Accrington Web - Bring back Mike Flynn

Spot on Redraine in that we badly need some nous at the back - and indeed throughout the team. The lads are trying their hearts out, but not only are we being out-muscled, we're also being out-hustled. The stats from yesterday bear this out, 20-odd Bristol fouls and one yellow card, the teams we're up against are just more street-wise. We need a couple of old hands in the centre-half and centre-midfield berths to boss the opposition around. Take Mangan's sending off - the Bristol keeper, Phillips, was bullying him all afternoon, including a blatant push in the first half - but no other Stanley player went up to Phillips and told him to lay off or else. Sounds like something from the playground, but teams need to look out for each other and we're lacking the hard nut in the middle of the park to do this. I'm not condoning Mangan's subsequent dissent, but Phillips deliberately kicked the ball against him and then got the lad booked - and the ref didn't even see the incident! That's the sort of gamesmanship we're up against and we have to wise up damned quickly.

Rob - you're quite right that we'll still watch Stanley wherever they are, but we're no different from any other club in that we must always strive for excellence and seek to test ourselves against the best. In other words, status matters. To go straight back down would not only be a terrible disappointment, but would also put on hold the developments at the Crown (or elsewhere) that might make Stanley a more viable proposition in terms of attracting people to games for the social facilities as well as the football. I agree with the poster who suggested that in the light of our precarious position, all resources should be directed to recruiting the right players to ensure safety - achieve that and there's another 250k in the bag from the fizzy brown water company. We can't dismiss that kind of money with a shrug that we'll always be Stanley fans.