We complained every time and got admissions constantly that they made mistakes and publicised that. It didn't change anything. You're right it isn't just us, watch any game and you'll see a mix of officials simply not seeing stuff or giving decisions based on what they expect or think they've seen or how they expect the game to play out. We're small fry, we don't have clout, Downes doesn't carry the clout to change that no matter what people want to think. We need to get used to the idea we simply don't get the run of these things, same as other small fry clubs. Equally until we stop having opposition fans right behind a linesman baying for blood some things won't change.

That implies that the incompetence is just in our fixtures and it is not. So why do other teams get the rub? lol, maybe you are right and all those years the old boys in strank were shouting at the officials 'you fucking cheat' they were on the money.

MAD I think you're reaching if you think we didn't get penalties cos of Ardley. We didn't get them cos of referee and linesman incompetence (or cowardice or preconceptions or mix of those). None of those will change regardless of who manages the first team.

Be interesting to see if he’s found to be at fault whether the old Twat driving at 97 years of age faces any charges!

Think we've got a football grown up at the helm now Sparty. The penalties will come as, the same as the football world, we'll build the pressure on the officials...

Seeing as refs don't seem to like giving us penalties, signing Akinde would have been a waste of time ;-)

In the 2 seasons 2015-16 and 2016-17 akinde got a total of about 50 goals - that’s a hell of a lot of penalties

got a*

Akinde would have got an mysterious, recurring, injury in September, had he joined us in the summer.

Train, the quote on Akinde was - and I've taken this pee on here from some of our fellow terrace dwellers - "he scores but its pens, we need more than that". Ignoring the fact that he's a strong fucker that lead the line and he won half the pens that he score from. Cheers Nil.

Striker in end of the window and we can use Hanson off the bench. Might have him available rest of the season if we use him 20 - 25 minutes at a time.

Akinde or Hanson, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Dondog - we were pursuing Akinde until we were made aware Hanson was available.

Signing, not singing 😂

Windy - I just read back a bit and decide how happy I am with the occasional guest appearance.

I’m actually quite excited to see who we can get in before the window shuts. Bit worried about Barnsley and Fleetwood, but if we can get 4 points we can look forward to the Hammers game and hopefully have a couple of new recruits ready for the Mackems.

Slow Train - were we really anywhere near singing Akinde? I presumed at the time it was just a rumour among overly optimistic fans just on the basis that he was available, and we’d have been priced out by Lincoln had we actually gone for him

I fear Neal may not manage again after this season.

Agree Windy. And on the Neal point I love him but don't miss him one bit.

Fucking hell Windy, you are so reasonable.

blueWomble - totally agree with you

I think we also have to remember that in this league we are relative small fry. We don't have a sugar daddy owner, we don't have dodgy accountants and we don't have the ability to generate much match day income. What we do have is a new stadium draining our finance. We don't need to make many poor decisions for us to be fighting relegation. Sadly we have made a few recently.

I think getting us up as soon as he did was pretty special actually. Especially only 2 years after the dire 2013/14 season

Train, if Erik's football board blinks and gives Wally n Hodger what they have targeted - yep, we have a shout.

Lets analyse Neals tennure, octt, came in 2012, new manager bounce, did some deals, and kept us up , just, but kept us up, 13/14, football was crap, but shored up the defence, 14/15, tubbs, beast, barchy, looked good intil tubby left, mid table, then 15/16 big tom, ltb came in, average 1st half of the season, fantastic 2nd half, 16/17 reasonable debut in l1, 17/18 started going backwards, 18/19 lessons not learnt, and goodbye