We will be all right

Narrowly losing to Sunderland and being vaguely competitive has wowed some and reinforced the idea we are turning the corner.

All right fair enough, Hopkin wasn't going to reverse our situation over night - but we need to be actually scoring goals and picking up points.

4 points in 6 games is an awful return, and we've played some right crap including Bristol at home.

 

Fantastic post.

 

I can understand that argument but as you point out Julian sold both Deano and JJ who were possibly the two best players at the club at the time, and also sacked Todd, Julian promoted Wetherall who had no managerial experience where this season we have done the opposite , this squad could lose any 2 players and I wouldn't make a great deal of difference,
We haven't seen anyone who could be a match winner as Deano could or anyone with the ability of Jermaine Johnson, I believe when we get a few of the injured players back they will strengthen the squad and further additions in January there will be 4 teams worse than us in this league so I'll say we will still be in league one next season.

 

I agree Dave but it will be a tough season.

 

It was always going to be once Micheal Collins was appointed, not merely has Dave Hopkin inherited a poor squad the injuries are not helping him but still 34 games left, I do believe he will get us safe and that's not my heart ruling my head.

 

Has Hopkin slept with your wife or something?

 

We have a massive squad, 15 or 16 more than Sunderland listed on Saturday and I struggle to think of any with a transfer value greater than we may have paid for them and struggle to see where money for reinforcements will come from in January.

 

No, he's just picked up 4 points from 6 games.

 

Lol!!!

 

Agree on both counts I am hoping the signing of Hopkin will mean Edin as learnt and money will be made availabe to him come January.

 

I’ve been reading about Hopkin’s old assistant at Livingston and he’s almost a director of football type rather than just an assistant and has quite a bit of a say up there.

Maybe a reason he hasn’t come here to be “just” and assistant?

 

Maybe he's under contract.

 

And that too. Doubt we will pay compo for him

 

I agree, but maybe if together they can do well for our club it will be nothing over the long term.

 

It would work out nothing and better than some of the poor signings we have made in the last 2 seasons.

 

We already have a 'Director of Football' and a recruitment committee any more will just add to the wage bill and the confusion unless someone is leaving

 

I was hoping it would be Abbott but can’t have everything

 

Obviously there are other things at play but I certainly wouldn't say that Collins' appointment was a minor error - it was fundamental. We are weeks behind where other sides are in terms of fitness, gameplan, cohesion. All of which seems to be slowly improving with Hopkin in charge. But the manner of Sunderland's second goal proves that we have a long way to go.

I don't think anybody is denying that we have a lot of work to do to get out of trouble but there are some early signs that we can do it.

 

I was always going to assess the squad and team in or around mid October. Unfortunately, so many incidents have happened it is difficult to assess where we will end up. Since the season officially started we spent the first few weeks trying to play to a non existent system, trying to get fit, and form a cohesive unit. This was following a terrible pre season. It is like our season started when Hopkin arrived; so not only does he have to make up for a pre season, but also disentangle the mess Collins left. On top of that he is left with a large squad of mainly kids, plus an ever growing injury list due in part to poor pre season and the start to the season. He is also expected to work with the staff who were partly responsible for the mess in the first place. Plus he has to acru points as quickly as possible, as the rest of League don’t give a toss that we have squandered our budget, pre season and appointed the wrong manager.

Rahic will now get to watch his ‘dream’ unfold before his eyes, playing kids in the man’s league. Will we stay up? Who actually knows, but if we manage to scramble out of this it will be some kind of miracle football style. If this happens Rahic can take no solace from this ‘result’ it will be down to sheer hard work of limited footballers and the manager.

My heart wants to believe we will make it, as football is about passion and emotions, that is the reason for watching your team. My head says that unless we bring in some very expensive players in January we have no chance.

 

comfortably midtable is optimistic.

I'm not convinced we have enough to survive, but if we do, it'll be close. comfortable mid table is a pipe dream at this point.

Hopkin hasn't provided the new manager bounce, and although we look more willing to graft, and more organised we still aren't picking up points. Saturday was our best performance of the season, but even then it wasn't particularly good, and resulted in zero points.
I remain unconvinced by Hopkin, thus far, and far from convinced we have enough to stay up.