Is this the real thing?

[Jonathan]

Is there actually such a thing as 'scraping up via the play offs?' To me, achieving promotion via the play offs represents one of the truly great days for a smaller club such as ours (and dare I say Barnsley who just 'scraped up via the play offs' after being bottom of the league in November). I'll never forget beating Dagenham at Stoke or Leeds at Wembley. Incredible occasions.

I think the Board have stated promotion is the aim, as it should be, and within that you obviously aim to finish as high as possible. But promotion by any means is a great achievement and one that should be celebrated.

On another note, I think it's probably a bit early to be having these discussions about next season's permutations. This season isn't over until later today!

[steve@dcfd]

My expectation is high I want top three at least. If we are in the playoffs then I will still be satisfied. The club so far have given monies to get players that Duncan wants. Saying he as been backed to hilt is overtop the owners won't have spent 60m so yes the progress so far with players is good. I expect players to go and better players to come in but after McSheffrey we might have to wait.

[Chris Black come back]

That is not a "high" expectation. We can't buy success nor should we attempt to do so, but the facts are Ferguson will have a squad of the best players in that league. His job is to get them playing to their potential. He failed with the squad last season. He must succeed with the squad this season - particularly as they are "his" players.

[Sammy Chung was King]

He has been supported, but put it in proportion they are free transfers. Yes they will be on decent wages some of them, but it will be no more support than the other challengers get.
Will the board stump up for a player, if he is the right one, and he cost 100/150,000 to buy plus his wages?, let's see.

[BillyStubbsTears]

The last time we were in this league, although it was league 3, in 2003/2004 we won the league with 92 pts and after 15 games we had 29 pts. So I believe I am being realistic, as CBCB says we should be there. I sick of excuses and the average. Let's take the league by the scruff of the neck and by the end of the season have 99+ pts like the poor club of Northampton!!

So...last time we were in this league, we won the title and we had 29 points after 15 games.

But now you're saying that we ought to have 30 points after 15 games to be on course for automatic promotion. Even though we've achieved automatic promotion 6 times in the past 60-odd years, plus finishing in 2nd place in the Conf, and bottling automatic promotion with a woeful last month in 2007/08 without ever once in those 8 occurrences having managed to get 30 points from the first 15 games.

Do you not think you're being just a tad harsh in your expectations?

[dickos1]

I find it staggering that people are sharpening their knives already, ridiculous

[Jonathan]

He has been supported, but put it in proportion they are free transfers. Yes they will be on decent wages some of them, but it will be no more support than the other challengers get.
Will the board stump up for a player, if he is the right one, and he cost 100/150,000 to buy plus his wages?, let's see.

There's no point chasing after paying transfer fees when your number one targets are out of contract. Aside from which, Etheridge is going to cost a fee because of his age.

The most refreshing thing is that, for the first time in many years, we're picking off our main targets without working down and down the list and ending up with an influx of trialists that we have to decide on based on performances in (ultimately meaningless and half paced) friendly matches.

[DonnyOsmond]

Plus if they're out of contract the players usually ask for a higher signing on fee than when they're contracted. I don't get why people want us to spend transfer fees for the sake of spending a transfer fee.

[ferribyrover]

It is good that we are signing targeted players. But apart from Rowe we don't know if they are good enough to turn us into promotion contenders. Plus the doubts about the manager are still there.
I just wonder if this plan - rebuilding and recruiting early close season for 16/17 season -has been in place for many months, except for an unforeseen relegation.

[RoversAlias]

Transfer fees are largely non-existent at this level. Sammy nor anybody else can claim the manager isn't being backed due to free transfers. You don't know the wages or the sign on fees, which cannot all be cheap as chips considering that three of our signings to date rejected new deals at their cluns to join us, and the other turned down L1 clubs to come here.

[Sammy Chung was King]

I'm not knocking ambition, and you are right fees very rarely get paid in the lower leagues, i was wondering if a fee needed to be paid, would the board give him the money, or go for another option?.

[DonnyOsmond]

I'm not knocking ambition, and you are right fees very rarely get paid in the lower leagues, i was wondering if a fee needed to be paid, would the board give him the money, or go for another option?.

We're paying a fee for Etheridge and Wright.

[Bristol Red Rover]

There's a lot of comments knocking the quality of League 2, referring to our high spending etc and equating all that to auto promotion or even title expectations. What happened to "the likes of Doncaster", "we're just a pub team" etc?

