The Spirit and Buzz Has Gone

[DI Mike Dashwood]

But it depends on how you look at it Arnu.

You say they don't know what they are doing, BUT, this Club has been a Football League club for 8 years now, on the smallest or second smallest crowds in the League, without being reliant on a benefactor who has the ability to hold the club to ransom. As far as I am aware we have no major debt or liabilities to organisations such as HMRC. That to me does not indicate they do not know what they are doing.

And before this gets thrown back at me, I am not saying everything is perfect, I am not saying I like seeing us 4th from bottom and I am not saying there is not room for improvement and development, BUT people should consider the above before saying those running the Club do not know what they are doing.

This whole sack the board thing sits very very uncomfortably with me. When I see grand ideas I see Halifax, Stockport, Chester, Rushden, Kettering, HOrnchurch...............all clubs who ended up with a board with great business history and great ambitions.

As I say, that doesn't mean I am happy with the current performances, style or atmosphere, but just be careful what you wish for.

Maybe a more balanced approach (which I think Mike is hinting at) is the way forward.

All of this is not to say Steve was right to dig out D4E on Saturday night, but I reckon if D4E speaks to Steve at the next game he would be the first to buy him a pint and apologise.

[dagger4eva]

Arnu, I do wholeheartedly see where youre coming from BUT I certainly don't want us to kill off our "small club mentality"

Whilst we manage to pull in little over 1000 home fans each game, we never will be more than a club punching above its weight.

That's fine with me as I quite like being the under dog that proves everyone else in the country wrong.

It's what got us on the map with a FA Cup runs back when we were Ryman League and it's what got us up to League 2 and beyond.

Our problem right now is that we have a team right that has none of that same fight, heart and bottle that our teams of yester-year had, with a manager that thought it was a negative that the team we were playing AND BEATING had gone down to 10 men. That's the only thing thats hard to take right now.

Put it this way.

We held a straw poll up in the bar after the game, a good couple of hours after everyones emotions had calmed a little. Around 40 people or so participated...

Hands up for a change of management.

There wasnt a single person that DIDNT keep their hand down.

Some of these are staunch optimists that would never back for a manager to be sacked and even they had had enough.

It won't guarantee all our fortunes will change over night but if we dont try and change sooner rather than later it could spell disaster for us.

So in answer to the original point of the thread, the buzz hasn't gone completely.... just yet BUT, like Christmas, it's just around the corner from being a reality.

[ARNU]

I think some of you may have taken my post the wrong way just a little bit.I am saying the small club mentality is being applied by the people that run the club,they aint ruthless enough and having a goal of just surviving will never keep us happy.We want more than they can give us now.The club has outgrown them.They are trying and failing to cling on to the ideals of yesterday.All your nostalgia Im sure was and is great and even in the relatively short time ive been following the Daggers the atmosphere and feeling around the ground has changed immensely and not for the better unfortunately.So I can only imagine how crap it is for you lot right now.Enjoy your memories,sadly that's all they are.Just read the threads on here,countless ones of no atmosphere,no singing,no daring to alter the grounds layout,moaning about triviality,almost stoning me to death about roofs over Bury road(yeah like I care really LOL)badges on shirts and then theres the ones about shit football.Its not a happy place and for quite a while now.

So I will do the mandatory disclaimer.....

Im sure the whole board,management and us fans new and old all wants whats best and that they are trying their hardest blah blah blah....

But somethings not working.

[dagger4eva]

Funny enough, I actually thought the atmosphere in the 1st half & part of the 2nd was really great, and almost like the good old days. With large parts of the singing, getting behind the team, giving the opposition some stick.

Amazing what a bit of actual entertainment on the pitch can produce!!!

[Mike the Dagger]

Amazing what a bit of actual entertainment on the pitch can produce!!!

Maybe we should try that more often.

It should be for the team to get the fans up for it, not the other way round.

[NickMurphy]

Sort of skipped over this thread in the last week, but since I started coming 7 years ago, I've felt my anticipation for a Saturday home game in particular completely drop. Probably partly due to our wretched home form which has been shocking for over a year, and partly due to losing that buzz as you grow up as well I suppose - but also a lot due to some of the reasons mentioned in this thread. I feel like I enjoy the company more than I enjoy the game most weeks now, which is really shit because when we lose, it hits me just as hard if not harder. Having moved to Norwich for Uni, I haven't really found myself missing home games at all, not at least like I thought I would. And even when I do get along, or did at the start of the season, you don't feel that connection with the players any more like you're all in together. You don't feel as though it hurts them just as much as it hurts you - which isn't a criticism of the players really as I'm sure it does hurt them after a defeat, but it's just how I feel about it all. Abu and Doey are the only two I'd call Daggers anymore (Possibly Howell and Murphy), and I'll be gutted if/when they leave at the end of the season because that's the core from the very good times gone.

I long for the days of those great man. Embodied in one picture what it was to be a Dagger.



EDIT: You can even see the badge on this kit.

[AVincelotFlyingLeap]

We can be both surely? We can be a league club and still have the small community feel. We did for the first few years in league 2 anyway. That's what made it special. I haven't been for a while as I'm in the wrong country but if certain things have changed in that regard then I'll be dissapointed.

