By Scott McGeorge - writer for YABA
It’s certainly been a rollercoaster of a season for Shaun Derry and his squad so far with more downs than ups I’m afraid. I'm going to take you through a review of the season as of yet and analyse what needs to happen in order for the club to start challenging next season.
Losing our biggest and best player in Luke Berry to rivals Luton Town wasn’t a great start to the campaign. The often used negotiating term ‘undisclosed’ fee left us supporters in the dark and speculating a lower fee than we should have been getting for our prized asset.That said we had brought in like likes of Forde, Iberhe, Deegan, Amoo, Azeez and local talent Jevani Brown so there was room for optimism that we could still have a solid season with a strong possibility of making the playoffs.
However, we sit here in February 13 points off the top seven with a disturbing away record that has been one of the worst I can remember in recent years. Inclusive of that humiliation at Kenilworth Road Back in November.
The home form has been largely hit and miss also which has led to a usually vibrant Abbey Stadium being very ‘library’ like this season. Unless we put together an amazing run from now until the end of April which would seem highly unlikely, this season is as good as over already for us sadly.
I feel that some major restructuring behind the scenes needs to happen as we lost our chairman, Dave Doggett, suddenly before Christmas and have a manager that looks like he is going to run his contract down which is never healthy. I think most supporters would be shocked if Shaun Derry is sat in the United dugout in August! A fresh approach, with a management team that is able to recruit the players the HE identifies himself and has a good understanding of the lower league is needed in my view.
Personally when I see that a manager has been what I see downgraded to a ‘head coach’ I worry immediately about the major issues like recruitment, this season has been a perfect example of poor recruitment with the exception of Forde & Brown. This is where I have some sympathy for Shaun Derry, are they all HIS players? I’m not sure. If another manager comes in, will they be allowed to bring in THEIR own players? I'm not so sure again.
Shaun has often used the word progression and feels like the club is moving forward on the pitch, I disagree and feel mostly underwhelmed when we have an upcoming fixture at the Abbey these days. With attendance figures dropping fast I fear that many supporters feel the same way and cannot wait for a fresh start next season that can have us challenging at the top end of the division.
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