Stockton interview with Sky Sports

[luke]

www.skysports.com/football/news/11750/13102050/cole-stockton-barrow-striker-back-in-the-north-west-and-scoring-wonder-goals-again

An interview Cole Stockton did with Sky Sports in the past couple days, mentions about his time with us earlier in the season... cheers Dino!

[insideleft]

His goals and assists are well worth watching since being at Barrow. Top class. Can't be bothered to sort the links, too much work!

[Fred Andrews]

As we've discussed elsewhere, Stockton isn't a goal machine as some would allude to, but I get the feeling he'd have snatched us half a dozen or so before the season was out, although saying that, we're barely creating anything. That's mainly down to poor tactics, and obviously team underperformance.

Do I think we'll see Cole in a Burton shirt again? I'd be surprised.

[popsidepete59]

Should have been made to feel wanted once Dino had gone. Can't help but think we have missed the boat, my thoughts when he went to Barrow, and even more so now.

[bennyboy]

Not necessarily Dino's fault he wasn't feeling comfortable being at Burton. He's admitted he feels more at home at Barrow and his time at Morecambe similar. I suppose when you get those feelings it's hard to put on the shirt and play, probably his mistake to agree to join us in the end, who knows?

[mikeyboy]

Since they left Stockton, Lubala, Gordon and Walker have 9 goals between them, their replacements have 2 between them for us. That could have made a real difference to us.

[annable]

Mar 27, 2024 17:17:28 GMT mikeyboy said:

Since they left Stockton, Lubala, Gordon and Walker have 9 goals between them, their replacements have 2 between them for us. That could have made a real difference to us.

To be fair Mikeyboy you called this as soon as the window shut and unfortunately you are being proved correct. You could also add Baah to that list as well who was by far and away the most creative forward player we had pre Christmas. The replacements have made little or no impact and the two goals scored have both been in losses(as enjoyable as the Hugill one was at Pride Park!).

You can't help but think that in this current poor run where we have only conceded 11 in 8 games that those players that left would have got a goal in those games where we lost 1-0 or drew 0-0 and that would have made all the difference. This January smacks of the season before last where we were in the top half under JFH for the first half of the season but then in January got rid of some high earners which saw us drop down the league at an alarming rate and only a comeback win against Fleetwood's kids stopped the slide. This year has been very similar but our starting position in January was much lower than two years ago and we are were we are because of decisions made in January. It's all right only making a £22k loss which is creditable don't get me wrong but eventually cost cutting like anything in life eventually sees a drop in quality.

[mikeyboy]

We are seeing it obviously now. But we are saving £10,000 per week and half a million pounds plus over a full year. We will lose our Lesgue 1 status as a consequence though. You get what you pay for

[bennyboy]

Apr 1, 2024 12:43:28 GMT mikeyboy said:

We are seeing it obviously now. But we are saving £10,000 per week and half a million pounds plus over a full year. We will lose our Lesgue 1 status as a consequence though. You get what you pay for

And sponsors not willing to give us as much money because we are only league 2. Supporters not willing to pay L1 admission prices, followed by we will still charge the same or more for a pint and a burger & chips at the bars.
It's a downhill slope since NC gave up and saw the light,his reasons not believed by me to save the club. Little in the way of any money coming to move things along, it's not changed at all now with inexperienced managers now wasting the little resources we have,bad decisions all round.

[annable]

What I struggle to understand is that in August presumably it was within budget to have Stockton, Gordon, Walker, Lubala and Baah all on the books. Then all of a sudden we get to January and have to lose all of them and replace them with cheap, untried youngsters. What changed in 5 months? OK, the crowds were probably down a bit on what was expected but we have never been that well supported anyway and surely Ben wasn't gambling on getting through a couple of rounds in the FA Cup to cover the costs of two year contracts. Doesn't seem a great business strategy to me. I get that some of those players wanted to leave or in Lubala's case just got a better offer but for me I would expect that a budget be set for the whole season without an assumption that certain positive things will happen and boost income. If that happens, great and then give additional funds to the manager in January but a major cost cutting exercise 5 months after having committed to the budget just seems like short term, panic decision making which I didn't think was what Ben was about. Either way the repercussions of those decisions are shortly about to hit home and could have ramifications for years to come.

[Fred Andrews]

Thats what I've been saying for quite a while Annable.

Ben is in charge of budgeting, wages, all financial matters. Having to cost cut in the middle of a relegation battle, means that we either were overbudget to begin with, or we took the most ridiculous and stupid gamble to try and stay up with kids and a 7 foot donkey, heads need rolling if that's the case.

If we went into January over budget and needing to cut costs that's on Ben, not Dino, not Martin or whoever else.

Attendances have been pretty much identical to last season and obviously Ben has never been one to gamble on a cup run, especially with how terrible we've been in them in recent years.

It just seems to me that this season and recent seasons have been one cock up after another, from board level down to the pitch. Now they are finally going to realise all these mistakes by a woeful, gutless, and needless relegation.

[mikeyboy]

Apr 2, 2024 8:04:29 GMT Fred Andrews said:

Thats what I've been saying for quite a while Annable.

Ben is in charge of budgeting, wages, all financial matters. Having to cost cut in the middle of a relegation battle, means that we either were overbudget to begin with, or we took the most ridiculous and stupid gamble to try and stay up with kids and a 7 foot donkey, heads need rolling if that's the case.

If we went into January over budget and needing to cut costs that's on Ben, not Dino, not Martin or whoever else.

Attendances have been pretty much identical to last season and obviously Ben has never been one to gamble on a cup run, especially with how terrible we've been in them in recent years.

It just seems to me that this season and recent seasons have been one cock up after another, from board level down to the pitch. Now they are finally going to realise all these mistakes by a woeful, gutless, and needless relegation.

For those who attended the forum Ben did say that he made it clear we needed a cup run and Walkers disallowed goal at Port Vale put an end to that. We went out of the Caribao to Leicester (a good draw but we fell at the first) and I guess the Bristol Street is worth very little unless you get to the final and Blackpool put paid to that in January.
It has been stated on here many times that we have a poor squad and I actually don’t think we do have. We have a very good keeper, a decent defence and midfield and until January some good attacking players. Dave Fletcher did say yesterday that Kwadro Baah was the best player on the pitch on 6 or 8 occasions and if we had given Stockton and Gordon time to settle we had a decent team (that was above Derby in October) less than 2 months before Dino was sacked.
It’s easy to lose perspective in our current situation but frankly we panicked in December, handed the reins to inexperienced and previously unsuccessful people and probably panicked again in January with the appointment of another rookie. This situation is entirely of our own making.