Expectations

Aldershot knocked Fleetwood Town out of the FA Cup this afternoon. On the face of it, a bit of a shock, given the former's 23rd place in the league, compared with the latter's budget and Blue Square Premier title not six months ago. The magic of the FA Cup, upsets and all that. The outcome? Fleetwood summarily fired manager Micky Mellon, for the heinous crime of losing three games in row and being seventh in the league.

I took a wander to the Fleetwood Town forum when I heard the news. I reckoned they'd be appalled at losing the manager who'd taken them from the Blue Square North - essentially the sixth tier of English football - to a level they'd never, ever played at. I was wrong. "Taken us as far as he can". "Thank f*ck for that". "Six games too late". Expectations are seemingly that with a wealthy backer, they should sweep all before them in vicarious, entertaining fashion. The great thing about sport in general is that it doesn't work like that. At least at lower levels. The Premier League long since stopped being competitive*

"Dream job for the right person", opined one poster**. Until it all falls apart, Gretna/Grays Athletic style as attendances don't rise to cover the cost of the vastly inflated wage bill.

* Of course, the coincidence that this should happen in the same week that Chelsea's sacking of their manager (six months removed from a European title) has spectacularly blown up in their face isn't lost on me.

** Someone wanted Peter Taylor. I laughed, hard.