You ought to ask some of the lads who have worked with Calland, all I hear is that they rate him & that is the truth. I've never heard one of the players or coaches speak ill of his work.

Yeah we keep hearing things like that, but unfortunately until they bring home the bacon it holds little weight, plenty of unsuccessful bosses in sport and business have got on well with players and seemingly been very capable on paper. Being a winner is different though, as i said, its that X Factor we all wish we could bottle, Matt maybe needs to worry less about 'The Lads' and more about getting a ruthless streak, shoring up the defence and forgetting about upsetting the odd player. Dont get me wrong, ive spoken to Matt a few times and i think hes an alright bloke, he can obviously coach certain parts of the game very well indeed, our attacking play stands up, its more the man management and defence thats always been a concern, i would love him to succeed, perhaps the good cop bad cop coaching partnership is required, this i why i think he would be a great number 2 for a more experienced coach, he can prepare teams well, work on their skills, he just doesn't seem to have the fire and brimstone pre match teamtalks. Maybe also a good old fashioned hard man on the field rallying the guys, who they look up to is key too, and i dont mean Stanley, he leads by example and commands respect, but hes not a born leader. Looking forward to the game now.

It is a very difficult blend to find. You dont want the boss being 'one of the lads' but neither do you want the head coach to be someone the players dont respect because he is too harsh.

Big massive bacon butty today.

Scrumptuous !

You're such a schmuk, Calland has MASSIVE support from the players, they all want to sign and play for him (unlike the days under Faz), why can't you just see that and accept it, you haven't a bluddy clue! Fax 46 - Barra 24. Case rested

Who attracted Dane Neeeeeeiiiirrinx ?

well done all at the club. lets hope that the next time we lose a game people will cut calland some slack for a change! today proved we can mix it at the top this season and we dont want to peak too soon

I agree with Haighy that Hall did a lot of the attracting players, and I am gutted he has gone. If he left so the club appeared to be doing something to stop the fans complaining thats a shame and I hope we ask him to come back (not that we will). There have been so many positives at our club since Hall and Calland arrived and I think people forget that!

Anyway I think another thing we can do is continue to push the lottery and cashfax, perhaps have Richard at the next home game trying to sign people up. I know we push this quite a lot and he does a great job, but a mid season push would probably be a good idea, even if we only manage to sign 10 up it all helps. I go on about this quite a lot but i remember Matt Callands letter about last year saying 150 new members would pay for a new player, thats not a lot of members really and could make a massive difference if we do come into financial difficulty on the money we have lost out on due to cup revenue. I know I managed to sign up about 10 friends fairly easily.