Not good enough.

I've been critical, and still am/intend to be, of Hurst when the need arises but 4 games in 8 days is an extraordinary period of activity. I decided to lay off the management and the team throughout this period and let it sort itself out.
See what Tuesday brings and from then on we need to start finding better form, there's really no reason why a team as talented as this should labour like they do.

On a similar theme to my previous post script: Did John-Lewis board a Malaysian Airlines flight before the game? He was mentioned as starting but obviously didn't.  Other possibilities include him being kidnapped by the boo boys or pontoonlew was distracted by the fishy and put him on the wrong flight.

I am just trying to imagine the meltdown on here had Chester made it 2-2 in the dying moments.  I mean seriously we are 3rd, 2 of our strikers score and it's not good enough.  I understand peoples frustrations, think almost all of us on here remember much better days but we are where we are.  3rd with a very real chance of promotion.  That is pretty good.  Pleased to see excellent responses to the thread though!

LJL ended up sat near the commentary team I think. Quite possibly tapped Tondeur on the shoulder as JT was announcing 'John Lewis picks it up just outside the box...just a minute...it's Tounkara...", or similar situation according to the ET.

Quoted from buckstown

My glass is half full. Third, 5 points clear of sixth. Fine we're spluttering a bit, but the pounding PH is taking is awful and its showing in his interviews. Get behind the boys.
Look at Luton today, it's a nerve wracking time of the season and we need to be positive. PH is on target to take us to our best finish since we got relegated so well done to him.

It all boils down to whether the players want promotion, or are they just as happy playing in the lower Leagues earning a regular easy weekly pay packet.

I agree that PH and the team needs the support from the fans that they can get. Todays win wasn`t pretty , but it WAS a win.!!

Town can, will self belief and the support of the fans get to Wembley, win the Cup and get back into the League.

Quoted from LH

Not convincing by any means but job done. Have we started with Tounkara and Cook yet? Think it's worth a go with them two after scoring today.

Not sure why Jennings wasn't taken off rather than tounkara. Would have given the opportunity to see cook and tounkara together.....might be a good combination....

I make it 16 points from a possible 21 from a very busy/testing looking past 2 weeks..........how can anyone complain?

IF we do make it in the play-offs then its decided on the performances on those days and I really do believe that this side will be able to click it up a gear when it's needed and can compete with anyone, no team is a shoe in to win the play-offs IMO

Have to say, after seeing town a few times recently, on the positive side we are grinding out results, but performance wise we are very very poor.  Granted their goal was a fluke and it would have been another clean sheet but we look a very poor team compared to last year.

Watching us today reminded me a lot of the way we played in the play offs last year, which in truth was just about the worst I had seen us play.

I just hope we turn it around but think it would be a massive ask for us to beat Cambridge or indeed a number of the other form teams who may get there.

On a separate note I can only assume that Hurst left Jennings on as long as he did today in the hope he scored and gained confidence as I would had him off at half time, very surprising how poor he was to be honest.

Quoted from LongEatonMariner

No I agree with Hagrid, and you and Rodley.  Hey maybe not everyone is a doom merchant on here after all

I agree with lew and I did go today..

Does that make me a doom merchant?

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

I have to say Lew, that your post above sums up why so many of your posts frustrate me. You are entitled to an opinion and that opinion is as valid as everybody elses. However, you can't guarantee it's 'coming again', just as nobody can guarantee we'll win the play offs. Likewise, you label today's performance dire without having witnessed it.

We're clearly not in great form but we're sound defensively, hard to beat, raise our game in big games (see the FA Cup), grind out results and we're good away from home. That's enough to give me some hope. I'd also ask why, if we're so inferior to , say Halifax, that 42 games into the season we have more points than them. Labelling our manager a moron and an idiot and lambasting members of the squad is counter-productive and unfair given where we are in the league and the stage of the season we're at. As for your constant suggestion that there is some kind of an agenda against Cook, if this is true why did he give him half an hour and leave Hannah on the bench? Sounds like he did well when he came on and I'd expect he'll be on the bench if not starting on Saturday.

My point is that we went over all of these points last season and we wound up getting embarrassed in the play-offs. I nor anybody else want to feel that again at the end of this month, we just seem to be sweeping it under the carpet and coming up with the same cliches. If I didn't care about the eventual out come or was overly negative I wouldn't be posting any of this.

We're simply boring as hell to watch, we have been for about a year now. We failed last season after we just dribbled into the play-offs, playing poorly but grinding them out. 'Sign of a good team' they said, 'play-offs is a lottery' they said. I have to say I disagree with both, we haven't earnt the right to say playing badly is the sign of a good team because we don't play well enough throughout the season. I sit and see the budgets we all have in this league and see how exciting some of the teams around us are to watch and just think why do we look so far off on the pitch?

We've scored the least goals in the top 5 and barely have the defensive record to back that up as we rank 3rd amongst the top 5. Out of the teams who occupy the play-offs, we have the worst form in the last 10 games. We've got 2 wins against the top 5 this season and have the second lowest points tally against the top 5 with 7 points. So I'm not entirely sure where people get the idea that we beat these teams or play better against them comes from, 2 wins and a draw from 7 games against the top sides isn't great form.

Onto Hurst and the Cook situation. If everything had gone to plan today, Andy Cook wouldn't had been in the squad. The reason for that? Can you give me an honest reason why Cook deserved that? Our top scorer last season, the Non League young player of the year who has been given no chances of a proper run to show what he can do. He's given half a chance at Dartford and plays well, better than Tonk and Hannah and gets MOM. Today he was lucky to get on the bench at the last minute, he then goes on to get a goal and play very well. Is Hurst supposed to pretend that he's engineered that? Cook came on ahead of Hannah because Tonk was shattered and he insists on playing a big man and a little man, no matter what happens it HAS to be that. He's destroyed Cook this season, other players have been given countless chances no matter how the play yet Cook can't even get in the squad 2 days after being the MOM.

As I've said before, I say this because I care very much about how we do. I just do not see how we can justify that we're in any position to give the play-offs a real crack. We're tough to beat prehaps, but when push comes to shove I don't personally believe we can play so poorly and think we can go on and win the play-offs. It's not me wanting to be negative, I can just see striking similarities between this side and the one which let us down so badly last season.

I'll be there on Tuesday, showing support as I always do whenever I go to the games. My views on here do not affect my willingness to drive the team on when I go, in the hope that at some point we turn it around and kick on. Because we do have the squad for it, but for me i'm not seeing the signs that we're going to do it, which is frustrating.