How is your season so far?

[Byronic]

I posted with such (guarded) optimism at the beginning of the season. I looked forward to the season starting like a kid waiting for Christmas. As ever, dreams crumble by the turn of the year, and that familiar sinking feeling has once again gripped me.

As John Cleese says in the film Clockwise: "It's not the despair. I can live with the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."

My team (Newport County) started the season hoping that at long last the dark days were behind us. Cruelly, all so cruelly, we won our first match 4-1. Since then we have been dreadful and the season has descended (as usual) into farce and chaos. As we plunged towards the relegation zone we sacked the manager. I say 'manager' but that is being kind to him. He was more a stuffed tracksuit with eyes. Every match we lost he blamed bad luck. He was forever going on about 'black cats' and, perhaps he has now found his true calling as a witchdoctor (preferably in a place that has no football team).

After our now managerless side crashed out of the FA Cup to a team from a lower division the board reacted by sacking three players, thus reducing our already threadbare squad to Bob Cratchitt-like proportions.

Finally, after a long delay, we appointed a new manager. He is young and enthusiastic (well, he WAS young and enthusiastic, but managing Newport County will probably make him look like Dorian Grey's picture by the end of the season) and determined to do well. Almost immediately signs of improvement were noticeable. We started to win the odd game and hope peaked through again.

Then our two central defenders were jailed for assault....

Yes, that's right. No sympathy for them. But, God, I feel sorry for myself. Just when our new man was going to revitalise the club he loses his central defence.

Now we are yet again struggling, and, if we lose next Saturday we will be back in the relegation zone. There is no money to bring more players in, and the future looks bleak.

So, business as usual at Newport: how has your season been so far?

[tkmorris]

1. Not as hoped, but not too bad

In fact, after reading your account of the doings at Newport I feel an awful lot better about it. :)

I'm an avid Crystal Palace fan. We started the season in the Championship, having cruelly been relegated by a late goal in the last match of the season. Given that chairman Simon Jordan kept the core nucleus of the team intact, and even allowed manager Ian Dowie to spend some cash to make inprovements, mainly up top and on the wings, we had every expectation that we would go right back up next season.

It hasn't worked out quite. A slew of injuries and a few real poor showings ( :banghead: ) have cost a number of points in the first half of the season. However the new year finds the Eagles in decent shape, with Andy Johnson finally beginning to regain his form and other injured players returning to the squad. Palace are currently firmly entrenched in a playoff spot, and have 2 games in hand on most of the rest of the table. Unless the wheels fall off for Sheffield United (I think Reading could probably start their youth squad for the remainder of the year and still get promoted directly) direct promotion is probably not going to happen but I'll take getting into a playoff. As long as they have a shot.