Opinions and Blind Faith!

[Ned]

One of the fascinating sides of football is that everyone has opinions on all aspects which is healthy but as we all know can often result in passionate disagreements especially when these people claim to support the same team.
When this happens human logic is thrown out of the window by so called `true supporters’ who claim not to criticise their team irrespective of performance or results. They also cannot accept that critics of their team can also be genuine supporters. In today’s society the former who dispense with logic or constantly fall back on past achievements are categorised as having blind faith. This critic free group are the bedrock of football clubs who understandably rely on these people if things are not working out. It has been suggested that many of them still believe the world is flat. Alternatively the latter group are equally frustrated that they are being persecuted for letting their judgement be influenced by reasonable logic. This is especially harsh when it is considered outrageous for them to be concerned with present day form of their team or such irrelevant issues as struggling to score or being unable to keep clean sheets.

In an ideal world the club would wish there was enough of the former zealots to fill the ground but alas this is becoming less likely to happen in this business world. Instead clubs (not just those below latitude 53n) will continue to make overtures to all paying supporters and accept that present day customers are prepared to pass comment on today’s product, not last year’s.

Contrary to what some think I will be hoping the team wins on Saturday although I must be honest that apart from the midfield I have concerns about the defence and the strikers. For several years the team has always struggled to dominate the opposition but our strength was our defence and a long counter attack ball to Thommo, Carlton or Rene Howe. We do not have that luxury anymore.

I recall giving Johnnie Norman lot’s of stick for a string of ineffective performances during his last spell at the club. There were a number of supporters who regardless of his current form continued to stand by him for his past achievements and service. When under the law of averages he did actually scored a goal his followers disregarded any logic regarding his previous negative contributions and convinced themselves they were justified in standing by him. A classic example of blind faith, impossible to apply rationale.

[Gnasher]

<edited before I get bollocked >

[campdave]

Still no response to the Irish managers comment in your previous thread Ned?

[P/T Indie]

For several years the team has always struggled to dominate the opposition but our strength was our defence and a long counter attack ball to Thommo, Carlton or Rene Howe. We do not have that luxury anymore.


Brilliant Ned that even tops an Aspers Rambling!

Now in the middle of all that you did make a good valid point. Yes we haven't dominated the opposition especially last year with no Thommo and Baker who gave us that extra edge to move forward.
However this year wont Craney and Duffy do that job?
I feel we have more attacking options this year which should relive some pressure on the defence.

and the long counter attack ball became usless as the second half of our first season all the teams worked it out and started trying to cut Thommo out of the game and we didn't have a plan B.

[Christies Child]

For several years the team has always struggled to dominate the opposition but our strength was our defence and a long counter attack ball to Thommo, Carlton or Rene Howe. We do not have that luxury anymore.


Brilliant Ned that even tops an Aspers Rambling!

Now in the middle of all that you did make a good valid point. Yes we haven't dominated the opposition especially last year with no Thommo and Baker who gave us that extra edge to move forward.
However this year wont Craney and Duffy do that job?
I feel we have more attacking options this year which should relive some pressure on the defence.

and the long counter attack ball became usless as the second half of our first season all the teams worked it out and started trying to cut Thommo out of the game and we didn't have a plan B.

..v Tranmere we played it on the deck and produced the best fotball this pre-season.

[thegentlegiant]

I can't stand your comments Ned, the reason you ask is because you only ever criticise the team you never say a good word about the teams/clubs progress.

I now name you Faithless Ned, try watching all of the games season and pick some positives rather than looking at the negatives and then you will understand the mind of a true football fan.

END OF RANT

[marky No.1]

I see us lemmings are biting by the boatload.

That speech sounds so logical. Did you frequent the Starship Enterprise by any chance?

I'm beginning to paint a picture

Maybe someone a bit younger, although must be over 40

Logic (Spock), blind faith (jealous), bedrock (Fred Flintstone), persecuted (troubled)

Can spell outrageous, irrelevant and zealous.

Knows Morecambe's Latitude is 53 degrees North and again refers to the Clubs close by

Probably had a season ticket in 2000-02

Getting closer eh Ned?

[Bare Ben]

It gets worse! Unfortunately trying to justify your negativity doesn't matter to me anymore. We are not Leeds, or Charlton, or Luton, or Bradford, or Livingston. We are Morecambe, higher than we ever have been, with possibly the best squad we've ever had, and with possibly the best prospects of any of the other 91 teams in the FL. Thats not blind faith, its fact! Now its time you outed yourself and explained your irish managers comment instead of hiding behind your screen, you infuriatingly unhelpful little man.

[ockers]

Is this now one of the cabin boys???

