought we were far better than against Salford, and the goal machine called Cartman barely had a sniff; nor did Farquarson, who scored 4 in midweek against Frickley. After Reece came on, we did offer a threat up front, and Winder found a gap or two. If we keep the ball on the ground - which we didn't - and exploit the width of the pitch - which we didn't until late on - we'll stretch many defences in this League, and could have stretched Railway more today. A little luck late on may have forced an equaliser. Darren and Trevor have some work to do before next Saturday, and another tough home fixture !

All this pontificating is all very well but the top & bottom of things is we are rubbish. Significant changes which occurred off the pitch 12 months ago have been brought home to roost & the present incumbents both on & off the field are proving inadequate.
Cue the so & so & so & so comments of they're improving, give them time etc......bore off......we're heading to NW counties at this rate whilst being a stepping stone for certain individuals media careers.

Wasn't the worst performance. Clearly the squad are low on confidence, whilst HRA are the opposite.

I'm not sure how criticising the directors helps things either.

Frustrations begining to show me thinks and to a degree that's understandable but I don't buy that we are rubbish, there's alot of work to do but we aren't rubbish and the player's efforts deserve a more constructive assessment than that. In addition anyone who has been around the ground infrastructure of the club and doing volunteer work over the past 5 years will tell you that contrary to 'the present incumbents on and off the field proving inadequate' a lot of essential hard yacker, money and dedication has pulled the club back from a precarious situation. Unlike the sharp shooting critics, who we would welcome helping us out at any time, the 'present incumbents both on and off the field' have just quietly and dedicatedly got on with trying to move things forward and whilst 'constructive' criticism is always welcome, uninformed cheap shots help no one. You will no doubt gather you've rattled my cage gaz.

It certainly isn't right to criticise "off the field" people such as directors and other volunteers who are giving up a lot of their own time and putting in hours of hard work for no financial reward.

As regards "on the field", no one can really argue with Gaz on this one. We're 13 points worse off than the corresponding stage last season, (when we failed to reach the play-offs); we've had fewer wins, more defeats, and scored less goals and conceded more. Last season it took us until the end of March to "achieve" eight defeats. He mentions the dreaded NWCL and whilst it is unthinkable that we should sink to that level again, the league table tells us that we are certainly closer to that than we are the Evo-Stik Premier, (11 points above the relegation zone compared with 15 points shy of a play-off place).

What's hard to accept is that we are going backwards, no nearer to promotion now that we were in 2007-08. Just look at our situation compared with local rivals; we are 5 leagues below Fleetwood, 4 leagues below Morecambe and Accrington and we see small places such as Alfreton and Nailsworth (Forest Green) managing to hold their own in the Conference, whilst we have all on to rub shoulders with the likes of Padiham and the Ossetts.

We know it's the age old story of money talking. To get out of this league we have to attract more finance from somewhere. I read on Kendal's website that they had secured Connerton's services when he was being actively pursued by other clubs, so even if we wanted him back there's clearly no way we could pay him what he would want now. And if we've little money, then even if we had a team of eleven exceptional local players, all another club would have to do would be to offer to double their wages and put seven days' notice on him (sounds familiar?) and he would be off, or, as we are seeing at the moment, not play, so be of no use to us in any case.

The best of luck to DP and TS in turning things around.