The missing 8: summary | Page 4 | Vital Football

The missing 8: summary

We don't have a game tomorrow, unless it's a proper hushed up behind closed doors job.

Yes no game tomorrow (officially) but could be a training ground game somewhere.
But Scunny away on Tuesday then Salford away on Saturday before the season starts the following Saturday.
This is where it should be all coming together. A lot of the hard work is done and the team that the management intends to start with should virtually be in place and it should definitely be in place for the Salford game next Saturday. Yes there maybe more additions to the squad that's normal but we look a million miles off being prepared for the first league game at the moment.
We'll be lucky if we have had half a first team out in one game so far in pre season.
I'm not being negative by the way and the manager has to prioritise himself first because we all want to see him back fit and well but this has been the strangest pre season I can ever remember.
Hopefully things will come together in the next couple of weeks.
 
expecting a rude awakening down in kent two weeks tomorrow. as always i will be there but with little confidence atm. still need to add 5 or 6 quality signings and for them to bed in… my prediction is we won’t get going until october / november. i know it worked for blackpool last season but should not be a blue print. slow start, battling back into lower mid table obscurity by end of season for me.
 
Blackpool and Oxford had slow starts before turning things around, but they mix in quite different financial circles to what we can afford.
 
On Saturdays, for away games we'd get the score on the vidiprinter on BBC1 as the games concluded and then I'd be despatched to the paper shop to buy a copy of the Football Echo (the green one) which was always on sale by about 6pm!

An alternative would be to go to the reserve match at Sincil Bank and you'd get the first team score given out over the loudspeakers - can't remember if it was updates during the game or only at half and full time.

This was in the mid-1960s when the reserves played at home on Saturday afternoons when the first team were away.

For mid-week games in those days, there used to be a sports bulletin on the Light Programme (predecessor of Radio 2) at around 10pm which had all the results on it.
 
For mid-week games in those days, there used to be a sports bulletin on the Light Programme (predecessor of Radio 2) at around 10pm which had all the results on it.

...by which time, my dad had already cycled home with the (usually bad) news.

Mind you, I do remember the sports bulletin on the Light Programme.
 
For mid-week games in those days, there used to be a sports bulletin on the Light Programme (predecessor of Radio 2) at around 10pm which had all the results on it.
Sports Desk it was called (at least by the 80s). It eventually migrated to 5 Live.
 
An alternative would be to go to the reserve match at Sincil Bank and you'd get the first team score given out over the loudspeakers - can't remember if it was updates during the game or only at half and full time.

I think it was during the game if a goal had been scored... there was a click and some crackling as the PA was turned on, then a few seconds' wait before the announcement came.
 
Yes no game tomorrow (officially) but could be a training ground game somewhere.
But Scunny away on Tuesday then Salford away on Saturday before the season starts the following Saturday.
This is where it should be all coming together. A lot of the hard work is done and the team that the management intends to start with should virtually be in place and it should definitely be in place for the Salford game next Saturday. Yes there maybe more additions to the squad that's normal but we look a million miles off being prepared for the first league game at the moment.
We'll be lucky if we have had half a first team out in one game so far in pre season.
I'm not being negative by the way and the manager has to prioritise himself first because we all want to see him back fit and well but this has been the strangest pre season I can ever remember.
Hopefully things will come together in the next couple of weeks.
Totally agree, think the nearest we got was Norwich but even then no central defenders.
Definitely a very strange preseason indeed. 🤔
 
Has your spell-checker broken, Simjon? ;)
expecting a rude awakening down in kent two weeks tomo. as always i will be there but with little confidence atm. still need to add 5 or 6 quality signings and for them to bed in… my prediction is we won’t get going until october / november. i know it worked for blackpool last season but should not be a blue print. slow start, battling back into lower mid table obscurity by end of season for me.
Life really can’t be worth living for you with such a negative attitude, perhaps you should jump ship to the Cod’s and then you’d have something to bleat about!
 
A few highlights from the Gillingham area:

a) they are under a transfer embargo for two reasons and have strict limits on which players they can sign, how many, and on what terms;

b) no refunds on 2020-21 season tickets - chairman Paul Scally has asked fans not to resort to the law;

c) their three best players rejected contract offers (Jack Bonham, Connor Ogilvie, Jordan Graham) and Dominic Samuel has been sold; replacements look bargain basement;

d) their financial position - they have yet to file accounts for the 2019-20 financial year which were due in May, hence the transfer embargo - God knows what they will reveal when available;

e) season tickets only went on sale on 9 July, worsening their financial position ahead of the new season; then the new online ticketing system didn't work;

f) they refuse to pay agent fees, thereby reducing their market further;

g) Covid has affected their pre-season, causing the cancellation of three friendlies;

h) Mr Evans still claims to have the smallest budget in League One - given the above list, he may even be right this time.
 
expecting a rude awakening down in kent two weeks tomo. as always i will be there but with little confidence atm. still need to add 5 or 6 quality signings and for them to bed in… my prediction is we won’t get going until october / november. i know it worked for blackpool last season but should not be a blue print. slow start, battling back into lower mid table obscurity by end of season for me.
… don’t be silly 🙃
 
A few highlights from the Gillingham area:

a) they are under a transfer embargo for two reasons and have strict limits on which players they can sign, how many, and on what terms;

b) no refunds on 2020-21 season tickets - chairman Paul Scally has asked fans not to resort to the law;

c) their three best players rejected contract offers (Jack Bonham, Connor Ogilvie, Jordan Graham) and Dominic Samuel has been sold; replacements look bargain basement;

d) their financial position - they have yet to file accounts for the 2019-20 financial year which were due in May, hence the transfer embargo - God knows what they will reveal when available;

e) season tickets only went on sale on 9 July, worsening their financial position ahead of the new season; then the new online ticketing system didn't work;

f) they refuse to pay agent fees, thereby reducing their market further;

g) Covid has affected their pre-season, causing the cancellation of three friendlies;

h) Mr Evans still claims to have the smallest budget in League One - given the above list, he may even be right this time.
🎻
The moral of the story is having one dodgy fecker at your club is bad enough but two!
Zero sympathy
 
Interesting take on the Griffiths situation from the writer there:
‘For the three clubs, they are all sides who will have promotion ambitions, and the talented shot-stopper is a player who only knows success so far in his first-team career.
Wednesday are seemingly most in need of a goalkeeper, with their pursuit of Bailey Peacock-Farrell suggesting that they are not entirely happy with their current options.’

i thought Portsmouth had already signed a keeper?
 
My dad used to cycle from the Hartsholme estate to the Echo office on weekday away match days just to find out the score. I went with him a couple of times, that would have been in the late sixties. The score (only, usually) would be written on sheet of paper and stuck on the inside of one of the windows by about 9:15-9:20pm

I seem to remember there was quite a crowd waiting for the result at Southport when we lost 3-2.