Our lovely chairman and Championship obituaries

By: Martyn | July 13th, 2008

I will attempt to update this blog at least every other day as the games and news come thick and fast during the season, coinciding, hopefully, with a genuine and overdue promotion push. A spot in the play-offs has to be considered very much a primary objective this year and failure must be considered unthinkable in terms of the long-term job security for our coaching staff. Whether or not Ridsdale will want to fork out and apply the latter is another matter mind. There are bonuses to pocket, after all.

It should resonate that if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. A spot of logic very relevant in the high-pressure insensible world of soccer, but Ridsdale likes to put a cushion on the tip of Jones’s sword now and again. As a fan, I’ll say that the play-offs will be the minimum achievement for us to reach, because we’ve yet to scale those heights as we enter our sixth year in the Coca-Cola Football League Championship (corporate and grandiose titles; gotta love ‘em!), and now, more than ever is the time to do it. On the other hand, some woefully dull mid-table finishes in the last several seasons must be stifled. Please God, Allah, anyone; there are only so many draws at home to Scunthorpe and defeats by disastrous Darren Purse own goals us City fans can take!

Football wise, this league is absolutely dreadful in all honesty. Contrastingly, that makes it a bit catch-22, as it’s also incredibly exciting as you just have no damn idea who will eventually prevail year-on-year! With every team so familiar with the players that congregate team sheets weekly and yearly, every team so familiar with the tactics preferred by each manager, and midfields so packed they make Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon look like the embodiment of a relaxing stroll, any game that is decided by more than one goal is generally enough to make you choke on your Bovril (and that isn’t a terrible cliché, I do enjoy the Bovil down Ninian Park. It does however masquerade under the Does Exactly What It Says On The Tin name of Hot Beef Drink)!

Hence teams like Colchester United – and more recently Bristol City – enjoy incredible maiden seasons before they develop what is diagnosed as Second Season Syndrome. In the case of Colchester, it has proved rapidly terminal. That is, if we consider League One to be death.

On that note, I’ll allow myself a wry smile and cheery metaphorical wave to our great friends Leeds United, currently ‘enjoying’ life after death. I hope they told St. Paul that we shan’t be joining them anytime soon.