I agree with Nick btw, I don't miss not going while I'm away. My next game will most likely be Boxing Day and we'll probably lose that 2-1 in the last minute

[Mike the Dagger]

Sort of skipped over this thread in the last week, but since I started coming 7 years ago, I've felt my anticipation for a Saturday home game in particular completely drop. Probably partly due to our wretched home form which has been shocking for over a year, and partly due to losing that buzz as you grow up as well I suppose - but also a lot due to some of the reasons mentioned in this thread. I feel like I enjoy the company more than I enjoy the game most weeks now, which is really shit because when we lose, it hits me just as hard if not harder. Having moved to Norwich for Uni, I haven't really found myself missing home games at all, not at least like I thought I would. And even when I do get along, or did at the start of the season, you don't feel that connection with the players any more like you're all in together. You don't feel as though it hurts them just as much as it hurts you - which isn't a criticism of the players really as I'm sure it does hurt them after a defeat, but it's just how I feel about it all. Abu and Doey are the only two I'd call Daggers anymore (Possibly Howell and Murphy), and I'll be gutted if/when they leave at the end of the season because that's the core from the very good times gone.

I long for the days of those great man. Embodied in one picture what it was to be a Dagger.

A wise man once said "To be a Dagger is something special, it means you have something about you. Not just ability, you have got to have something that makes you want to work hard and fulfil your potential. Daggers never give up, never stop.".... then he naffed off to Luton :(

[Dagger Steve]

Funny enough, I actually thought the atmosphere in the 1st half & part of the 2nd was really great, and almost like the good old days. With large parts of the singing, getting behind the team, giving the opposition some stick.

Amazing what a bit of actual entertainment on the pitch can produce!!!

I did actually think that.
For the first time in months a bit of atmosphere at a home game. Winning 1-0. They get player sent off. This has all the signs of a turning point I stupidly thought.

[SUSSEX DAGGER]

Great Post Dashers you are bang on the money in everything you say.

Nick your picture is better then a million words,that's not what we have any longer and we probably have not since he left. Remember in that awful run we had first season after relegation,which was far worse then the current boss efforts. Me,you,Matt Billy and Charlie and a host of others had just stood on the Open Terrace at Accrington in the pissing rain and what we we're watching was nothing short of dreadfull. We fell apart and lost 3 nil and you could see Peter and the hurt he was feeling, he went round making everybody aware of his feelings. Today it just seems the Players just shrug their Shoulders and put defeat down to occupational hazard. Nobody appears to be hurting other then the bloke everybody has their knife out for which is Wayne.

We have a team that was miles ahead of that group of players ,however you can have all the ability in the world you can have a magical brain but to function you need a massive heart and there is none.

Please don't think I don't think they are not trying of course they are bit there is no heart, no belief and no passion.

Hope uni going well mate and see you soon.

[Adrian]

There have been a lot of comments knocking around, similar to this, that the club is starting to lose its way from what it was when it really was acommunity and when you could go and have a chat to the manager or the players in the bar after the game, when they did a proper walk round the pitch after the game win, lose or draw (despite Steve Evans bullshit) and when fans were consulted on stuff like totally rebranding the club before it was done, not presented with it as a fait accompli.

Sadly it is all going badly wrong at the moment and the employees of the club are starting to circle the wagons and stick their fingers in their ears to cut out the grumblings of discontent from the terraces and that isn't helping anyone.

I agree Tommo is 100% a dagger and only ever seeks to do his absolute best for the club, but he has lost the check and balance that was Dave Andrews now (who had a "if is ain't broke, don't fix it" view on how the club worked) and like many I don't really know how the new Chairman works.

I noticed that one of our long time supporters was bragging he had stuck money on us losing at the point Shrewsbury went down to ten on Saturday, and if I was a gambling man, I would have been tempted to do the same. When your manager says after the game "I wasn't happy when their player got sent off, I felt it changed the game," what does that say about how he is thinking.

We aren't a club to lightly sack the manager, but enough is enough surely?

Some great points in there.
I'm pretty sure I commented a long time a go that some of our supporters needs to be careful about what they wished for.

I think some are getting what they wanted but its actually hurting the club.
If you strip away everything that made us a little bit different, what are you left with? A small football club that no-one cares about much.

If I don't go on Saturday, it won't be because I'm boycotting. It will be because I just don't want to.

[Diggerthedog]

All this Thommo is a dagger and let him off for saying what he did is nieve, had it been me I would never return to the club until he was long gone. He is paid to do what he does and must remain professional at all time regardless. If I called one of my clients a wanker I would have my P45 and be down the job centre before I knew it.

I think Arnu is right in some ways by saying the board are not upto it and have no balls to deal with the matter at hand when everything is falling apart around them.

Thanks for the first few months of last season Wayne but the year since has been abysmal time to move on, fresh start is needed for all before its too late.

[Adrian]

All this Thommo is a dagger and let him off for saying what he did is nieve, had it been me I would never return to the club until he was long gone. He is paid to do what he does and must remain professional at all time regardless. If I called one of my clients a wanker I would have my P45 and be down the job centre before I knew it.

I think Arnu is right in some ways by saying the board are not upto it and have no balls to deal with the matter at hand when everything is falling apart around them.

Thanks for the first few months of last season Wayne but the year since has been abysmal time to move on, fresh start is needed for all before its too late.

Yet the person that was apparently on the end of this doesn't seem to be quite so concerned.

It feels like you and others are trying to make a mountain out of someone else's molehill.

[Diggerthedog]

All this Thommo is a dagger and let him off for saying what he did is nieve, had it been me I would never return to the club until he was long gone. He is paid to do what he does and must remain professional at all time regardless. If I called one of my clients a wanker I would have my P45 and be down the job centre before I knew it.

I think Arnu is right in some ways by saying the board are not upto it and have no balls to deal with the matter at hand when everything is falling apart around them.

Thanks for the first few months of last season Wayne but the year since has been abysmal time to move on, fresh start is needed for all before its too late.

Yet the person that was apparently on the end of this doesn't seem to be quite so concerned.

It feels like you and others are trying to make a mountain out of someone else's molehill.

I will leave the mountains to you cowboy. Yeee haaaa

[Adrian]

I will leave the mountains to you cowboy. Yeee haaaa

Oh good, you've decided to go back to non sensical crap.