Season Review 2022/23

[PitmanKeith]

Please feel free to reflect on your thoughts of the season.

[Perton Pitman]

I missed 4 months of it so only attended 15 games (all in the league, 13 at home and 2 away).

Pre-season looked promising, but I think we fell into the trap of having too many players involved that wouldn't ultimately sign for us (and they were the better ones). Some terrible decisions by KMR in respect of those players given contracts and that killed us.

If you look across the season we did have some very good players with us for short spells - Stanley Mark 1, Lita, Cameron, Livingstone etc. Problem was we couldn't get a strong 11 on the pitch at any time and some players eg Livingstone were played out of position.

We showed fight towards the end, but it was a disaster largely from start to finish.

I think the owners should accept some blame - their relationship with some fans was fractious and there were constant threats about walking away and it was no surprise when they did. There was also inference from the likes of Neil Tooth that they interfered in the playing side. I think they saw the whole thing as a bit of a toy and there is nothing worse than enthusiastic, ill-informed amateurs - that applies to all walks of life. The fact that they spent a lot of time complaining about all sorts of things made for a poor atmosphere and we don't now if that affected the footballing side.

Staying in this division shouldn't have been hard, but we made it look impossible at times.

We have to rebuild - I hear Danny is likely to be manager and that Morley will stay. I hope both aren't too loyal to the players we have signed up to us currently. I'd keep 2 or 3, but we need to wipe the slate clean and get back up ASAP otherwise the club will stagnate.

[Lee K]

I haven’t seen or heard anything from anyone (apart from sheriff’s little bird post) about the managerial position next season but I can definitely see Danny being asked to continue if we are put in the West division as there will be 7-8 Stoke-on-Trent/South Cheshire based clubs in the league and presumably Danny will have a good knowledge of players in the area having played for Hanley earlier in the season and living in the area. I’m still a bit torn on it because I think we could do with experience but even that doesn’t always help. I do think that Danny has done a good job in extremely restricted circumstances especially at home and I absolutely would not be against him continuing in the role whatever league we are in.
In the end I went to 29/42 league games - 16/21 at home and 13/21 away and 3 cup matches.
I was looking forward to the season when we played the friendlies as it looked to me as though we had a better squad than last season and were looking to play a more attractive style of football but once the season did start we went back into the absolutely dull and dreadful style of football that we saw last season. Other teams knew exactly how we were going to play and one trick pony KMR was too stubborn to change anything. It led to one goal scored and one point from the first four or five games and as he clearly hadn’t got a plan B he had to go. A decision that the owners did not make it should be said.
I thought that the appointment of Burr and Tooth was a good one - an older man with experience and a younger man with experience and knowledge of this level and the one below. We started off playing a lot better but weren’t getting the results apart from the odd few but it was more entertaining to watch. The biggest frustration probably was the players that KMR had put on contract. Cuff was a waste of time and Bennett and O’Sullivan lacked any kind of fight and quality. Despite the player of the season awards I thought Parker had a poor season but remained loyal when the others left. You can’t complain about Ison as he never let the team down and it was disappointing when players such as Livingstone and Lita left but no doubt there were behind the scenes reasons for those as much as what was going on, on the pitch. Just when it looked as though things were starting to turn (after Redditch away in December) we were looking solid at the back and were on a 4 game unbeaten run Burr and Tooth were sacked. You just couldn’t make it up.
Since the owners announced their intentions to leave (and probably before that) it’s clear they have kept the club running but have absolutely slashed the budget to the absolute bare minimum. The contracted players apart from Parker all took their opportunities to leave and no doubt the wages of those players were put into the owners pockets but they clearly weren’t put in Danny’s hands to spend. We ended the last couple of months with the squad full of loan players and players signed from Step 5. This is why Danny has done a good job with the pathetic tools he’s been given.
It is often said good or bad times in football always start at the top. The biggest mistakes of the season were keeping KMR on as he should have been sacked last season, sacking Burr and Tooth when things were getting better and the disgraceful antics of one of the owners on Facebook, slagging fans off and then deleting messages. If I can say anything good about their tenure, it’ll be that they kept the club alive during the pandemic which I’m not definitely sure would have been the case had Price remained, and the club shop looks a lot better, although there’s hardly been anything to sell in it. We all heard the owners moans about the money they were spending but they didn’t do anything to raise money off the pitch commercially. We’ve been relegated because of disastrous decisions that they made throughout the season. Whilst I’ve seen the reasons for our pathetic showing at Leiston yesterday (pathetic in terms of numbers - loan recalls, injury, suspension, bereavement) it just goes to show how terribly underfunded the playing side has been since the owners announced their intention to leave. You could look at all 96 clubs at Step 3 and even all of those in Step 4 and I bet you won’t find a single club playing a goalkeeper as a winger and no subs.
We have interesting times ahead. A new owner who we’ve heard nothing from yet (not a criticism, I know these things take time) but we are all eagerly awaiting to see what his plans are and how he plans to run club. It won’t really be until August once we had information and seen what players we have been able to recruit to know what kind of success (or not) we may get in 2023/24.

