It’s All Gone Quiet Over Here…

County play host to Southend Utd tomorrow at Edgeley Park looking for only their second home win of the season, but more positively to extend their unbeaten run to 5 games.

More pressing issues are being discussed by Hatters fans recently though, mainly the silence emanating from the club and everybody involved with the takeover.

From Jim Melrose, our ‘prospective’ owner, to the faceless administrators running the club daily (and not cheaply at that), nobody hears a thing.

Less than 4000 fans turning up for home games, rumours of other consortia being offered the chance to come back in and buy the club or the fact that for some strange reason County are STILL in administration after all this time…and we still hear nothing.

Southampton and Leeds, to take two clubs to have suffered points deductions at the hand of administration, must be looking at us thinking ‘How the hell are they getting away with this?!’

Safety for the club always seems to be ‘six weeks away’. Should a County fan actually be naive enough to think we deserve to be told what’s happening was to fire off an email to our administrators, they recieve a standard response of ‘No news.’

The lack of fans turning up seems to be brushed under the carpet as ‘Oh, there is a recession going on y’know!’, when actually our ‘prospective owner’ should be worrying that, with colder weather hitting and Christmas approaching, even LESS fans will be turning up.

So how about giving us some information, any sort of justified hope Mr Melrose? It’ll help you in the long run.

Or everybody could just stay silent and carry on suffering. I mean, we’re only fans after all…

Vital Quotes:

Gary Ablett: ‘Being a coach is about learning. You learn a lot about yourself, you learn a lot about your players, you observe a lot.’

‘Yes, it’s tough but it’s been very, very educational for myself as well as the players out on the field learning.’

‘You evaluate yourself – what works and doesn’t work and plan from that accordingly.’

‘It’s something I’m really enjoying and there’s no better feeling than getting on the training field and working with a bunch of young lads who want to get better.’

County Team News:

Matty Mainwaring remains the only long-term absentee, although hes off crutches and should be back in the New Year.

Oli Johnson will be fit for the televised trip to Tranmere a week on Monday, though he misses out tomorrow with an ankle injury.

Player to watch: 12th Man

The County fans have been low on numbers recently, and who an honestly blame them? Regardless, the 12th man have still been creating (or doing their best) a good atmosphere to spur on Gary Ablett’s young side, and they’ll need to be on form again tomorrow to help give us a second home win.

Southend Team News:

Southend boss Steve Tilson will be without defender Jean-Yves M’Voto once again.

The on-loan Sunderland man has missed the last two matches with a hip injury and has returned to the Stadium of Light for treatment on the problem.

Player to watch: Lee Barnard

The in-form striker was on a real hot streak last season and already has eight goals to his name so far this season. Will prove a real test for on-loan defender Paul Huntington, who has been coasting since arriving at EP.

Match Odds

County – 6/4

raw – 21/10

outhend – 6/4

Match Prediction:

1-1. An uncertain performance to match the off-field situation. And that’s not to discredit Gary Ablett and his tea, who are doing a magnificent job in the circumstances.

Next Fixtures:

Port Vale v COUNTY (A)

Johnstone’s Paint Trophy

Tuesday 6th October ’09

7:15pm