Conference football next season means about £200,000 less in income, due to a replacement parachute payment and the loss of two home league fixtures. It means no more Coca-Cola Cup, which will not go down altogether badly with our support, seeing as we haven't won a tie in about six years. It means we play in the FA Trophy, a competition that we must have a fair chance of winning. It means playing in the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup, for the first time in ages and it means a battle to maintain the sort of national media coverage that we've becomed accustomed to down the years. At least the local media seem to be burying the hatchet of a troubled season and are promising to do "all they can" to help the Blues regain their league status. What this will amount to remains to be seen. Trips to Forest Green, Farnborough and Canvey Island next season will not hold much attraction for the non-committed supporter. Talk of filling tiny grounds that rarely see more than a 1,000 souls is premature, and not necessarily based on actual historic levels of support. We normally manage 200-300 away fans at grounds that are 300 or more miles distant. While we can expect to take over 1,000 to places like Morecambe, Halifax and Scarborough, we will have to go some to outnumber the hardy followers of Forest Green (situated in the Gloucestershire one-horse town of Nailsworth) or Crawley Town (an outlying suburb of commuter-belt Sussex). If the News & Star are going to run free trips to such places, I'll take my hat off to them. For much of the current campaign, they seem to have been at loggerheads with the chairman, which seems strange as they were amongst his biggest cheerleaders when he was fighting to take over. The BBC, ITV, Sky TV and the national papers all featured us heavily in the run-in to the season, with programmes that started to take notice of our revival in January and pundits such as Ally McCoist and Clive Allen who spoke glowingly of us but still wrote us off. Paul Simpson's achievements have not gone unnoticed, although talk of him being whisked away by some ambitious league club is wide of the mark. Simmo needs a promotion on his CV before he can really move up in the game. As for the squad, the expected departures of Foran, Duffield, Boyd and co will not be the last. There will have to some re-structuring and rationalising. However the experienced core of Simmo, Andy Preece, Kevin Gray, Tom Cowan, Chris Billy and Paul Raven needs to be kept together. We could do with a hard working midfielder who can get forward and score goals. If we can't find one, we might have to work on Will McDonagh, who shows signs of being that player, but who is still a bit too inconsistent to fill the role. We can expect to see the departures of Kelly, Summerbell and Michael Jack. Adam Rundle has not been one of the boss's favourites although I would expect him to stay because Simmo himself needs cover. As for the overall quality of the opposition we can expect to face next season, it shouldn't be underestimated by anyone. Hereford's surprising defeat by Aldershot means a club who amassed 91 points this term will be up there against us, as will ex-league clubs such as Barnet, Exeter, Halifax and Scarborough. Burton Albion and Accrington Stanley are both going full-time. I fancy Morecambe are going to be strong contenders and will expect to make the play-offs, at the very least. There will be no easy games, but if we can maintain the bulk of the present squad and continue playing the way we have done, then I see no reason why we can't add at least 30 points to the tally we've managed this season and that would mean a play-off spot, or even better. It's important the fans remain loyal as Cumbria is now without a Football League club for the first time in more than eight decades. That situation can't be allowed to continue. Workington Reds and Barrow dropped out of the league in the 70s and Workington will almost certainly never return. Barrow retain a chance, but they are some way short at present. Realisitically, it's down to us to get the county back in the league. I believe we will bounce back, but it remains to be seen whether that can happen in one season. At least it won't be for want of effort. We have a fine manager, a good solid bunch of players and a very supportive chairman. The ambition is there, it's just down to the bounce of the ball and that fickle mistress called Luck. Al |