Relax, enjoy what we have, and above all respect our opposition and our place in the world.

[Alan Southstand]

Should be's and could be's at this early stage are as meaningless as the pre-season friendlies, but it is a talking point on another-wise boring cricket season.

The problem I have with all this influx of players is..... we obviously had a major problem last season with the 'squad that was good enough', otherwise we would have stayed up. That major problem, or problems, still exist currently as only Tyson has left the Club. The manager is the same and most of last year's squad are still with us and they failed to motivate themselves last season. What makes us think that they're suddenly going to have a change of heart and perform like world-beaters (and not egg beaters)?

Obviously there will be few more to leave the fold and, hopefully, a few more to come in before we start again. The next thing is to mold them into a challenging outfit and we simply won't know whether that's is realistic until the matches really get going. I'm pleased we're targeting younger (and hopefully fitter) players but do they have the right attitude to succeed? Again, we have to hope that the manager has done his homework (moreso than PD ever did!!).

I don't think we've signed any 'eyebrow raisers' yet, but then again, because we don't really know these lads (except Rowe), we can hardly be setting any expectation levels at this stage.

[Chris Black come back]

Cricket season is boring?!

Yorkshire are fighting tooth and nail at top of the table and have just turned over Lancashire in an unbelievable performance. It doesn't get any better!

[jonnydog]

... I don't think we've signed any 'eyebrow raisers' yet, but then again, because we don't really know these lads (except Rowe), we can hardly be setting any expectation levels at this stage.

Although some folk on here already are

[Alan Southstand]

Whatever rings your bells, CBCB! I can't stand cricket - its like croquet with knobs on! And don't get me started on tennis!

[Bristol Red Rover]

...And don't get me started on tennis!

I suspect cricket may be one of the few sports where drug taking is more an essential constituent of watching rather than playing it.

[The Red Baron]

Whatever rings your bells, CBCB! I can't stand cricket - its like croquet with knobs on! And don't get me started on tennis!

Cricket - greatest sport ever invented.

[Chris Black come back]

There is cricket - then there is Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Just unfortunate that Headingley is in Leeds.

[NickDRFC]

At the risk of dragging this into off topic, completely agree with the posters who are supporting cricket. Yorkshire have done really well so far this season, none more so than with the latest win against Lancashire. We have 2 form batsman currently, both of whom missed the match as they were playing for England. To beat a bang in-form arch rival with no top order batsman firing is some feat - once the likes of Lyth and Ballance hit the form they're capable of there will be no stopping us.

Also to those who criticise, have you ever been to a Test match? Admittedly it's not for everyone but for me there are few better ways to spend the day than sitting in the sunshine (or rain) watching bat versus ball. I've got tickets for both Lords' tests this summer, day 4 though so not much hope of seeing the Sri Lanka game next weekend! Hopefully Pakistan offer a bit more resistance.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Expect it to be a tough season, the team will have to perform almost every week, and when they don't still pick up a point or a narrow win.
Promotion of any kind is success, though i would prefer doing it in style by winning the thing. There are other teams with the same thoughts, so to win it, it will have to be earned.
I don't want to think negative, but if we did fail to get promoted, then it is failure, and something that the manager couldn't retain his job with.

[les@donr]

L2 is a tough league to get out of, less skils, more blood and guts, as we know from our last experience there. Also newly promoted National Leagues do well in their season in the FL, like we did, so watch out for Cheltenham and Grimsby. I can see Cheltenham going up again aka Bristol Rovers, Johnson is a successful manager at this level.

[Sammy Chung was King]

L2 is a tough league to get out of, less skils, more blood and guts, as we know from our last experience there. Also newly promoted National Leagues do well in their season in the FL, like we did, so watch out for Cheltenham and Grimsby. I can see Cheltenham going up again aka Bristol Rovers, Johnson is a successful manager at this level.

Cheltenham have a good experienced manager, they have retained the players they wanted to, most importantly Dan Holman, and they also have three or four good up and coming youngsters, they have a lot in there favour.
Grimsby are a danger, they have been in the conference for a few years like we were, they have had chance to build the club up to be better and stronger, again good manager, a couple of prolific goalscorers, they have a chance at probably a nice price.

[RoversAlias]

"They have retained the players they wanted to."

It's June 6th, they haven't guaranteed keeping anyone yet.