COLUMN: Rocks fans can't be blamed for lack of goalscorer

And our bad luck continues with the FA Trophy draw where once again we get drawn away against a side in our league (Hemel Hempstead). You just know it’s not going to be your year.

Many fans saw a recent article in the Argus with quite an open and honest story from Jack where fans are told to ‘get real’. I know from chatting to many fans and seeing the ‘backlash’ on social media this may have not gone down too well.

The biggest element of the article that provoked backlash is where Jack states “I don’t disagree with a lot of comments the supporters make, but not one of them has come and told us the possible solution.”

I know we’re a very friendly club and there is something very special (in my eyes) at Bognor Regis Town but let’s take a step back and realise we are two promotions from the Football League.

We’re not a millions miles from that and it’s fantastic to see but I feel the quote that supporters have not come up with a solution hasn’t gone down well. I’d doubt many other clubs’ ‘vision for the future’ involves fans shaping it.

They may be involved at certain levels but to have supporters suggesting transfers doesn’t seem right – many are in no way qualified to judge and the recent excellent column from Dean Adams on www.bognor.co.uk talks about what a professional scout sees – and normal fan just cannot get this detail.

Message forums and social media contain a lot of solutions – many from the realms of Fantasy Football but some very sensible.

We all knew this was not going to be easy but my view is we are competitive and are just 90 minutes away from getting that win.

My biggest frustration comes with hindsight. I feel gambling on strikers who may have ability above strikers we know and are aware of has backfired this season.

Bringing in Chinedu McKenzie and Ferdinand Tayki to replace Jimmy Wild hasn’t paid off and has left us without a recognised centre-forward.

Either of the two brought in could have hit the ground running and we could be talking about the ‘next Jason Prior’ and be much higher in the league but we’re not.

You could argue both were raw talents who needed to be persevered with, but the same could be said for Wild. All three had obvious talents and I genuinely feel Wild offered more than what we saw from McKenzie or Takyi.

That’s the gamble taken with any non-league signing and I for one would not want to be in the shoes of the management team as it is a relentless task to try to get signings in.

Can we survive? Yes. Will we survive? Who knows? Will the loyal bunch of supporters remain whatever division we are in next season? Definitely.

by IAN GUPPY

Chairman, BRTFC Supporters’ Club