not sure if its been done yet but my prediction is Champions and I have laid bets at 33/1

In the real world I imagine somewhere around 12th

If you have laid bets at 33/1 then if we win the League you will owe a lot of money.

We will finish 8th.

Upper mid table with perhaps a brief flirtation with the play offs.

13th

Top half.

6th

North of 12th south of 6th

If we win the league, as Les Dennis would pronounce, " I'll give you the money myself"

Of course I won't do that, thought I'd make that clear for legal reasons, it's not a contract, but I really don't believe we'll challenge for that honour

As Mr I suggests we might have a flirt at the play-offs

Ah bless. Pre season optimism.

23rd

Wouldn't "we" be Darlington in your case?

17th

If Moore is manager all season I really can't see us being bottom half. Our points per game ratio under him last season would have seen us finish on 60 odd points and that was with him inheriting one of the worst teams in our history.

I think anything 10th or above with a little flirt with the play offs would would progress and something to build on. We have a decent manager and this is not a good league at all.

At least they're a happier bunch when there's no footy on mr roadkill..

surely those that have impressed the most start the first game based on the pre season games.

everyone seems to be getting similar levels of game time, so if fenwick hasn't done as well as paynter and bingham then he has no argument if he starts on bench.

I look forward to your post about where we'll finish in the Morecambe starting line up thread

14th

I've just realised wrong thread now ha, i think mid table would be seen as a good season, but as pointed out the league is not good and got to trust ronnie with his signings last season that we have a better balanced squad with players who prefer the formation as opposed to being only players there.

A solid defence and any improvement on last year's strikers would be enough to see us mid-table. I'm pretty confident that this will be the case.

If Fenwick stays fit and keeps his goalscoring knack and Paynter thrives under Moore we could do a lot better. Less sure about this though so I'm going for 9th.

There were very few teams that really stood out as quality last season, we were just so poor. No reason why we cant be competative this season.

10th

I,m still standing by earlier prediction of promotion at Wembley.

Cant understand some of the negative predictions.
The deadwood has gone this is a new era where the team spirit is back.
Roll on Aug 8th.

I wouldn't call them negative predictions its just an opinion. I hope more than anyone we get promotion, would love to see us win at Wembley. However, I don't think its a given this will happen because of the situation we find ourselves in with new owners and a new squad. Don't get me wrong our chances have increased dramatically from start of last season as we have a manager who knows what he is doing.

I personally think around the 10th mark, but I hope I'm completely proven wrong and we finish higher.

Top half would be where I'd set my expectations, with an outside chance of playoff.


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I don't understand how anyone can seriously expect us to challenge. Even if we had a squad with enough quality it's going to take a good few month to gel.

At first glance tonight we look like we'll miss Tish in the middle massively.

This.

We need someone to hassle and get amongst them in the middle, preferably with pace. We ain't got one.

If we play 3 at the back with harrison wide of those then we will be really struggling. Must play 4 at the back

I would have said 6th earlier today. The score line so far tonight is making me think I was being a bit optimistic

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Anyone who genuinely changes an opinion on one friendly should be banned from the ground for six months.

I honestly couldn't give a shit if we won 4-0 tonight, losing heavily might even be better in the long run.

Pre season is about getting people fit and trying things to see if they work. Results come down the list even though it's nice to win.

Ronnie's right in what he says - it was a good result for us in a way - it will have brought the players back down to earth. As he also says we can't defend like that - some players obviously think they are superstars all of a sudden. Harrison trying to do a back-heel in his own box for the first goal being a case in point.

Not too bothered about the result.
The fact Scunthorpe looked like a team 3 divisions above us was a bit concerning.

Relegation on the cards judging by people's comments I've read on the Internet.

Bloody hell. I thought Ronnie would have learned from the comments on the internet last season.

it's ridiculous on here that people can't comment on a friendly and say things they seen without others replying how its negative and relegation must be on cards etc.

friendlies are there to judge new signings from a fans perspective but try new formations out and get match fitness. Last night, with the players we played, that formation looked incredibly poor. It was dull to watch and essentially looks like is setup to drain life out of the game and keep it tight whilst trying to pinch one; maybe more suited to playing away from home.

I understand we don't really have wingers either but then it's up to moore to sort out best formation and preferred players for that formation. I think anyone with half a footballing brain could watch 1 minute highlights of last night and see formation just simply did not work

Friendlies are pretty much always dull to watch. Played at half tempo, tippy tappy littered with substitutions so the game has no flow basically unwatchable.

If we tried a formation that didn't work then good, a pre season friendly is exactly where you want that to happen.

Also if you are 'judging new signings' positively or negatively before you've seen them in a run of competitive games then you shouldn't be allowed in.

Nobody is saying don't comment on the game but we've got one bloke who has suggested that he's going to reconsider his entire seasons prediction on the back of last nights kick about, hopefully he was joking

Pj, you are correct that pre season friendlies are there to try different things but my problem is that the 352 was something moore has mentioned a few times and the signings we have made all point to us playing that formation.

Who's to say with a bit of tinkering and the players becoming more familiar with it won't work in certain games, I'm sure we won two away games in a week last season playing that eventually was what kept us up.

I'm sure we've still gota couple more players to come in so we'll have a lot more flexibility this season for a more horses for courses approach depending on the game.

You can't say it will never work and do be dismissed altogether because of one friendly.

we had tshibola last season who is a huge miss in midfield. bates surely is not going to be first choice come start of the season, otherwise it's a worry!

also you mentioned tippy tappy for friendlies, I wish that was the case, it was very poor and predictable every time we got it. no movement, no creativity, no nothing.

hopefully if anything it will calm everyone down who was predicting top 7 easily and some people even saying champions. ridiculous to think that when we were so close to going out the league last season

Did I say that it was because of one friendly?

Bates and Featherstone playing together in midfield is always going to be a worry.

Brad Walker though did look fit and showed a decent turn of pace last night. If Woods can also stay fit we should be ok.

If last nights performance didn't shock people or give people a massive wake up call nothing will whether it was a friendly a game in the park or a league match. That performance was abject. Its all well and good saying their only friendlies but the warning signs where there in pre season last year too. We have a non existent midfield, no creativity and what was more shocking was we were two yards of the pace.

We can only hope it will get better. No doubt it will.
It's all very well people saying you can't predict form on one (or even more) friendly, but as you say, b1908, the signs are a bit worrying at the moment. A related, relevant question is whether anyone who's undecided about buying a season ticket will have been persuaded by performances so far. I should imagine the answer to that would definitely be 'no'.

That's because it's all in the context of what people have been having to watch, the last few years. After all that, people have to be given a reason to be optimistic, not be made to feel guilty because they're being cautious.

Just shows how bad league two is when a team from league one can easily beat us.
A few teething problems that im sure Ronnie can sort out.
A friendly defeat against a decent team wont dampen me optimism for the coming season.

I think we will end up just below half way after a very poor start.

Ronnie will need time to turn almost an entirely new squad into a team and will probably turn to better quality loans again to help push us on.

Fully agree can't judge on one friendly but this was my view at the weekend and remains my view now.

Nah, we'll still piss the league. Last night was only a bluff.

At least getting beaten 4-0 by Scunny is a good omen....last time it happened we got promotion the same day

Sounds like the value of the 'hard man' pre-season down at Catterick has been talked up too much. Scunny very happy with their win:
"The Iron's 4-0 victory over Hartlepool was their first game back on English soil since the pre-season training camp in Marbella last week."