[PitmanKeith]

Well where does one start.
The season began with KMR still in charge, finishing the previous season in ten year high of ninth being the reason for this. That season had started with 5 penalties in an opening three game winning run, the hard facts were had it not been for those penalties we probably would have finished that season in 17th, sufficient alarm bells for me.
KMR finally succumbed after half a dozen winless games, his own choice we are led to believe after some more boring negative football. He had assembled a squad where it was obvious all his budget eggs were in a basket of 6 or 7 contracted players with the rest of the squad made up of untried youngsters or below par step four and five players. Not a good recipe for success. The decision also caused us to lose our academy for which he was also responsible.
Then came the appointment that took everyone by surprise Steve Burr (one of the most experienced and respected managers around) and Neil Tooth (also well respected at Step 3 &4) as the new management team, I started to get excited.
It was slow at first but green shoots started appearing after around 3 months with a run of unbeaten games. But the big problem was the contracted players most of whom were massively underperforming and couldn't be moved on. Then the bombshell in December they had left the club. I couldn't believe it, were they sacked or did they walk, who knows but it does appear from some of Toothys comments since it wasn't a happy relationship between management and owners.
Danny came in on a hiding to nothing and slowly but surely it became apparent, especially after the owners notice of intent to quit, that less and less money was being spent on the team and acceptance of the inevitable from the owners was obvious.
Danny is a great bloke and will never get any criticism or blame from me, or most others on the plight the club has found itself in and to get results that he has in recent weeks deserves praise.
Also some of the lads Danny has brought in deserve praise too for there application and attitude. The same goes to Todd Parker and James McQuilkin a great attitude from both of them when it would have been easy to walk away like some others had done.
I think Graham and Ade have found the hard way that the job was bigger and more costly than they imagined, not just a step up from Sunday football. I have had many chats and much correspondence with the both of them and they are both likeable but for whatever reason and no one will ever know the true ones it just hasn't worked. Lack of a thriving commercial side of the club has always worried me.
So next Monday we move on to a new chapter and I do hope that the new owner will make an immediate statement of his intentions so as to give us an idea of what to expect.

[Del]

It's difficult for me to sum up the season, other than to say it's been a double disappointment with both the Pitmen and the Gulls (Torquay!) heading down into a lower leagues next season.
I have to rely on comments and articles from my learned and trusted friends around the Keys Park area for news and information, as there always seems to be very little coming from the Club directly, perhaps the new owner will sort out a better communication channel!
Mis-management seems to have been the order of the day though and one does have to ask who has been advising Graham and Ade over the season as their choices do seem to have been somewhat wayward. Too many managers and too many managers!
I think many feared for the future of the Club over the season as we knew it was not going to be as easy-a-job as perhaps the owners thought, certainly I think they came down to earth with a bump when they realised that a lot more knowledge and finance was needed than they probably expected or were led to believe.
However, we are where we are, it's water under the bridge and next season we go again! (puns intended!)
For me, I will continue to support and follow the Pitmen as they have helped me create some firm frienships within their fan base and for that I am greatful.

Graham and Ade - good luck with all your future ventures .. you came, you saw, you went (another pun intended!)

However ... Ade, I have to leave the last words for you!
I know you remember the 'look-at-me' comments you made in reply to one of my first posts on here when you took over .. sadly I have not been able to make it to the Race Stadium/Keys Park to gain revenge
BUT
the highlight for me of your stay with the Club has to involve all the text messages I received which informed me that you were taking out your frustrations on a waste paper bin within the ground - now that has to be your 'look-at-me' moment to haunt you forever!!

[Chris]

I think Lee and Keith have summed it up for most of us.
It's been an awful season.