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When we were in NLN someone on the Chester forum queried why Gloucester didn't have an EFL club. We can all give a number of reasons...but that's not my question.
Whilst we know we'll never make the Champions League, given our current setup what level/league are we capable of reaching - what are the club's long-term ambitions? Or are people content to stay at the level we're at?
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The club was formed 142 years ago, 100 years ago if you consider the YMCA. What have we done in that time? We've had two seasons at the highest level of non-league football in a ground built to host league football but since then it's just been ups and downs.
The way football is now, the higher placed club, the more power it's harder and harder to show any ambition without throwing silly money at it. Scrapping FA Cup replays means we'll never be able to benefit with an away game at Old Trafford like Burton or Exeter did.
I don't have a burning desire to see us in the Football League, however, we need to be back in the National League sooner rather than later.
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“Scrapping FA Cup replays means we'll never be able to benefit with an away game at Old Trafford like Burton or Exeter did”
Unless we drew them away!
Sticking around a while yet, thanks to a gift from a generous angel.
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Have felt that a lllllooooonnnnnggggg term target could be League Two. C********m Town and FGR have got to that level, (and gone one better, and reached League One).
A closer target would be to get back to National League North/South level, then in time, try and push for National League level.
Andrew Adebowale, Hannah, Hoskins, Kirkup, Mainwaring, Tucker, Wollen.
Danny ANDREW, Jake ANDREWS.
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I think the club's attendances in the Southern League alone shows that Gloucester City has the potential to be at the very least a National League team, and given there aren't really that many differences between National League and League 2 then there is no reason Gloucester can't become an EFL team.
The issue, as I see it (and apologies if this sounds patronising), is that I've never known a club with such bad luck. You finally get back home after 13 years away, then Covid hits and games have to be played behind closed doors. You make the playoffs of the NLN, then follow it up with relegation the very next season. You have financial backing (ignoring the fact it was built on sand) and lead the NLN for the first time, then the manager is poached, taking a couple of the best players in the team and then the season is curtailed anyway (again due to Covid). That's not even mentioning the fact you had to survive for 13 years without a home in the first place.
From the outside looking in, it finally looks like the club has some stability both on and off the pitch. Promotion shouldn't be a necessity this season, but a playoff run and adding to the team in the right way in the summer - instead of more upheaval - could see a title tilt next year and those new fans becoming more entrenched in the club as a whole.
(This post was last modified: 13-03-2025, 02:24 PM by
Si Robin.)
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What a sensible contribution from an 'outsider', if you'll forgive that term?
Having been involved with City since 1988, I long ago christened us the 'nearly' club.
Nearly got to the FA Cup Third Round, where we would have met QPR (then a First Division club), leading Cardiff 2-0 at Ninian Park with ten minutes to go, when the late, lamented Brian Godfrey made a disastrous substitution of Ricky Chandler for Martin Lander and RC's first touch gave the ball to Cardiff who broke away and scored to give them hope and they equalised just before the end. In the replay at Meadow Park we lost 1-0 in front of a packed house.
Nearly got to Wembley in the FA Trophy, drawing the semi-final with Dagenham & Redbridge over two legs. We were leading in the second leg at Meadow Park, again with a packed house, when they equalised with three minutes to go from a long throw, which on the video replays is clearly a foul throw missed by the linesman. (An example of the 'bad luck'?). Lost in the replay on a neutral ground.
Nearly got promoted to the Conference twice. Thought we'd done it once on the last day of the season, when we won away and Farnborough were losing their match but scored twice in added time to deny us promotion. The other time was when we had to play seven matches in the final fifteen days of the season and ran out of legs in the last match. A win would have seen us promoted, but we lost and Si Robin's team went up. How different the future may have been if we'd won that match?
Nearly gone bust twice (or should that be three times? - only AP and the current board know the answer to that), when over spending chairmen have tried to buy promotion by throwing too much money at it and left when their funds ran out.
I think this may well be another 'nearly' season. Nearly good enough to go straight back up, but I suspect not.