[Ned]

..v Tranmere we played it on the deck and produced the best fotball this pre-season.[/quote]

It is unrealistic to quote isolated performances as a yardstick of ability. Let me explain:- All the professional players at the club are capable of playing to a decent standard. However during a match midfield player X makes 6 x 20 yard passes with each one failing to find a team mate. With his 7th pass he picks out his team mate to perfection and a section of the crowd (probably yourself) will state that is what the player is capable of ( completely overlooking the previous errors). The better players are more consistent and it is the same with teams. By the very nature that they can play well in one match but are unable to repeat it on a regular basis demonstrates the point.

[P/T Indie]

but that is why they are in league 2 Ned! If they were more consistant the players would soon be moving on to other clubs up the leagues.

if you want to watch a player hit 7/7 passes you are best of getting a season ticket for a prmiership club as you wont see it at this level. I think Liverpool would be good for you as Alonso is a greater passer of the ball.

[Mark S]

Not biting (take note Abbo) but I would like to say that Ned's accusation of having Blind Faith is true when it comes to my outlook. I work hard all week and the football is my little escapse from reality. I prefer to be blindly optimistic so I can enjoy the hope and anticipation. If I didn't have that, there would be no point as it would eat away at me. If I had listened to Ned and taken his veiwpoint, I would have stopped coming a long time ago. Coincidently I would have also missed out on the best and most successful period in the clubs history.

I feel sorry for Ned as it is clearly getting to him.

What I do find most preposterous is the suggestion that the Earth is not flat

[P/T Indie]

I don't have blind faith far from it but if we lived in Ned's perfect world and we were brilliant every game what on earth would we talk about.

[thegentlegiant]

Not biting (take note Abbo) but I would like to say that Ned's accusation of having Blind Faith is true when it comes to my outlook. I work hard all week and the football is my little escapse from reality. I prefer to be blindly optimistic so I can enjoy the hope and anticipation. If I didn't have that, there would be no point as it would eat away at me. If I had listened to Ned and taken his veiwpoint, I would have stopped coming a long time ago. Coincidently I would have also missed out on the best and most successful period in the clubs history.

I feel sorry for Ned as it is clearly getting to him.

What I do find most preposterous is the suggestion that the Earth is not flat

I know! Also on another note totally off subject NASA does not exist according to the flat earth society, it’s a cover up!!!! There forum makes a great read though!

[Freez]

Well for my two 'pennorth, I never really thought that Blind Faith were that big a deal!
I mean OK Stevie Winwood has a great voice, as a white man singing with soul there was/is no better and obviously Eric Clapton upped his game when Hendrix kicked his arse but personally their individual output with Spencer Davis Group and Cream far outshines the collective one album. It has its moments, I grant you, but that's my opinion on Blind Faith!

[ockers]

Well for my two 'pennorth, I never really thought that Blind Faith were that big a deal!
I mean OK Stevie Winwood has a great voice, as a white man singing with soul there was/is no better and obviously Eric Clapton upped his game when Hendrix kicked his arse but personally there individual output with Spencer Davis Group and Cream far outshines the collective one album. It has its moments, I grant you, but that's my opinion on Blind Faith!

What a voice Stevie Winwood has
saw him with the funk brothers at the apollo!!!
id agree with you freez but then i have blind faith in everything you post
dont forget saturday dear blackcurrant and licquorice


what was the question??

[ezz]

Ned your posts seem that of a robot not a football supporter, you claim you are a supporter yet you never seem to get any enjoyment out of watching the team you claim to support.
Your wrong about your maths lesson with the 6 passes missed one pass completed fooling everyone, fans are always noticing weaknesses about players the difference between the 'real fans' is that they support the players which means before each match we have every optimistic feeling that we'll win. This brings highs and lows when we win and lose....something you probably dont have, only experiencing lows because your not watching Arsenal play perfect football, your watching your local league 2 side. It is infact you who has un-realistic views of our club, always stating we are poor/ we'll be relegation candidates again/ our finances are being squandered etc etc. We know were punching above our weight still (not for long though I might add), you just have 2 different extremes of the negative side of looking at the club. You only pick out negatives whilst at the same time you feel the club isn't good enough for you to watch.

Am I right?


I was always bad at psychology, but if you call yourself a football supported , you might want to take another look at yourself Ned and see if that's right, personally I think your just a football critic and it's boooooooooooorrrrrriiiiiinnnnggggggggg, go practice your tabloid journalism somewhere else.

[Christies Child]

Not biting (take note Abbo) but I would like to say that Ned's accusation of having Blind Faith is true when it comes to my outlook. I work hard all week and the football is my little escapse from reality. I prefer to be blindly optimistic so I can enjoy the hope and anticipation. If I didn't have that, there would be no point as it would eat away at me. If I had listened to Ned and taken his veiwpoint, I would have stopped coming a long time ago. Coincidently I would have also missed out on the best and most successful period in the clubs history.

I feel sorry for Ned as it is clearly getting to him.

