Well, the more vocal elements of our support have had their way and Lee Harper and the Poppies have parted company. Hopefully now the numerous Poppynetters who have been demanding Lee's head since pre-season can start fantasising about about the next boss that they will be slagging off by Christmas.
Lee's dismissal has left more of a bad taste in my mouth that any of the other managerial dismissals I can remember. Why? Mainly because he was a good guy. He went about his job honestly, and attempted to get his teams to actually play football. His biggest failing was, seemingly, to not put enough distance between himself and the players. He was probably still seen as one of the lads, and not the gaffer who could sack them. I'm sure he will learn from that error.
And it's those players who will need to take a long hard look at how they've acquitted themselves. It's clear that a number of our players have seriously gone off the boil without a Cooper type manager kicking their arse every day. Are they such children that the need the big, bad manager to scare them into playing well? Seemingly , yes!
Also, we supporters need to wake up and smell the coffee from time to time. We are a paying a tenner to watch non-league football in a division where we are, at best, mid-table in terms of numerical support, and a good deal lower in terms of actual support. But most of us either recall us being as good as Brazil once upon a time or expect us to be as good as them now, and at the very least be up in the play-offs. All this despite the fact that this division is awash with much bigger clubs with decades of Football League history behind them.
Unfortunately Lee has paid the price for these inflated expectations.
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