Agree with the above.

Whilst injuries have played a major part in the failure of this season it can not be ignored that even before the injuries mounted we didn't look great and struggled from the start of the season with poor error riddled performances.

I can't think of any game this season apart from maybe the cup game against St's were we have played for the full 80 mins.

Individually and collectively performances have simply not been good enough irrespective of the injuries. The handling and basic skill set on display this season and level of discipline has been poor and nothing seems to have improved in these areas all season.

Its been evident for a number of seasons we lack any sort of real attacking structures and that has shown this season that we rely heavily on maverick plays from Kelly and the boot of Sneyd as we simply can not break opposition defence down as we are so predictable. Defensively we have also been very poor on previous seasons with at times embarrassing attempts at tackling, we are all too often happy to stand and wait for the opposition rather than pushing up to meet them so we are losing the collision on a regular basis and not making the opposition fight to gain metres but simply giving them easy metres.

We seem to lack the ability to run angles, have any real support play or actually just simply run onto a ball with a bit of pace instead all too often we are pedestrian in both defence and attack.

Whilst Lee Radford should be applauded for winning two back to back Challenge Cups he also needs to take responsibility for the way this season has gone in terms of the total ineffectiveness of the game plans and general play in games.
I also think he needs to think himself lucky he has not been relieved of his duties and as such really needs to take a long hard look at his own performances as Head Coach and bring in much needed assistance in this dept and make changes.

As has been said Houghton has been poor by his usual standards this season and it doesn't help that he is flogged for 80mins every game and this seems to have finally caught up with him. Litten should be used more often to spell Houghton as his pace can be very useful against tiring defences.

In truth the performance by all involved in the team this season has fallen short of what should be expected and this has been masked to an extent by the injuries.

If things do not change going in to next season I can see the same happening again.

Excellent post

I think the fans have been remarkably patient this year however it's probably eroded much of the goodwill that has been built up over the past few seasons.
If we don't hit the ground running next year I can see things becoming hostile quite quickly.

Hostile? What are you planning??

excellent post chris 71,hit the nail right on the head.

Think Chris 71 said everything in his post.Just got an e-mail from the club about next seasons pass.Think the club are going to have to do a bit of recruitment on the field to get the fans interested again.

Very good post Chris 71,i could'nt agree more,in fact i doubt very few could really disagree with the post.
Like Dabhand i too have had an email from the club about season passes and agree that some recruitment has to be made or a big drop off of passes will happen.

You know what I mean. Fans getting on the players backs, booing, rubbish banners, that sort of thing.

Ah... just the type of supporter we need.

So the stadium should just be a sterile atmosphere where people applaud politely should it?

If players and coaches alike don't perform and effort and execution are minimal resulting in poor performances, you'd expect paying customers not to voice their displeasure?
People in the sporting spotlight aren't niaive enough to not expect praise and condemnation, the whole point of being a fan is the emotional rollercoaster it takes us all on.
To criticise people for expression is ludicrous.
I guess you'd rather have a crowd of 4000 who blindly accept everything rather than 12000 vociferous supporters.
It's the clubs job to attract and retain supporters.
Comments like yours in case you haven't guessed infuriate me.
No 1 fan is better than the next.