[ Sat 23rd Apr ] v Nuneaton Borough, KO 3pm SLPDC HOME

[diamondsteve]

To fail to reach the playoffs from the position we were in a week or two ago, and even at 3pm today, is a crushing disappointment. There's no hiding from that. Missing players have played a part but ultimately we couldn't have hand-picked a better opposition for the final game, and at home too, we just weren't good enough. We aren't good enough.

In a week or so's time once everybody has calmed down, there will be a realisation that both on the field and off it this club is in no way shape or form ready for Step 2 football. Had we reached the play-offs today, we would have made up the numbers.

A fascinating summer awaits for various reasons and I have a suspicion we may not recognise too many of the players that line up for us in August. Some deserve to go higher, others aren't going to fit the style Burge wants to play, some he will have seen enough of. One thing's for sure though, unless we do something about that embarrassment of a pitch we won't attract or retain the sort of players we need to push on or be able to play the sort of football Andy wants.

Congrats to Dean Snedker on his well deserved POTS award. Collard and Paddy worthy runners-up but a word too for Tshikuna who was a 7 or 8/10 most weeks having stepped up a level this season.

Well done too to the social media team who did a great job of generating interest in today's fixture and probably put 100 on the gate.

Does Panther still take care of the pitch? Rock solid today could of had a dose of water this morning….

[diamondsteve]

To fail to reach the playoffs from the position we were in a week or two ago, and even at 3pm today, is a crushing disappointment. There's no hiding from that. Missing players have played a part but ultimately we couldn't have hand-picked a better opposition for the final game, and at home too, we just weren't good enough. We aren't good enough.

In a week or so's time once everybody has calmed down, there will be a realisation that both on the field and off it this club is in no way shape or form ready for Step 2 football. Had we reached the play-offs today, we would have made up the numbers.

A fascinating summer awaits for various reasons and I have a suspicion we may not recognise too many of the players that line up for us in August. Some deserve to go higher, others aren't going to fit the style Burge wants to play, some he will have seen enough of. One thing's for sure though, unless we do something about that embarrassment of a pitch we won't attract or retain the sort of players we need to push on or be able to play the sort of football Andy wants.

Congrats to Dean Snedker on his well deserved POTS award. Collard and Paddy worthy runners-up but a word too for Tshikuna who was a 7 or 8/10 most weeks having stepped up a level this season.

Well done too to the social media team who did a great job of generating interest in today's fixture and probably put 100 on the gate.

Does Panter still take care of the pitch? Rock solid today could of had a dose of water this morning….

[fentiger79]

Agree that the pitch is actually shocking now. Well done also to the social media team who were great in generating interest for today.

[Adrian]

When Burgess took over he said 'x cup finals' and spoke about every game being a cup final.

This week in the ET they headlined the game being a cup final like it was a new strategy,

We were doing fine, we didn't need to announce him as permanent manager till the season ended, keeping everything settled should have been a priority.

At the end of the day play offs should be scrapped, the best teams in the league finish in 1st and 2nd, its unfair that teams who finish 5th can have a good cup final and steal promotion from a team who finished 2nd.

[bozzer]

I’m just gutted at the moment, from where we were we shouldn’t have thrown the playoff spot away. That said from the day Peaksy left having lost Ravi for the season, Deacon up the road, Collard out for the season, the luck we’ve had has been awful and since Bromsgrove we’ve been very nervous and it just caught up on us.

I hope we can keep most of the team and add some quality as well, it will certainly be ingeresting to see

[Dowlo]

At the end of the day play offs should be scrapped, the best teams in the league finish in 1st and 2nd, its unfair that teams who finish 5th can have a good cup final and steal promotion from a team who finished 2nd.

I think it's easy to say that now we haven't made them. Lets face it all teams know the rules of the game when the season kicks off. The play offs at all levels are fantastic for football. They keep the interest in the season going right until the end, a side who finishes 2nd could be on not a particular great run of form come the end of the season and be pipped to the post by the side who snuck in on form at the last minute, that's fair in my book.

You have to say that Peterborough Sports aren't going to fancy playing Alvechurch at all. Sadly for us they hit form just at the right time, and we couldn't shake them off. They'll be going into thier semi final on a massive high which must level the playing field going into the game.

As for our season, like people have said, if you'd have said back in October we'd narrowly miss out on the play offs most fans would have taken it or dismissed it as complete nonsense.
Yes the manner in which we have missed out in the end is dissapointing, you can look back at the draws against Tamworth and Biggleswade and then Mondays awful showing at St Ives as the warning signs before today that we weren't quite going to get over the line. As it is we now have to let the wounds heal and look to set a target for next season. Will our budget allow us to bring in some marquee name players, I very much doubt it. Will we lose the likes of Dolman, Sneds and a few others more than likely yes, but I'm confident that Burgess and co will be able to attract another group of talented hungry young players who will want to prove themselves as this level and help push the club forward next season.

[Dazzler]

Jon Dunham reports

[Dazzler]

Interviews with AFCRDTV

[fentiger79]

Whilst I’m extremely disappointed I would gladly trade this in for a FA Cup 1st round appearance next year.

[rossco]

Absolutely gutted. But didn’t deserve to get anything today. As others have said in a week we’ll probably look back and see this season as a success (highest ever finish) but nothing but disappointment tonight - great opportunity that we’ve thrown away