More of the Same

After the circus of the last couple of weeks, it was good to be able to look forward to actually watching a game of football. It seems to me that the main event has almost been forgotten by many as boardroom shenanigans and managerial departures grabbed the headline. Negativity has well and truly set in and some have seemingly revelled in the 'I told you so' line whether it be concerning McClaren, Doughty or Arthur. This frankly ridiculous green and white thing is an absolute embarrassment. The whole campaign couldn't even focus its anger on one aim or, indeed, one individual resulting in an array of different messages and logos cheaply emblazoned on scarves. It's also pathetic that they chose to nick the United method of green and gold rather than engineer their own idea which would hardly have been difficult to do. Instead the ring leaders lazily tried to attach some sentiment and reason behind the chosen colours; green for Clough and white for, er, er, er, peace. Because this was a peaceful protest. You absolute fucking geniuses. For me, the use of green is completely jumping on the bandwagon of Clough and that truly spectacular game against West Ham game in 2004 when the crowd wore green in the great mans name and sang his name throughout. I do not ever want that to be associated in any way with a measly little protest that has been thrown together by a few idiots on Facebook. You also have to wonder who is making a nice little earner on the back of all this...

A further thing that I have grew to despise this season is this desire for people to try and elevate their status from ordinary fan to some type of leader or hero. The couple of blokes who started this banner fad against Derby decided to pose for a photograph before the game which subsequently founds it way onto various online pages. The photo very conveniently was taken outside of their business with the shop sign featuring prominently; of course providing the added bonus of a bit of free advertising once it started doing the rounds. Another chap who kept popping up everywhere around these protest debates even uttered these words '...if/when I get the chance to sit down with Doughty I would like to point out exactly what the fans want'. That is not a direct quote but is more or less the wording used. Now, what has got into this guy's head exactly? For the record, as a run of the mill, average fan of NFFC I can say without hesitation that I would rather have Zippy, Bungle and George speaking on my behalf. I have even seen a fair amount of comments which state anyone not partaking in the protest before the Birmingham game is NOT a supporter of the club. Was this the same protest that attracted approximately 200 people out of a home attendance of 18,000+? And the TV footage that I saw (peeping through the gaps in my fingers) showed quite a few were young girls boosting the total who probably thought they were in line for JLS tickets rather than joining the 'revolution'. If, incidentally, anyone would like to discuss my merits as a supporter of the club I would dearly love the opportunity to show you my ticket stubs and talk you through the delights of Tuesday nights in Oldham, Gillingham, Woking and Carlisle among many, many others.

Following McClaren's and subsequently Doughty's departure, there was a jovial mood among them although it did eventually dawn on some of them that nothing had really changed. Doughty was still in charge and had said nothing about selling the club while Arthur found himself arguably in even more power. Of course, it was plain to see that the protests had zero impact on the drama on Sunday evening as it soon became apparent that McClaren was due to walk anyway which was directly connected to Doughty's own resignation. The apparent spawn of Satan himself still remains though so we shall probably see some more activity in the coming home games. As I doubt Arthur is going to go anywhere I would think the protests will unfortunately roll on and dwindle in numbers by the week.

My own view on Mark Arthur is mixed. He does seem  a touch smarmy and he has made a couple of whoppers during his tenure with the 'Serious about promotion' campaign and the Prattingham comments last year but I can't help but think he is simply an easy target. Most seemed reluctant to call for Doughty's head for fear of losing his investment so his CEO seemed the next best bet to release some fury. But nobody can really provide a definitive and, above all, accurate catalogue of how exactly he is 'destroying our club'. I'm more playing devil's advocate here because I don't really have any feelings on him either way. If he left tomorrow I wouldn't care and when he is still here tomorrow I will feel the same. Ultimately he is/was (whatever) doing the job that Doughty asks him to do and Doughty himself, even after the Birmingham game, has emphasised he is pleased with his role. With the widespead approval of Frank Clark as new chairman it will be interesting to see how that relationship works. I will leave my judgement to him. But people really have got to stop finding things to attack him with. With Cotterill's appointment, because people weren't happy it was blamed predominantly on Arthur whereas you can bet your bottom dollar if O'Neill or Billy would have got the job it would have been Clark getting the praise. The same applies with the Routledge story where we apparently agreed to a weekly wage of £x but then changed the contract to a lesser sum, maybe hoping it wouldn't get spotted. I mean, come on! If you believe that then you really are deluded. The Kenny Burns sacking was also placed solely at the door of Arthur with no real idea of what went on or consideration that Burns' comments were maybe overstepping the line. Indeed the story I heard had nothing to do with his column in the Post but, as I am trying to point out here, who knows? I could go on and on. If someone could show me some supporting documentation of how he is actively engineering the death of the club then I will happily admit he should go. Until then I will refrain from following those that simply shout loudest.

Now, where we definitely do have a problem is on the pitch. Remember that?

We stepped off the train into a lovely day in Coventry. Myself, Matt and Chris met the full Brummie contingent (Ian, Stu, Dave and Carl) at the station and wandered into the town centre. After a quick pint at the Litten Tree we eventually found ourselves in The Gatehouse which is apparently Ian's local. It was a great little boozer with a beer garden three times the size of the inside which was handy considering the mild temperatures. Nobody appeared to be over confident of our chances of success at the Ricoh although we knew that we would probably be disappointed with anything less than victory.

One major flaw with the stadium is it's distance from town and the station. We had changed at Nuneaton on the way down which was about a ten-fifteen minute journey into Coventry. We actually passed directly by the ground half way through this and frustratingly carried on for ages until the train stopped. While it is very handily places for those travelling by road, it is going to be a particular problem for any foreign travellers who make their way to the Ricoh next summer for Olympic football. Hopefully they will have the good sense to install a stop by the ground and save them and us any further hassle.

Our taxi dropped us a short walk away and we headed into the casino which was typically rammed. After a while we decided to give up and head straight in. I cannot possibly think of anything worth saying about the game itself, it was that dull. If nothing else at least SC will have an instant idea of how bad the situation is that he has been tasked with. We had the odd chance but there does seem to be a problem developing with these players. It's worryingly reminiscent of the Megson days when they just couldn't be bothered. What's more frustrating with this team though is that it contains some talented players who we have all seen are more than capable of performing well in this league. Megson's lot were always distinctly average by and large. This, for me, is where McClaren's argument always fell short. He had been given funds which, by my reckoning, was the fourth most spent in the league to add to a decent team. We lost a few players but not many of these were regulars although my God do we miss McKenna. And for all the (deserved) criticism for not signing a left back, McClaren made it clear that he was happy with what he had ie Cohen and Lynch followed recently by Hill. I don't think he could justify why this team was not performing better which is a primary reason why he walked away. For all his complaints about being misled, does anyone think he would have walked away if we were sat in the top six? Or even the top half? I don't.

Shit, back on track...

The only other things of note were that Greening got booed again upon getting subbed. He wasn't great but he was no worse than anyone else and such abuse is disgraceful. As he turned to clap the away fans I couldn't help feel sorry for the guy. I've been a big critic of his but no-one in Red should receive treatment like that from his own supporters. The other was a new p.b for time added on at the end. The ten minutes was largely due to a nasty looking injury to Joe Murphy in the Cov goal but helped beat the previous highest I had seen at Tranmere which was eight. I guess this shows how rubbish it really was!

Welcome Mr Cotterill. I hope you know what your letting yourself in for.