Good post greenhous - I got a bit tired of hearing how any team a Premier League club puts out should always beat the likes of us. As you say, it's not about the best players man for man (an assertion that could be questioned in some cases anyway), it's about the best team. No-one's disputing that we were that against both Derby and Swansea.
I'm also tired of hearing "it's a poor league this season", which we hear every season. The standard of play in the lower leagues is much higher than it used to be. The improvement in pitches is a factor, better coaching, fitness and tactical awareness might also be. But the clincher is probably that a lot of domestic players that can't get into the top leagues because of foreign players instead play in the lower leagues, with the result that League 2 teams can now sign players they couldn't have got years ago.
i think that there is more quality than ever now in this division, and also teams that can potentially come up from the blue square now seem to above the average than of a few years ago, ie york, luton,wrexham,cambridge, mansfield,grimsby,darlington ect....like we have been wondering around this league for a life time and crawley come up and look firm favorites to progress as the likes of wimbledon and oxford who look more rounded teams than us, it is getting very difficult to leave this division, so uncle Rowland really needs to start getting his cheque book out now if we are seriously going to make the effort and leave it!!