What I do find most preposterous is the suggestion that the Earth is not flat

Exactly how I feel about things.....particularly at the moment in view of my personal crisis.

[broadwayshrimp]

It is unrealistic to quote isolated performances as a yardstick of ability.

Totally agree Ned and that is why the team should be judged after 46 league games not just a handful of meaningless pre season friendlies.

[campdave]

Interesting Ned has responded to other comments on the thread and not the Irish manager one.

Being as Northern Irish as Sammy Mac, I hope he takes the time to explain his comments.

Anyway on the topic in hand, the season starts next week, that's when we can start being concerned if needs be. We had a decent set of friendlies last season, then made a duff start. Anyone remember what our record was in our promotion season? Seem to remember us getting tonked 5-1 by Tranmere in one match.

[bigreddog]

Haven't seen your Irishman comment and I don't want to, but if that's your level of a) Intellect and b) respect, then you really are less than the lowest individual.

It's a shame really because hidden inside the bile that you come out with is the odd reasonable point.

lots of people display blind faith when it comes to their football team, and it's little suprise when there's so little else to have faith in. Like others that have commented, I work all week in an industry where blind faith is a no no, so saturday is my little treat to myself. please let me get on with it in peace.

when I think we've been crap, I keep supporting the lads, I'm happy to speak to sammy or mark or jim or anybody else when we've been poor, but fundamentally it is done with mutual respect and with the fact in mind that no player goes out to play crap on purpose and of course sometimes we play teams that are just better than we are.

I recognise that from the top to the bottom of the football club nobody is perfect, we can all improve, fans included, but while we're on this blind faith journey ( and by the way the times I've experienced the biggest highs as a morecambe supporter have been when i turned up with no expectations at all) lets just enjoy the ride, take in a deep breath and take the rough with the smooth, this season of all seasons is both about the past and the future. I for one intend to be looking both ways.

[the stowford press]

i brought it up a while ago about certain fans being blinkered,neds got as much right to post how he sees things as everyone else and shouldnt have to put up with personal abuse for choosing to share his feelings,shame on all you bullyboys

[Number 1]

Quite apart from contradicting himself yet again, Ned has missed the point completely. He has also insulted my intelligence, and I suspect other people's too.

Whilst some people accept that they have "Blind faith" (and what would be wrong with that anyway?) others simply profess to have "Patience". That's certainly the way I see it. As Broadway rightly points out, the time to judge is at the end of the season, although I would concede that after a certain number of games, maybe as few as 10, we can roughly guage how we are going to do. Or can we? With MFC the answer is surely not. In 2006/7 a sluggish start saw Ned in his previous guise totally condemn the team and manager and we ended up being promoted into the Football League. Subsequent seasons have seen us make slow starts, only to improve vastly in the new year, last season only just missing out on the play offs. Quite why Ned hasn't got the intelligence to realise that "One swallow doesn't make a summer" or in this case, "A few crap pre season try outs with triallists and different systems doesn't mean a relegation" I don't really know.

Ned's rambling post also assumes that League 2 players should be world beaters and should perform magic every game. This is the wrong way to look at it. League 2 players are not as skilled as Premier League players, they're not as quick and they don't have the football brains that Premier League players do. If they did, guess what? Yep, they'd be in the Premier League. So whilst one great defence splitting pass in 7 is poor by Premier League standards, one great defence splitting pass in 7 is probably average or even good for League 2.

Seeing as Ned wants perfection and consistency every game, a win more times than not, and world class players, as well as a predictable season where he can finally relax knowing that his team will win the league at a canter, can I suggest he goes and watches Manchester United?

What I would like to know though, is why, when he's been proved wrong so many times, does he continue to not learn from his mistakes? By his own wierd logic, if MFC DO get relegated, it would be that "One pass in seven" he talks about i.e. the rest of the time we've been perfectly ok and stayed up/promoted but even if we slipped up this season, because of previous ramblings being so wrong, he cannot possibly be proved right because a relegation would be the exception rather than the norm.

Ned has talked himself into a corner that he cannot possibly escape from, using scenarios which contradict the point he's trying to make.

Ned's certainly got a right to post, but what people object to is his lack of humility, lack of acceptance when he's proved wrong, and a total lack of respect for people with much more football acumen in their little toe than he'll ever have. This person is not a football SUPPORTER, nor is he a FAN, he is simply a match attender with the "I pay my money" attitude. That's assuming he does pay.

[Mark S]

Just removed quite a bit that could be construed as personal, and in one case defamatory.

Please keep it civil. Argue your points by all means, but nothing abusive please.

[Abbo]

Mark S, well done there mate, see you can do it when you try haha.
I can see Ned sat at his laptop chuckling away as he reads all the replys to his posts saying to himself "its the same ones every time that bite" keep it going Ned you get them every time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!