The fans’ role
25/03/05 | by Daniel Hawkins

There are many permutations and ways and means of surviving this relegation battle. I see all these relegation calculators on many sites where fans have made predictions on the results ahead for all the clubs concerned, hoping in all hope at being realistic in the results submitted. Some of us are finding that we will survive this terrible ordeal by a fair margin, while others seem to make it tighter, however still surviving. 

Then we have transfer deadline day upon us and the rumours flying about out who is signing, who’s turning us down and who’s signing elsewhere - the fingers on the relegation calculators are ever adjusting the previously predicted scores on the pretence we don’t sign anyone by Thursday. 

Only time will tell if the calculations come out right, for one thing I do know of all the relegation calculators in the world we can’t change what happens on the pitch. We also cannot persuade the potential new signings from going to other clubs, after all this is a relegation battle and who wants to be a part of a sinking ship. Would you join a new employment if they were in danger of falling below the levels of your current employment? I wouldn’t.

So what can we really do? Well as the manager asked, we have a role to play in this club. We are the fans who attend as many matches as we can, we are the fans who sing the chants and shout the encouragement to the players. Ok, things haven’t gone as well as we wanted, but our job now is to make sure that we do not let the club or the manager down. He has expressed the importance of our role - it's now time for us to give the man the respect he deserves and give him what he has asked for. It will then be down to him to motivate the players and produce the results required to get out of this mess.

So, let's stop worrying about who’s going to sign or who’s going elsewhere, and concentrate the job in hand. I still believe we have a squad capable of winning the majority of our remaining games and lift us to eventual safety. The Wigan and Leeds result proved that even just with half a squad, we can perform when required. The majority of our relegation rivals have a far tougher run in than we do, and I can’t hear any singing from the large lady just yet.