Retford in free fall?

Yet another player has left Retford Colin Marrison has joined Matlock. Quite a few left now and I haven't heard of many going the other direction including a manager

Just heard they owe Mr tax man £150k and have signed no players at all this season. They paid the price last season paid big wages and no promotion. Maybe their Tannoy man will play up front next season. Another Durham I think

This has been coming for the last 3 or 4 seasons. Every year they promise to pay the players then fail to do so. The bloke I know from retford spoke up about the way things were going and was booted out.

Sugar daddies gotta love um.

This is how their local "rag" reported on the situation at the end of last week:

RETFORD United fans are being prepared for a "reality check" as the new management team assess their prospects for the new season.

New joint-managers Jon Knapper and David Lloyd face a tough Evo-Stick Premier League campaign and claim they are "well behind" where they should be in terms of preparation.

The duo are attempting to organise the start of the team's pre-season training for this Saturday, but due to complications that date may have to be put back to the following Tuesday evening, writes Dave Marshall.

Question marks also remain over where the team is likely to train due to work being carried out at the Cannon Park ground.

"I am going to be brutally honest and tell you that there may have to be a reality check for some people," said Lloyd.

"The financial situation here will obviously have an effect on the playing staff that we will be able to bring in and that in turn will affect our chances of success.

"It may be that even staying in this league could be quite an achievement.

"But we have spoken to a number of players and we have had quite a positive response.

"We have talked to some of last season's squad – people like Nicky Ellis and Lee Thompson – but there are other players who have been in or around the squad who have expressed an interest in coming to play for us.

"We want to play an attacking style of football, but that will depend on the players we will have at our disposal."

Despite some supporters expecting a gloomy outlook for the coming season, the management duo remain upbeat.

However, Lloyd's fellow joint manger Jon Knapper, who was a coach under former boss Peter Duffield last season, is also concerned that fans' expectations may be too high.

"Everyone knows about the financial situation, I don't think that is a secret," Knapper added.

"As David said, we are talking to players, but there are a lot of things that are still up in the air. "Our problem is that time is running out. Some of the players who were here last season have obviously already got fixed up.

"Players obviously want the best deal they can get for themselves and they want to get sorted out as soon as possible. We are well behind where we want to be and we have to get moving."

It gets worse for Retford as Mick godber has signed for Glapwell Glapwell seem to be spending big this year on players. Wonder how long that will last for.

Daryll Thomas has also signed for Hucknall

o' dear it's not sounding good for Retford is it.

Retford have got a problem signing players at present due to an embargo placed on them by the FA due to none payment of players wages from last season. Could they be another NewcastleBlue Star or Durham City?

Lets hope they resolve their problems, I'd hate to have another season with an odd number of teams.

Maybe Ashton will have more problems with their legal fight. I don't think we have heard the last of that one yet although they do seem to be signing players.

Retford have had there embargo lifted today and have only 4 friendlies to sort out a team before the start of the season, maybe it will be good we are playing them in the 2 nd game of the season.

They are signing massive

Might not be as cut and dried, they beat worksop yesterday with many worksop's first team squad in.

Admin wrote:Might not be as cut and dried, they beat worksop yesterday with many worksop's first team squad in.

It was far from a first eleven Worksop side. If I was to select my starting XI only four of the players that played on Saturday would get in the side, and of those four only one was playing in his best position. However, the side we put out was still fairly strong, with the vast majority of the outfield players playing regularly in the Unibond last season, so should not detract from Retford's performance at all. On paper I would still have said the side we put out was stronger than Retford.

I think Retford surprised most people in the ground (apart from maybe their manager and players). There was certainly more experience in the side than I was expecting, apart from Massive (who was mentioned earlier in the thread), Nicky Ellis who was a regular for Retford last season played, Matty Caudwell, Danny Maymen, Jack Stephenson who I think were all fringe players/benchwarmers at Retford last season. The biggest surprise was seeing Mark Hulme playing for them, but for me the best part of the day was seeing Dan White playing again (and very well) following the Marcus Hallows case.

It will be interesting to see if they all sign and are playing for Retford come the start of the season. On Saturday's evidence they were far stronger than Durham last season.