Thursday 1 October 2009

The challenge ahead

I never thought that getting out of League 1 would take just one year, given that it looks like taking a club as big as Leeds three years. I thought it would be a two or three year project.

But then we don't have the luxury of that much time. It has cost the directors £7m to stem this year's projected losses and in a sense they are taking a punt on a promotion. If we don't go up, we can't expect them to shell out the same amount (or, indeed, anything) next year.

No less an authority than the Rickster has said that if we don't go up, support will decline and the club will decline. Of course, in the summer the gloomier section of the Charlton support was saying we wouldn't make 5,000 season ticket holders and now we have over 10,000. Walk up attendances seem to be doing well: against Exeter, not the most exciting attraction, we had over 4,000 more paying customers than the Super Hoops did at Loftus Road.

As far as Saturday is concerned, the news that Semedo has a pelvic injury is not encouraging. I was much more critical of Spring against Exeter than some bloggers, although it may not be his optimal position. But he doesn't seem to have distinguished himself at Colchester.

Burton is often left wandering lonely as a cloud and Shelvey's instructions need to be changed so that he sticks closer to him rather than have a free ranging role all over the pitch.

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