How do you rate this season?

[sussexdiamond]

Obviously a much better league position, never any fear of relegation and just a brief hint of play offs at one point.
We played 2 more games but only scored 6 more goals than last season. Only the relegated teams scored less.
The defence was much improved 61 goals conceded, 78 last season.
Not sure how many red cards, two maybe?
Attendance figures much the same.
Highlights, beating Corby in FA Cup, 5 goals against Grantham and L Students, beating Worcester and Long Eaton. Ironically best performance was at Quorn losing in final minutes.
Not really sure how many of current squad will be with us next season, so many just average players
Must do utmost to keep Adegbola, Harrison, Charlie Green and Corden.
New Assistant Manager needed ASAP.

[BartonRaz]

A season of what-ifs that, really, was defined by injuries to key players, loss of form of others at key times, and inability to recruit players able to really affect the starting XI positively between November - January when we really needed them.

Had Jarvis Wilson stayed fit for the entire season I'm certain we would have finished at least where Wellingborough ended up (8th). That would have been worth at least an extra 9 points from the 20+ games that he missed, which is the number of points we ended up behind them.

Considering Jarv's injury, then the loss of Tarik also, plus the ongoing issues faced by Hughesy, I am personally happy with the season generally. The remit at the start of the season was to make sure that we weren't in the sort of trouble we'd faced in the last 2 seasons and we were never really anywhere near doing that. So to that end, I'm happy.

I accept though that seasons like this where you have nothing to play for the last 3 months of the season aren't really in our DNA, and doesn't make for much excitement.

The club's as strong off the pitch as it has been for many a year with record levels of volunteers stepping forward in key roles alongside a very determined and committed board. We now need a spark on the pitch.

[sussexdiamond]

I certainly agree about Wilson, Dallas and Hughes. If they had all been fit for most of the season our defensive record could have been 10 goals better. (And if David had been with us from the start)
That's not to take anything away from Tejan and Charlie but they are best deployed in midfield.
Good to hear off pitch situation is much better, just hope we can get a new sponsor in place soon.
Finally a big vote of thanks to the Board and the volunteers.

[Three of Diamonds]

I'd agree with all the points made so far, especially the 9 points between us and Welly. The disappointing results were the away losses to Bedworth (against 10?), Lye and the draw at Grantham, and that's more or less the difference. In the cup the Newark game was awful. Overall an OK season but a massive improvement on the previous 2 both on and off the pitch, now we need to push on and address the lack of goals/ creativity going forwards. The board and volunteers have done a cracking job, it's been a long haul to turn it around so it's great to hear it's paying off. I like the look of the youth teamers coming in, Milad looks like a real good prospect, sees a pass nice and early and can battle away in the middle, next season might be too early for him but we can certainly develop him.

[Olly]

After two seasons at the bottom and the club dropping like a stone, this season was always going to be a season of consolidation, we've more then held our own at times this season and been much more competitive, with some good results along the way including nearly beating the eventual champions and beating the playoff winners. Real shame about the injury issues as I agree, we could have been top 10 had we had Jarvis, Tarik and Hughes fit all season.

While it was great to beat Corby in the FA cup, unfortunately I can't help but still see the FA cup as a failure though, 4 times in the 5 seasons if I remember correctly now we be been knocked out by lower league opposition and it wasn't fun to then go and see them up the road have an amazing cup run and I'm sure very financially lucrative as well with two BBC TV appearances. I always say it but it is crucial with where we are and have been in the past few years financially to put our absolute all into the FA cup as it is a massive opportunity to make the sort of money we need to push the club forward, at the very least I hope we can get through 2 or 3 round next season.

In terms of the squad, it's a difficult one, we've turned a corner and you'd obviously want to be able retain at least a good chunk of the squad for continuity and building, but if we are to push up the table next season and maybe even think about playoffs again, our attack needs a rebuild, out of our attacking players I'd probably only keep Corden and maybe Burrows, even Cairo who was superb in the run-in of the 23/24 season has not really impressed me this season.

Positive about next season, would be great to have a strong start on the pitch to drum up local interest and crowds, of course what happens on the pitch ultimately is what attracts people, but I feel it is a shame that for all the excellent work and initiatives that the board and volunteers have come up with this season, we have struggled for the most part to get crowds over 400. Having community day and PWYW for the final home game of the season is fantastic though and great that we've managed 800+ two season in a row now.